Top Gear Live

[heinz57]

Hi all,

 

As mentioned in the 'Today I will be Mostly' topic, yesterday I visited the MPH show featuring Top Gear Live. The Top Gear show was increadible, me being me I couldn't help but think about the technical stuff, so I have a few questions...

 

The first one is this live text feature they had twice in the show, the first was during time when the audience was coming in, Top Gear themed questions came up on the projection screen, you texted in your answer and the top 10 fastest replies was shown on the screen (Along with the times) the second was during the 'Cool Wall' part of the show, we could text in our thoughts on the car in question (Or in the words of Richard Hammond we could text in 'Jeremy is an idiot' [sombody of course did, the first texter I belive!]) and these messages would come up on the screen. So, how would this have worked? Would they have had some sort of reciver which outputted the messages to the media servers?

 

The second question again comes from the 'Cool Wall' everyone was given a A4 sized card. It was green on one side for un-cool and red on the other for cool. We held up the card showing if we thought the car was cool or not. Sensors in the rig would then pick up the ratio of green-red that was being held up and the result would be displayed live on the screen as the cards were held up. How would this have worked? And a general but stupid question to add on, could the colour of someones clothing (i.e. if they was wearing a red shirt) have an effect on this?

 

The next question is they had a small sized helicopter that would be flown in from the grid, with a moving head acting as a search light. The light followed The Stig as he drove around the stage, how would this have worked? I mean they can reherse and reherse the sequence, but whats to say it would be right when it comes to the show, particularly when its Top Gear we're talking about. It also had pyros for gun fire. How would they have done all of this? For flying the chopper I take it they perhaps would have used a motorised chain hoist controled from the wings maybe?

 

I am generaly curious about the technical and logistical nightmare what would have been the show. If anyone has any infomation about the tech spec and equipment used I would me most apreciative (I don't want to start arguments here over whether or not equipment lists should be outlawed, I am generaly interested in whats going on technical wise). Also, during the paddok tour I noticed the power distro, there was alot of it. If anyone has any infomation on this, like how much they used, how it was drawn, what and how much went where and so on. Again I would be most appreciative.

 

Once again I don't to start any arguments or anything, I'm generaly interested in what was going on technical wise for the show.

 

Cheers,

 

Heinz

[Simon Lyall]

/disclaimer, I don't know the precise technologies used, but here are some ideas that could've been used/

 

Texting is a relatively trivial exercise. You can get off the shelf computers that basically have a mobile phone inside them. There are quite a few commercial products that do it, it's pretty cool and can give some really interactive effects. Used in nightclubs it's quite cool (slip in some adverts on the screen sometimes and you've got an attentive audience that you can advertise to!)

 

With the cool wall voting thing, you can take a camera, and live-capture that onto a computer. A small bit of OpenCV (or the like) and some pretty GUI would achieve this fairly easily. It was probably averaging the colour, so yes, people's red/green clothing could skew the results.

 

So the movers tracking people... there are a few technologies that can do this. Simplest is some sort of operator with a joystick/wheels/rollerball. Or prerecording it. Or it could've been done automatically with the thing being followed having some sort of tracker on/in it.

 

 

Simon

[mackerr]

The first one is this live text feature they had twice in the show, the first was during time when the audience was coming in, Top Gear themed questions came up on the projection screen, you texted in your answer and the top 10 fastest replies was shown on the screen (Along with the times) the second was during the 'Cool Wall' part of the show, we could text in our thoughts on the car in question (Or in the words of Richard Hammond we could text in 'Jeremy is an idiot' [sombody of course did, the first texter I belive!]) and these messages would come up on the screen. So, how would this have worked? Would they have had some sort of reciver which outputted the messages to the media servers?

 

It worked the same way texting always does. Your text goes to a service that forwards it the recipient. In this case the recipient was a computer backstage that displayed the texts live to the screen. A local receiver would not be able to deal with different cell carriers. This is pretty common technology in the corporate presentation world. It is used in business meetings all the time.

 

The second question again comes from the 'Cool Wall' everyone was given a A4 sized card. It was green on one side for un-cool and red on the other for cool. We held up the card showing if we thought the car was cool or not. Sensors in the rig would then pick up the ratio of green-red that was being held up and the result would be displayed live on the screen as the cards were held up. How would this have worked? And a general but stupid question to add on, could the colour of someones clothing (i.e. if they was wearing a red shirt) have an effect on this?

 

This is another technology that is common in the corporate presentation business. It has been used for audience response systems for years. If the audience is seated and not moving around some systems can be set up to record individual user's responses. The red and green colors are very specific, and the camera capturing the image and the analysis software are looking for this specific color. While clothing could skew the results, it is minimized by the specific color.

 

The next question is they had a small sized helicopter that would be flown in from the grid, with a moving head acting as a search light. The light followed The Stig as he drove around the stage, how would this have worked? I mean they can reherse and reherse the sequence, but whats to say it would be right when it comes to the show, particularly when its Top Gear we're talking about. It also had pyros for gun fire. How would they have done all of this? For flying the chopper I take it they perhaps would have used a motorised chain hoist controled from the wings maybe?

 

The helicopter was probably on a computerized winch system. These automated flying systems have been seen in West End productions, B'way, Cirque, etc. The lighting control was either preprogrammed and Stig's driving was rehearsed, or an operator followed the action, or an IR or RF transmitter was tracked by the light.

 

Mac

[callumb]

The first one is this live text feature they had twice in the show, the first was during time when the audience was coming in, Top Gear themed questions came up on the projection screen, you texted in your answer and the top 10 fastest replies was shown on the screen (Along with the times) the second was during the 'Cool Wall' part of the show, we could text in our thoughts on the car in question (Or in the words of Richard Hammond we could text in 'Jeremy is an idiot' [sombody of course did, the first texter I belive!]) and these messages would come up on the screen. So, how would this have worked? Would they have had some sort of reciver which outputted the messages to the media servers?

 

Take a look here: http://www.ultratext.co.uk/Very very easy to use just need a mobile with a USB connector and your away! :)

[rossmck]

On the SMS thing - Lots of companies provide this sort of service, I work with one, and almost certainly being the BBC they'll use a company that connects directly to the mobile network (not a local mobile phone) - this will send the messages over the internet to a computer connected to the display. In my other (less fun) line of work I work with a company that does this for a few TV companies...

 

The red/green card I imagine would have been a human operator - although it's obviously possible to detect a ratio from cameras, its likely the clothing could affect this - it certainly is for entertainment as opposed to a scientific analysis of it though so this is probably unimportant :)

 

Not sure about moving head as a searchlight - but there's certainly a lot of off-the-shelf tracking solutions that could have been employed here.

[Ben Couch]

Can help with the moving light as the helicopter, the light in question was the Alpha Beam 300, and it was controlled by a Modified Joystick running through the console which controlled the pan and tilt.

[mackerr]

The red/green card I imagine would have been a human operator - although it's obviously possible to detect a ratio from cameras, its likely the clothing could affect this - it certainly is for entertainment as opposed to a scientific analysis of it though so this is probably unimportant ;)

 

The red/green card is easily recognized by a computer. There is a human element in the initial aiming of the camera and calibration of the color under the show lighting, but the computer recognizes each card individually. It is not an average, it is a count. This is done all the time on corporate shows for audience voting or to answer questions. With a seated audience each seat is kept track of by the software so trends can be analyzed later.

 

Mac

[heinz57]

Many thanks for the replies.

 

This is quite interesting to see the possible solutions to how things could have been done. It looks pretty simple technology. Simpler than what I thought it would be.

 

Can help with the moving light as the helicopter, the light in question was the Alpha Beam 300, and it was controlled by a Modified Joystick running through the console which controlled the pan and tilt.

 

So the light was manualy controled? Whoever controled it did quite a good job I think. I see from your profile you work for NegEarth, have you been working the TG tour?

 

Cheers,

 

Heinz

 

EDIT - Fixed typo

[Ben Couch]

Yeah it's basically a computer game style joystick manually controlling the Alpha Beam, but yeah I do work at Neg Earth, not on the Top Gear tour, a Moving Light Technician based in the warehouse

[heinz57]

Ahh right, your guys did a cracking job though.

 

How did the joystick connect to the desk, did you do it via USB or was it DMX? What desk was it?

[Ben Couch]

It was USB connected if I remember correctly, and the desk was a GrandMA full size

[heinz57]

USB connected? Interesting. Many thanks.

 

Cheers