When The Royal National College for the Blind decided to film a 'Live at the Chapel' concert, they came to Jigsaw for help. After consulting with the college, our creative consultant, Rob Williams, took up the challenge and installed a full video production suite to help make sure the show was a success.

The RNCB provide both blind and visually impaired students with the chance to take part in further education. As well as humanities, sport, business and language qualifications, the college manage to squeeze in a few of the more unusual subjects - such as judo, horse riding, ceramics and acoustic rifle shooting. Helping students enrich their lives and work with their disability is one of the main aims of the college, and the music department plays a huge role in this.

The Task...

The department already had analogue mixing desks and digital audio recording equipment, but music programme co-ordinator Paul Read was clear about what the college still needed: "We wanted to add the ability to make live video recordings of artists' performances and to create a live music television show like 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' or 'Later with Jools Holland'."

The Solution...

After considering Paul's brief, Rob came up with a solution that would be both accessible to the students and capable of professional quality video at the same time - NewTek's TriCaster PRO. This portable production unit is perfect for recording and editing shows like 'Live at the Chapel' on the fly. It allows up to three high quality cameras to be mixed live with full previews of the recordings. The footage can then be broadcast live around the school or streamed on the web. Another great feature is the news-style graphics and titles, which can be placed on the screen to show the names of performers.

Rob advised that adding a separate control panel would make TriCaster PRO even easier to use. NewTek's LiveControl lets the director have full management of inputs at the touch of a button or lever. Music technology lecturer, Graham Wilde, was impressed with the panel's simple layout and controls, and said he thought the "bright coloured lights under the keys" were especially accessible for visually impaired students.

We also supplied the RNCB with three Sony HD1000 video cameras which were picked specifically because of their manual focus. These are perfect for live concerts as a sighted helper can set the focus and then leave the camera to record without worrying about auto-focus kicking in and affecting the clarity of the shot. Two 24" monitors and two 42" Toshiba plasma displays were also added so partially sighted students would be able to see more detail when editing.

The Studio...

As well as having technology that was accessible, it was important that the studio itself was made as user-friendly as possible. While two cameras were fixed on tripods, one was placed on a dolly on rails. This would make it easier to position equipment and replace the traditional method of finding markings on the studio floor. We also used orange safety-marked cabling on the cameras and controls so that any leads would stand out.

The Training...

After the installation, we gave the staff a full day's training on their new production setup. They were mostly new to using video but, by the end of the day, our broadcast consultant had them feeling confident with TriCaster, the cameras and accessories. And even though 'Live at the Chapel' was the first time the teachers and students had actually used the kit properly, the show went smoothly and there was no need for Rob's technical support.

The Results...

Not that the benefits of the production suite end there - Graham is keen to see it being put to different uses around the school. He said, "I'm thinking we might experiment with voice activated USB controllers and other accessibility aids." The RNCB are also currently looking at using TriCaster's chromakey (green screen) technology, with a little help from Apple's Final Cut. By taking students and placing them in a virtual set, this background replacement will give them scope for making news-style bulletins and interviews, which the college believe will be beneficial to students from all subjects - not just the music department.

 

For more information, call our education team on 03332 409 300 or email us at learning@Jigsaw24.com.

Tags: Video , Video Production