Happy belated Independence, everyone! And what an Independence it was! For the past few weeks, the crew at Phase 3 Productions was stationed at the Jamaica 50 Golden Jubilee Village in the Independence Park Complex. Considered the “soul and pulse” of the Jamaica 50 celebrations, the events at Jubilee Village ran from August 1st to August 6th, culminating with Grand Gala on Independence Day.
Phase 3 Productions’ responsibility was to transform a section of Jubilee Village into a Jamaica 50 TV station—an operation which we considered an extremely important achievement. Not only were the Village’s events—as well as Jamaica 50-themed programming—broadcast live on screens located in town squares throughout the country, they were also streamed live on the Jamaica 50 website for all the world to see.
Of course, creating this television station required some sophisticated technology and top-level skill. It’s for these reasons that we sought the expertise of Ross Video Limited, a company based in Canada that designs award-winning products for use in broadcast, distribution and live event production. Phase 3 has had a long and mutually beneficial relationship with Ross. We knew that our personnel and expertise combined with theirs would create the magic needed for a functional in the field Master Control Centre, something neither Ross nor Phase 3 had previously undertaken.
The Ross team came and left. Everything was setup and simulated in studio and Phase 3 was on its own to work the magic come Emancipation Day and onward. Several early crew calls, one almost-tropical storm and countless late nights later, we can confidently say that our work at Jubilee Village was a success. Here’s a deeper look at how it all came together.
Once the footage is received, its colour may be adjusted by the Engineer, graphics (such as lower thirds or transitions) are added by the Chyron Operator, audio may be tweaked, and slow motion or recaps may be added. Our VTR Operator is responsible for recording the footage, so that we have copies to show our clients.
Stay tuned for a virtual tour of this truck in an upcoming blog post.
The ‘Brain’ of the Operation
We dubbed our engineering trailer the “brain” of the operation. We used this trailer to house the terminal equipment—our servers, encoders, and decoders. The terminal is responsible for converting footage into signals for transmission, and reconverting received signals. In this trailer we could also check on audio feeds.
We hope we’ve given you some understanding of our work at Jubilee Village, and that you tuned in online or watched one of the screens. Don’t forget—coming up next is a tour of our MD8 truck.