We were deeply honoured to be asked to work on the BBC's coverage of D-Day 80 in Southsea, Portsmouth.
We were asked to broadcast the launch of the D-Day 80 event back in February this year. You can read and see more about that event here.
Our cameraman Tom was given two assignments by the BBC News planning team.
BBC BREAKFAST
We were working with producers in Salford and assisted by Gilly Robinson, a BBC national news broadcast journalist. We helped plan the weather broadcast for the 5th June with Carol Kirkwood.
As we have some local knowledge of the area we advised on potential locations and worked with the BBC to formulate a plan that would avoid the many road closures and parking restrictions. On 4th June we went to site and collected our press accreditation and conducted a site recce.
On 5th June we arrived at South Parade Pier a little after 5am and throughout the programme we provided live hits via our LiveU encoder every 15 minutes as well as beauty shots looking over the solent that the director could use as and when needed.
The BBC had managed to find a lovely image of men on the pier before they embarked to Normandy. Tom found the exact same location so we could cross fade from the image to the modern day.
You can see some of our coverage in the video below.
Around 9:30am Gilly and Tom made a dash back to the hotel to change into more formal and then they entered the main show ground. Here they watched the main event from the BBC's large broadcast platform and prepared for the second part of the shift. A few phone video clips below show their view.
BBC NETWORK COVERAGE
Our next tasking was to conduct interviews with veterans who had just met the King and other Royal family. Tom and Gilly were shown into a special area with a few other broadcasters. We were the only BBC crew in the area.
We also suggested to the BBC that the interviews may be faster to edit if they were broadcast live back to London via our LiveU which we did. Gilly interviewed many veterans and also managed to secure exclusive interviews with Sir Keir Starmer and Defence Secretary Grant Shapps.
The last part of the shift was capturing an interview with Christian Lamb. We filmed the 103 year old as she was flown via helicopter from Southsea to France where she was given the Legion d'honneur by President Macron. The footage was cut into a package and aired on the 6th June on BBC Breakfast. You can see the clip below.
The shift finished around 4:30pm and Tom stayed on at the hotel as he was working the next day in Portsmouth for BBC South Today.
BBC SOUTH TODAY
On June 6th we were out filming for BBC South Today which culminated in a live weather broadcast using our LiveU again on the last surviving Landing Craft Tank LCT 7074. Alexis Green was the weather presenter.
The broadcast can be watched below.
This concluded three days of work which we were truly blessed to be a part of.
Five years ago on the 5th June our Cameraman Tom was filming at the D-Day map room with Carol for BBC Breakfast so it was nice to return five years to the day and work with her again.
If you need an experienced TV crew with or without a live option please do get in touch with us.
D-Day 80 - BBC Coverage Provided By solo16
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