Broadcasting and Live Streaming from 2019 Australian Scout Jamboree with Blackmagic Design Cameras and Switchers

Every three years, more than 10,000 scouts from Australia and around the world get together to experience the Australian Scout Jamboree. The 2019 Australian Scout Jamboree, held in Tailem Bend, South Australia, includes a huge number of activities aimed at bringing together the entire scout community, and one of the key ways that happened was a live multi camera broadcast and stream that ran for 10 days straight.

Robert Zamora was in charge of the broadcast and streaming aspects as Jamboree’s Technology Director. A veteran of broadcasting at the Jamboree, Robert was in charge of pulling off a high-quality broadcast and streaming production, that would be stressful for any professional broadcaster.

To handle the production, Robert used a mix of Blackmagic Design digital film cameras, live production switchers and video routers.

The Set Up

The 25^th Australian Jamboree was held from January 4^th to January 13^th at The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia. It included opening and closing ceremonies, as well as daily activities such as drone flying, dragon boating, catapult and raft building, as well as a huge entertainment mall and meeting places.

To capture the activities, Robert worked with a team of four broadcast professionals, 27 adult volunteers and a number of scouts themselves. Volunteers and scouts are trained several days before the station goes live.

This team was responsible for capturing and streaming the four main Radio shows throughout the day. These included a breakfast, morning, afternoon and evening Show run by Ventures, Rovers and Leaders, which spanned the entire event exactly like a regular broadcast and radio station. Any unscheduled time would include a fixed camera shot looking down at the Jamboree’s mall. On top of the daily shows, Robert and his team were also responsible for capturing the opening and closing ceremonies.

“We basically ran a commercial radio and broadcast station every day, and ran it with volunteers. The goal was to bring everyone together, and to educate and teach the scouts about what was happening all over the Jamboree, even if you were not there. Video and streaming are a big deal for us, and there is no way we could have done this without the gear from Blackmagic Design,” said Robert.

The setup included two Blackmagic Design URSA Mini Pro digital film cameras and three Blackmagic Design Micro Studio Camera 4Ks. The URSA Mini Pros were set up to shoot the regular shows and were used as the main cameras for the ceremonies, while the Micro Studio Camera 4Ks, an incredibly tiny Ultra HD studio camera perfect live production, was used for the fixed shot of the mall as well as close up cameras for the studio shows. All of the cameras, no matter where they were located, were connected back to the main studio via Blackmagic Design Camera and a Fiber network.

Blackmagic Design’s ATEM Television Studio Pro 4K was used for live multi-camera switching and graphics insertions, and worked in conjunction with a Blackmagic Smart Videohub 40×40 for routing various feeds throughout the location.

“The great part of working with Blackmagic Design gear for this is that it gets us the highest quality footage, and is the same gear used by professional broadcasters and filmmakers. But it is also incredibly easy to learn and use, which was critical because we did not have the time to have a long learning curve,” Robert said.