Karis Sportfest OB: Event Day - 11th May 2019

On the day of the main OB. I arrived on site at 7:55 am to ensure that the parking spaces for the trucks were reserved.

BOB4 and GT3 arrived at the site at 9 am. Terry Clay, a senior unit manager from Cloudbass who was also the support unit manage for the OB arrived at 9:10 am. Shortly after Terry arrived and the trucks parked in position, The generator was started to make power available for the production truck and rigging commenced.

Just before 10 am, Justin Davey, the Head of Education at Cloudbass and the module leader for broadcast practice arrived at the site.

The camera operators and the production crew arrived as scheduled. With Justin's help, the VT and Vision were set up and rigging was completed around 11 am.

The UM’s FACS was conducted by Terry at 11:30 am, the Director’s FACS check took place shortly afterwards.

The LIVE streaming computer was set up and a test transmission commenced from 11:30 am until the match kick-off.

There was an hour delay to the start of the main match due to the teams arriving late while waiting a mock match was arranged by the production manager, this lasted for 30mins and served as practice for the camera and production crew.

Main game kick off was at 2 pm. The OB was very successful and enjoyable with lots of commendation both from the client and management.

THE CREW

All crew on site were instrumental to the success of the OB, Figure 1 shows some of the crew members on site.

• William Jones, a second-year broadcast student at the university was the production director. He executed his role extremely well and passionately. 
• Taran Bryant, another second-year student was in charge of Vision, white balancing all the cameras, sorting out the back focus, exposure, etc. 
• Justin was in charge of VT & EVS operations, clipping up and playback replays. This role was of immense advantage to the OB and made the production look very professional.
• Tom Cottam, from Cloudbass, was on site at the camera guarantee, he helped set up all camera positions and also served as a camera operator. 
• Ben Sams, the broadcast programme leader, Aaron Marcus, a first-year Broadcast student and Ose Erume, a first-year electronic student at the university were the camera operators.
• Nuno Geraldes, a sound engineer from Cloudbass was in charge of the sound and comms system.

Figure 1 - Some of the crew members on site

Graphics and VTs

• Three video graphics were created in aftereffects for the OB see Figure 2.
• One was used as a holding graphics set to loop during intervals and before the event.
• The other two were played just before the start of the match.
• A Karis wipe was also created and loaded on the vision mixer and used to transit between the Live match and replays.

Figure 2 - A still shot of the three video graphics used during the OB.

Live Streaming

The OB which was streamed LIVE on YouTube and on Karis website had over a thousand views, figure 3 shows a screenshot of the YouTube video player.

Figure 3 - A screenshot of YouTube showing the LIVE stream of the OB.

Observations:

Areas of improvement.

• A raised platform would have been ideal for camera 1 and 2, this was suggested by Terry during the first presentation for this OB but was left out due to some last-minute changes. 
• Graphics for scores: A graphics system to display the scores and other relevant information during the match would have been ideal.
• Playing background music during intervals with the video graphics.
• And finally, a floor manager to coordinator and manage the timing of the event. 

Keys to the success of the OB.

• Effective & efficient planning
• Excellent communication: A very good communication was maintained throughout the planning phase between the facility manager at the forest zone, Cloudbass, the production manager and Nottingham city council informing them of the event and obtaining all the relevant permits and authorisations.
• Very supportive, passionate and patience crew members.
• Reliable and prompt support from tutors and Cloudbass management

Thank you

I will like to express my sincere appreciation to Cloudbass for providing the OB truck (BOB4) and all the production kit used.

I will also like to thank Justin and Terry for the support they gave throughout the planning and production phase.

And finally, A big thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of this OB, the riggers, production crew, camera ops, commentator, sound engineer and the church.
This experience for me has truly been rewarding and fulfilling.