brown@nicmad.UUCP (07/23/85)
[munch! munch! B U R P ! ! ! ! ] By Mia Amato (Billboard, July 27,1985) PHILADELPHIA The 16 hour Live Aid benefit concert, telecast from JFK Stadium here, represented a considerable achievement in television production logistics. Despite the occasional loss of the satellite feed from London, and stage delays caused by faulty amps and monitors, the backstage operation ran execptionally smoothly. This was especially so, considering that the production involved the use of 16 satellites, 15 stage cameras, hundreds of on-site technicians and almost 1,500 stage crew members. "We used 16 satellites, 12 for tv and four for radio," says Michael Mitchell, president of Worldwide Sports & Entertainment, which produced the July 13 global broadcast. "Just to give you some idea of the comparison, they only used three satellites for the Olympics." The 15 stage cameras at JFK Stadium were wire-linked to the stadium control room truck. "We relied on the Skycam and the Goodyear blimp for frontal stage shots,: says Live Aid director/producer Vincent Scarza. Mobile video studios were supplied by E.J. Stewart of Philadelphia and Challenger Productions. Audio services were provide by Le Mobile, Mobile Audio and New York's Record Plant. Satellite traffic was coordinated by Synsat, with satellite earth stations brought up by Houston-based STARZ. The various hardware and staff were not donated by the companies, according to Scarza, but they were discounted. Howard Zuckerman, whose HZA Inc. specializes in packaging tv sports and concert events, arranged for all of the broadcast equipment, which required 32 tractor- trailers crammed with the latest in video hardware. "The stadium control room truck fed into what we called the 'world coord' truck, which uplinked the satellite signal to other countries," he explains. The two mobile video studios used for this belonged to F&F Productions, a division of Hubbard Broadcasting. "There was actually a second control romm at the BBC, which thransferred the signal to European 625-line standard, and also handled the worldwide distribution of the program," say Zuckerman. At JFK Stadium, the master trucks also sent out three separate feeds: one to ABC-TV, one to MTV and one for the syndicated program, which went out to independent tv stations around the U.S. A fourth feed was routed to three Mitsubishi Diamnond Vision screens and an Endiophor tv projector, so the JFK audience could enjoy stage closeups and watch other live performances sent by satellite from Japan, Holland, Australia, Germany, the Soviet Union and, of course, London's Wembley Arena. Executive director Tony Varda and director/producer Scarza spelled each other during the long broadcast day - supervising wraparounds, picking camera shotsfor the on-stage hosts, deciding when to insert prerecorded video messages from celebrities who urged viewers to contribute money for the famine relief efforts. In Addition, three musical directors took turns calling shots for the performances. "Live tv was extinct for many years, and it's very rare to find directors with experience with this kind of live broadcast," Scarza says. "We were very fortunate to have three good people - Lou Horvitz, Windy Charles and Sandy Fullerton - who have all had experience with live shows or musical programs like 'Solid Gold'." The reunions occuring at JFK weren't limited to the stage: Nearly all the mobile servicess companies had worked with Howard Zuckerman when he served as director for the Los Angeles Olympics last year, and most hadn't seen each other since that time. "I used to work at ABC, so it's great to see so many old friends," comments Dick Horan, who owns and designed Challenger Productions' $2.7 million mobile studio. In the Challenger vehicle's control room, MTV's own technical director and switcher operator had been working since 4 a.m. Friday. To the master feed they added MTV logos, commercials and VJ footage from two hand-held cameras and two "Bruces" - unmanned cameras aimed at the stage. For ABC's prime time coverage Saturday night, Dick Clark Productions brought ABC's trucks in and cut to host Clark with a separate camera in the stadium's press box. The syndicated program, produced inside the E.J. Stewart mobile video unit, also used a press box camera, as well as a portable studio where background stadium shots were then added with chroma-key. Because of ABC's radio and television involvement, all below-the-line technicians (camera and tape operators, wire handlers, etc.) were union members. "ABC is picking up most of that cost," explains Worldwide Sports & Entertainment's Mithcell. "The union is going though contract negotiations with the network right now, and we didn't want to burden them by asking for any special favors." Those production costs are tied into the same contract the ABC Network inked for the Lve Aid broadcast rights. According the Zuckerman, a day-long telephone connection linking the Wembley Arena and JFK Stadium control room was part of the ABC donation as well. Mitchell states that MTV did not pay cash for its broadcast rights, but rather allowed the channel's studios and transmission equipment to be used for satellite coordination. On the London side, Hal Uplinger, overseer of all international contracts for the show, says that BBC technicians were paid straight union wages for eight hours, with all overtime charges donated to the Band Aid Foundation. Staging, lighting and sound reinforcement were donated by several companies, including Mountain, Showco, McManus and Ceefax. (Mia Amato is senior editor, teleproduction for Millimeter magazine.) [Sorry posting word-for-word the article. I was never any good at taking something that was already printed and changing it in order to write about what it said.] -- |------------| | |-------| o| HRD725U & PV9600 Mr. Video | |AV-2010| o| |--------------| | | | | | |----| o o o | | |-------| O| |--------------| |------------| VHS Hi-Fi (the only way to go) {seismo!uwvax!|!decvax|!ihnp4}!nicmad!brown