Post house Unit has teamed up with mobile satellite broadcasting company Jack Shoot to improve the turnaround on a late delivery series for Channel 4.
T4’s Live And Lost lets viewers decide which route a band takes to a gig, resulting in a journey that can take in remote and rural locations. The show is shot just a few days before TX.
“In some of these places there is no chance of [delivering rushes via] fibre and we need to be able to upload footage when the crew has finished shooting,” said Jack Shoot production director Simon Haywood.
The rushes are delivered on location via the UK’s only satellite truck with a connection to Eutelsat’s 70Gbps capacity Ka-Sat satellite.
The 10Mbps connection in Jack Shoot’s new mobile productionvan allows proxy files for five online films and a weekly 30-minute programme to be uploaded to Unit’s Soho facility so that editing can begin on the first day of shooting.
“Rushes for last year’s Live And Lost programmes were delivered via a 2Mbps satellite, whereas this can offer 10Mbps; it is essentially a leased line on top of truck and it means we’re able to transfer 5Gb of footage in just over an hour,” said Haywood.
The XD Cam footage from two cameras was hand delivered on hard drives to Unit’s Soho base so the proxy files could be re-linked to the original footage.
“We wouldn’t normally work with a proxy and the files were more compressed than those we usually work with, but the timesaving means that there is much greater editorial freedom,” said Unit head of delivery Matt Shard.
“As this kind of technology become cheaper and more reliable, we can see this set-up being used more often. It gives clients flexibility and feedback in a way that is not otherwise possible.”
No comments yet