CASE STUDY — BROADCAST SERIES

L’ARTE DI CUCINARE FOR OMNI1 56 EPISODES A SEASON, DELIVERED TO BROADCAST.

L’Arte di Cucinare is OMNI1’s Italian-language cooking series with chef Gianni Ceschia, now in its 15th season and airing nationally. Links Live Media joined in season 9, rescued the delivery of 112 episodes in two months to make the scheduled air dates, and has produced the show ever since.

Chef Gianni Ceschia and a guest chef cooking on the L'Arte di Cucinare kitchen set, seen from behind a camera
Host and guest chef on set
Links Live Media control position beside the L'Arte di Cucinare kitchen set, with operators on headsets, multiview monitors and PTZ cameras on tripods
Control position beside the set

A season 14 episode of L’Arte di Cucinare.

At a glance
ClientOMNI1
ShowL’Arte di Cucinare, Italian-language cooking series
HostChef Gianni Ceschia
LocationHost’s kitchen studio, Vaughan, Ontario
Our seasons9 to 15 (2021 to 2026)
Episodes392 delivered, 56 per season
Cameras7, including three overheads
Crew4 on shoot days
Our roleProducer: technical plan, crew, direction, post, broadcast delivery, CRTC filings
AirsNationally on OMNI1
SEASONS 9 & 10

112 episodes in two months

Coming out of the pandemic, OMNI1 contracted an outside producer to deliver seasons 9 and 10 together, 112 episodes shot from May 2021. Links Live Media was brought on as technical producer, supplying the crew and equipment and capturing the footage.

Everything was shot, but months later no episodes had been delivered and deadlines were being missed. OMNI1’s producer on the project asked if there was anything we could do. We took over post-production and, with one of our editors, cut, finished and delivered all 112 episodes in two months, in time for the scheduled air dates.

“Have known Rob for a number of years. He’s wonderful to work with. Very accommodating. Excellent attention-to-detail. Delivers projects on time. Highly recommend his services!”

Producer, OMNI1 — Google review
SEASONS 11 TO 15

The station’s go-to producer

Since season 11, Links Live Media has fully produced the series for OMNI1. The show already had an established look and graphics package from eight seasons on air, so our job was to keep it consistent and make every season run faster and look better.

We plan the technical setup (camera angles, lighting and audio), crew the show and direct it, with Robert and a second director each taking about half the episodes. During production we work with Gianni to confirm the guests and content for each episode, while he writes the recipes and handles everything in front of the camera. After the shoot we manage post-production, deliver to OMNI1 to broadcast spec and handle all of the regulatory paperwork for the CRTC.

THE SETUP

Seven cameras, three of them on the food

Each season is 56 episodes, shot three a day over 19 days every June in Gianni’s kitchen studio in Vaughan, Ontario. The camera plan has grown from five cameras to seven:

  • Two cameras centred on the host and guest chef
  • Two side cameras for close-up angles
  • Three overhead cameras covering the cooking surfaces

Seasons 12, 13 and 15 were shot on Sony FR7 PTZ cameras and season 14 on OBSBOT Tail 2 PTZs. A crew of four runs each shoot day: a director, an audio operator and two camera operators.

Multiview monitor showing all seven L'Arte di Cucinare camera angles, including three overhead shots of the pan, with ISO recording and the program feed
All seven camera angles on the multiview
View from behind the L'Arte di Cucinare control desk toward the kitchen set during a shoot
Switching the show live on set
POST-PRODUCTION

Cut at the speed of a live switch, delivered in 4K

The show is switched live on set on an ATEM ISO, which gives us an HD edit of every episode as it’s recorded, while each camera records in 4K in-camera. In post we work from that live edit as a single timeline, then swap the HD footage for the 4K recordings.

From there the work is conforming each segment to broadcast duration, cleaning up any cuts that missed, and adding the show’s graphics and music. That workflow is how a full 56-episode season goes from wrap to broadcast-ready in about six weeks.

Live switching panel with the L'Arte di Cucinare program feed on the monitor behind it
Live switch: the cut every episode starts from
THE RESULT

OMNI1’s highest-rated Italian-language show

L’Arte di Cucinare airs nationally on OMNI1 and is the station’s highest-rated Italian-language program. Across seasons 9 to 15, Links Live Media has delivered 392 episodes of the series, every one of them on schedule for broadcast.

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