Prime Television supply new Sky reality show

Prime Television, UK-based supplier of minicam equipment, has announced its involvement with Brighter Pictures in the making of ‘There's Something About Miriam’ for Sky One.
This new format reality dating show is based in a luxury villa in Ibiza and shows six likely lads who will compete for the affections of Miriam, a beautiful Mexican model, who turns out to be a man.
Prime Television provided its technical expertise and crew for the series, installed remote control minicams and microphones in the villa, and supplied on location crew for shooting and technical support.
Prime Television was chosen to work with Brighter Pictures, an Endemol Company, on the show due to its experience in remote control minicams and covert filming, having recently made many other hidden camera shows including ‘My New Best Friend’ for Channel 4 and ‘The Sack Race’ and ‘Stitch Up’ for the BBC.
The villa provided Prime with a real challenge to capture the pictures and audio without being intrusive. Essentially the villa required a multi camera OB with eight remote control Pan & Tilt cameras, three fixed position minicams and 19 microphones, 11 of which were radio mics on the contestants, all cabled back into a small gallery.
Nick Ludlow, Managing Director of Prime Television, said: "This one was a real challenge for us. We really didn't know until the last minute that the show was going ahead. When Sky gave the go ahead, we had very little time to get all the kit to Ibiza and rig the entire villa. Although not entirely covert, as the contestants knew they were being filmed, we had to hide everything well. Due to the very nature of the show, we had to make sure the contestants would soon forget they were on camera and so act naturally. ‘Big Brother’ style large and overt cameras were not an option. Our cameras are smaller but still have full Pan & Tilt movement as well as zoom. This allowed us to really get close in for the emotion and expressions on their faces in a way that PSC shooting never could.
“Our lighting rig included infra red lamps, so that even in the dark when they thought it was safe, we could still see them as they bragged to each other how Miriam would certainly choose them."
(GB)