If you’ve followed the productions I usually work on, you’ll notice that the vast majority of them revolve around action sports. That’s precisely what makes projects such as the “Wings For Life World Run” even more interesting to me. Every once in a while it’s good to get out of your comfort zone and do something new and challenging. And here the challenge was both technical, with a 6-hour long live signal to deliver with complex HF transmissions, and editorial with a completely new and innovative race format.

Simply put this was a fantastic event backed by a very inventive concept – and for the cause of research on spinal cord injuries: 35’000 participants running simultaneously in 34 destinations around the world, with a catcher car acting as a moving finish line, and one global live program edited from the 34 live feeds. To be part of this global effort was something really special, and the webcast was super nice to follow, taking the viewer from one country to the next, from sunset to sunrise, it was very exciting to watch and inspirational to say the least. I bet that next year’s edition will see many, many more participants after such a sucessful first.

This is the clip that we put together to summarize the race in France. A mix of emotions, performance, and lots of smiles and good spirits to help find a cure for spinal cord injuries.

From a production standpoint this event involved a number of challenges obviously. Such an ambitious live program involved a massive effort on the coordination side, permanent contact with the headquarters in Austria and with our cameramen on the field. Our setup included :
4 motorbikes
4 cameras, out of which 2 were live with HF signals relayed via a plane flying permanently above the race leaders
a SNG uplinking our feed and downlinking the global program
l’Equipe 21 using both feeds throughout the day for their live coverage of the event.
2 editors
10 technicians under the production tent
2 cranes for HF reception and to film the start

For more info and to register for the 2015 edition:
http://www.wingsforlifeworldrun.com/