MM20 - FULL DETAILS
Midsummer Music 2020 or 'MM20' was an online music livestream showcasing over 60 student submissions on the evening of Friday the 19th of June as Covid-safe replacement for the usual live music festival.
KEY
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1) LED Bars.
2) Birdie.
3) Sound mixing console.
4) Radio receivers.
5) Lighting desk.
6) Light status screen.
7) Comms headset (comms unit in light grey under radio receivers).
8) Lapel radio mic transmitters.
9) Live mic to outdoor PA.
10) Disinfectant wipes for Covid-19 safety.
11) Master cable bundle of lighting, camera and sound cables to PC.
SOUND
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My colleague Ross operated the sound mixer (3) on the night, where he live mixed the audio from 4 radio mic receivers (4) which were routed into the 4 channels of the sound mixer. Linked to these receivers were 4 radio mic transmitters (8) (two handheld and 2 lapel packs) to give us live audio, even from presenters standing 50 m away at the main entrance to the school, as seen in the stream. The audio from this mixing desk was then routed into a USB audio interface via two XLR leads (11) providing a stereo input to the PC, where it was then brought into a digital audio mixer in the streaming software where I could combine this live audio with the pre-recorded audio from digital assets like the idents, branding and performances before it was sent out as one package with the stream.
To be covid safe, each of our 4 presenters had their own mic which they kept throughout the whole night and rehearsals, with the only exception being headmaster Dom Burke at the beginning, who borrowed a handheld mic that was thoroughly disinfected after use. (10)
LIVE CAMERAS
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My colleague Ross also operated the live cameras on the night. Initially, we had two cameras set up, one for outdoor shots and one for indoor. Camera 1 was on the upper landing of the music block, where the main 'studio' was with the sound and lighting desks (pictured above). Camera 1 was initially intended to only be used for indoor shots. Camera 2 was on the ground floor of the music block, just inside the main entrance. Camera 2 was initially intended to be used for all the outdoor shots, providing an unrestricted view through the open door.
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During the final rehearsal however, camera 2 failed and needed restarting and reconnecting to the computer mid-stream so it was declared to be too high of a risk and was made redundant. All of our outdoor shots were actually filmed using camera 1 through the large windows of the music block, which worked okay in the end.
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Critically, the camera we used sent a 1080p HD video through its HDMI port with no GUI, so we could use this as a live camera feed. Some of the other cameras we tested only sent a low-res version or didn't give an option for removing the GUI. The HDMI port on the camera was initially designed for connection of a larger monitoring screen, so they often send a lower-res version of the image with GUI by default. Using a very long cable from the HDMI port on the camera to a HDMI to USB converter at the computer, we were able to change this HDMI signal into a signal that the computer understood to be a live webcam essentially, allowing compatibility with the software.
LIGHTING & SET DESIGN​
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The lighting used on the night of MM20 was fairly minimal as the location we were filming in didn't have support for a proper lighting rig. The main lights seen in almost every live shot of MM20 are the coloured LED bars (1) and LED 'pancakes', which can run independently off mains power or be controlled via DMX and a lighting board. We also used a 'birdie' (2) in the upstairs landing of the music block to light the presenters when it got dark without creating too much of a reflection on the large windows and a small ceiling-mounted generic lighting rig in the music classroom, which provides the lighting on the scenes using the piano. In some outdoor scenes you can also see the use of various types of fairy lights.
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The lights were changed between almost every shot both digitally and physically. As we only had 4 LED bars, between some live links, the presenters would run around and configure a new set and new lights. For example, when it got dark, they moved an LED bar and an LED pancake outside to provide lighting around the main entrance.
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In the music classroom and in the outdoor shots, the LEDs are plugged directly into the mains and have their colour and lighting pattern controlled by their onboard control panel, which gives basic control over the light. In the main live location however, the upstairs music landing, the LEDs are controlled by a lighting desk (5) via a DMX chain which gives much more control over the lights and much quicker and easier control too. Between live links, Ross, my colleague operating the lighting board, could change the colour and intensity of all the bars in the click of a button. The generic lighting rig used in the final live scenes is controlled by a switch on the wall with basic dimmer controls. Before the stream, we positioned these lights to where we wanted them and simply turned them on at the wall switch, ready for the final scene.
BROADCASTING SOFTWARE​
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For the stream, I used 'Open Broadcasting Software' or 'OBS' to compile all the assets and send them out live as one complete package. In the software, you make scenes which have a specific asset or set of assets on and then just toggle between these scenes whilst streaming live. For example, I had a scene with the live camera feed, a scene with the countdown, a scene with the MM20 ident, a scene for each student submission etc. As the night progressed, I used a running order on a second monitor to piece together the stream by hand by literally clicking the right student submission at the right time. As we had over 60 submissions, they wouldn't all fit on the page so I laid them out in chronological order and added a few scenes with the live camera and the ident throughout so that I always had a live camera scene on screen at any given time.
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The audio was triggered separately to the cameras and the scenes, so at the end of a student submission or other piece, I would fire the ident, unmute the live audio feed coming from the mixing console and fire the live camera scene, so that by the time the camera went live, the audio was ready to go, but not so early that it picked up any premature audio before the cameras went live.
COMMUNICATION IN THE STUDIO​
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As I was the only person able to hear and see the stream live without any delay, it was vital that I could somehow communicate with the rest of the team from my position at the computer, so that the presenters knew when to begin and when they were off-air. To achieve this, Ross and I wore comms headsets (7) so that we could constantly speak to each other live and I could relay exactly what was happening in the stream at any given moment. This also meant I could easily contact Ross, who was operating the camera, mics and lights, if there was a technical fault with any of the hardware, like the mic level being too low or the GUI coming up on the camera.
The main use of the comms connection however was to cue the presenters. As I triggered the MM20 ident and the live cameras, as outlined in the paragraph above, I counted down into the headset from 3, which was replicated live by Ross on the studio floor behind the camera using silent hand gestures allowing the presenter to know when they were live or not. For cueing outdoor presenters, we had PA system rigged outside with a live mic (9) to Ross so that he could live relay my countdown out to the presenters outside.
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My computer monitor was replicated on the whiteboard of the classroom where I was operating the stream from, so people coming into the classroom could actually see the live broadcast without delay if they wanted, which was useful for Jane in the final scene where she thanks Ross and I, narrating live over a pre-recorded scene of us waving, so she could see she was in time.
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