“Bluegrass Underground: The Caverns Sessions”, will return to PBS this year for its 11th season. TNDV has recently announced that they have deployed TV production, equipment and technical crew- services for these new episodes. TNDV is a division of Live Media Group Holdings.

The live concerts were captured by the TNDV production crew from March 18-20 at The Caverns, the official venue of Season 10. The Caverns is a subterranean amphitheater housed in a natural cave located in Grundy County, Tennessee.

“This was the rebirth of Bluegrass Underground,” said Nic Dugger, Chief Marketing Officer, Live Media Group Holdings. “We have tried to produce new episodes a couple of times during the pandemic, but we finally got some dates on the books. It was like getting the family back together again – but with a new attitude.”

TNDV used Aspiration, its 40-foot expando truck anchored by a Grass Valley K-Frame production switcher, for the shoot. Setup was made by single-mode fiber infrastructure, which TNDV installed for a previous season, as well as on-site power that eliminated the need for generators. The Caverns is “basically off-road,” Dugger explained, so a Class A truck was not an option.

The performances were shot with eight Hitachi SK-HD1200 cameras and recorded in ISO on AJA Ki Pro Rack devices for post-production. “The director essentially acts as a technical director, as he likes to punch his own show. While the song is being performed live, the assistant director is telling the camera operators what’s about to happen. When there’s a guitar solo, we already have one or more cameras ready to capture the performance,” added Mr. Dugger.

The production included 64 channels of audio, engineered through a Soundcraft Vi3000 mixer and recorded to Pro Tools, with Sound Devices PIX 270i recorders used as backup.