Special Celebrating World Water Day with Cirque du Soleil Was Recorded for Online Viewing

April 22, 2013 – Las Vegas, NV - “One Night for One Drop,” a unique event held on World Water Day 2013, featured 237 Cirque du Soleil artists plus guest performers. This original show was commissioned by One Drop, a non-profit organization established by Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, and imagined by Cirque Du Soleil. The broadcast was captured to give viewers at home a front row seat for this not-to be-missed celebration, which served a dual purpose as a fundraiser for the cause.Bexel was called upon to provide full on-location broadcast facilities and technical crew for Zuckerberg Media, which produced the live 90-minute online special from the Bellagio’s O Theater in Las Vegas. The two companies recently collaborated to outfit Zuckerberg Media’s new Silicon Valley studio with the best broadcast systems for creating original content, both live and streaming.“One Night for One Drop” was available for viewing via PC, Mac, tablet and smartphone from March 25 to April 1 for a $5 donation to One Drop, which is dedicated to supplying low-cost water access to more people around the world.

"Our goal with the 'One Night for One Drop’ broadcast was to translate the wonderful color, texture and artistry of a Cirque du Soleil performance for an online audience," said Bradley Lautenbach, Chief Operating Officer of Zuckerberg Media. "Bexel was truly the perfect partner to help us capture this unique event for broadcast."

To support Zuckerberg Media’s event production, Bexel furnished crew, on-site video production and postproduction facilities, audio and communications engineering, fiber optics and RF microwave engineering, and the final edit/export/encode/upload process for the web hosting company.

“Cirque du Soleil productions are some of the highest-quality theater, and their level of perfection is unmatched,” said Bexel Engineer in Charge Edd Bonner. “To come into a Cirque facility and set up to record a live event without disturbing the show was a huge challenge. Our goal was to be as unobtrusive as possible while providing Zuckerberg and One Drop with the footage they needed.”

Bexel configured a production trailer for Zuckerberg Media with a production area, audio room, video shading capabilities, robotic camera control, EVS capture, a Sony XDCAM record station, and full terminal and distribution racks, reports Bexel Video Project Manager Mark Alexander.He noted that Bexel also provided 10 Sony HDC-2500L SMPTE Fiber camera chains, five of which were configured with HDLA build ups with Canon XJ86x9.3 long lenses and one with a Canon HJ40x10 mid-range lens. Jib and Steadicam cameras were outfitted with Canon HJ14x4.3 wide-angle lenses. RF cameras were configured with NuCom CamPac microwave systems.In addition, Bexel rigged three Panasonic AW-HE120K HD robotic cameras, two of them over water and one at the FOH location. Switching and terminal gear included a Sony MVS-7000X multi-format switcher and Evertz 7800 multi-view package. The line cut and ISO record were done with three EVS XT3 6-channel servers, IP Director, two EVS XF removable storage units, an EVS XHUB and 13 Sony PDW-F1600 XDCAM record decks.Audio and communications requirements for the show were extensive. Audio was recorded on Tascam multi-track recorders and mixed on a DiGiCo SD10B console. Bexel used a Telex ADAM intercom system and a Tempest 900MHz wireless communications system.“With the layout of the facility and the workflow of the event, we had to split the communications system into two different remote locations tied back to the central Telex system at the truck,” explained Bexel Audio Project Manager Rod Allen. “Each one of those systems required a fiber pull. All in all, we had three fiber pulls for audio/communications and 13 fiber pulls for cameras. We were able to utilize the communications translation racks to handle time code and camera control.”

Allen notes that the Bexel crew and Cirque du Soleil audio crew “truly worked as a team,” a factor that was instrumental in the success of the production. “Prior to the event, we had worked out a game plan for connecting to their house system, rack placement, frequency coordination, time code distribution and communications between the two organizations, along with projection interface.”Preplanning included configuring and testing all racks as a system before they left Bexel’s shop.Post-production facilities were set up in one of the Bellagio’s ballrooms where an editor, assistant editor and EVS/Avid technician were stationed.“Using EVS XT3 servers with three XTAccess computers we were able to record 13 angles of two 90-minute rehearsals, and the 90-minute show. These records were natively captured as Avid DNxHD MXF files and copied onto an Avid Unity system from an Avid Symphony and grouped to allow multi-cam editing in full HD on the evening of the show,” explained Jason DeNagy, the show's EVS/Avid technician. “One copy of the media remained clipped off on the EVS server and the other was copied to an external hard drive.“The day after the event, the editor cut for the entire day and was able to review all of the camera angles to give the director the vision he was looking for,” DeNagy continued. “Time code information was maintained on all the camera angles. The completed show was encoded with a Blackmagic H.264 ProEncoder and Telestream Episode software the next morning, and exported to an x264 QuickTime for upload to the CDN. Within 48 hours, we had captured 4TB of video and audio.”“Everyone had a really tight schedule to meet,” Alexander pointed out. “The editors finished on March 24, and the show was available on the web the same evening.”Robert Salyer, operations production manager for Cirque du Soleil, said, “The whole shoot was smooth from start to finish. It’s always a pleasure when you get to work with a team of true professionals like Bexel.”Colin DeFord, who was the show’s tech manager added, “Bexel as a turnkey production provider- afforded Zuckerberg Media a state-of-the-art solution for the Cirque du Soleil One Drop project. With the engineering knowledge, extensive equipment inventory offered on-site, and Bexel's BBS One mobile support unit, we were able to successfully produce and digitally record the One Drop event alongside the stage production absolutely seamlessly.”Contributions to the broadcast were also made by Bexel’s John D. Root, Andreas Bardill, Jim Turner, Benton Ward and William Miller.[sc name="news-footer"]