11/21/2016
Cameras among the footlights
AMP VISUAL TV has built up its reputation for filming live shows over more than 20 years. For two decades, we have filmed over 200 events a year and supported producers through all the developments in this sector. AMP VISUAL TV now offers the most comprehensive service, with every solution to meet customers' expectations.
Performing art have always been the setting for television's greatest innovations. Filming opera, theatre, or music has implications for our cultural heritage, and these push producers to immediately consider how to make their work last the ages and which technology will guarantee it is used for years to come. Certain pioneering broadcasters (Arte, France Télévisions, Paris Première, and Mezzo to name but a few) asked us to build France's first HD OB truck in the early 2000s after we integrated Dolby Surround in 1996 and made it standard.
Technological innovation to support creativity
In 2016, we are of course using all our expertise in upcoming formats to serve these customers. Ultra HD 4K provides exceptionally high picture quality of special effects on stage. For years, our teams have developed their experience of 4K through recording performances of Monteverdi's Vespers in Versailles, and have been called upon by customers in France and far beyond. This was certainly the case when we filmed the Dubai opera house's opening spectacular in 4K with our local partner, Seven Production. This was very likely the first ever live broadcast in this format in the United Arab Emirates and used our UHD truck with its 15 cameras and servers.
We have been a member of the 4Ever consortium for several years and we use wide lenses to film a number of shows. We have recently completed HDR-HD tests at Disneyland Paris to create images that are very close to capturing reality as the naked eye sees it. Similarly, along with engineers we have developed an extremely advanced personalisation service to optimise images' dynamism (hyper gamma) using specific camera configurations. These are all ways in which we can showcase our most demanding clients' lighting and stage effects.
We adapt to your needs
When we develop technology, another of our aims is to find new ways of thinking. Performing art producers need an extremely varied set of technical tools to meet all their economic and technological objectives. For that reason, each of them will find the solution they need in our broadcast, access broadcast or digital ranges, depending on the filming conditions, final destination of the footage, and target audience.
For example, for some shows where the footage will be post-produced, we have created our dedicated "Immedias" HD mobile truck with extremely high-performance 2-3 inch (HDC100) cameras, which we have made easier to use. Unlike "low cost", "new cost" is an approach that meets the market's economic demands. More recently, we have taken our work even further with full-frame cameras (HD and 4K).
Another approach is exemplified in our filming of Samson and Delilah at the Opéra Bastille and Romeo and Juliet at the Comédie Française. These performances were broadcast live from their Parisian venues to cinemas. To do this we mobilised HD OB trucks which were particularly adept at 5.1 sound recording in AC3 which would immerse audiences sitting in cinemas, which themselves had ideal audio systems.
As for live internet broadcasts, these involve other issues regarding both the agility and the demands of live filming. Our experiences with Arte Concert have illustrated this beautifully.
The advantages of experience
Unlike many other televised productions, live shows are not just there to be filmed. Our teams know that they are about spectacle and that they must respect staging and lighting which have not been originally designed for television.
Over time, we have established very strong links with France and Europe's biggest venues. In AMP VISUAL TV, they see a service provider who respects their (often prestigious) locations, artists and, of course, their audience. Whether at the Opéra de Paris, Moscow's Bolshoi, Saint Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre, Milan's Scala or the Festival d'Avignon, audiences are seasoned enough to expect prefect comfort. As a result, our teams and equipment blend into the decor on stage and in the auditorium.
We are continuously developing a range of unique solutions especially for this market alongside producers, venue owners, and broadcasters.