LIVE 8 concerts created a broadcasting first with live HD link

LIVE 8 in Hyde Park was the first time a roving HD radio camera had broadcast live pictures in the UK. Footage of the 300,000-strong audience was shot on a Sony HDW-750P and sent to an outside broadcast unit 800m away via a radio transmitter strapped to the cameraman’s back.

The rig was developed by London rental facility Charter Broadcast and first used in an airship at this year’s Confederation Cup in Germany. Charter’s technical director Tony Valentino says LIVE 8 was the first time a true HD signal had been transmitted live via a radio link in this country. “The director had full confidence in the system. Within five minutes of the concert starting, he had cut to the radio camera in the crowd. He liked the picture quality and used the feed for the rest of the concert.

“The system works with most HD cameras but the HDW-750P is particularly suited because it has a long battery life,” Valentino says.

The system encodes the HD signal and transmits it on a wide bandwidth. “The transmission path was quite horrible so we fitted a long aerial to the back pack to clear the heads of the crowd,” Valentino says. Charter plans to develop the system further so the transmitter fits on to the back of the camera. “We aim to eliminate the back pack,” says Valentino.

The system is likely to be used during the 2006 Football World Cup in Germany.

Special Modifications


Aerial footage of the LIVE 8 crowd was shot from a helicopter on a specially modified Sony HD camera. The Sony HDC-950 was rigged up as a split unit, using the HKC-T950 adaptor with the lens and prism block fitted to a gyroscopic mount on the base of the helicopter. The rest of the camera was housed inside the cockpit. The cameraman operated the camera lens using a remote control toggle connected to a small monitor.

LIVE 8’s technical director Chris Bretnall says: “The aerial Sony camera gave us a fantastic opening shot. “We zoomed in on Wembley Stadium where the first Band Aid concert was held 20 years ago then pulled back to reveal Hyde Park in the background. It looked terrific.”

“The split system enables you to fit an HD camera into a tight and confined space.”

LIVE 8 staged nine concerts around the world on 2 July. Bretnall persuaded the Band Aid Trust to shoot five in HDCAM – Hyde Park, Washington, Berlin, Paris and Rome. The remaining four, including The Eden Project in Cornwall, were either shot or delivered on SD.

“SD products look better when they have been shot in HD. I also wanted to future proof as much of the LIVE 8 material as possible in readiness for HDTV and high definition DVDs. “The Band Aid Trust said yes as long it wouldn’t incur any extra cost so I worked closely with the content providers and host broadcasters to do the necessary deals,” Bretnall says.

Simple SD Downconversion
The BBC set up 17 outside broadcast units in Hyde Park to receive the various world feeds and transmit the content worldwide to 130 countries. The whole operation was put together in seven weeks.

Bretnall, who runs a consultancy called Creative Broadcast Solutions, says: “Any plane you walk out of is a successful landing. LIVE 8 was one we got away with. “Transferring from HDCAM to SD for the various world markets proved easier than I expected. The beauty of HDCAM is its common acquisition format. It makes down converting to the different SD formats much simpler. “HDCAM is the best practical format to use at the moment until HDCAM SR becomes more widely available.”

The Hyde Park concert was the first live HD broadcast staged in the UK and was shown live by satellite on an HD screen in Cardiff.

The event was recorded on 14 Sony HD VTRs hired from rental facility Presteigne, which supplied a combination of Sony HDW-F500 and HDW-M2000P units. Business development manager Andrew Murray says: “We were delighted to play our part in such an historic HD event.”

Six Sony recorders were used on the main vision mix to record concert feeds that overlapped during the ten-hour live broadcast. Six more were used to record individual camera feeds at Hyde Park to provide alternative shots in post production for television and DVD spin-offs. One was in the helicopter recording the aerial footage and one was used with the radio camera as a precaution in the case the signal went down.

LIVE 8 plans to release a DVD of each concert as well as a box set of all nine. There are also plans to produce a high definition DVD.