September 11 is now also designated as Patriot Day. In remembrance, the VA-National Medical Musical Group (VANMMG) inaugurated a new a concert at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception at Catholic University, Washington, DC. The orchestra is composed of one hundred musicians and a two hundred person chorus, made up of doctors, nurses, and staff members at VA hospitals from around the country. VA NMMG asked Creative Video of Washington to video tape their concert. Creative Video has taped other concerts for the Group in years past at different venues, but Basilica was the most challenging. The scope of the project was to capture the 120 minute concert with five standard definition cameras. The venue presented many challenges, not the least of which was its size. From the front door to the back of the building was over 250 feet. Fortunately, the Basilica had been pre-wired for Triax cameras. Creative Video’s challenge was to find a SD Triax truck that would fit into the group’s limited budget. The solution was to adapt CVW’s cargo truck and turn it into a mobile unit. Peter Roof, Creative's Special Projects Manager, took on the challenge and built a wall within the truck that accommodated two window air conditioners and a door to create a controlled environment for the switch. The next challenge was fitting all the equipment needed inside the truck. The switcher was based around CVW’s Broadcast Pix Slate 2100 digital switcher. The Triax base stations output SDI, a format native to the Broadcast Pix. ISO recording of all five cameras and the switched program was done on Betacam SP. The long throws required long lenses, the longest of which was a Super 70 lens for the camera nearly 200 feet from the choir. Two cameras 90 feet from the stage used 36x lenses to get close-ups. To get the spectacular flying shots, Creative brought in Doug Drew of Birds Eye View and his 24-foot Jimmy Jib. Equipped with a wide-angle lens and located to the side of the front of the stage area, it flew over the audience and orchestra capturing truly moving images. Another camera was located in the back of the orchestra and in front of the choir where Roof was able to get dynamic on-air trucking shots because of the smooth marble floor. Cameras were operated by Cameron Bartlett, Eric Bugash, Doug Drew, Peter Josendale, and Peter Roof. The show was tech directed by Matt Eidemiller and engineered by Sean Hovan. Audio from the concert was recorded by Maryland Sound and will be sweetened before the multi-track recording is married to the show’s video master. Postproduction will be done on Creative Video’s Media 100 HD and released to the VA National Medical Musical Group on DVD.