Behind the Scenes: Capturing the Equine Lower Limb & Hoof Training Class

Content warning: This event included clinical dissection footage and discussion of equine pathology, including laminitis, soft tissue injury and hoof penetration.

When a training day centres on the equine lower limb and hoof, the production challenge is not just getting cameras in the room. It is making highly detailed teaching visible, understandable and watchable for two audiences at once: the people in front of the presenters, and the people joining remotely.

That was the brief for this latest equine education event, where the day moved from theory-led teaching into a live dissection practical. The subject matter was clinical, detailed and visually demanding. The audience needed to follow everything from anatomical explanation and pathology case studies through to close-up demonstration of structures inside the hoof and lower limb.

From an AV point of view, this was exactly the kind of event where standard conference coverage would not have been enough.

The theory part of the day covered the horse’s lower limb from the knee and hock downwards, including anatomy, biomechanics and common pathologies such as laminitis, navicular-related pain and soft tissue injury. It was rich in clinical detail, but the real production question was simple: how do you make that detail land clearly for everyone in the room and everyone watching online?

Our role was to build a setup that could support both sides of the day:

• a professional multi-camera live stream
• close-up imaging for detailed anatomical work
• clear audio for teaching and discussion
• lighting that worked both practically and visually
• in-room screens for the live audience
• reliable recording, hosting and post-event access for VOD viewers

In other words, the event needed the feel of a polished live production, while still handling the close visual demands you normally associate with medical-style streaming and technical training environments.

Theory sessions can be deceptively difficult to cover well. They often look simple from the outside: presenter, slides, audience, job done. Reality is more annoying.

For this event, we needed the room to feel welcoming and professional for the in-person audience, while also making sure the live stream never felt static. That meant building a setup that could move naturally between presenter shots, audience-facing angles and supporting content without losing momentum.

We used a combination of cameras to do that, including an Obsbot Tail 2 AI camera to track the host, giving the theory session a more natural, less fixed look on stream. Alongside that, a BirdDog P200 30x zoom camera allowed us to pick up tighter detail shots when needed, without physically intruding on the teaching space.

Lighting also had to do two jobs at once. We provided practical lighting to keep presenters and demonstrations clearly visible, while adding uplighting to make the theory area feel more finished and less like a bare teaching room. It is a small thing until it is not. Good-looking lighting does not just help the room, it helps the stream feel intentional rather than improvised.

For the audience in the venue, we supplied 50-inch DICOM-grade screens, giving people in the room a clearer view of the fine visual detail that can easily get lost in specialist teaching events. When the content involves anatomy, pathology and dissection, audience sightlines matter more than usual.

The practical section was where the production really had to earn its keep.

Dissection work is not forgiving from an AV point of view. You are dealing with small structures, close observation, changing presenter positions and moments where everyone needs to see exactly the same thing at exactly the same time. Wide shots alone are useless. You need close detail, but you also need context.

To handle that, we built the stream around multi-camera coverage, 30x zoom capability and an endoscope feed. That combination made it possible to show the bigger picture when the presenters were explaining a structure, then move into the finer detail when they needed the audience to focus on a specific area.

This is what made the setup especially valuable for a session like this. The teaching covered structures and concepts that are easy to talk about but much harder to show clearly without the right production support, from the lamellae and digital cushion through to pathology affecting the navicular region and surrounding soft tissue. The closer and clearer the picture, the more useful the session becomes for both remote viewers and those in the room.

It also meant the presenters were not forced to compromise their teaching style around the limitations of the kit. The technology supported the delivery, instead of becoming the thing everyone had to work around.

This event was not just about the room. It also had a live online audience and a video-on-demand offer afterwards, which changes the stakes. Once ticketed remote access becomes part of the event model, reliability is no longer a nice extra.

For the live stream, we used vMix and NDI as part of the production workflow, with a multi-bonded LiveU network setup to give the stream a more resilient connection path on site. That matters in any live production, but especially in specialist educational streaming where viewers are there to learn, not to stare at a buffering wheel and reconsider their life choices.

We also provided:

• recording and video hosting for the VOD
• a ticketing system for post-event access
• an on-site technician to manage the production throughout the day

That meant the value of the event did not stop when the room emptied. The content could continue working afterwards for delegates who wanted to revisit the teaching or for people accessing it on demand.

For those who like the production detail, the setup included:

• Multi-camera live streaming
• Endoscope integration
• AI host tracking with Obsbot Tail 2
• 30x zoom coverage with BirdDog P200
• Audio via Yamaha DM3
• Wireless mics via Sennheiser G4
• Lighting using Godox fixtures and LEDJ Intense 9HEX10 PRO LED Slim Par
• In-room viewing on 50-inch DICOM-grade screens
• Streaming workflow using vMix, NDI and LiveU bonded connectivity
• Recording, hosting and ticketed VOD access
• On-site technician support

One of the most interesting parts of working on equine training events like this is that they sit somewhere between conference production, specialist education and medical-style imaging.

The audience needs more than a decent view of the front of the room. They need to see technique, structure, scale and detail. They need to hear explanation clearly. They need confidence that the remote experience has been designed properly, not added as an afterthought.

That is where production makes the difference.

For this equine lower limb and hoof dissection day, the aim was not to turn a clinical teaching event into a flashy show. It was to give the presenters the technical support they needed to teach properly, and to give both audiences the best possible view of what was happening.

If you are running an equine education day, veterinary-style teaching session, hybrid training event or other specialist production that depends on close visual detail, the AV setup needs to be built around the content from the start.

That means thinking about more than just cameras. It means considering image detail, audio clarity, lighting, screens, stream resilience, recording and what happens after the live event ends.

This event was a strong example of how the right production approach can support technical teaching without getting in the way of it. The subject matter was highly specialised. The AV needed to be just as considered.

You can find out more about the organisers and the dissection day here:

• NKC Equestrian
• Kate Granshaw 
• Dissection Day information

This was not our first equine dissection event. You can also read about our earlier head and neck dissection day live streaming and AV support project