Music TV – Airfield Sessions

Music TV is where two of Scanarama’s key passions intersect. We always keep in sync with the constant digital technology revolution and feed what we learn back into our productions. Music TV is often where Scanarama gets to try out new production models. You could say that music TV is our R&D!

The Airfield Sessions, commissioned by Channel 6 (now 3e) in 2007 was one of Scanarama’s first major TV productions and was a seminal production for us because it laid the foundations for a truly innovative way of working. Before the Airfield Sessions making music TV involved hiring a big outside broadcast truck at vast expense. Scanarama pioneered a new production model for Airfield Sessions utilisng multiple camcorders which has since become the norm worldwide. We retained really high production standards but were able to deliver quality music TV at a budget which smaller broadcasters could afford.

One element which has always been crucial for Scanarama’s music TV output has been sound. Since day one we’ve had the best sound engineers and recording engineers working on all of our shoots. We create an environment where the artist knows their music will be captured brilliantly.

Our learnings from making the Airfield Sessions are added to all of the time. Scanarama constantly experiments with new cameras, new software, new production flows – all to get the most out of the resources we have at our disposable. One thing that’s true about turning money into light is that there’s never enough in the budget to do all you want and that’s a great thing because it fuels innovation.

We maximised our Airfield Sessions budget by filming seventeen bands in one long day – thanks so much to all of them and our tireless crew on the day. Thanks especially to David Kitt, Jape, David O’Doherty, Republic Of Loose, Rónán ó Snodaigh, Mundy and Rhob Cunningham who had to wait longer than the others!