THE ROYAL WEDDING OUTSIDE BROADCAST CASE STUDY
OUR PART IN THE ROYAL WEDDING OUTSIDE BROADCAST
PRINCE HARRY & MEGHAN
19th MAY 2018
ST GEORGES CHAPEL, WINDSOR CASTLE
5 DAY 24 HOUR OPERATION FOR FOX NEWS
We here at Links Broadcast were all very excited to be asked by our client Arqiva to supply our outside broadcast trucks to Fox News, Mediaset and HBO.
Following an exchange of a few hundred emails, many internal meetings and various conference calls across the globe later, we were ready to roll.
Arrival at Windsor Castle
Our engineer, Mark Coulthurst set off in S700 SNG to drive to Windsor plus our Gary Peacock with our KA Flyaway kit and S300 SNG was heading for Tower Bridge for HBO. We even had a ready to go standby truck for Mediaset (Italy) as a just in case scenario if their kit failed!
We arrived bright and early on site amongst the mist at The Long Walk on the 16th May 3 days ahead of the event. With glorious sunshine forecast it looked to be a fabulous and momentous few days.
A three camera live location was installed with cables running back to our truck ready for the live broadcasts.
The day consisted of testing the 3 camera mux for the remote production from The Long Walk OB compound for Fox News. Each camera was separately encoded and sent as a mux back to the studio in America.
The KA dish located on our truck provided 70 hours of continuous bandwidth for Fox’s Dejoro back packs to stream live to the affiliate Fox stations across the USA.
Our man Gary was located next to S700 SNG working for our client Pro Link providing a KA Flyaway for internet access and dedicated bandwidth for LiveU use.
It wasn’t long before the crews mind turned to food!! They made their way to the ‘exclusive’ crew food trucks and stocked up on plenty of yummy stuff to keep them going.
Beautifully presented food and that was just for the crew!
More food!
From day one’s early morning arrival our day crews continuously swapped with the night crews, continuing the rigorous 24 hour operation ensuring that all services were stable and clean to air right through to the close of the event on Sunday 20th for the post wedding interviews and live content.
Our man Rob was in our truck S300 SNG from the day before the wedding to uplink the HBO temporary studio output back to the USA from City Hall with the iconic backdrop of Tower Bridge in view.
HBO Studio City Hall
Our OB Truck outside City Hall
Tower Bridge peeking over the top of the HBO compound
Butlers Wharf, The Anchor Pub at Bankside, the London Eye & Canada Gate Locations – 4 Day Event
Let’s not forget our Pre Wedding Build Up job for AT1 Media.
This was a four camera event in different London locations each day of the event. Our production truck S100 SNG was deployed including all cameras, comms and sound facilities at each of the four locations.
The challenge here was to coincide with the time difference between the UK and Australia meaning that the crews were having to double crew for set up and live transmission making a huge logistical challenge and some very tired guys!
All four locations day and night went swimmingly with lots of Australians watching early morning Royal Wedding fever courtesy of Links Broadcast.
Four camera ops and two full ENG camera kits were provided for BBA TV and Eurovision who had an amazing prime location from the balcony of the Harte & Garter which overlooked the Castle grounds. The Royal Wedding Outside Broadcast event was a 3 day operation.
The Harte & Garter directly opposite the Castle
It is all going on inside the Harte & Garter – presenters by the balcony with the Castle backdrop
What a choice of location – the balcony of the Harte & Garter
Panoramic view from the balcony of the Harte & Garter, the crowds are gathering and it’s not even the wedding day yet!
As time ticked by and tons more double checks and tests than we care to remember it was time for the big moment the world was waiting for!!
With full coverage of the Royal Wedding being beamed across the pond to the United States in its full glory we could finally take a relived breathe and enjoy the wedding – all while keeping a close eye on the transmission of course!!
After a touch of celebrity spotting which was fabulous we were ready to catch a glimpse of Prince Harry & Meghan.
Not all of the Links crews were involved in the Royal Wedding – we also had Andy covering the FA Cup Final at Wembley for East Productions (maybe more important for a very small number of the world population) and Dave who was in Hull covering the ALLAM British Squash Open in Hull (we are sure he managed to watch the wedding too somehow!)
Live Fox News transmission from our OB Truck
The Happy Couple!!
Thanks from our clients
Hi Joanne,
We survived the Royal Wedding….Thank you all for your hard work and dedication to our services.
Many thanks,
Randy Smith
Occasional Use Sales Manager
Broadcast and Media
Arqiva
Royal Wedding
Just wanted to let you know that Gary did a great job for us over the past few days up at Long Walk.
Please pass on our thanks for helping us to make a client very happy.
Best regards,
Michael
Prolink TV
Hello Joanne,
Just called you to thank you personally and send my best to the crew who has been wonderful in this hard process.
I really appreciate all the help and can’t really imagine what I would do without you!
Regards,
Güven
BBA TV