Altered Images was commissioned to design, install and support a lightweight, energy-efficient 12-camera fixed rig for the new series Britain by Boat, created by independent production company Knickerbockerglory. The programmes reunite former newsreader, Michael Buerk, and political journalist, John Sergeant, after 30 years, as they take to the high seas exploring Britain's coastline by yacht. The series is currently airing on Channel 5.
The challenge for these two amateur sailors is to explore Britain's glorious coastline whilst taming the magnificent Bonaventure, a 50-foot traditional yacht. It's not a voyage for the faint-hearted, as John and Michael navigate labyrinthine sandbanks, treacherous tides and Europe's busiest shipping lanes. To buoy their spirits, they'll encounter the best of the British coast from crab-fishing in Falmouth, to racing dingies near Portsmouth, to joining the RNLI off the picturesque Cornish coast.
Altered Images faced many challenges and responsibilities with this project; the least of which was how to install cameras to be both stable and completely harmless to the £1m hand-built craft's structure and finish. The production team also tasked them with making the installed cameras very discreet so that the on-screen talent would forget they were being filmed. This resulted in a more natural engagement on screen for the production.
Altered Images specified eight IP67-rated cameras up on deck, with four Panasonic PTZ cameras below deck, all controlled and recorded in one of the aft cabins. Helping the cameras blend in below deck safely and without any screws, nails or sticky tape was an extra challenge, comments Tony Gill, Altered Images' managing director and unit manager at the time of filming. In the end, we decided to manufacture temporary replica upholstery that blended into the surroundings in order that we could fix the cameras to those, then we were able to swap back to the original furniture after the shoot.
Isolated audio was captured from eight sources, including radio mics, with a live stereo feed also recorded during the shoot. The cameras and audio were synchronised via time-of-day timecode, as were any shoulder-mounted cameras that were used on the boat or shore, removing the need for cables to make boarding and disembarking safe for both the talent and crew.
The whole rig used just 400 Watts in energy equivalent to just four tungsten light bulbs which meant that Altered Images could use an intelligent Lithium Ion battery rig and achieve up to 40 hours' recording time between charges. The rig's health was monitored from shore by the following safety boat, with a road-based support crew to enable the production to keep the onboard headcount within maritime allowances.
The task that we gave Altered Images was a complex one, since we needed them to rig a 50ft yacht with hot-head and waterproof static cameras, as well as a gallery suitable for small compact spaces and rocky seas, explains Fi Maclay, Knickerbockerglory's Production Manager on Britain By Boat. As always, Tony and the team from Altered were wonderful to work with no task was too small and we could rely on them even in the most difficult of circumstances.
This was a fantastic project to be involved in, which perfectly highlights how adaptable Altered Images is to its clients' creative challenges, adds Tony.
To watch the programme and find out about future episodes, please visit the Channel 5 website at www.channel5.com/show/britain-by-boat/.
Most recent headlines
22/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
22/12/2025
Hitting the bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts ...
22/12/2025
Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with...
22/12/2025
Gravity Media prepares for a flight of fancy with the PDC World Darts Championsh...
22/12/2025
One hundred and eighty: Gravity Media on hitting the production bullseye at the ...
22/12/2025
The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content...
22/12/2025
ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Spo...
22/12/2025
ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next ...
22/12/2025
For a decade, popular German podcast Fest & Flauschig has hosted an annual Chris...
22/12/2025
Paramount Scores Largest Share Increase Among Distributors as Paramount and CBS...
22/12/2025
New multi-year deal integrates Roku's data to fuel Nielsen's measurement suite
Roku gains access to Nielsen's streaming ratings, showing The Roku C...
22/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
22/12/2025
Berklee Wrapped 2025: Our Top News and Stories A look back at a year highlighted by faculty milestones, major film and television projects, Bob Dylan's ho...
22/12/2025
Partnership integrates complementary satellite data and AI analytics to enhance security, infrastructure, and environmental monitoring solutions for global cust...
22/12/2025
Workflows allow you to create a sequence of planned events which may be added to your template(s) or inserted directly into your sequential or background playli...
22/12/2025
Monday 22 December 2025
Sky extends PGA TOUR partnership until 2029, as Sky Spo...
22/12/2025
Back to All News
Global Anime Hits and New Releases Take Center Stage at Jump Festa 2026
Entertainment
22 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to clipboar...
22/12/2025
Siobh n McSweeney, Rory McIlroy, Elon Musk, Catherine Connolly, Jim Gavin, Ivan Yates and Traitor Paudie Moloney lead new characters for Callan Kicks the Year 2...
22/12/2025
Winner announced in the picturesque surroundings of Wicklow's Avondale Tower and Treetop Walk
Andrew Trimble wins the show in his first series as coach
Th...
22/12/2025
The 2025 winners have been announced today, Sunday 21 December, for Ireland's largest choral competition Choirs for Christmas hosted by RT lyric fm.
Ove...
21/12/2025
Back to All News
Legoshi and Haru's Story Reaches Its Finale: BEASTARS Fin...
21/12/2025
John Shortt named Young Sportsperson of the Year Kerry are the Team of the Year
...
20/12/2025
Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking ProRes RAW recording from the...
20/12/2025
CJP Broadcast has completed the digitisation of the European Gymnastics tape archive, converting 328 tapes containing more than forty years of recorded material...
20/12/2025
Bitmovin, the leading provider of video streaming solutions, today announced the launch of the Stream Lab MCP Server, to give AI agents and large language model...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Barack Obama Includes Laufey on His 2025 Favorite Music List The former presidents roundup of books, music, and movies includes a song from the Berklee alums ...
20/12/2025
Study reveals a key hormonal circuit in the kidneys Scripps Research scientists identify the protein that helps kidney cells regulate renin, providing foundatio...
19/12/2025
With Playout Release 2025.4, ToolsOnAir continues to push professional playout w...
19/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Diversified's Jared Timmins on AI for Broadcast Sports and Cre...
19/12/2025
2025 SVG Summit Audio Recap: Say What?The Audio Production and Distribution Workshop at the SVG Summit 20 took on issues including speech intelligibility, Next-...
19/12/2025
Gamified fun: Channel 5 on its NFL Big Game Night ambitions with Hungry Bear Med...
19/12/2025
College Football Playoff Preview: For ESPN, Round 1 is a Fantastic Yet Familia...
19/12/2025
AWS's Jason Dvorkin on Developing Partnerships With the NBA and PGA Tour, Em...
19/12/2025
Netflix Kicks Off Packed Sports Week with Paul-Joshua Fight Before Shifting to N...
19/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Nareev Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
19/12/2025
Mounted to the pylon of an AH-1Z Viper helicopter, a Red Wolf vehicle successful...
19/12/2025
L3Harris technology for the SDA Tranche 3 Tracking Layer program will provide in...
19/12/2025
Partnership brings Nielsen ONE measurement activation directly into XR's adv...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
19/12/2025
Berklee Announces Spring 2026 Signature Series This season's highlights include the Gospel Extravaganza, the 40th International Folk Festival, special gue...
19/12/2025
Performing arts centres across the globe have doubled down on live production infrastructure in recent years. For venues like the Queensland Performing Arts Cen...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
Altered Images was commissioned to design, install and support a lightweight, energy-efficient 12-camera fixed rig for the new series Britain by Boat, created by independent production company Knickerbockerglory. The programmes reunite former newsreader, Michael Buerk, and political journalist, John Sergeant, after 30 years, as they take to the high seas exploring Britain's coastline by yacht. The series is currently airing on Channel 5.
