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.

A specialist in multi-camera concert films and music documentaries, Toward Infinity began working with Trickbox TV around 18 months ago. Run by Producer, Director and Editor Tim Sidwell and Producer and DP Jeremy Mason, Toward Infinity is a creative collaboration that works with top flight venues including: Royal Albert Hall, Wembley Arena, the O2 Arena, Shepherd’s Bush Empire and the London Forum, with artists in all genres.

Toward Infinity began to take on a number of multi-camera projects and needed an OB provider that could supply a fly-away, multi-camera solution that suits the budgets and scope of its clients. Sidwell says, “Steve at Trickbox, who I’ve known for a number of years, has worked really hard to pull together a flyaway, multi-camera solution, which is ideal for us. It’s something they’ve honed over the last year or two and it provides a really easy and quick off-the-shelf solution.”

When Toward Infinity wins a project, it supplies Trickbox with the camera plan and production design and Trickbox manages the whole installation, providing the technical equipment to record the show as well as the crew to rig and de-rig it and Vision Engineers and Unit Managers as required. “Rigging and de-rigging takes place on the day of the show,” explains Sidwell. “That’s really advantageous to us as it keeps costs down. Trickbox can rig a multi-camera shoot in the morning, get it ready for the show and then break it down and get it out of the venue by the end of the night.”

The camera plan and production design depend on the size of the venue and where Toward Infinity can place cameras. This isn’t always easy as most of the shows are sold out before the planning process. Sidwell says, “Venues like the 02 Arena are much bigger than Shepherds Bush Empire so Trickbox has to be really flexible and have the ability to run cables for any sized venue. One of the major plus points of working with them is that they have a lot of knowledge and experience.”

All the camera feeds, which are HD, are recorded to separate solid hard disk drives and are given to Toward Infinity so it can transfer the footage before sending the drives back to Trickbox. Sidwell adds, “I take all the camera feeds and edit from those and on the occasion where we have a vision mixer, Trickbox provides the line cut straight after the show ends. This is great for me because I can then either pass that on to the client if they want to see it straight away and I can also use it as my offline edit.”

Toward Infinity and Trickbox have shot a number of shows at different venues including: the 02 for Status Quo, the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff for Thunder, Brixton Academy for Bullet for my Valentine and in October they’re shooting Marillion at the Royal Albert Hall. Sidwell says, “Steve at Trickbox and I have always had this dream of creating something really fluid and easy and we’ve kind of achieved that objective.”

The general output for the shows is DVD, Blu-Ray and online depending on the requirements of the end client. Sidwell concludes, “Everything is shot in HD at the moment; 4K is currently budget-prohibitive but we know Trickbox is open to pioneer different ways of recording whenever we’re able.”