Apple Music Live: SZA
- Jared Pietrzak
- Nov 28, 2024
- 2 min read
With her second album, SZA became one of the most streamed artists of 2023. On January 31, 2024 at the Barclays center in Brooklyn, NY, Apple Music Live partnered with SZA to produce a live album off her SOS tour. Contrast Films produced the event and hired TV Tech to facilitate the technical infrastructure needed for this immersive capture.
In total, nineteen cameras were utilized, all Sonys for consistent color results. This included fourteen Sony Venices, five of which were rialto configured, two Fx6 models, two Fx30 models, and an PTZ style Fr7. One Venice was also rigged to a ROSS Spidercam. To minimize fiber runs across the venue, every camera was equipped with a MultiDyne Silverback, and we used a Stage Racer system to bundle multiple networks into each fiber-run. We also partnered with Feed RF to create several seamless roaming camera units tied into a venue-wide mesh network.
Ultimately, all of this allowed our team of four DITs to manage real time control of IRIS, ISO, White Balance, and monitoring LUTs on every camera. A full quality X-OCN record was captured internally by each unit, but the control room received a real-time UHD stream for the producers to create a line cut. We also coordinated with SZA’s tour to route our camera feeds into their LED Walls when needed.
The project utilized a Clear-Com party line system with over 80 end points. And much of the network was routed over the same Stage Racers and RF infrastructure as our cameras. This further simplified and sped up both load-in and load-out.
Thank you to Apple Music and Contrast Films for trusting TV Tech with the technical engineering of this production.
More Info:
TV Tech Select Credits:
Tech Manager: Brett Dicus