Wusthof Broadcasts Cutting Academy Livestream Series with Blackmagic Design

Published: 18 June 2020

Wusthof Broadcasts Cutting Academy Livestream Series with Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design today announced that professional knife manufacturer, WÜSTHOF, created a specialist live streaming series, relying on URSA Mini Pro G2, Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K and ATEM Television Studio Pro HD, to reach fans across the globe during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Delivered from inception by production agency HerzbergMedia, the thirteen part Cutting Academy helped viewers develop their kitchen knife skills. Each show featured celebrity guest chef René Steinbach, who delivered live practical demonstrations, as well as Viola Wüsthof of the Wüsthof family, who shared guidance on sharpening and caring for professional kitchen knives. The content was available through Facebook Live and the brand’s YouTube channel, with audiences encouraged to comment and ask questions.

“The lockdown kickstarted a massive surge in the number of brands streaming content online. Although there were lots of cookery shows, we hadn’t seen anyone taking on practical cutting skills. With 200 years of experience, we knew WÜSTHOF was in the perfect position to share its expertise,” explains Jens Harald Herzberg, owner of HerzbergMedia. “We developed the premise of the series, then worked with the Wüsthof family to get production up and running.”

Working from a studio in Cologne, Germany, the production team faced two key challenges: delivering high quality content with a limited number of people and ensuring that social distancing was upheld throughout filming. “With just four of us, including myself as host, producer and streaming operator, it was instantly clear that we would need to streamline the workflow and rely on remote control via the ATEM switcher for the main camera positions,” explains Jens. “We had four locked off positions and a fifth handheld unit to give us the all important detail shots, which would help elevate the production even further.”

“We made a move to Blackmagic Design cameras for all of our corporate work some time ago, and they have become our workhorses, producing excellent quality content for our commercials and image films. We were conscious that so much online content has been produced during the lockdown, so we had to ensure our set up would deliver the picture quality we needed for a highly professional finish.”

To date, the series has generated more than 600K views across WÜSTHOF’s social media channels, which massively exceeded the team’s initial estimations. “We’d been discussing the concept of live streaming for a long time, but we were always cautious about the costs and resource involved,” concludes Jens Harald. “The engagement and excitement for the WÜSTHOF Cutting Academy demonstrated that there is a demand for this type of insightful, detailed content, and the Blackmagic Design workflow has proved itself as a reliable and effective foundation on which we can develop more programming formats across our client base.”

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