The heart-pumping BigCityBeats Virtual World Club Dome with the finale to the DJ’s two year world tour at Germany’s Hockenheimring featured an ambitious Ultra HD multi-camera production live streamed to Hardwell’s global fan base in an adrenalin fuelled event led by VPS Media and NOMOBO.
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‘Imma kick lips, tonight / We're gon' shove our ass, tonight / I hope I remember, tonight’. And what a night - or 48 hours - it was for superstar DJ Hardwell and 25000 fans at the Hockenheimring in deepest Rhine country.
It was the DJ, record producer and remixer’s finale to two years on the road with the I AM Hardwell World Tour which has seen him play to sold-out shows in Jakarta, Singapore, Bangalore, Mexico City, Cape Town, Tel Aviv, Guatemala City, Manchester, Sao Paulo and Sydney.
On the 27th August 2016 the Hockenheimring, more famous as the biennial home to the German F1 Grand Prix, was bathed in the light of electronic dance music with the BigCityBeats Virtual World Club Dome - and the heat of an extremely warm summer’s day. Temperature’s reached a peak of 35°C and didn’t relent throughout the weekend.
German video production agency VPS Media has worked closely with BigCityBeats since 2001 and is tasked with AV production at most of their events, including live production and aftermovie / trailer productions.
For the BigCityBeats Virtual World Club Dome and the tour finale of “I Am Hardwell – United We Are”, BigCityBeats wanted something extra special. This meant not only giving the spectators an unforgettable evening but sharing the experience with DJ Hardwell’s global fanbase. With no compromise on production values VPS Media translated BigCityBeats’ call into a multi-camera high resolution capture combining a live switched 4K/UHD recording for on-demand and aftermovie purposes, together with a HD encode streamed live to YouTube.
“This show is a definitely the first time ever an EDM dance event has been captured this way,” says Constantijn van Duren, Executive Producer and Managing Partner for NOMOBO, a Netherlands live event music producer specialising in EDM. NOMOBO itself was commissioned directly by Alda Events to produce the broadcast side of things - 4K live capture and live broadcast on YouTube.
The combination of NOMOBO’s flyaway production kit (including many Blackmagic Design components), used with ARRI Amira cameras for a live multicam production has never been employed before.
Explains VPS Media producer Björn Aßmus, “In early 2016, BigCityBeats approached us with the request to provide technical equipment and crew for video production at the BigCityBeats Virtual World Club Dome. NOMOBO were charged with responsibility for the live production and were bringing their own infrastructure, glass fibre connections, live studio and FOH equipment. They asked us to provide most of the cameras and camera crew for the live production, a video mixing panel, as well as some of the streaming equipment for the playout to social media. VPS managing director, Andreas Schech, was in charge of the planning phase.”
The thrust of the brief was to produce the live multicam coverage in 4K/UHD of the complete show, to be broadcast on Youtube and Facebook (in 2K), while also playing out parts of the show to SWR (German public TV network). SWR were on site with a satellite news gathering unit ready to beam pictures across Germany. In addition, artist interviews and aftermovie material was to be shot in and around the event with a small documentary camera crew.
Having supplied and produced the AV for BigCityBeats’ EDM shows and festivals over many years, Aßmus says the chief difference with this show is the open-air setting. “The major events we have covered in the past were almost always indoor events in stadiums, so this time, all equipment has to be rain-proof, and protected from intense sunlight.”
Did we say it was hot? You never want rain of course, but the heat presented its own challenge. “Given the extreme temperatures, it was an interesting challenge for both personnel and equipment,” says Aßmus. “The extreme atmospheric conditions combined with an event taking place on tarmac in bright sunlight, are a challenge not only for the camera crew, but also in terms of preserving the equipment. We have to be especially mindful of managing the schedule so that our crew can capture footage all day while also resting enough. Preserving the equipment was crucial for the reliable and failsafe production, especially for this live coverage.”
A black fabric cover was jury-rigged for the main FOH camera and camera-op while sun-absorbent black umbrella’s shielded other kit and crew. “When they weren’t shooting the camera-ops placed their camera under the stage and crane in shade at a central location.”
NOMOBO’s production team travelled from its HQ in Amsterdam and VPS Media travelled from their offices near Frankfurt. Everyone arrived on the Thursday prior to Saturday’s show and performed an extensive test that combined cameras, lenses and fly-away production kit. Friday was a full setup day.
As you might expect of a F1 race circuit (used just a month earlier for the German Grand Prix), the area behind the paddock and pit lane at Hockenheimring provides plenty of space that is usually used by the racing teams, which resulted in short distances between FOH, stage, live mixing workstation and production office. The organisation made this very convenient. Placing the production offices and mixing workstations in the pits was especially advantageous, because mixing and production staff were very close to the stage, while still avoiding the high temperatures outside, which also helped in protecting the equipment.
Aßmus explains how they managed preparations and rehearsal. “NOMOBO developed the camera layout and approached us with their production request. We went through revisions together, made recommendations regarding certain components and finalized the tech plan together with them, and briefed our camera crew accordingly. On location, our director of photography, Alexander Weber got in touch with NOMOBO’s live broadcast director (Christian Laurman) and they conducted a briefing with our camera crew. During the final hours of the day, we defined our workflows for footage logistics, data management, and communication between our cameramen and NOMOBO’s staff.
At EDM shows it is crucial to focus on the interaction between the DJ and the crowd. The BigCityBeats Virtual World Club Dome with the I Am Hardwell concert was no exception. “What you experience with EDM is a dramatic curve in the music that motivates the crowd to be active and to react to the cues given by the DJ by musical means or by shout-outs,” explains Aßmus. “Capturing the essential moments in this interaction and creating a narrative, like a dialogue of some sort, through careful selection of images, is the key to transporting the atmosphere to the viewer.
“It’s also important at this show to make sure to transport this glorious summer atmosphere, with people enjoying the light and with such an enjoyable feeling of an outside event in perfect weather.”
Doors opened at 14:00 and the team were straight into action covering the stream of fans into the stage area and various video interviews with Hardwell and support acts DANNIC, Funkerman and Kill The Buzz. After each set backstage videos were conducted with each artist. The evening built to a crescendo at 20:30 when Hardwell lit up the stage and played for three hours of electrifying energy.
The camera plan included seven ARRI Amira cameras each operating at 4K (UHD) resolution supplied by VBS. “We’ve got pan shots from our crane and wide-angle views of the stage to convey a sense of scope to show and the size of the event, and we’ve placed mobile cameras at the barriers and on stage to give a sense of presence and to show the emotions of the crowd in what we hope is an intimate way,” says Aßmus.
To support this, VPS employed Zeiss and Canon Zoom lenses with a narrow depth of field, and used slow-motion recording at 200 fps for the aftermovie and trailers.
Using the ARRI Amira camera sets, VPS delivered feeds from the camera positions through glass fibre connections to the central mixing suite, which was operated by NOMOBO. Live streaming technology was provided by NOMOBO sending out the master broadcast feed to its Master Control Room in Amsterdam. From there high-quality encoded streams were distributed to Hardwell's YouTube and social media channels as well as media partners in the U.S. and Asia.
VPS media used a separate Teradek Cube streaming encoder to stream to BigCityBeats YouTube channel, configured and operated by a MacBook Pro, which could also be used as a backup encoding device.
NOMOBO has built a unique fly-away production kit that is able to live capture any event in the world, using high-end digital cinema camera such as Sony F55, ARRI Amira and Panasonic Varicam. This fly-away production kit provides full camera control (iris, colour temperature, ND, ISO levels) as well as tally indicators, talkback, audio and camera power all over hybrid SMPTE fibre cabling.
“Working with NOMOBO made this production a breeze, as their unique production kit made it very convenient for our camera operators,” adds VPS Media’s Schech. “Their sophisticated infrastructure and experienced crew, together with our expertise in high-quality camerawork is a combination that is hard to match.”
At Hockenheimring, NOMOBO deployed the ARRIs in combination with cine-servo lenses from Fujinon and Canon. The camera package also contained a motorised Sam Dolly track (provided by Eurogrip NL) and a two-man operated Jimmy Jib of 24- feet length.
More specifically on the cameras, the crew arranged one handheld Amira on stage and another mounted on the Sam Dolly. A third was located front of stage barrier also handheld. Between the first and second barriers to the left hand side of the stage, the team placed the 24ft crane carrying another Amira. A camera-operator wielded a fourth ARRI nearby, the fifth was FOH on a pedestal. The final camera was carried around the festival to capture behind-the-scenes footage and artist interviews.
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