NEP Group contributes as live Ireland On Call show airs on RT TV By Fergal Ringrose, Editorial Director, Europe Wednesday, April 8, 2020 - 11:08
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With all live sports cancelled, NEP Group companies CT Ireland, NEP Ireland and Screen Scene are keeping their staff busy and trucks on the road during the coronavirus crisis by playing a key role in the production and delivery of a new live current affairs series for RT .
Ireland on Call is a 30-minute show produced by Indiepics and Scratch Films that has been devised to guide viewers through the coronavirus crisis. It is currently being broadcast twice a week on RT 1 television live from the Department of Health in central Dublin. The series is set to run for four weeks.
The first show aired on Thursday 2 April. The second show went out on Tuesday 7 April, featuring a live interview with Republic of Ireland chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan along with VT inserts explaining how laid-off catering personnel have voluntarily regrouped to cook and deliver meals to front-line staff at Sligo and Tallaght Hospitals.
SVG Europe visited the Ireland On Call set on Tuesday afternoon before transmission. Executive producer Conor Moloney from Indiepics said, Ireland on Call is like a current affairs show, trying to address the questions and concerns of the public for accurate, trusted information they can rely on. We're also interested in inspiring the public through stories from the front line, through stories of fantastic volunteering to inspire the public to pull together.
It's not just the health services, Department of Health and public administrators that are going to beat this - it's the community by doing what they're supposed to do. We're part of the drive for people to do what they are supposed to do.
If you do all the common sense stuff then you stay out of hospital, and that allows the health services to cope better. It's about promoting solidarity and decency amongst the public, said Moloney.
Indiepics has a long history of making documentaries in and around hospitals and consumer health. This is a co-production between ourselves and a company called Scratch Films. They are specialist documentary makers and we're specialist factual entertainment producers, so it's a very solid marriage.
The show came about through conversations with RTE. Principally, to be honest, our motivation was, what can we do?' For me, it has to have that sense of integrity.
As an industry, we're so dependent on live sports: it's actually nice to have something to do. It's a chance for our guys and gals to go out - and also to see people, within the distancing rules.
The Department of Health came on board and very kindly offered us the fantastic room here. They're not editorially bound in, but obviously there was very close cooperation in terms of the correct and accurate information being offered, which is really important.
We also have, thus far, certain personnel who are the faces of the crisis so far. Trusted faces and trusted information - that's where the relationship really lies.
It's difficult to put a studio into the seventh floor of a public building, but the NEP guys found a way to do it which is great. Obviously they have had to work with the buildings officers in this building as well, and that's all been good too.
We're just trying to do our bit, said Moloney. But yes we do feel we're at the heart of public administration, between the Department of Health and the Health Services Executive. We hope we're part of the right communication - promoting solidarity, decency and accurate information.
Outsize Spirit truck plays role with distancing on the OB
An NEP Ireland crew is on hand in Dublin's business district with its Spirit OB truck, T3 tender and CINE generator vehicle. For each show the Spirit OB leaves its County Wicklow base in the morning and travels to Dublin city centre, where it is parked on the street and rigged for a four-camera studio production under unit manager Adam Scarff and technical manager Simon Thornton.
Also on the OB crew are tech supervisor, OB engineer, EVS operator, sound supervisor and assistant, two camera operators and one camera control op, a graphics operator, uplink operator, CINE generator operator and three riggers.
NEP Ireland managing director Alan Burns (left) and business development manager Steve Curran with NEP Spirit OB
This truck would normally be doing Pro 14 rugby this weekend, said NEP Ireland managing director Alan Burns.
However with all live sports cancelled we decided to use this truck for the show. It's bigger than required, but with the social distancing required for best practice we've used a bigger truck. And we've absolutely minimised the crew on board. Obviously, because we're working with the Department of Health we're happy that we have to have the highest standards of distancing in the truck and in the building where we're located.
The Ireland On Call show is basically an outreach for information in the current situation, added NEP Ireland business development manager Steve Curran. On the first show we had the Minister for Health Simon Harris. It goes into more in-depth rather than news-driven, a more relaxed style attempting to speak to the public in their language so it's clear what's going on now and what's going to happen in the next few weeks.
The Department of Health chose the particular room on the top floor of the building, which has a view out over Dublin bay. Then it was up to us to try to figure out how to make it all work. The whole building is hermetically sealed - no window will open so it's a more tricky proposition than we would normally face. And it's on the seventh floor.
We had a week to f
