Broadcast sound specialist Red-TX was employed to capture the audio for the Help for Heroes benefit concert, which took place at Twickenham Stadium on Sunday (September 12th 2010).
The event attracted more than 60,000 people, included some of the injured service personnel who benefit from the money raised by the charity. It was broadcast live by the BBC, which took its music audio feed from the Red-TX sound truck.
Help for Heroes has united the UK behind the Armed Forces. The charity, which does not question the rights and wrongs of recent wars, aims to provide the best possible care and support for injured UK servicemen and women.
An incredible line up of stars came together for a fund-raising concert that was billed as the biggest live event of the year. Robbie Williams, who this year celebrates 20 years in the music business, headlined the concert and was joined on stage by Take That’s Gary Barlow to give the first live performance of their new duet Shame. Other artists taking part included some of the biggest names in the music industry such as Tom Jones, James Blunt, Alexandra Burke, Pixie Lott, Plan B and The Saturdays. Alongside the musicians, the cream of British comedy was also present acting as hosts. They included John Bishop, Kevin Bridges, Jack Dee, Jason Manford and Michael McIntyre.
Red-TX was commissioned to handle the audio by Chris Bretnall, head of Creative Broadcast Solutions who was engaged as technical director by BBC Events.
“It was a fantastic concert and the delivery by everyone at Red-TX was faultless,” Bretnall says. “This was a massive undertaking, at relatively short notice, over a period when both people and resources were already heavily committed. Plans for the broadcast of the event, and the ancillary processes that were needed for the live TX, were still maturing on the morning of the gig itself. Despite that, the Red-TX crew kept all the tracks in place and delivered very high quality sound.”
Renowned live sound engineer and Red-TX director Tim Summerhayes manned the desk on board Red-TX’s main music truck, while co-director Conrad Fletcher was on board a BBC Outside Broadcast vehicle handling the audio input from all the VT’s, the comedians and the live presenters on stage, and of course the music mix from Tim. In total, five hours of concert sound was recorded. The first four and a half hours were edited down to one and a half hours of television, which began broadcasting at 8pm. At 9.30 pm the broadcast went live for the final half hour of programming, during which Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow were on stage.
Red-TX director Ian Dyckhoff says: “It was a complicated event, mainly because we were feeding chunks of audio to the edit suite where it was being cut with footage of some of the war veterans who are benefitting from the money raised by Help For Heroes. However, we had a great team of people around us and lots of help from other contractors, including Britannia Row who took charge of the main PA. We were thrilled to be involved with this event and to lend our support to such a worthy cause. It was a very moving experience.”
Chris Bretnall adds: “The concert was visually stunning and was perfectly complimented by Tim’s wonderful music mixes and Conrad’s fantastic TV balance. For me, Red-TX are about the best live sound specialists in the business when it comes to delivering music events. We’ve worked together in the past and I have already commissioned them to handle other projects starting in a few weeks time. Help For Heroes once again demonstrated how hiring Red-TX for a project means that it just happens - and happens with technical perfection and artistic flair, whatever the genre.”
As well as broadcasting the concert on BBC One, the organisers also ensured that the Help For Heroes event was shown at military bases around the world on British Forces Broadcasting (BFBS).
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About Red TX:
Red TX provides a comprehensive concert recording and broadcast service to the music and television industries. The company has state-of-the-art mobile recording facilities and can handle projects of any size or complexity. As well as recording audio for broadcast, the company also records live music events for subsequent release on CD or DVD. It is headed by Ian Dyckhoff, Tim Summerhayes and Conrad Fletcher, both of whom have extensive experience in delivering high-quality audio for broadcast. www.red-tx.com
