More than 120m of camera track and a large inventory of camera support equipment were fielded by The Camera Store, a Vitec Group company, for the HD broadcast coverage of this year's Glastonbury Festival.
"Glastonbury is one of the most popular events in the annual broadcasting calendar,” commented TCS operations manager David Fader, "given the festival's rural location and the unpredictability of British weather, it can also be one of the most challenging, as camera crews and their equipment have to be ready for anything from a rainstorm to a mud bath. The big-name stage music performances take place under cover, but others are held out in the open.”
Precise camera movement is a vital ingredient for television directors, so offering mountings that go on rail is an integral part of our business.”
Working closely with Arena Television and SIS LIVE, TCS supplied two of its proprietary fixed and tracking Skquattro pedestals, 14 Vinten Osprey Elite pedestals, 15 Vinten Vision 250 pan-and-tilt heads, 11 Vinten tracking skids and nearly 2km of SMPTE-grade camera fiber.
Setup commenced on Monday June 24 in preparation for the five-day event at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset. The festival itself ran June 26 through June 30 and attracted high attendance, all 135,000 tickets selling in a record 1 hour and 40 minutes from first going on sale.
Highlights of the festival were broadcast on BBC 2, including a two-hour Glastonbury debut by the Rolling Stones, which achieved an estimated peak audience of 2.6 million viewers.
Glastonbury is the largest green-field festival in the world, requiring extensive infrastructure in terms of security, transport, water and electricity supply. The majority of staff are volunteers, helping the festival to raise millions of pounds for good causes.
