LiveCut.TV at the Helm of the Couleur Café Festival
Dive into the eclectic energy of the Couleur Café Festival, a cornerstone of urban and world music in Brussels since 1990. We sit down with LiveCut.TV to explore the technical and creative challenges in delivering video for the festival’s 34th edition.
Marc Colemont, a veteran in video production, founded LiveCut.TV in 2013 to deliver multicamera services for live and pre recorded events. Prior to this, in 2000, he established MC-Productions, which provided comprehensive solutions, including pre cabled flightcases ready for immediate use in studios.
Colemont describes LiveCut.TV as a creative hub, enhancing live event production and driving innovation at MC-Productions with technologies like automated IMAG, wireless shading and live XR/VR applications.
LiveCut.TV has broadened its production capabilities with a new 16 camera outside broadcast (OB) trailer to enhance its existing setup. The trailer is equipped to manage a complex array of technologies, including multiple laptop inputs, MADI audio routing, various Zoom ISO connections, and computers running vMix and Aximmetry broadcast servers, for creating live virtual studio sets and corporate projects. The workflow is powered by the new Blackmagic Videohub 120×120 12G router and ATEM Constellation 8K live production switcher.
Colemont explains, “Our goal to automate as much as possible led us to heavily invest in Blackmagic Design equipment. We used their network protocols and APIs extensively to program ATEMs, cameras, and recorders for this project and others.”
LiveCut.TV began its partnership with Couleur Café Festival in 2013 and has managed the festival’s main Red Stage since its relocation in 2018, expanding its role in 2024 to include production duties for the Green Stage.
For the Red Stage, a package of seven cameras comprised of four Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2s equipped with a broad range of Canon lenses (4K 86x UHD Studio Box, 70x Studio Box, HD 22x, HD 9x), as well as multiple PTZs, was deployed. “The URSA Broadcast G2 rivals, if not surpasses, much more expensive brands in terms of image quality,” Colemont states. “Blackmagic has done an excellent job by incorporating user feedback into their image and firmware updates.”
The technicians in the truck were responsible for producing content for the stage’s IMAG LED screens and upstage center LED screen using an ATEM Constellation 8K. With the switcher’s first two M/Es managed on an ATEM 2 M/E Advanced Panel 30, the upstage center LED screen was cut on an ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel 10. All program outputs were recorded using a series of HyperDeck Extreme 4K broadcast decks connected through a 10gbE switch to a Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini 8TB network storage solution. Subsequently, a Mac converted the recordings from ProRes to H.264 with a DaVinci Resolve watch folder, enabling bands to download their performances via a Dropbox link.
For the Green Stage, the workflow centered around an ATEM Television Studio HD8 ISO live production switcher and a smaller camera package, which included URSA Broadcast G2s equipped with 70x Studio box and HD 22x lenses, as well as PTZs. Thanks to fast internet on site, Colemont could configure the ATEM Television Studio HD8 ISO to automatically transfer recordings to the same Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini located in the OB trailer.
“Blackmagic Design is the only manufacturer to provide the tools that make file transfers this straightforward without the need for NAS servers, IT teams or server scripts,” notes Colemont. “The ability to quickly name the next recording also greatly simplified how we managed the influx of recorded files by any freelancer on our team.”
But each live production event comes with its own technical challenges, and Couleur Café Festival was no exception.
“The greatest challenge was ensuring fast internet access on both stages since the festival is located in a park without built in internet infrastructure,” Colemont shared. “Luckily, our internet bonding modules on the OB units seamlessly handled this issue, allowing us to provide performance download links to the bands swiftly and efficiently.”
“Moving away from physical disks to a completely diskless workflow was revolutionary,” concludes Colemont. “It simplified the process and minimized the risk of errors, like copying the wrong files.”
Enjoying the news? Sign up for the Creative COW Newsletter!
Sign up for the Creative COW newsletter and get weekly updates on industry news, forum highlights, jobs, inspirational tutorials, tips, burning questions, and more! Receive bulletins from the largest, longest-running community dedicated to supporting professionals working in film, video, and audio.
Enter your email address, and your first and last name below!
Responses