Festival live streaming gives audiences beyond the site a programme designed for them. It can share sources with stage screens, while using its own direction, sound and presentation. Our festival work has grown from edited highlights to live delivery and coordinated visuals across stages.
A festival site feels very different before the gates open. Stages are still being built, artists are arriving, cable routes are being tested and several teams are solving different parts of the same live day. By the time the audience arrives, all of that work should disappear into the experience.
Our journey from filming Tramlines in Sheffield to leading live visuals and technical delivery at Reminisce is a story of growing responsibility. Along the way came city wide broadcasts for Manchester International Festival and dedicated online programmes for Reggae Land and Zimfest. Each project added another layer, while the purpose stayed human: help people in the field, in front of a stage or watching from home feel part of the same event.
Tramlines: capturing the identity of a growing city festival
The 2012 Tramlines film is an early example of how we translated a live festival into a concise screen experience. We captured Sheffield’s city centre atmosphere, performances and audience energy, then shaped that material into a film that could communicate the event after the weekend had finished.
Highlights work develops skills that remain essential in larger festival broadcasts. A crew must recognise the moments that define the event, move through a busy site efficiently and collect enough visual variety to make the edit feel alive. Coverage needs a clear sense of place as well as performance.
That project provided a foundation: understand the event first, then build the camera and editorial approach around what makes it distinctive.
MIF17: live delivery across a city
Manchester International Festival 2017 expanded the challenge. We worked onsite for 21 days across projects in Piccadilly Gardens, a disused Northern Quarter building and Old Granada Studios.
For What Is the City but the People?, we provided the live link to the BBC and the online broadcast from the public runway in Piccadilly Gardens. Manchester Street Poem required a continuous 24/7 stream from the UNFEAR space, using more than one kilometre of cable, eight camera points, CCTV style multiview and LiveU connectivity. For New Order’s Old Granada Studios performance, we supplied the online and satellite delivery layer in support of Lion Eyes, who produced the show.
The three environments required different answers. A public outdoor performance needed resilient live connectivity. A continuously evolving art installation needed a camera language that could remain useful around the clock. A tightly controlled music production needed dependable handovers to broadcast and social destinations.
The common thread was our ability to adapt the technical package while retaining clear responsibility for the live link.
Reggae Land and Zimfest: a dedicated online programme
Reggae Land and Zimfest demonstrate the difference between venue IMAG and a programme built for remote viewers. We co produced the online livestream with dwmedia; 22live supplied the main stage sound and PRG produced the IMAG material. Shared sources created efficiency, and the YouTube audience received its own dedicated programme.
The production combined livestream cameras with available IMAG feeds, drone, jib and Ronin material. Dedicated video and sound trailers provided separate working spaces for the online vision team and the broadcast audio mix.
That division allowed the venue and online experiences to serve their own audiences. We assembled the stream as a dedicated broadcast, with its own direction, source selection and sound.
The reported online audience grew from approximately 700,000 YouTube views in 2025 to more than one million in 2026. That represents an increase of at least 300,000 views and more than 40% year on year. The growth shows the value of creating a dedicated programme for people watching beyond the festival site.
Reminisce: multi stage production as an ongoing system
Our relationship with Reminisce Festival developed into responsibility for live visuals, camera systems, switching, artist content, LED wall management and technical coordination across stages.
Multi stage delivery increases the number of dependencies. Camera and screen decisions affect performers, stage management, content playback and the audience experience. A change on one stage can create pressure elsewhere. The technical lead therefore needs both a detailed plan and the authority to make practical decisions during the event.
An ongoing relationship also creates the opportunity to improve the system year by year. Crew knowledge, routing decisions and content preparation can become more repeatable, while the production still adapts to a new programme and site plan.
What changed across the decade?
The scale of responsibility grew, yet the core production habits remained consistent.
First, each project started with the audience. Tramlines needed a film that preserved the atmosphere. MIF17 needed several different routes from unusual city spaces. Reggae Land and Zimfest needed a programme specifically for YouTube viewers. Reminisce needed coordinated live visuals across a festival site.
Second, the workflow matched the environment. Portable connectivity, long cable routes, control trailers, venue feeds and multi stage systems were selected because they answered a production problem.
Third, collaboration remained visible. Festival production involves organisers, stage suppliers, sound teams, artists, broadcasters and digital producers. Strong delivery depends on defining where one responsibility ends and another begins.
The value of an experienced festival production partner
A festival needs a technical plan that supports performances, keeps teams informed and delivers the right pictures to the right audience.
From Tramlines to Reminisce, we have delivered highlights, livestreaming, outside broadcast, continuous arts coverage and multi stage event production. Across that work, we have preserved the character of each event while building the infrastructure required to share it.
At Reminisce, that work is continuing to evolve. We now create dedicated streams from multiple stages, giving online viewers more of the festival as it happens. We are also developing a presenter led companion programme that can move behind the scenes, introduce artists and stages, and give the online audience a stronger sense of the whole event. The BBC’s Glastonbury coverage provides a useful reference point for the ambition and viewing experience, while the format will be shaped specifically around Reminisce.
For organisers, the useful starting questions are practical: Which audiences are in the venue and online? Which stages or locations must connect? Which feeds can be shared? What needs a dedicated programme? What should remain available after the event? Answering those questions early creates a coherent festival production system and removes the pressure of last minute fixes.
Behind those public outputs sat a very physical production effort. We managed transmission masters, individual camera recordings, jib footage, stage schedules, sponsor graphics and pixel maps to make the live pictures possible. A festival broadcast begins long before the first artist walks on stage and continues after the crowd has gone home.
Explore our Reminisce Festival production for a closer look at live visuals and technical coordination across a festival site.
What organisers should include in a festival brief
List the stages, programme times, online destinations and venue screen requirements. Confirm which camera and sound feeds can be shared and where a dedicated broadcast mix is needed.
Plan site connectivity, access, power, weather protection, artist permissions and content handovers with the production partners. Specify recordings and highlights as part of the same brief.
Explore our live streaming services or talk to us about your production.
