Extreme Video promo
2:47
Our main showreel: onboard, ground-level and marine shots, and the rigs behind them. Watch on YouTube ↗
Click to play connects to YouTube. The still image is hosted on this site.
FILM. BROADCAST. CAMERA TECHNOLOGY.
Built to get
the shot.
Production experience. Technical thinking.
From specialist camera systems to film, television and the next generation of imaging.
EXTREME VIDEO
We bring the production and the engineering together.
NORWICH / BEYONDTHE FILMS · ONBOARD, TRACKSIDE, AFLOAT
Pictures from places
a camera shouldn’t go.
Two of our own reels. The showreel covers the onboard, ground-level and marine work and the rigs behind it. The minicam reel is in-car and trackside pictures from the circuits.
01 / WHAT WE DO
The picture.
The production.
The problem-solving.
Start with the project. Bring together the right people, facilities and technical approach.
Tell us what you need01Film & television production
Production development and practical support for screen projects. We combine filmmaking experience with a technical understanding of how a production gets made, from the initial brief to the demands of the shoot.
Discuss a production ↗02Broadcast & live production
Through Epic Broadcast: studio and location filming, production crews, cameras, lighting and support for live productions. Availability and the right crew and equipment package are agreed for each project. Current Epic services ↗
03Studios, locations & facilities
Epic’s Norwich production facilities connect studio space with people and equipment. Contact the broadcast team to discuss the space, access and production requirements for your shoot. Explore the studios ↗
04Specialist imaging & research
A background in bespoke cameras and difficult filming environments informs new work in camera-based perception, computer vision and visual navigation. Current research is developmental, not an off-the-shelf product.
Our technical direction ↓
THE EPIC CONNECTION
A home for
making things happen.
Extreme Video acquired Epic Studios in 2012. The former Anglia Television studios became the next chapter in a story already rooted in filmmaking and specialist camera technology.
Today, Epic Broadcast provides studio facilities, equipment and crews for film and television production.
Visit Epic Broadcast02 / OUR HERITAGE
Not every camera
stays on a tripod.
The company’s own timeline. The founder’s story, from wedding films in 1986, is on the Eastern Video site ↗.
1992–1993
Top Gear, then the BBC.
Top Gear work from early 1992, and a 1993 minicam credit on BBC One’s Happy Families. Every onboard shot needed its own rig: a camera, a separate tape recorder, power, controls and a mount that would survive the vehicle.
DECEMBER 1998
A limited company for the camera work.
The specialist side was set up as company 03677539 and named E.V. Special Facilities Limited in January 1999, ready for WRC and Formula 1 contracts.
1999–2004
Covert, onboard and remote.
Rugged minicams and recorders for places a normal crew couldn’t go. Our covert cameras were used on The Cook Report and Watchdog, and our onboard systems on World Championship Stunt Flying, Class 1 powerboats and the BT Global Challenge.
APRIL 2005
Renamed Extreme Video Limited.
Same company, new name. JCB Dieselmax, the Top Gear specials from 2007 and the Clarkson films followed. The oil-well camera business, EV Offshore, was always separate and was sold in 2024.
2012
The old Anglia studios.
Extreme Video bought Epic Studios, once home to Anglia Television’s Sale of the Century and Tales of the Unexpected. The company’s registered office is still there, on Magdalen Street.
2019
Epic Broadcast.
A broadcast facilities arm, led by director of photography Jamie Knights. He and Jonathan first met filming the 1995 British Rally Championship.
TODAY
Cameras that understand.
Research into camera-based localisation and visual navigation, alongside production through Epic.
03 / SELECTED PAST PROJECTS
The brief was never
just “bring a camera”.
Cold, heat, vibration, salt water. Or simply a camera that needed to disappear into the background.
01BROADCAST / EXTREME ENVIRONMENTSTop Gear polar expeditionHeated HD rigs. One-push recording. No technical operator on the trip.
THE CHALLENGE
A system the location crew could operate and keep running in polar conditions.
Extreme Video designed and built HD rigs for both the vehicle and the husky sled, with weatherproofing, insulation and built-in heaters to protect the equipment and tape stock from freezing.
Custom one-push recording controls made the rigs simple for the location crew or presenters to use, because production constraints meant a technical operator could not accompany the expedition.
02MOTORSPORT / SYSTEM INTEGRATIONJCB DieselmaxOnboard recording, cooling and power integration for Bonneville.
THE CHALLENGE
Fit the recording system safely without compromising the vehicle.
The available recorder space was beside the exhaust, so Extreme Video developed a dedicated cooling system and worked with JCB’s engineers to integrate the video equipment into the car’s electrical system.
The work extended from 3D models, installation drawings and UK testing to operating the system at the Bonneville Salt Flats, supplying run-review footage for the team and rushes for news coverage.
03MOTORSPORT / ONBOARD CAMERASBritish Touring Car ChampionshipTailor-made camera systems, backed by engineers at the circuit.
Original portfolio image
For BTCC and Granada Sport, Extreme Video developed in-car and onboard systems tailored to individual cars, including shock-resistant roll-cage mounts, exterior bullet cameras and integrated recording equipment.
Engineers fitted and operated the systems around the race schedule, while permanent, user-friendly installations gave teams another option for recording in their own time.
04DOCUMENTARY / DISCREET FILMINGThe Duke: A Portrait of Prince PhilipA bespoke in-car system for an interview around Sandringham.
Television production
Working with Indigo Television on the ITV1 documentary, Extreme Video supplied the discreet HD audio and video system used to record Sir Trevor McDonald interviewing Prince Philip as they drove around the Sandringham estate.
The archive records two months of design and planning, including route checks, health and safety checks and a design proof for approval before the system was fitted to the car.
05MARINE / REMOTE OPERATIONBT Global ChallengeWaterproof yacht-mounted cameras designed around the crew.
Original website image
Extreme Video designed waterproof three-chip cameras for external yacht mounting, with specially engineered mounts offering manually controlled pan, tilt, zoom and horizon levelling for the BT Global Challenge.
A combined monitor, recorder and control unit was built to make operation straightforward for the boats’ crews, while the exposed cameras were designed for extended use in severe weather.
1993–2004
The minicam years.
Rally stages, race circuits and open water, 1993 to 2004. Taken from our own records and Jonathan’s account.
061993–2004 / MOTORSPORT & MARINERally stages, race circuits, open water.Minicams for WRC, British rallying, BTCC and offshore powerboat racing.
THE EARLY YEARS
Camera systems built around the vehicle, the crew and the demands of the event.
Our cameras rode in World Rally Championship and British Rally Championship cars, British Touring Cars and Class 1 offshore powerboats.
Our records also list Vauxhall Rally work and the WRC and Formula 1 contracts that led to the limited company.
For the lowest shots, Puddlecam sat on the stage itself while the cars went over it.
07TOP GEAR / BOTSWANAKeeping the cameras and the cars running.Jonathan’s recollections of the shoot, and getting Oliver back to camp.
HANDS-ON ENGINEERING
A production that drew on more than camera skills.
Jonathan remembers the Botswana production as demanding his whole skill set. As well as protecting cameras against heat and dust, he and the team helped keep the vehicles going.
After Richard Hammond’s car, Oliver, went through the river sequence, Jonathan recalls working with the team on the engine, distributor and fuel lines, getting it running again and driving it back to camp. It is a practical example of the problem-solving behind the pictures, told in his own interview account.
Jonathan’s selected production credits are listed separately below.
SELECTED SCREEN CREDITS
Beyond the
polar expedition.
Jonathan Thursby’s listed minicam credits. A selection from IMDb, not a complete filmography.
Four specials. Four very different shoots.
Polar Special (2007): minicams, credited as “Sir Ranulph Thursby”.
Botswana Special (2007): mini camera operator, credited as “Archbishop Desmond Thursby”.
Vietnam Special (2008): mini camera operator, credited as “Francis Ford Thursby”.
Bolivia Special (2009): mini camera operator.
Mini-cams: Extreme Video.
Jonathan is listed with that credit on Clarkson: The Italian Job (2010).
The same credit appears on Clarkson: Powered Up (2011). These are separate Clarkson productions, not Top Gear episodes.
Three presenters. One conversation.
Extreme Video also designed a hands-free three-way radio system so all three presenters could talk and listen simultaneously. The original case study records its use on the Alfa Romeo challenge.
FROM THE CAMERA WORKSHOP
Built around
the shot.
Two examples from the EV Special Facilities archive. Historical designs, not a current product catalogue.
Down in the action.
A miniature camera moulded into a protective resin housing, developed for hard-to-reach ground-level shots and used in World Rally Championship coverage and Anglia Television’s Demolition Day.
Movement without the bulk.
A boom-mounted minicam with mechanically linked pan and tilt, used for moving close-ups of the Lotus Elise in the award-winning Change the Rules production.
Weddings, edit suites and the Rose Lane years are on the Eastern Video site.
Eastern Video04 / WHAT’S NEXT
From recording a scene
to understanding it.
Our current technical direction builds on the same practical curiosity: what else can a camera system do?
We are developing research around computer vision, camera-based localisation and visual navigation. The focus is on understanding what is technically possible, testing ideas and developing practical systems.
Research and development. Not a released product.
Discuss a technical collaborationLET’S MAKE A START
What are you
working on?
A film, a production challenge, a camera problem or a new technical idea. Start a conversation with us.
jonathan@easternvideo.co.ukStudio, crew & equipment enquiriesbroadcast@epic-tv.com ↗