120,000 Tampa Bay residents who assembled at MacDill Air Force Base earlier this year for AirFest 2016, one of the world’s largest air shows, received a front row seat to all the action on the ground and in the sky. For the first time, attendees could view everything from military aircraft displays to aerial performances on large-scale video walls featuring real-time footage interlaced with graphics detailing pilot bios, aircraft profiles, attendee tweets and more. Taking advantage of a graphics and AV workflow developed by Reality Check Systems (RCS) and OSA Media Solutions, AirFest pulled off the largest-scale live production and stream in air show history.
Having begun event preparations last year, AirFest Deputy Director John Schwartz set out to mastermind an entirely new viewing experience for the 2016 show. He envisioned a production that would highlight aircraft and performer statistics and showcase in-cockpit video, while also expanding creative marketing options for sponsors, who largely fund the community event. Given the size of the global air show community, Schwartz also saw an opportunity to use the production to reach a larger audience, opting to extend the workflow to facilitate a live stream of the festivities on the AirFest website, as well as a YouTube recording of the event post-show.