Scruff of the Neck TV goes live on Twitch with Blackmagic Design

The ATEM Mini Extreme and the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K from Blackmagic Design have allowed Scruff of the Neck broadcast concerts through Twitch.

Scruff of the Neck TV (associated with the independent record label of the same name) is a British platform that offers the possibility of discovering new music through Twitch. Each three-hour live program is presented by Abbie McCarthy (BBC Radio) y Jack Wood (Radio X), and includes concerts and interviews with various bands.

To date, there have been more than 90 hours of content that have been viewed four and a half million times. Among the artists featured on the channel are Yonaka, The Slow Readers Club, Bad Boy Chiller Crew, Lottery Winners y Larkins.

Workflow

Chris Brearley, director of live productions at Scruff on the Neck, raised from the beginning a workflow starring “versatility and ease of use”. As he himself says: “We process between four and six signals from the cameras per program, in addition to other additional sources.”

To achieve this, Brearley and his team rely on several cameras of Blackmagic Design, including models Pocket Cinema Camera 6K, URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 y Micro Studio Camera 4K. On the other hand, units are used Micro Converter to connect SDI cameras to the mixer ATEM Mini Extreme. Finally, the images transmitted by it are displayed on a monitor SmartView 4K.

The result, according to Brearley, lives up to what was expected: "We create high-quality productions, trying to make them as similar as possible to a live concert, and that the spectators can be part of them. We have two moving cameras that record the performance and provide fluidity to the transmission, while the others are fixed in different places on the set, in order to capture various angles."

Post-Covid-19 continuity

To Scruff of the Neck, the biggest challenge has been to be able to carry out the transmissions in compliance with the regulations regarding the Covid-19. Por ejemplo, fue preciso reducir la cantidad de integrantes del equipo de producción para limitar el número de personas presentes en el espacio disponible. “Afortunadamente, gracias a la funcionalidad de los equipos que usamos, ha resultado más sencillo de lo que esperábamos”, apunta Brearley. “Hemos podido realizar las transmisiones semanales cumpliendo con las normas impuestas por el gobierno sin comprometer la calidad”.

Aunque la iniciativa surgió como consecuencia de la pandemia, Brearley considera que la iniciativa seguirá teniendo cabida en el futuro: "We want to evolve and find a purpose for the program by bringing the format to the venues where the shows are held. There is still enormous potential to explore with the ATEM Mini Extreme ISO model, which will undoubtedly allow us to continue growing."