
After the success of the first series of The Heist, Sky has commissioned a second series from leading UK production company Shine TV, with this airing from February 6th on Sky One. Once again Shine turned to LiveU to create an innovative production gallery, as well capturing onscreen footage, with the company also deploying LiveU to create a flexible nationwide filming and comms system for its series, Hunted and Celebrity Hunted. LiveU's UK partner Garland Partners oversaw technology supply and provided support.
The filming of this year's series of The Heist, which took place in and around Alnwick, Northumberland, UK, differed in two main ways from the first: the use of HEVC via five LU600 units and five LU300s; and a significant increase in the use of LiveU's smartphone app LU-Smart with a 30 per cent growth in footage captured using this technology.
Filming The Heist has unique challenges as a group of thieves nine members of the public split into four teams of two and one operating alone takes part in a bank job to steal £1m. If they do this successfully and manage to keep the cash for 20 days, while being pursued by former real-world detectives, then it's theirs to keep. The challenge comes in having the producer/directors or storytellers be able to see what the main camera teams are shooting while also being able to see what the thieves are up to in order to tell the best story possible. As well as the low-res feeds from the main cameras, the thieves used mobile phones and the LU-Smart app to send footage back to the low-res production gallery with that footage also stored on the phones for use in the show.
Executive Producer Tom Hutchings at Shine TV, says, We were excited to see what difference HEVC made and it was simply brilliant. The images were crisp and clear even at 1Mbit/s; we were very impressed. Using LiveU to create a low-res production gallery to allow the storytellers to understand the action as it unfolds, and to be able to communicate easily with all parties, was essential to the filming of this second series and using HEVC was a significant benefit.
Increasing the number of phones used with the LU-Smart app also enhanced the storytelling. As Hutchings explains, it was easy for the thieves to open up the app and film and it meant that producer/directors could keep track of what they were filming and how they were filming it. The thieves could easily be communicated with, reducing the editorial risk while maximising the remote production elements and making sure that the most engaging and dramatic story could be told.
Shine TV also used LiveU very successfully in last year's series 3 of Celebrity Hunted by placing an LU600 HEVC in a helicopter alongside a Cineflex gimble on the front, with the feed from the former fed into the LU600. This was combined with the audio from the hunter's microphone in the helicopter and by using the full bandwidth possible, Shine achieved what Hutchings describes as amazing picture quality from the air with HEVC again bringing a real improvement. An audio feed was also sent back to the helicopter creating a nationwide comms system.
Hutchings says, Having used it like that four times, not once did it drop out, which is truly impressive given the use. As we predicted after using LiveU on the first series of The Heist, their technology has changed the way that we think about key aspects of productions. It really has benefited us in multiple ways and the way that their technology keeps evolving is highly encouraging too. We really believe that this is the future in many ways.
Paul Shepherd, Regional Sales Director with LiveU, said, It's great to see a customer expand its use of our technology after it has enabled them to work in different, innovative ways to create such ground-breaking programming. It's very pleasing that our implementation of HEVC encoding is also allowing Shine TV to reap such impressive real-world benefits alongside its expanded use of LU-Smart.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
12/08/2026
Traditional live sports production has focused on creating the best possible pro...
12/08/2026
FOR-A will showcase a range of broadcast and production products at IBC2026 (Stand 2.B53, Amsterdam RAI, September 11-14), including software-based switching, A...
12/08/2026
The Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and EBU will host live demonstrations of NMOS BCP-008 Minimum Status Reporting at IBC2026 (September 11-14) on th...
12/08/2026
Dalet has announced Dalet Solution Suites, a portfolio of cloud-native solutions...
12/08/2026
Net Insight has announced that DMC Production Norway has selected its Open Live ...
12/08/2026
Zixi has appointed Alyson Stewart as Senior Director of Sales. Stewart will be responsible for direct sales and partnerships, with a focus on broadcasters, medi...
12/08/2026
LiveU's LU900Q intelligent production unit was deployed as part of the host broadcast operation for the Games in Glasgow (July 23-August 2, 2026). Host broa...
12/08/2026
Disney , ESPN, and Formula E have announced a multi-year deal bringing all Formula E races to Disney and ESPN in the U.S. and to Disney in most international...
12/08/2026
PSSI has launched X-LIVE, a managed service offering dedicated engineering resources and Appear encoding infrastructure for live event signal processing and tra...
12/08/2026
The inaugural MoonPay X Games League Summer Season reached 18.3 million unique live viewers across three stops on ABC and ESPN, a 78.5% increase compared to the...
12/08/2026
BBright will showcase an expanded IP-Gateway at IBC2026, adding support for all RIST profiles to its existing support for MPEG Transport Stream over IP with SMP...
12/08/2026
BBright will demonstrate EBU OGraf animated graphics support in its software-bas...
12/08/2026
Interra Systems will demonstrate its ORION, BATON, BATON Captions, and VEGA solutions at SET Expo 2026 (August 17-20, Distrito Anhembi, S o Paulo) at partner Li...
12/08/2026
DPA Microphones has appointed Raul Contreras as West Coast Regional Sales Manager. In the role, Contreras will oversee sales and customer relationships througho...
12/08/2026
Live spectacles ranging from the Super Bowl and FIFA World Cup to the Oscars and...
12/08/2026
Writer-Director Andrius Bla evi ius and crew attend the premiere of How to Divorce During the War at The Ray Theatre on January 26, 2026, in Park City, UT. (P...
12/08/2026
Enhanced DAW & plug-in control for the UC1, UF8 and UF1
The software that powers SSL's range of control surfaces has just received a major update that d...
12/08/2026
In-line preamp features one-knob EQ
In addition to their range of in-line preamps, Triton Audio recently managed to squeeze a compressor into an enclosure t...
12/08/2026
Captures system audio with or without a DAW
Depending on your setup, capturing system audio in a DAW can be a tedious process, so much so that Arvital Audio...
12/08/2026
2026 NATIONAL NAIDOC AWARDS TO BROADCAST ON NITV LIVE AND DIRECT FROM MPARNTWE
12 August, 2026
Media releases
First Nations excellence will be celebrated l...
12/08/2026
More than six million sports fans stay with SBS for Tour de France and Tour de F...
12/08/2026
Nielsen is cementing Digital Ad Intel as the new go-to currency for digital ad intelligence in Brazil-now with streaming monitoring in the mix.
S o Paulo, Augu...
12/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/08/2026
As Matrox Video celebrates 50 years of trusted innovation, the company will showcase its portfolio of interoperable IP technologies and software-defined innovat...
12/08/2026
SMPTE, the home of media professionals, technologists and engineers, today announced a program of expert-led sessions, professional workshops and networking eve...
12/08/2026
Berklee Announces Full Details for Inaugural Block Party, a Music Festival Next ...
12/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/08/2026
Matthews Studio Equipment introduces T-Go Mounting Solutions extreme camera rigging systems, engineered for the most demanding environments in motion picture pr...
12/08/2026
Anton/Bauer, a Videndum brand and the industry leader in mobile power solutions for broadcast and cinematic production, announces that the EDEN Mobile Power Sta...
12/08/2026
TAG Video Systems, the global leader in software-based IP monitoring and multiviewer solutions, today announced a memory usage optimization that lowers the tota...
12/08/2026
Unified Streaming announces Trusted Media, a new solution that enables broadcasters, streaming platforms, and premium content owners to attach verifiable authen...
12/08/2026
Combining intelligent automation, composable business services and user-centric experiences
The media industry is entering a new phase where AI intelligence is...
12/08/2026
DPA Microphones welcomes Raul Contreras as its new West Coast Regional Sales Manager. In this role, Contreras will oversee sales and customer relationships thro...
12/08/2026
Marshall Electronics' first all-weather, all-IP 4K POV camera, the CV574-WP, makes its European debut at IBC 2026 (Stand 10.C11). Built for the elements, th...
12/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Scientists at Scripps Research have discovered that two seemingly unrelated cellular enzymes become locked together during times of stress, simulta...
12/08/2026
NEW BOOKSHOP OPENING IN LONDON THAT OFFERS NEW IDENTITIES, NOT BOOKS, WITH FREE ...
12/08/2026
Brand-new trailer unveiled as Sky announces SNL UK ticket ballot will open on 14...
12/08/2026
Wednesday 12 August 2026
Sky Sports agrees deal to show Laver Cup from London's O2
Sky Sports has agreed a deal with Trident8 to show all three days of th...
12/08/2026
Wednesday 12 August 2026
Pre-order the new Google Pixel 11 range from today and...
12/08/2026
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang is ranked No. 1 on Glassdoor's Best CEOs list for 2026.
In the just-released ranking, recognition is earned directly fr...
11/08/2026
Weekly immersive broadcasts will feature 8K 3D video, a 180-degree field of view...
11/08/2026
By Briana Brady, Social Media Manager, Production Hub
Sports content is having ...
11/08/2026
She addresses why media organizations need more than asset storage, how sports t...