PPU (Pope Production Unit)

Firstly – apologies for the cheap tabloid headline of this blog, but we couldn’t resist!

Yes, our flagship PPU (portable production unit), The Trickbox® has spent the last month on the roof of a building overlooking the Vatican, providing studio facilities for a foreign news broadcaster covering the historic selection of the new Pope.

If you’d like to find out how Trickbox TV can provide cost effective broadcast facilities for your next production, or if you need temporary broadcast facilities, get in touch. Please email info@trickboxtv.com or call us on 0207 193 9722.

What was your highlight of BVE & TPS 2012

So BVE & TPS 2012 is over for another year. Trickbox had a great time exhibiting – it was great to catch up with some old friends and clients, plus meeting some new ones too – thanks to everyone who stopped by our stand. Head to our faceboook page for some photos from the show

So what was your highlight of BVE & TPS 2012?

The buzz on the AJA stand was all about their new Io XT with all it’s thunderbolt goodness. Plus there was a timely release of the new software version 3.0 of the AJA Ki Pro. Version 3.0 includes – amongst other features – ExpressCard/34 support (slot 1) and data transfer via LAN.

Panasonic featured their new compact vision mixer, the HS410. An upgrade of the popular HS400 mixer, the HS410 features 8 SDI inputs as standard – upgradeable to 12 with optional boards. See this Panasonic HS410 brochure for more info.

Also on the Panasonic stand was their new AW-HE120 PTZ camera. It’s a grown up version of the HE50 series camera and features the same sensor in the HPX371 camera.

It was interesting to see that this year at BVE saw a greater focus on media storage. The file-based and tapeless revolution has forced companies to rethink their data storage and archiving solutions.

The Canon C300 seemed to be on every stand at the show, plus thoase pesky GoPro‘s were hiding everywhere! The Atomos Samurai with it’s new optional AVID DNxHD codec upgrade also turned a few heads.

On our stand, as well as demo’ing our multi-camera portable production unit (PPU), The Trickbox®, we were showing our multi record Blackmagic HyperDeck Studio flyaway unit, featuring 5 HyperDeck’s for multi-camera recording, plus our new dual AJA Ki Pro record station with built in monitoring and networking.

We also featured ikan’s Elite Prompter iOS iPad app and their complete PT-Elite iPad teleprompter system. A nifty device for location teleprompting.

So BVE & TPS 2012 was a great show, however there was a slightly upsetting incident – for us at least – two mugs were ‘taken’ from our stand! Duh duh duh… Ok they may have looked like they were free promotional gifts to visitors but they were actually our mugs – we’d only just bought them too! On one side they look like normal company branded mugs but on the other, they were personalised with our names on! I think they may have even been dirty when they were taken!?

As soon as the ‘incident’ had been discovered, an immediate twitter campaign ensued to try and track down the little fellows but alas, no one knew of their whereabouts. The best we got was a cheeky twitter gag thrown back at us – "you’ve been mugged" by @rgale - thanks Rich…

So the case is still open – if anyone has any information on our missing mugs, please call this special ‘missing mug’ number – 0207 193 97 22 – as soon as possible. Or email missingmugs@trickboxtv.com. All contact will be treated confidentially. Safe return of the mugs will see a reward to the mug returnee.

Forgot where we were going with all that – back to BVE… So who’s going to BVE & TPS 2013 next year at ExCeL??

MULTI-CAMERA MUSIC FLYAWAY SOLUTIONS

We’re exhibiting at BVE and TPS. Visit us at STAND 320. 14th – 16th Feb 2012

We’re exhibiting again at the Broadcast Video Expo and the Production Show 2012, Earls Court – 14th to 16th Feb.

Visit us at stand 320 in the Production Show area where we’ll be demonstrating our flyaway multi-camera portable production unit (PPU), The Trickbox® plus we’ll be demonstrating some of the best file-based and tapeless external recorders on the market including, the Atomos Samurai, the Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Studio and our new flyaway AJA Ki Pro multi record station.

If you can’t make it to BVE & TPS 2012 this year, follow us on twitter and facebook where we’ll be updating throughout the week

Filming The Stranglers – Multi-camera Music PPU Setup

We were called in to shoot The Stranglers Convention 2011 – The Weekend in Black for a DVD. 

We used our multi-camera PPU, The Trickbox®, and 5 Panasonic P2 cameras – a mixture of HPX371‘s and HPX500′s. We were filming on and off all day and night so the file-based workflow and P2 card management was busy, plus we were encoding a H.264 live as we went for a quick turnaround for the web.

Here’s a few images from The Stranglers Convention 2011 but see the Trickbox FaceBook page for more.

See our FaceBook page for more images from The Stranglers Convention 2011

Trickbox TV Twitter Feed – @TrickboxTV – tweet tweet

Trickbox TV Twitter Feed – @TrickboxTV – Tweets about: 

Live Webcast and Broadcast on UKTV with Sir David Attenborough – Ask Attenborough: Live

In the wonderful surroundings of the famous Science Museum, London, Trickbox TV and Flint London produced a live webcast featuring Sir David Attenborough, interviewed by Ben Fogle - Ask Attenborough: Live – to mark Sir David’s 85th birthday and to celebrate his 50 years of broadcasting. It’s also to be broadcast in full HD on UKTV Eden on June 27th 2011.

The programme was technically demanding, having to allow for the simultaneous live webcast and the full TX and ISO recording for a future HD broadcast on UKTV.

We used our multi-camera flyaway portable production unit (PPU), The Trickbox® and shot in full HD, 1080i using 4 Panasonic AG-HPX3000 series cameras. We also had some HDCAM VTRs for record and playback plus an EVS from Timeline TV and we used broadcast quality encoders and Flint’s IP uplink truck to get the programme out live to the internet world.

The live webcast embraced social media with live integration with Facebook and Twitter – with the Twitter hashtag #askattenborough – allowing viewers to directly ‘Ask Attenborough’ questions.

See the on demand version of the webcast of Ask Attenborough: Live here:

Here’s the trailer for Ask Attenborough: Live 

More photos from the night:

If you would like to speak to us about our live webcasting and live video streaming services and solutions or would like to find out more information about our multi-camera flyaway portable production unit (PPU), The Trickbox®, please email info@trickboxtv.com or call us on 0207 193 9722.

Filming Elbow at St Paul’s Cathedral

Elbow, the crypt at St Paul’s Cathedral

With just 48 hours before the gig, multi award winning production company, TBI Media approached us to provide the kit and crew for a multi-camera music performance by Elbow in the amazing and intimate location of the crypt beneath St Paul’s Cathedral, for Absolute Radio.

Never one to say no, we quickly sprung into action and made sure we arrived on the day with our multicamera flyaway portable production unit (PPU) – The Trickbox®, 4 cameras, a jimmy jib, a camera track and enough crew to make it all happen. This was the first time a band like Elbow had performed in the crypt beneath St Paul’s Cathedral, but the results speak for themselves. 

Click below to see the amazing video of Elbow at St Paul’s Cathedral, in HD:

http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/player/Elbow/8843/Live-at-St–Paul-s-Cathedral.html (Elbow, St Paul’s Cathedral)

Thanks to Artisan Films Ltd for their brilliant jib work and for providing the bulk of the photos!

Charity Event at Horseguards Parade, Whitehall

We were honoured to be asked to be part of this huge event held at Horseguards Parade, Whitehall, London. It was a charity auction followed by a live band and we used our unique mobile studio and portable production unit (PPU) system - The Trickbox® - perfect for filming live music multi-camera.

We had two cameras at the back of the marquee on tripods and one hand held at the front, by the stage. The marque was massive so we were shooting a distance of 55 metres from the two cameras at the back. We had to use a couple of fairly long lenses – a Canon HJ40 and a Canon HJ22. The Canon HJ40 was almost bigger than the camera itself!

For the hand held camera, we used an IDX CamWave Wevi – which is a wonderful bit of kit. It works on 5.2Ghz wireless WiFi and transmits full 1080i HD. It needs a good line of sight and only has a range of up to around 50 metres. But for the cost to either buy or hire, it’s a good little box of tricks to have.

The whole event went really well and we were so pleased we could be part of it.

Multi-Camera Portable Production Unit (PPU)

Location filming just got easier.

You might know it as a mobile studio, a portable production unit, a PPU, a flyaway or a de-rig – we like to call it The Trickbox®.

Trickbox TV Ltd have designed and built a bespoke gallery and studio in a box. It’s a cleverly engineered SD and HD file-based flyaway portable production unit (PPU) packaged in two small and compact flight cases, designed to be ‘live in seconds’, capable of any broadcast or corporate shoot, AGM, webcast, music event or festival.

You provide the space, we’ll provide everything else.