Bright European Skateboard Awards

January saw the thermometer drop and the stars of the European skateboarding community converge en masse at the House of Vans Berlin to celebrate the third annual Bright European Skateboarding Awards.

The main difference between the awards this year and previous years was that this year’s BESAs were the first to be streamed live on the web to the benefit of the wider skateboarding community across Europe and the globe.

Long time client and BESA sponsor VANS called on 3xScreen Media to produce and live stream the awards ceremony – a brief that presented a few challenges along the way. The main challenge was the limited space the venue offered for camera crew with the expected crowd inevitably proving too much of a hazard for a traditional tripod, camera and cameraman set up. 3xScreen Media provided an elegant and simple solution that also reduced kit and crew requirements: a full robotic camera production.

With the exception of one roaming EX3 that was used to follow Awards host Sally Braid on the ground, the remaining six cameras used on this production were mounted robotic cameras operated by our cameraman seated alongside the vision mixer and director in the production suite.

Using a combination of three Sony BRC H700s and three Panasonic AW-HE50s mounted strategically around the venue, our robotic camera operator was able to capture night’s activities from every angle. With our director/ vision mixer providing transitions and graphics from a TriCaster 860 and VTs being played out by an operator on a 3Play 425, the crew delivered the slick and seamless production that Vans have come to expect from 3xScreen Media. In addition, a moderated Twitter feed was available at the touch of a button throughout the awards, allowing those to watch from home the ability to interact in real time.

The awards were a complete success with thousands watching the live stream and even more watching the footage on YouTube in the days following the event – an audience that would have otherwise missed the event without the live streaming component.