LaVerdi Orchestra streamed live to open Milano Design Week 2020

posted:

19/11/2020

Although many of the 2020 Milan Fuorisalone (Design Week) events had to move to a virtual platform, the organisers wanted to make sure this year’s theme of ‘green’ ran strongly throughout the program. The opening event did just this: a live performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and ‘Quattro stagioni’ by Astor Piazolla, performed by the La Barocca ensemble of Milan’s Giuseppe Verdi Symphony Orchestra, from the leafy setting of UpTown Park. Tickets were available for a smaller, socially distanced audience, but in order to bring the event to as many people as possible, the concert was also livestreamed through Fuorisalone TV, the Design Week’s online channel.

Live event specialist, Franco Palumbo, owner-operator of Videofreelance, was enlisted to help translate the event to a digital video platform.

“My usual field is concerts and conferences, so of course this year, I have had to adapt to digital events,” Franco begins. “As well as making sure the content delivers an enjoyable experience for those watching online, we’re also have the challenge of working in a Covid-safe production environment. This can mean working in much smaller teams, with fewer cameras in operation and everyone working at a distance from one another, so it’s not an easy task!”

The video team for the event was made up of three camera operators, handling a trio of URSA Broadcast cameras with URSA Viewfinders, and a vision mixer and camera control operator at the production desk. The FoH camera was paired with a Canon HD 22x lens, to provide close ups of the two soloists, with the two other cameras positioned on each side of the event to cover the entire orchestra and conductor in action.

“Control and comms via fibre SMPTE over the ATEM Camera Control was excellent, and really helped us to keep the coverage smooth and in keeping with the piece being performed,” explained Franco. “All of the team understood exactly what was needed throughout the concert, and that gave the vision mixer a great selection of angles to produce an effective mix.”

An additional challenge for the team was the fact that the event was being staged at sunset. “Of course, this makes for a wonderful atmosphere for the audience, but can be incredibly difficult for live production, as you are having to handle constantly changing lighting and colour temperature,” continued Franco. “We arranged powerful stage spotlights to illuminate the orchestra, which worked well. As daylight really started to fade during the last half an hour of the event, the lighting wasn’t sufficient, so I added +3db to compensate and the footage looked great.”

The livestream was mixed on an ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel, and taken out to Fuorisalone TV via the Vimeo livestreaming platform.

“It’s clear that everyone is keen for the live events industry to be able to start up again as soon as it can, this year has certainly proved that the professionals in the market are extremely resilient and adaptable, to bring as much of the live world as they can through into digital channels,” concludes Franco. “Having a flexible video system in place has been an important part of helping us adapt and evolve our workflow for this very different, and hopefully temporary situation.”