Lighting our way at IBC

Simon Tillyer

Author: Simon Tillyer

Published 1st December 2013

by Simon Tillyer
Issue 82 - October 2013
One of our duties at trade shows is rolling a camera rig around the various halls whether it be Las Vegas, London or Amsterdam and interviewing exhibitors. Having done this for a few years now we get to use different kit at each event, a deliberate decision, in order to test it out in a real world use and in the case of IBC seeing how it stands up to 5 days of rigorous filming!
We face several big challenges at trade shows. Our interviews are booked in 15 minute slots so when we arrive (assuming the stands are where they should be) we need to prepare the interviewer, locate the interviewee, set-up the camera, do a sound check, ensure the lighting is good, film the interview plus cut-aways and be out within 15 minutes!
Getting people prepared is normally not too technical but as almost every stand has its own lighting, is near another stand with overspill or is possibly outside then our biggest challenge and the one that affects the production value the most is the lighting.
These are quick news bulletin style interviews and with 20+ a day the workflow needs to be pretty straightforward so its crucial we are in and out with minimum disruption for the exhibitor. For IBC2013 we used a Panasonic HPX-600 and the light of choice this year was the Ianiro Minima 30. Well deal with power first. The light does have a Sony NP series battery fitting and with a NP 750 battery we are informed will produce 2.5 hours of continuous shooting. Ive said informed as we decided to utilise the Minimas D tap facility and wired this directly to the PAG Power Hub that not only has a number of D tap outputs but also a USB output for charging my phone! Our PAG batteries were of course providing power for the camera and also a Samurai Blade and we found that 2 V-locks would easily power everything for the 2 hours of actual filming. The spec states that in test powering the Minima alone gives 10 hours on full power from a standard size V-lock battery/ D tap cable.
Power sorted we then have to deal with the stand lighting. The Minima 30 has 6 preset temperatures to choose from and with most exhibitor stands using tungsten a few presses of the button selects 3200 and after white balancing the camera were good to go. The control is not a variable change like some other lights we have used in the past (Litepanels Croma for example) but a step change between 2800, 3200, 4000, 4800, 5600 and 6500. Having the ability to quickly select different settings precisely was very useful in our situation of rapidly changes colour temperatures. The power drawn by the Minima is only 30W and the lux is equivalent to a 50W tungsten.
The recorded interviews were all off loaded each afternoon, edited during the evening and uploaded to YouTube overnight. Believe it or not but one visitor caught up with us at IBC and had seen the footage online from his office in Bermuda. We wont take full responsibility for him making the last minute trip to IBC but it does show the power of video marketing!

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