TNDV Proud to Honor Military Families for Live Production of Global TikTok Broadcast

TNDV, a leading entertainment-based mobile and REMI production company, recently joined forces with Jesse Collins Entertainment to live-produce Proud to Honor: Celebrating America’s Heroes, a Ford Motor Company event live-streamed exclusively on TikTok that was conceived to honor the military community. TNDV, one of three divisions of Live Media Group (along with Live Media and Gametime Productions), deployed its Aspiration 35 truck to the CMA Theater at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville to produce and stream the live 75-minute broadcast to TikTok viewers worldwide.

TNDV’s eight-camera shoot captured live performances from The War and Treaty, Tyler Hubbard and Zac Brown among other musical artists, as well as heartfelt interviews with Blue Star military families that captured their stories of service and sacrifice. TNDV deployed Sony HDC-4300 cameras in hardwired, handheld and Steadicam configurations, strategically positioned to efficiently capture cinematic visuals of the stage and venue.

Leveraging its ultra-high frame rate capabilities to dramatic effect, the TNDV crew also captured dynamic interactions between military families, performers and hosts including Bru on the Radio, a popular radio host and social media personality. TNDV live-switched cameras and managed graphics insertions on board Aspiration 35, streaming the live program feed to TikTok headquarters through the truck’s modernized 10GbE infrastructure. TNDV also multi-tracked the live house audio mix on its Studer Vista 5, which was fully synchronized with the video feed as signals moved through Aspiration’s Evertz NEXX router.

There was one very unusual twist to the live production workflow according to TNDV’s Chris Payne, who served as the engineer in charge on board Aspiration 35.

“TikTok presents a unique challenge due to the constraints it places on its format/aspect, said Payne, TNDV’s Manager of Streaming, Remote Control Operations and Special Projects. “We usually deal with landscape video when we live-produce video content out of our systems. With TikTok, it’s more than working with have a vertical media format that needs to be aspect-correct; it must fit a broad array of user devices for viewers.”

Payne and his colleagues had two options: Take every camera onsite and flip it 90 degrees, or cut out the center of the image for proper presentation on the app. The former involved utilizing special mounts to tilt the camera sideways, which would have been tremendously challenging given the number of cameras deployed in such a small venue.

“The only viable option to was to send the center cut images direct to TikTok, which itself depletes the amount of real estate we have to fully capture the program for to the audience,” added Payne. “It’s hard to fit a large venue and larger stage show into that small of a window, and avoid having logos, donate buttons, and other graphics and branding elements conceal the performances. It takes A-List camera operators great and directors to make sure every shot is accurately framed, not only for technical aspects, but also to convey the best story possible.“

The event, held in November in celebration of Veterans Day, kicked off an active holiday season for TNDV and its partners. Other holiday-themed events included multiple pre-recorded performances for network television specials, and a live Christmas special on a major broadcast network to be shared in an upcoming press announcement.