Matt Gathercole, a Polecam Operator, recently did at shoot at Broadgreen Hospital in Liverpool. "The Cardiothoracic Centre was the venue for the bi-annual Aortic Surgery Symposium which welcomed 200 top heart surgeons and specialists from around the world to witness five operations at CTC that were each transmitted live via satellite to the invited audience at the Maritime Museum."

This is the second time I have operated Polecam at this event and it proved to be even more invaluable than last time. Following the 2005 success, Mills Media asked for two Polecams to be installed and with the loan of a zoom lens from Polecam I was able to offer an improved range of shots and coverage this time. Polecam is an important part of the coverage as it offers the flexibility to show close up images from the correct angle without impeding the work of the surgeons. Both theatres were hooked up with the conference centre and images and audio were streamed both ways enabling those conducting the surgery to describe the process to the audience whilst monitoring the shots to ensure the audience could see specifics.

The surgeons were amongst the top in their field from both the UK and USA and the procedures were often those that none of the audience had ever witnessed and so accurate close up coverage was important. The flexibility of the Polecam enabled access where larger cameras could not go and allowed us to get good shots even when there where four surgeons operating on a patient. Polecam also provides the flexibilty to be flown over the patient and repositioned to offer different angles as the surgery progressed.

For more information on Matt take a look at his website www.mattgathercole.co.uk