Trickbox Provides 9-Camera Multi-camera Facilities and Cinema Live Stream for Final Soft Cell Concert

On Sunday 30th September, music legends Soft Cell reunited for the final time at London’s O2 Arena. Marc Almond and Dave Ball performed together for a one-off show, ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’, to celebrate their 40th anniversary as a duo. Their first UK show since 2003, the band who have sold 21 million records worldwide, have had 13 UK chart singles (five of them Top 10) and two gold and one platinum-selling albums, said farewell to fans at this last ever gig. To satisfy the demand for tickets, the concert was also streamed live to over 200 cinemas across the UK.

Trickbox provided Toward Infinity, a multi-camera concert films and music documentaries specialist, with its state-of-the-art, bespoke 9-camera portable production unit (PPU) flyaway. The Trickbox PPU filmed content for the Blu-ray recording, which will be released through live music record Label/Production company, Live Here Now. The expanded Trickbox PPU flyaway is perfect for live OB music projects as it can be rigged and de-rigged in minutes, is built to the highest broadcast specification and delivers a cost-effective solution providing all the tools required for a full-scale production, without the need for an OB truck.

Trickbox has worked with Toward Infinity on a number of high-profile concerts including: Steps, Bananarama, Status Quo, Thunder, Bullet for my Valentine and Marillion. When Toward Infinity wins a project, it supplies Trickbox with the camera plan and production design and Trickbox manages the whole temporary installation, providing the technical equipment to record the show as well as the crew to rig and de-rig it, and an Engineering team as required. The multi-camera setup can be rigged in the morning and broken down and out of the venue by the end of the night, significantly reducing production time and costs. 

The HD camera feeds are recorded to separate solid hard disk drives and the line cut is given to Toward Infinity straight after the show so it can transfer the footage before sending the drives back to Trickbox.

For the live cinema stream, Trickbox worked alongside the sound team to deliver a Dolby 5.1 audio mix. Cinema live streaming, which was also used earlier this year to stream a live Steps Q&A from the Everyman King’s Cross Cinema to other sites screening the premiere of their Wembley Arena concert film, opens up a range of possibilities allowing Live Here Now and Toward Infinity to stream from anywhere to cinemas across the UK.