XL Video Host Broadcasts High Speed1 Launch

Working for Flux Events under the technical direction of John Farquhar-Smith, XL Video was the host broadcaster for the Queen’s launch of High Speed 1, the high speed Cross Channel Rail Link and St Pancras International station – the new Eurostar terminal.
XL supplied 23 mixed definition cameras and a full broadcast PPU/Barco Encore playback system for the event, with live video directed by Aubrey Powell, along with 384 panels of Lighthouse R16 video screen which tracked 110 metres above Platform 9 of the newly restored Barlow shed at St Pancras. The screen split into 8 sections and various other configurations during the hour long show.
XL supplied live camera feeds to the various international news organisations including BBC News and ITN, effectively becoming the event’s host broadcasters.
Powell worked closely with the show’s overall artistic director Mark Fisher, LD Durham Marenghi and the rest of the creative team; executive producer Jon Teeman and his client London & Continental Railways (LCR) to ensure this massive project ranked as a really memorable show.
The total number of XL crew on the project ran to 75, who were co-ordinated by Natasha Fownes and crew chiefed on site by Stuart Heaney.
The event was project managed for XL by Steve Greetham and Phil Mercer.
Mercer said: "The scale of the event and the fact that we were installing a show production into a fully operational CDM regulated building site that is also a working railway station alongside thousands of other contractors created abundant challenges. All these were overcome by determination, some great teamwork from all parties and departments concerned and plenty of lateral thinking."
The Queen officially declared High Speed 1 and St Pancras International open on Tuesday night, during the first of three identical shows which was also attended by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and a host of top VIPs.
XL’s 23 cameras were located all over the station. These and the broadcast elements of the show were co-ordinated by Malcolm Whitall. They included 10 cameras with radio backs, 2 of which were sited inside the cabs of two Class 373 Eurostar trains, choreographed to pull into the station on cue during the show.
The other 8 wireless handheld units included a Steadycam, and were deployed around the show area, in places where there could be no wires. XL also supplied two jibs, one stationed outside St Pancras which was one of two exterior cameras, catching the action there. A 33ft reach Technocrane telescopic tower was positioned at the back of the control platform to the side of the main seating banks.
Two cameras were set up on track-and-dolly in front of the orchestra platform, and three remote units were stationed on each of St Pancras platforms 6, 7 and 8 specifically to pan along with the 3 trains (one brand new Hitachi Class 395 ‘Bullet’ train and the two Eurostars) as they drew into the station. The remotes could get a lot closer to the trains at that point than any operated unit would have been able to.
Video playback content, supplied by Brand & Deliver and New Moon, consisted of several specially made short films for the show, which were loaded onto XL’s hard disk EVS system (more conventionally used as a slomo machine for sports programmes).
Richard Turner programmed and ran the Barco Encore presentation system at the heart of the show, which processed all the various video inputs and feeds including Powell’s live camera mix, the playback material plus a feed from the Queen’s personal cameraman, and output them in the right format to the appropriate areas of the screen as it tracked up and down, splitting into 2, 4 and 8 sections.
The screen tracking system was developed for the show by WiCreations from Belgium, featuring 8 automated tugs driven by a Kinesys Vector system operated by Erland “Spider” Webb.
The Lighthouse panels – offering a total resolution of 2045 x 576 pixels - were initially built up on an 18 metre platform at the station end of the Barlow shed and loaded onto a special custom trolley system designed by production riggers Unusual. This moved them above all the station’s 25,000 Volt OLE power lines (whilst switched off!) and dropped them into place over Platform 9, where they were suspended below the tugs. The panels were all then connected together whilst in the air.
St Pancras International, the new Eurostar terminal, opens to the public on 14 November.
(DS)