Battle Of The Bands 2004

Despite the unexpected success of the previous year's output at NaSTA, in early 2004 there was a debate about whether to continue to cover the tournament. This was partly because of the much reduced head count in YSTV that year who were already struggling to cover Election Night later that term, but also because of the lack of co-operation received in 2003 from the organisers of the event and their refusal to include YSTV in the publicity.

In the event Ed Jellard persuaded the station to cover it, mainly because of his increased involvement in Ents, but a compromise was reached involving coverage not beginning until the semi-finals. Coverage consisted of filming performances and interviews (with Pete Nichols) at the semi-finals, editing short videos to be played at the Final before each band played their set. This was the first outside broadcast undertaken by a combination of the Gang of Four and the team of new members recruited the Autumn before. It marked the first major YSTV event for a number of long-standing members including Richard Ash and Rowan de Pomerai.

The rig was minimal, about the only option with such a shortage of experienced people available. Two cameras roved in the gap between the crowd barriers (borrowed off the Barbican in York) and the stage edge. Death Star was hung on Ent's back lighting truss, together with two projectors for the screens either side of the stage. These three were cabled back to an upstairs room in Vanbrugh college where the Panasonic Max mixed them with video playback from Dave Baker's laptop.

Video output went to the projectors, Big Telly in the Vanbrugh JCR and an SVHS deck for recording. Valiant attempts were made by Richard Ash and Matt Fullerton to get the signal back to Goodricke for broadcast, but failed due to lack of knowledge, preparation and experience. This would however push both onto a crusade to get return feeds working for the rest of their YSTV careers. Chris Osbourne, the YUSU Services Officer for 2003/4, complimented the station for their coverage on the night, as did one of the campus newspapers in a write-up of the event. The individual sets were immediately committed to the Video Server to bolster the amount of repeat material available to schedule, and from October that year were available to watch on the new Watch Online service at YSTV's website