NEP’s Trio Video Stays Busy With Music Festival Circuit, Chicago Sports
Story Highlights
Trio Video, which was acquired by NEP Broadcasting in March, has stayed extremely busy over the past six months, providing mobile production facilities at major events across the country.
In addition, for over 25 years, Trio has supplied trucks, crew, and tech support for the broadcasts of four Chicago professional sports teams – the Blackhawks, Bulls, Cubs, and White Sox – to WGN-TV and Comcast SportsNet Chicago.
Trio finished out 2011 with the taping of the award winning Opera “Silent Night”. Mobile Unit Rhythm was on hand to supply cameras and tech support to producer/director Joe Brandmeier’s team as they worked with managing director Kevin Ramach and composer Kevin Puts. “Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts,” commissioned and premiered by the Minnesota Opera in Minneapolis won the Pulitzer Prize for a distinguished musical.
Trio and Rhythm continued the holiday season the live broadcast simulcast of The St. Olaf Christmas Festival – Produced by Twin Cities Public Television – to theaters and homes across the country. The annual event is a highlight of the holiday season in Minnesota and throughout the world.
In Feburary, the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships worldwide feed was produced by Redbrick Entertainment utilizing Trio’s Tango and Rhythm units. The ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships were held at the World Arena in Colorado Springs, CO.
Trio’s Tango collaborated with Norton Stuff Theatre, Cap Gun Collective and Facebook to webcast 24 hours of live, global “stuff” material provided/suggested by Facebook users, performed by musicians, puppeteers, slam poets, speed talkers, opera singers, graffiti artists, mimes, caricature artists and speed painters, among many others – all working with a professional director. Additionally, for the 1st time all content was continuously recorded (over 24 hours) on EVS hard drive systems.
MU Phoenix recently was on-site in Chicago for “Peace through Music, In the Spirit of John Paul,” a special concert in honor of the one-year anniversary of the Beatification of Pope John Paul II from two of Chicago’s great musical institutions: the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Chorus, and a quartet of internationally renowned vocal soloists under the direction of Sir Gilbert Levine. The concert produced by RG Productions for the Archdiocese of Chicago was recorded for broadcast on radio and television around the world.
Spring also marks the beginning of Trio’s music festival season. For the sixth year in a row, Trio Video was on site at Coachella Music Festival in Indio, CA supplying technical engineering support along with HD mobile units Rhythm and Beta. One of the highlights of this year’s festival was Snoop Dog bringing Tupac Shakur back to life, whose virtual ghostly image was created by Digital Domain Media Group Inc. based on a variation of a visual effect that was discovered in the 19th century, known as Pepper’s Ghost. The 3 HD channel webcast on YouTube sponsored by State Farm, produced by Springboard Productions and Goldenvoice included performances of The Black Keys, Radiohead and the Dr. Dre/Snoop Dogg special 2D hologram presentation of Tupac Shakur.
Continuing the music tradition – For the seventh year in a row Trio Video supplied HD mobile units and engineering tech support to Bonnaroo – North Americas Largest Music Festival, headlined by Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Phish. In June, mobile units Tango, Rhythm, Beta and Blues were on site supplying over 25 cameras and two master control rooms, covering 4 days of music, over 100 acts and transmitting two HD channels of live entertainment to YouTube. The webcast, produced by Thirdwave Productions, Superfly, and AC Entertainment with sponsorship by Dell and AMD had a potential worldwide audience of over 30 million. Cable channels Fuse TV and Comedy Central were also on hand to give their viewers a first-hand look at the iconic festival experience.
Metallica hosted the inaugural Orion Music + More Festival at Atlantic City, NJ’s Bader Field in June. MU’s Tango and Beta were on site with Trios veteran engineering team as thousands of Metallica fans invaded the festival which featured a diverse festival line-up including artists such as Modest Mouse, Arctic Monkeys, Ghost, and of course Metalica. The two night festival produced by C3 and Springboard Productions was fed live to Fuse TV.
MU Rhythm was on site in Little Rock as the North American leg of Lady Antebellum’s “Own the Night 2012 World Tour” sponsored by GAC with special guests Darius Rucker and Thompson Square came to a close, the 85 city run marked an attendance milestone with over one million fansThe concert DVD, produced by Hank Neuberger of Springboard Productions is slated to be released later this year.
NCP 3 was on hand as over 90 bands played and sold merchandise at the Vans “Warped Tour” recently at the Ventura County Fairgrounds in California. It was the 13th of a total of 41 shows scheduled for the classic alternative rock experience. Trio/NCP had its veteran engineers on hand to transmit live all the fun to Fuse TV.Com.
Finally, this Fall will bring another truck to the Trio side of the NEP family. One of NEP’s existing trucks will soon undergo equipment upgrades and make its home in Chicago with a Trio logo and a new name, Aqua. Aqua will be available for dual feeds at Chicago’s United Center as well as full stand-a-long side-by-sides and other events.
