PRESS RELEASE
Sydney, 2 July 2014 – C3 presence is the church’s biggest conference of the year, packing out the Sydney Entertainment Centre for four full days in April. C3’s vision facilities provider and OB partner was again Videocraft, but this year the conference had the added bonus of using Videocraft’s fully refurbished, ten seat IP-based OB truck.
C3 Church Post Production Supervisor and Technical Director Simon Ashby said, “Videocraft always provide a first class service but by using the new OB truck they really raised the bar in terms of production values. It was a very impressive week.”
Videocraft’s OB truck has undergone a significant refurbishment internally and externally with new air conditioning, racks, ergonomic production furniture and electrics throughout. The truck has the ability to be configured as either a mobile edit facility, EVS facility or as an OB truck.
Videocraft NSW state manager Andy Liell explained, “We made a conscious effort to not just refurbish but to upgrade and future proof the truck for a variety of applications. As a result the truck can now also operate as a full mobile editing facility complete with Avid edit suites, Isis storage, Avid Interplay and EVS servers all of which can be tailored and customised to each client and project’s specifications.”
Videocraft’s OB truck was recently in use in its capacity as a mobile editing facility during the Tour Down Under where it provided four independent editors seated within the truck with all the facilities they required and integrated them seamlessly with the race production’s live video feeds and EVS servers.
Liell added, “Tour Down Under is a good example of how we can hook into a production’s EVS servers and link back to our editing environment, thereby providing a true mobile editing facility.”
Videocraft’s OB truck is a proper extension of what the company has made a name for itself in – post production integration. For the C3 conference, the truck was configured around an MVS8000G vision switcher, 16 channels of EVS, 11 cameras with 4 CCU positions and incorporated the production’s web streaming requirements.
Andy Liell continued, “The truck has been designed to have smart, IT-centric connectivity to all the kit that hooks into it. This year’s C3 Presence was Videocraft’s third and most the complex to date. For example, we needed to build an external control room inside the Qantas Credit Union Arena loading dock, catering for two vision switcher positions, producer positions, multiview and five graphics positions. Connectivity to this area was largely over Ethernet, significantly reducing the deployment time. Another example is our use of the Sony NXL-IP55 live production unit which enabled us to connect the truck to two Ross Furio robotic camera systems and a Steadicam wireless link in the arena with full tally, intercom, camera control and return video configuration over a single Ethernet cable. The connectivity has been designed to easily expand the truck’s capabilities by adding standard site sheds for additional EVS, CCU, vision mixing or audio facilities. This easy expansion and smart connectivity is all based around the latest in IP and fibre technology which in turn means there is no longer a need for lots of heavy baseband cabling allowing faster deployment and more flexibility.”
Videocraft also supplied and installed an Avid Isis 5000 as the central storage hub for the four onsite video editors ensuring seamless integration between the Isis and EVS and allowing the editors to work on their content almost instantaneously.
Simon Ashby concluded, “You have to see what Videocraft provide in terms of service and facilities to believe it. They really are incredibly good at this type of production and nothing is ever too much trouble. This year, in addition to all our standard conference requirements, they also included components for an album record and significantly raised the bar in terms of production values with their clever use of the Furio system amongst many other innovations. The proof of how good it was was in the experience of the attendees and I can assure you there were a lot of smiling faces in the auditorium. We really can’t say thanks enough to Andy Liell, Glenn Beaumont and the entire Videocraft team.”