Live POV Cameras – Through The Eyes Of DJs

Written by Dan White on October 6th, 2011 55 Comments

eyes-of-a-dj

Ever wondered what it would actually feel like to play in front of a stadium of screaming fans? Perhaps you just want too see if they were actually mixing live or if they were dropping a pre-recorded mix? How cool would it be if you could see everything the DJ is doing, from his or her view? After the jump, we take a look at how DJs are letting us see what they see.

One of the largest hurdles in the world of digital DJing has been a profound disconnect between the performer and the audience – when focused on getting a mix just right or selecting the next song, it can often times look like the DJ is doing very little. This has been often counteracted by fancy visual light shows, on-stage dancers, or even well-timed fireworks.

But even then, those don’t connect the audience to the performer – instead they entertain and distract as supplementary experiences to the actual actions the DJ is doing.

If only you could just see everything that the DJ is doing, from their point of view. We’ve found some brilliant examples of this using GoPro cameras – check out Skrillex beatmashing in first person (and diving off the stage!):


In the next video, you can feel the excitement of a live performance about to happen at a major festival while watching through the eyes of Norman Cook – better known as Fatboy Slim. You can even hear him singing along:

DJs could even keep their POV camera recording for their entire set, like in this video that NumberNin6 shot at the Starscape Festival in Baltimore, Maryland earlier this year. It does have drawbacks – how long can one watch a bouncing camera shot before you start to get a little queasy?

We’re ready for the next level – and we’re pretty sure we know who is about to take us there. Last fall, Deadmau5 livestreamed video and audio of his entire set at a New York nightclub, with the camera directly next to the mixer, so you could see nearly everything he was doing. In case you missed it, check it out here.

The latest is that he’s having a Mau5head built that has a built-in livestreaming camera – allowing anyone to tune into his stream when he’s DJing and experience a set from inside of that giant mouse helmet.

Have you all seen any other awesome first person DJ videos? What do you think the coolest way to document a DJ performance is? Let us know in the comments!

Filed under: Business of DJing, Editorials and Opinions, News + Culture, and tagged , , , , , , , , .

  • Phil Morse

    “ It does have drawbacks – how long can one watch a bouncing camera shot before you start to get a little queasy?” – Dunno if it’s because I’m a DJ, but I could watch that Fatboy Slim cam forever! Love his old school/nu school DJing technique/set-up too – now there’s a real DJ :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001945260195 Rg Tb

    this kinda stuff might matter for events where entry fees are really high. if people pay, say, 50 bucks admission, they wanna see where all that money went.

    at the parties i play at and at the parties i go to, admission is cheap (or free), and people don’t care about lights or cameras. what matters is the music and the vibe.

    good music, i dance. no good music, i not dance.

  • Gábor Szántó

    It was interesting to see that Skrillex did not deal with audio quality (full red VU meter), while Norman was on the safe side always. :-)

  • Pascwall

    thats pretty cool. fatboy slims was awesome.

  • Djhombre

    don’t forget DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist did this a while back during the Product Placement and Hard Sell tours…I think at one stage they used some sort of wrist-cam too for super-close up visuals of their deft finger work on the crossfader.

  • Spacecamp

    Yep – Chris/Flashflooder mentioned this to me while I was writing it today, but we couldn’t find any awesome videos of it on YouTube – know of any? 

  • Spacecamp

    Indeed, Phil – I think the reason I got sick on the NumberNin6 video was because at the end of the day, I just didn’t like it as much – I prefer my DJs to have masking tape on the mixer :D

  • Spacecamp

    Indeed, Phil – I think the reason I got sick on the NumberNin6 video was because at the end of the day, I just didn’t like it as much – I prefer my DJs to have masking tape on the mixer :D

  • http://twitter.com/DJJesC DJ JesC

    skillex is the man.

  • http://twitter.com/CharlesMykid Carlos Miniño

    a cool way to document a dj set would be the minus embed type deal kind of thing :P if you take a close look it shows a lot of creativity by the cam guy but still is a good way to document a special presentation

  • Harpdarp

    It’s mostly because Skrillex does hardly anything at all. There’s a reason why he’s able to stagedive: his random knob turning has no real appreciable difference on what he’s doing.

  • St Villanus

    I was digging for and consuming videos of this nature last month. I became interested after seeing a promo video for an event with Skrillex on the bill. The promo video used a portion of the video above or a great recreation. I think the point-of-view of the performer, such as a head or glasses mounted camera, is valuable in moderation. It might not be so valuable in large doses, like many consecutive minutes. But, with edits, the energy of a performance video could be greatly heightened. That same point-of-view can ad some humanity to a music icon when you see how they handle mistakes or surprises.

  • St Villanus

    I was digging for and consuming videos of this nature last month. I became interested after seeing a promo video for an event with Skrillex on the bill. The promo video used a portion of the video above or a great recreation. I think the point-of-view of the performer, such as a head or glasses mounted camera, is valuable in moderation. It might not be so valuable in large doses, like many consecutive minutes. But, with edits, the energy of a performance video could be greatly heightened. That same point-of-view can ad some humanity to a music icon when you see how they handle mistakes or surprises.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=638366173 Lewis Fisher

    This is a good way to weed out the charlatans who just jump about in the booth and just play a pre recorded mix.

  • http://ax11.myopenid.com/ Tom

    Yeah. I could finally leave my opera glasses at home…

  • Ifuckedyourmother

    Skrillex is a cunt.

  • cpoynter

    Haha if you watch the next video that pops up after the Skrillex one you can see how badly his crowd-surfing failed.

  • cpoynter

    Haha if you watch the next video that pops up after the Skrillex one you can see how badly his crowd-surfing failed.

  • Anonymous

    It seems Deadmau5′s tweet was referring to installing livestreaming in his home studio, not his helmet. “mau5hau5″

  • Dimesach

    POV and DJing? FAIL. RC airplanes and POV fun fun fun!

  • Dimesach

    POV and DJing? FAIL. RC airplanes and POV fun fun fun!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Patrick-Reynaert/100001844246089 Patrick Reynaert

    this is like AWESOME hahhaha. hope roger sanchez got a video to. seen him mix with the 4 decks visible.. damn right sickening

  • Djjackmeoff

    Lets keep POV in porn. BE@.TV does an amazing job of covering events. All these videos posted were hard to watch and hear. Although I see the appeal for the diehard fans and daydreaming djs, its an unneeded tool/fad that I wont contribute too. Leave AV work to the pros.

  • Mylestec

    actually… what is the masking tape for?…. seems something is written on it and its holding something else to the mixer??

  • jay

    gotta love skrillex fake knob twisting and even twisting the fx selector knob on the djm-800 for show

  • Dj_in_the_zone

    I’d like to actually hear what the performer is listening to….the cued track in his/her headphones as well as the music coming from the club/monitors…that will be the ultimate dj lesson… 

  • Aclutter

    You can also live stream a GoPro mounted on some trussing to a NuVj Arkaos. It’s a cool perspective to have available at an event.

  • Rbxspam

    I went the Hard Sell in Australia while they were touring
    it and the wrist cam was awesome.  Later on I purchased the concert on DVD
    and I have to say that the video aspect was very underwhelming.  I think that the guy in charge of the live
    video recording was a little too excited about having lots of small remotely controlled
    video cameras forgetting at a few good camermen with professional video cameras
    still take much better footage than remotely controlled webcams.  The cameras used in the hard sell predated
    the GopPro and were not HD, in fact much of the footage was really grainy and looked
    more like a recording taken with a mobile phone.  I’m all for daring video production
    techniques, but at least have a fallback plan with a few tried and true methods
    too.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1553807759 Ben Djbk Kalish

    went to the Deadmau5 concert last night at Roseland Ballroom, it would have been awesome to see what Joel was seeing

  • Anonymous

    Skrillex did a nice job of faking it

  • Djhh

    So happy to see that you guys have the same opinion on Skrillex like me :)

  • Djhh

    So happy to see that you guys have the same opinion on Skrillex like me :)

  • Thanatos

    Skrillex use fake knob and arrangement view of ableton…

  • http://www.facebook.com/djsence Lance Archer

    There are some sweet ass pov shot from the Dominator 2011 festi.

  • http://www.facebook.com/djsence Lance Archer

    There are some sweet ass pov shot from the Dominator 2011 festi.

  • http://www.facebook.com/djsence Lance Archer

    There are some sweet ass pov shot from the Dominator 2011 festi.

  • http://www.facebook.com/djsence Lance Archer

    There are some sweet ass pov shot from the Dominator 2011 festi.

  • SndEngniaaar

    gotta love slimboy for knowing how to level a dj mixer.

  • TStef

    Doesn’t really matter in the end. The crowd eats his music up (I’m assuming u’re talking about Skrillex). It’s all about the music, not so much about mixing/not mixing.

  • TStef

    Doesn’t really matter in the end. The crowd eats his music up (I’m assuming u’re talking about Skrillex). It’s all about the music, not so much about mixing/not mixing.

  • Emaho_444

    this is kinda gross…

  • Nick Caris

    DOUBLE TRUTH

  • Sjloughlin

    i actually think the deadmau5 one is for his house not the head, because he is in the phase of remodeling his house at the time and hence the “mau5hau5″ meaning deadmau5 house

  • Dubluv

    Hi Patrick,

    Check this out ;) (Roger Sanchez 4 decks mix with perfect visibility..)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om19A7fY_wg&feature=channel_video_title

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Shane-Kingsbury/712779552 Shane Kingsbury

    I will never forget that skrillex dive. It was @ Horden Pavillion in Sydney, and i was standing in front row for 9hrs with no food, water, and toilet breaks. Well worth it!!!!!!! Even got a photo with Joel, who was on after Sonny. Great night!

  • Anonymous

    He’s look absolutely terrible in that picture.

  • proben

    these videos would be really cool if they had much better sound quality.  And no video.

  • proben

    these videos would be really cool if they had much better sound quality.  And no video.

  • Dave

    Aye maybe for him and all his kiddie fans

  • Tim

    joel wasnt referring to the new mau5head with that tweet

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  • http://www.facebook.com/benbaronmusic Ben Baron

    True, but also in his case he’s a producer before he’s a DJ. I’m not a fan of his music, but I give producers more leeway in that regard. If you didn’t make the music AND you’re faking the DJ set then you’re really nothing more than a jukebox.

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  • Justin H

    I shot that NumberNin6 vid. Thanks for posting! :)

  • http://twitter.com/sww1235 sww1235

    yeah skrillex looked pretty fake in that video. also smoking next to all that gear, not such a good idea. the fatboy slim video looked like real, His entrance was pretty cool

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