Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, produced by Lock & Key Productions, a division of Endemol USA, entails two production teams working simultaneously, each at a different production location. This allows for setup in one location, while the cast and crew tear down and rebuild a custom home in seven days in the other location. Throughout the week, the neighborhoods are filled with hundreds of crew members and volunteers—creating a production campus as the community comes together to build the new home.
A reoccurring, particularly memorable section of the show is when host Ty Pennington surprises the unsuspecting homeowner and family with the design team’s presence. In order to ensure this moment is captured in real time, Bexel built two custom 24 x 8 x 8 trailers to house the director, executive producer and story producers.
“Since this element of the show is done on the fly, we needed to ensure the crew could roll in, set up quickly and get the package completed on the first shot,” says Greg Bragg, general manager, network rentals, Bexel. “They needed a solution that could be powered up quickly, so we built two custom production trailers that would also allow the team to monitor both audio and video via the microwave systems.”
In addition to the production trucks, Bexel provided 40 channels of Wireless Microphone, RFX diversity microwave systems, Sound Devices 788T digital recorders, Lectrosonics wireless ENG systems and Sony PDW-F800 XDCAMs for each team. Frequency coordination was strategized for each city visited during the taping, requiring Bexel’s expertise, as lead times were typically short.
“Oftentimes we didn’t get the location information until a day or so before they needed the coordination, so we were charged with coordination of all the wireless devices for that particular area,” says Rod Allen, RF/audio production specialist, Bexel. This detail was especially critical during episodes with special guests, such as the First Lady, Michelle Obama, during the season’s debut. “For this episode in particular, it required both production teams to be in the same location, demanding additional resources and all 80 channels of Wireless Microphone,” adds Allen.
“When it comes to providing solutions to meet the challenges of reality television, we know that we can count on Bexel,” says Phil Filimowicz, senior line producer, Lock & Key Productions. “From city to city, all season long, we were confident in having a trusted partner such as Bexel on our production team.”
About Bexel
Bexel is the pre-eminent worldwide provider of broadcast services including video and audio equipment rentals, fiber services, new audio sales, used equipment sales, and repairs/maintenance. Bexel provides brilliantly designed and flawlessly executed systems and solutions to all customers – including producers of the biggest and most important televised events in the world. For more information, visit http://www.bexel.com.
A Snapshot of The Vitec Group
Vitec is an international Group principally serving customers in the broadcast, photographic and military, aerospace and government (MAG) markets. Listed on the London Stock Exchange with 2010 revenue of £309 million, Vitec is based on strong, well known, premium brands on which its customers worldwide rely. Vitec is organized in three divisions: Imaging & Staging, Videocom and Services. Imaging & Staging designs, manufactures and distributes equipment and accessories for photography, video and events. Videocom designs and distributes systems and products used in broadcasting and live entertainment, film and video production and MAG. Services provides equipment rental, workflow design and technical support for camera, video, audio, fiber optic and wireless technology used by TV production teams and film crews.
More information can be found at http://www.vitecgroup.com.
