LiveU supports the ambitious live broadcast of Drake's 'Iceman' audiovisual project

The musician and rapper Drake released his new album, Iceman, streaming live with the technology of LiveU together with his creative partner Groovy Gecko the second and third episodes of a series of cinematic-style short films, which mixed symbolic images, song releases and real-time broadcasts.

To orchestrate a seamless global livestream, LiveU helped Groovy Gecko livestream to Drake's YouTube channel, which has over 31 million subscribers. Groovy Gecko coordinated with YouTube and partnered with the production company Canada Canada to create a unique combination of storytelling, performance and live audience participation. The flexibility of LiveU technology It allowed the production team to record immersive footage from different angles.

Patrick Hanlon, especialista en soluciones de vídeo online de Groovy Gecko, destaca que “Drake quería que capturáramos un cortometraje cinematográfico en directo a través de una red de localizaciones repartidas por toda la ciudad. Esto incluía clubes underground y vehículos en movimiento, todo ello manteniendo un nivel de calidad de producción ‘extra nítido'”.

Episode 3, which was broadcast live on September 4, took place against a visually striking background in 12 locations in Milan. Groovy Gecko used a combination of 40 compact LU800 and LU300 multi-camera LiveU units, with the LU800 as main units and the LU300 as backup. They also used five return servers, 19 cameras, and live streams from drones. Difficult locations were boosted with Peplink and Starlink units for LiveU, ensuring no outages occurred.

The images of the car are an example of the impeccable quality achieved. “That shot is beautiful, we couldn't wait to get the LiveU units up and running to see how they worked and we couldn't have been more impressed,” Sunraya Hanlon. The live stream had 1.9 million viewers on Drake's YouTube channel and more than one million on-demand views in the first five hours of the broadcast.

For Episode 2, LiveU units supported 12 cameras strategically placed across the city of Manchester, plus two Steadicams used to capture dynamic tracking shots. The signals were transmitted wirelessly via 4G y 5G to the Groovy Gecko production center in London. The stream had over one million live views and an additional 1.2 million on-demand views over the following weekend. Groovy Gecko alternated between wireless and wired transmissions depending on location.

Hanlon says, "In Milan, for example, we used wired transmissions in a couple of places. In Manchester, everything was managed with the LiveU units. We had the LU300 transmission going into the LU800 in DataBridge mode, and the LU800 transmitted the signal back to our servers."

Flexibility

The producer highlights the importance of being flexible at all times, as the creative brief continued to evolve until the moment the live broadcasts were broadcast. "LiveU helped us tremendously to get everything ready. They did a lot of preparatory work before the work in Milan, preparing and shipping units from Amsterdam and Germany, which really helped us achieve success. Our strong 14-year relationship with LiveU made the process easy, thanks to the years of trust built up in previous collaborations."

Matthew Stringer, LiveU UK Sales Director, adds: "The success of this high-pressure, dynamic project demonstrates the power of the seamless collaboration between LiveU and Groovy Gecko. Flexibility and scalability were essential in a production environment of this magnitude. The project highlights LiveU's rapid global deployment capabilities and the company's ability to support high-profile events anywhere. As the creative brief evolved from episode 2 to episode 3, the infrastructure of “LiveU allowed Groovy Gecko to instantly adapt to location requirements. The mobility of the units provided creative freedom to work anywhere, resulting in highly artistic, engaging and innovative short films that push the boundaries of live streaming music content.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CpDj8VHA7o