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The Diamond Jubilee pageant www.gtc.org.uk www.gtc.org.uk The Diamond Jubilee pageant Great pictures, shame the long distances and tricky travel the water to give unique shots as behind where the Queen’s boat about the commentary turned this into a long and exhausting the bridge rose in front of it and the would tie up (also with 86 lenses); A View from Much has been written in the media process. flotilla passed through close by. In and across the river opposite the end about the BBC’s treatment of the addition to this, a small standard- position, on Butlers Wharf Terrace. River Pageant and how it failed to All angles covered lens camera was placed on the steps This camera was equipped with a reach the public’s expectations in The camera rig started early on the jutting out from Shad Thames at 100:1 lens. The terms of commentary and information. Friday morning and we soon had water level for a ‘worm’s eye view’ Roaming around was a vox-popping But at the same time, great praise the local cable-connected cameras underneath the bridge. handheld operating on the bridge was heaped on the pictures offered up and running. The first three Meanwhile, two other standard- approach roads, while two more up throughout this very long were positioned high on the Tower lens cameras were placed on Tower handhelds were on board ships just transmission. Bridge towers, looking west, east Pier and St Katherine’s Pier, plus east of the bridge: TS Tenacious, a tall ship moored to the south, and HMS Hurworth, a minesweeper Bridge Four of the RF cameras had big 86 lenses, leading to extensive moored just astern of the Queen’s power supply issues and, since mains was not available at most of eventual position. the positions, much planning was involved in ensuring a plentiful The view we never saw! supply of batteries, resulting in complex charging arrangements Last, but far from least in terms of effort anyway, was a camera taken up to the top (87th floor) of the Shard, Our part of the operation, with and centrally down on the ‘bascules’ another wide-angle jib was set up in the brand new tallest building in The Diamond Jubilee celebrations saw many GTC facilities provided by a Visions truck (the bits of road that rise when the front of the Tower of London among Europe, which overlooks the whole of members out and about covering street parties, beacon and using SIS Live RF and comms bridge opens). These were all fitted the trees and the crowds. London and especially this part of the lighting ceremonies and multiple other events organised links, eventually involved 20 cameras with wide-angle lenses and mounted To top it all for the bridge coverage, Thames. Months of negotiation and to mark this historic milestone. There were many highlights, (a mixture of Philips LDK 6000s and on bazookas with offset bowls, and the Cammotion Vortex was in position a hundred emails had finally resulted including the concert at Buckingham Palace, Thanksgiving Service at Sony 1500s), dotted along the stretch placed in narrow walkways accessed in the middle of the road by the North in permission for a camera to be set St Paul’s, and procession of carriages through London but, from an OB point of the river from London Bridge in the through windows. The large vertical Tower providing spectacular rising up there. This is still a building site of view, the most challenging and unusual task was probably the coverage of west to the other side of Tower Bridge drop to the public areas called and falling shots through the bridge with all the safety issues that brings, the 1000-boat flotilla on the Thames. GTC sponsor companies ACS and Ikegami in the east. These positions had been for extensive safety bonding and supports. let alone the normal problems arising were involved at the very heart of things by providing the cameras on board the chosen by executive producer Claire much careful assembly of all the The RF cameras were stationed from working in such an elevated Royal Barge. Meanwhile, GTC member James Day’s contribution was supervising Popplewell and technical producer component pieces. further away: on the next bridge along position. This involved a huge effort the ‘finish line’ cameras at Tower Bridge, where an array of imaginatively placed Peter Taylor a couple of months earlier. Then we had two 86-lens cameras (London Bridge) high up on buildings from all involved – including walking cameras offered up great angles and shots of the passing flotilla, including the I took a walk-around recce with Peter at road level by the bascules looking spectacular moment when the bridge opened up – and who can forget the choir of on 3 May and we made a few west and east, plus a wide-angle jib valiant ‘drowned rats’ who sang with so much spirit while drenched to the skin! First, adjustments at that point but the final on the east corner of the South Tower, James explains just what was involved at the Tower Bridge end of this huge exercise. To top it all for the bridge coverage, the list was only arrived at about five days which would capture some amazing before the rig started. shots as the bridge opened – inches Cammotion Vortex was in position in the away from the lens – and also as the middle of the road by the North Tower A complicated tech spec flotilla passed by just yards below. providing spectacular rising and falling Due to the large distances involved Another great position was that and associated problems with getting of an ACS Smarthead remote camera shots through the bridge supports cables anywhere remote, seven of underneath the bascules, close to our 20 cameras would be on RF radio links. To add to these complications, four of the RF cameras had big 86 lenses, leading to extensive power supply issues. Mains MATTHEW GLADSTONE, CAMMOTION was not available at most of the positions, so much planning was involved in ensuring a plentiful supply of batteries, resulting in some pretty complex charging arrangements. The RF receiving point was on top of The Tower Hotel, next to where the scanner was parked. However, as the directional receive aerials could not pick up any local testing, everything had to be rigged in its final position before any fault-finding could take place. Again, A ‘Canaletto moment’ as the colourful rowing fleet passes under the bridge Cammotion Vortex reaches up 22 Autumn 2012 ZERB vertically, high above Tower Bridge Autumn 2012 ZERB 23 The Diamond Jubilee pageant www.gtc.org.uk www.gtc.org.uk The Diamond Jubilee pageant Stuart MacDonald directing, with Ian Trill vision-mixing P AUL E LLIS , G ETTY I On Board the MAGES Spirit of Chartwell I The Spirit of Chartwell passes under the bascules, raised at 90 degrees for a Royal Salute Rigging the cameras high above the bascules of Tower Bridge, NDIGO with all-important failsafe safety bonding, was quite an exercise! GTC sponsors ACS provided remote and stabilised camera systems for all the , G key events during the Diamond Jubilee weekend: the concert at Buckingham ETTY I Palace, the Thanksgiving Service at St Paul’s, inside Westminster Hall MAGES help. We did what we could with the spectators on the day. There were and route cameras for the Procession. Here, Sam Heaphy of ACS explains Not everything worked. On OBs, it never facilities made available to us. more than 20 cameras on the boats. what was involved in the most sensitive part of their Jubilee involvement: Overall it was a technical triumph The technical planning sheet was providing continuous unobtrusive coverage on board the Royal Barge. does. The secret is to not show that on the though. This was the biggest OB for 217 pages long! screen. Next time, we will do it better! many a year: over 90 cameras in total, Not everything worked. On OBs, it BC Events is the production positions but this eventually doubled fed through eight scanners, spread never does. The secret is to not show entity within the BBC that to eight. Detailed planning and the over several miles either side of a river that on the screen. Next time, we will Bis normally responsible process of obtaining Buckingham up the last 20 or so floors with all down. My position on the North Tower in a very busy city among a million do it better! for producing coverage of state Palace approval for the installation the gear as the lifts stop at level 65 – looking west was immediately under occasions, national celebrations started with a series of meetings in only to be thwarted by the appalling the horizontal walkways high above, and commemorative services. The January on the Spirit of Chartwell (a weather on Pageant Day. Basically, which seemed to result in a waterfall relationship between BBC Events vessel loaned for the purpose). Remote cameras onboard the Spirit of Chartwell provided unobtrusive closeup the top of the Shard never emerged effect directed towards my head just and ACS has evolved over the past shots of the Royal Family throughout the four-hour flotilla pageant from the clouds. A great shame. The to add to the general misery created five years, with many national and An unobtrusive presence inherent limitations of lens size, as Ikegami UK have always provided a view is astounding and I will certainly by the constant rain. Luckily, the international broadcasts drawing on The principle aim of using multiple well as sensor and processing quality.

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