Two Four Productions - I Kissed a Girl
Presteigne was excited to be awarded the contract to provide facilities for the 2nd in the series of “I Kissed a” for Two Four Production and the BBC. The first series followed a group of guys going through the dating process in a masseria in Southern Italy. In series 2 it was the girls turn.
A total of forty cameras with a mix of Panasonic UE150 & UE70 PTZ cameras in black and white were placed around a one acre site in the Italian countryside. A mix of floor stands, wall and plinth mounts ensured all areas where covered. Six Riedel MicroN fibre “hub” units were placed at key points around multiple buildings and outside areas allowing all cameras to be brought back over fibre to the central equipment racks. By powering POE only two cables were required for each camera, ensuring a neat and efficient rig. It was important to the client that no cables were visible to the contestants so with some help from the art department we used a mix of cable trunking and wooden ducts to achieve this.
With up to thirteen contestants at any one time and the presenter each had a Wisycom MTP41S radio microphone paired with MRK980 dual receivers. Custom microphone necklaces were 3D printed to ensure the best sound from the contestants while having the desired look on camera. Using sixteen antennas a network over the majority of the site using ADFA and LFA antennas with Matt 288 and 243 combiners and a series of Wisycom RF over fibre units was created. This provided uninterrupted audio throughout the areas of interest including the bedroom, outdoor lounge and kitchen plus two swimming pools. All outputs of the receivers were transported back to the audio desk using a Calrec Br.IO Hydra stage box over fibre. Other Hydra stage boxes were used at the MicroN hubs to allow the audio from thirty one effects microphones placed in the beds and other key areas. The Hydra boxes all connected to the audio desk using a H2 hub. A “voice of god” ring was also deployed around site so clear instructions from production to the ladies could be conveyed.
An efficient rig was achieved by using fibre for all audio, video and data resulting in the need for only six multicore fibres being run between the central equipment room and the site hubs.
In one of the buildings the production gallery, production offices, ingest and engineering was sited. A two tier gallery was provided with a monitor wall of ten 50” monitors each displaying a multiviewer with up to twelve PIPs on each. Each multiviewer was allocated per area with a colour background to distinguish the areas for the directors. The first row had two directors cutting four streams each using TSL 48 button router panels. Either side of the directors were two hothead operators using Skaarhoj PTZ extreme controllers along with 72 button Skaarhoj trio fly router panels. With the ability to select camera control and camera preview with a single button press the operators had complete control of all forty PTZs from a single page.
The second row provided facilities for six positions each with a 24” routable monitor. All positions had RTS talkback using KP5032 panels. The producers had the ability to listen to any radio microphone using an audio monitoring system. This system allowed the producers to select any microphone via a touchscreen.
A sound control room was built using a Calrec Brio 36 desk with MADI and DANTE cards, two 50” monitors with a dedicated multiviewer allowing all cameras to be observed. Genelec speakers provided the audio monitoring. The desk was connected to the main video router over MADI to allow embedding of all the required audio onto the six cut streams of video which was then sent to ingest.
The CTA racks room contained the core of the fixed rig system based around a 112x112 Ross 5RU Ultrix router with MADI I/O, nine built in multiviewers and eighteen synchronisers. The router was controlled using a TSL Tallyman TM1+ MK3 controller. A rack of six Riedel MicroN
