2Vision designed, supplied and operated the touring multicamera video system for Dawid Podsiadło’s recent Obrotowy Tour. With the intention of spanning acquisition, control and delivery, the live production company employed Blackmagic Desdign’s workflow, as it has claimed in a statement.

Commissioned by East Eventz, the Obrotowy Tour was a four city stadium production featuring a central 360 degree stage and multiple LED screen destinations. Across Chorzów, Poznań, Gdańsk and Warsaw, 2Vision was responsible for the complete touring video workflow, covering camera acquisition and control, live production, signal management, recording and delivery to the multimedia team.

Camera acquisition and live production

Between nine and 12 Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2 cameras formed the backbone of a system with more than 20 sources. Long lens positions used x107, x88 and x42 B4 lenses, while handheld cameras, PTZs, RF cameras, a line camera and drones aimed to provide additional coverage around the stage and stadium.

“For me, the most interesting thing about the URSA Broadcast G2 is how it combines two worlds”, affirms Grzegorz Jakubowski, CEO of 2Vision. “For a stadium production we still need a normal broadcast workflow: B4 lenses, large box lenses, servo zoom, remote camera control and equipment an experienced broadcast camera operator can immediately work with. But visually this was a concert, not a football match”.

With the show moving within seconds from near darkness to intense LED content, strobes and audience lighting, keeping skin tones and highlights consistent across cameras was critical. “Large IMAG screens are not forgiving”, adds Sebastian Van Dessel, COO of 2Vision. “Any difference between cameras becomes very obvious when somebody’s face is several meters high”.

2Vision handled live switching using an ATEM 4 M/E Constellation 4K with an ATEM 2 M/E Advanced Panel 20. The multi M/E architecture was critical because the production required several camera mixes at the same time.

“The main handoff to the multimedia team consisted of one PGM and three independent AUX feeds, with further outputs supplied for production, artist and management monitoring, technical and wide feeds, recording and specialist camera teams”, explains Dessel.

The camera mixes were prepared in the OB van, while a separate multimedia team handled playback, screen mapping and final LED composition. Screen returns were routed back to the truck for confidence monitoring.

Routing, recording and signal management

A Blackmagic Videohub 120×120 12G formed the main routing layer inside the OB van. This looked forward to allowing 2Vision to respond quickly as sources and destinations changed during rehearsals and between venues.

“During rehearsals, things are changing all the time”, notes Jakubowski. “Somebody suddenly needs a wide instead of PGM, a recorder needs a different source, a specialist camera appears on another input or a return needs to be sent to a different monitor. With the Videohub, we could change all of this logically without constantly rebuilding the physical patch”.

Videohub Smart Control panels handled routing in the OB van, with dedicated multiview hardware used for monitoring. “Camera positions and fiber routes changed at every stadium”, Van Dessel remarks. “Once the feeds reached the van, the setup remained largely the same for the director and engineers.”

Fiber transport included SMPTE fiber for the studio and camera adapters used with URSA Broadcast G2, along with separate FOH and stage trunks, backup routes and spare fiber cores. Some routes extended several hundred meters.

The production recorded around 20 separate tracks, including 4K Blackmagic RAW from the main cameras, ISO recordings from PTZs and drones, as well as PGM and wide recordings. Two HyperDeck Studio 4K Pro broadcast decks and one HyperDeck Studio HD were also available for PGM recording, clean feeds, safety recording and playback.

2Vision also integrated its own TallyManager system with the ATEM workflow, returning the appropriate tally information to operators across the independent outputs. “With several screen feeds, an operator cannot assume they are free to reframe simply because they are not on the main PGM”, sharesd Jakubowski. “Their picture may still be filling another stadium screen”.

“The Blackmagic switching and routing core gave us the flexibility we needed across the tour”, Jakubowski concludes. “That experience is now influencing how we are thinking about our next UHD OB van, where we want to take the same approach and scale it for larger productions”.

Production Credits

• Tour production: East Eventz.
• Video production and OB system: 2Vision.
• Head of video production: Barbara Ponikowska, East Eventz.
• Camera directors: Marcin Migdalski, Michał Latocha.
• Production and technical leads: Grzegorz Jakubowski, Sebastian Van Dessel, Jakub Lalik, Kacper Galski, 2Vision.