Woodstock 2008

Woodstock 2008 was arguably even bigger than Woodstock 2007. Nick Howell was the Technical Coordinator for the OB, with Roxanne Benson-MackeyUnverified or incomplete information as the overall producer.

RAG once again decided that two stages were order, both of which were covered by YSTV. The rig itself was very much the same as in Woodstock 2007, with the exception that both vision mixing stations were setup in the same room, V/120. This seemed to work a little better than when the second station was in the SCR, since it became far more accessible to people and anyone working on it didn't feel stuck in a corner somewhere. In 2008 the idea of streaming both stages live was also abandoned due to lack of time and equipment, however the dream of doing so never faded.

This was yet another massive technical undertaking for YSTV which saw the indoor stage using 4 cameras (wideshot, two roaming and drum shot) and the project during daylight hours. The outdoor stage used 3 roaming cameras, Deathstar flown from the apex of the tent above the main stage and a wideshot camera pointing out the window of V/139. Deathstar's positioning was particularly unusual for a woodstock rig, and required some excellent bodging from Nick Howell and Ents Tech to get it to stay up there. The results, however, were well worth the effort -- An almost unrestricted view of both the stage and the crowd led to some very interesting shots.

The 2.4Ghz Wireless kit was also setup on the Balcony for wireless interviews, which unfortunately didn't go very well due to communication problems between director and presenter. After it got dark enough, the projector was moved outside and setup to the left of the stage.

In V/122 an Edit station was setup for topping and tailing videos as they were recorded. This resulted in many of the band sets getting put on the website very quickly.

Finally, after the event Ian Martindale and Nick Howell spent nearly a week in YSTV producing a highlights DVD of the entire event. It featured Anna Bucks and Fionna Tod as presenters and several highlight videos from the event. Nick Howell also put time and effort into producing proper cover art for the DVD which included both the covering sleeve for the case and specially printed generic Woodstock DVDs, a large proportion of which still exist in the station today.