Remotely Speaking TVS65.Digital - NS
Remotely Speaking TVS65.Digital - NS
Remotely Speaking TVS65.Digital - NS
September
2022
ebook
www.tvtech.com
Remotely
Speaking
Tracking the trends
and evolution of
remote production
Sponsored by
editor's note
September 2022
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CONTENT
‘Being There’…
VP, B2B Tech Group
Carmel King
Content Director
Tom Butts, tom.butts@futurenet.com
or Not
Content Manager
Terry Scutt, terry.scutt@futurenet.com
Senior Content Producer
George Winslow, george.winslow@futurenet.com
Contributors: Gary Arlen, Susan Ashworth,
James Careless, Kevin Hilton,
Craig Johnston, Bob Kovacs and Mark R. Smith Remote production is not new—some form of remote production has been used
Production Manager Heather Tatrow to produce TV since the early days of the medium (intercoms, for example). Twen-
Managing Design Director Nicole Cobban ty-five years ago, NBC revolutionized the technique when it began producing parts
Senior Design Director Cliff Newman
of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta via remote (mainly through editing and graphics) and
ADVERTISING SALES every production of the Games since then has perfected the practice.
Vice President, Sales, B2B Tech Group The advent of IP, the cloud and the related technologies that take advantage of
Adam Goldstein, adam.goldstein@futurenet.com the increase and flexibility of the inherent bandwidth has brought the concept to the
forefront of production technology and there’s no turning back, especially when the
MANAGEMENT
Senior Vice President Group Elizabeth Deeming
pandemic of 2020 forced our hand; no one was immune from “social distancing.”
Head of Production US & UK Mark Constance It is not a panacea, however. Despite advances in audio and POV camera technologies
Head of Design Rodney Dive for example, live events will still require the presence of technical crews, whether it be
monitoring sound or shading cameras; some practices still require the “human touch.”
FUTURE US, INC.
And as Deon LaCointe, a remote production expert with Sony said on a recent TV Tech
130 West 42nd Street, 7th Floor,
New York, NY 10036 Talk on the subject, there is not “one size fits all” approach.
“Don't do remote production just for the sake of doing remote
contents
production,” LaCointe said. “Everybody runs their business
differently; everybody knows when they have a primetime show,
and they don't want to put it at risk, you're going to deploy a
All contents © 2022 Future US, Inc. or published under licence. All
traditional production truck—I think there's a certain financial
rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used, stored, 4 How Covid Forced
transmitted or reproduced in any way without the prior written
Broadcasters to threshold.”
permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company
number 2008885) is registered in England and Wales. Registered
Go Remote TV Tech has chronicled the evolution of remote production
office: Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All information
contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as we for the past several decades, covering the events and products
are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future cannot accept
any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. You 8 The Ways Audio Adapted that are enabling TV stations and media production companies
are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly with
regard to the price of products/services referred to in this publication.
to the New REMI Normal to “do more with less” and centralize their operations. In the
Apps and websites mentioned in this publication are not under our
following pages, we bring you the commentary and insight from
control. We are not responsible for their contents or any other
changes or updates to them. This magazine is fully independent and 13 5G Remote Production Is the professionals on the front lines of technology development
not affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein. Setting a New Standard
If you submit material to us, you warrant that you own the material and implementation driving this phenomenon.
and/or have the necessary rights/permissions to supply the material
for Live Sports Broadcasts
and you automatically grant Future and its licensees a licence to
publish your submission in whole or in part in any/all issues and/or
editions of publications, in any format published worldwide and on 16 Remote Sporting Models
associated websites, social media channels and associated Tom Butts
products. Any material you submit is sent at your own risk and,
although every care is taken, neither Future nor its employees,
agents,subcontractors or licensees shall be liable for loss or damage.
21 Video and Audio Trans- Content Director
We assume all unsolicited material is for publication unless otherwise portation—The Key to tom.butts@futurenet.com
stated, and reserve the right to edit, amend, adapt all submissions.
Quality Remote
Production
Sky Germany
has combined
cloud-based
production
technologies
with 5G
contribution
to transmit a
handball match.
Broadcasters were faced with a massive use traditional approaches due to the need to
By John Maxwell Hobbs increase in demand for programming from protect the health of production staff.
audiences who were isolating at home as a
T
he migration of live production work- consequence of the Covid lockdowns, while IT CHANGED EVERYTHING
flows to the cloud to support remote simultaneously faced with the inability to It’s been said that for change to be success-
working has been under consider-
ation since the early 2000s, however,
until now, major broadcasters and production
companies have been unwilling to take the
leap. This is related to a number of factors: IP
network speed and reliability, economical and
flexible cloud storage solutions, and a general
unwillingness to move away from a familiar
and time-tested approach. However, in early
2020, this all changed as a consequence of the
global Covid-19 pandemic.
Traditional working practices for film and
video production often require large numbers
Image credit: Sky Germany
ful, three things are required: desire, oppor- • The introduction of new media-centric keting and advertising services company
tunity and necessity. Until now, the third item video over IP transport protocol, NDI (Net- Media.Monks was commissioned by a major
on the list has been lacking. The pandemic work Device Interface) allows for real-time, sports league to produce 20 games in 4K
changed the way the world does everything, ultra-low latency video on existing IP video UHD. However, thanks to Covid restrictions,
and video production was no exception. networks. Developed by NewTek, NDI is be- the on-site OB crew would be limited to two
Necessity has now entered the equation, and ing used by vendors like Sony and Imagine. people at each match, and they would have
broadcasters and production companies are only a 4x4 tabletop to house their equip-
scrambling for ways to meet the demand for Advances in broadcast technology tend ment.
content, while remaining safe. to move in one direction—increased quality, They developed a workflow to produce
Broadcasters like Discovery and Comcast increased functionality, and increased costs. multiple, simultaneous games that would in-
have already moved their supply chain to These new developments move in multiple clude six unmanned cameras placed around
the cloud in terms of the delivery of finished new directions—increased flexibility and each arena supported by a camera technician
programs. However, until recently, remote reduced costs, without a reduction in quality. and one encoding engineer using Vectar
contribution was restricted to slower-than- Although many of the productions that Plus, a live production solution from Vizrt.
real-time file delivery from Wi-Fi hotspots or have moved to cloud-based workflows did “We looked at other products in the
ethernet connection points. so in response to emergency conditions, it is cloud to serve our purpose and there was
In the past few years, it has advanced to
real-time 4K streaming video contribution
over bonded mobile networks using backpack
systems like the ones from LiveU. However,
in the background, several factors have been
converging to make fully remote, cloud-based
production a realistic option:
• Until recently, costly dedicated enter-
prise networks were required to support
live video streams and were prohibitively
expensive for most productions, therefore
limiting the number of locations where
they could be used. Average internet speeds
have nearly doubled in the past five years
while prices have come down at the same
rate. Consumer-grade connections with
data rates of up to 1 Gbps are now widely
available and provide a cost-effective solu-
tion for remote contribution links. They are
now being viewed as a reliable replacement
for scarce and costly satellite uplinks. Media.Monks developed a workflow to produce multiple, simultaneous games that would include six
unmanned cameras placed around each arena supported by a camera technician and one encoding
• In situations where access to a fixed engineer using Vectar Plus, a live production solution from Vizrt.
broadband connection is not available,
mobile networks are filling the gap. These unlikely that all of them will return to previ- no product out there that could handle the
networks have moved from the 3G data ous approaches as the world opens up again. workflow the way we wanted it to go,” said
rates of 3 Mbps only a few years ago, to the These new systems have been “battle tested” Lewis Smithingham, Media.Monks director
widespread availability of 4G networks with and have stood up to the challenge. of creative solutions. “Our production trucks
data rates of 20 Mbps. 5G networks have Just as offices have moved permanently to can work around the world in a single day.
been rolled out in many urban areas, and hybrid working, the broadcast industry is likely It’s fascinating to see that type of business
not only provide an average data rate of to continue to use hybrid workflows, using transformation occurring.”
100+ Mbps, but also offer quality of service traditional studios and OBs where appropriate, A big plus is that this approach has enabled
provisions to ensure reliability of transmis- and remote working where it is most effective. Media.Monks to keep its global staff of 6,000
sion. The upload speeds have also in- To be fair, using compressed NDI feeds over people fully employed throughout the pan-
creased enough to make real-time control consumer-grade networks is not up to the demic.
of remote systems feasible. “gold standard” of SDI, C-band and now 2110, Sky Germany has combined cloud-based
but the convergence of all these technological production technologies with 5G contri-
• The cloud-hosting environment has ma- advances has brought us to a watershed mo- bution to transmit a handball match. The
tured, with relatively inexpensive options ment when the old joke, “fast, cheap, good— production was executed fully in the cloud
provided by AWS, Google, Azure and others. pick two” is in danger of being retired. with a mixture of broadcast and mobile
The “hardware on demand” model offered phone cameras, LiveU’s 5G transmission
by cloud services significantly reduces cap- TWO CASE STUDIES: MEDIA.MONKS technology, Vizrt’s switching, graphics and
ital expenditure for both broadcasters and AND SKY DEUTSCHLAND sports analysis tools, all deployed in AWS
production companies. In late 2020, Netherlands-based mar- and facilitated by NDI.l
the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta when NBC sent tion tasks were based. At the time, remote
By Dennis Baxter three dozen video feeds to New York where Ethernet controls and a file-based workflow
editing, replays, graphics and other produc- did not exist.
T
he Covid pandemic of the past two
years has accelerated the process,
technology and acceptance of cred-
ible remote productions now known
as REMI (remote integration model).
I’m surprised that the paradigm shift from
on-site production to a centralized model has
taken so long. I started traveling for sports
weekly in the early '80s and watched the cost
of travel only go up, particularly for interna-
tional trips and was shocked that broadcast-
ers continued to send so many people to live
events for so many years.
I’ve often wondered why commentators
had to be on-site or in the venue. Take
basketball, for example. Why do the commen-
tators have to be next to the court or on the
edge of the 18th green? Courtside or green-
side can only contribute to excessive crowd
noise in the headset boom microphone which
only distorts the mix.
NBC OLYMPICS
Dave Mazza, senior vice president and CTO
for NBC Sports and NBC Olympics, was at the Dave Mazza, SVP and CTO for NBC Sports and NBC Olympics, has been at the forefront of remote production
forefront of remote production as early as advances since the 1996 Olympics.
first season and in 2021 met their yearly virtually all aspects of remote control produc-
production goal of 850 live events using the tion had been tested and proven. Manufactur-
centralized model. I asked Glenn Stilwell, ers and engineering departments accelerated
who has been on the mixing desk since the the effort and budgets to get and keep live
beginning, about latency issues and lip sync. sports and entertainment on the air, clearly
“In order for it to work, engineering solidifying the new workflow.
designed a custom piece of software to run I understand the arguments that the
local DSP and then the audio stems are announcers should be on-site to soak up
directly embedded into the camera path,” he the energy and be close to the athletes and
said. “[It’s] very reliable and always within coaches at a live event—OK, perhaps a couple
2ms because it’s embedded on-site before of sideline reporters, but not the entire play-
it’s shipped to us. They now use four cam- by-play and color team. And why have the
era paths with up to eight stems each; so 32 halftime jibber jabber overlooking an empty
stems possible, although the older vans can field? Remember during the 2022 NFL playoffs
only do four channels on the fourth path.” when the commentators’ set ended up in front
I also asked him about the number and of a PA cluster used for the halftime entertain-
positions of on-site crew and studio crew. ment? How did that work out? Clearly the ben-
“On-site there usually is one or two audio efit of having the announcers on the sideline
assists, a video operator, although some- vanished with the first guitar strum.
Photo credit: boonchai wedmakawand/Getty Images
times the OB EIC shades the cameras when The magic of being on location is the roots
the shows are indoors and there is not much of live sports production—the vibe, energy
In 2013 Mazza’s team opened the Stam- variation in light,” he said. “There would and the ability to capture it all and craft a
ford Production Operations Center (SPOC) in be the camera operators, a unit manager or story. Television—and particularly sports—
Stamford, Conn. which first provided facilities
for the 2016 Rio Games with more than 1,100
people supporting the production. This effort
was twice as large as any previous at-home
operation.
As early as 2004, NBC’s Bob Dixon and
Al Craig worked together to provide remote
commentary from certain venues at the
Athens Olympics. “Initially the audio was
transported over ISDN, but later switched to
AoIP in 2006 for the Torino Winter Games,”
Craig said. “Torino was the full test where the
morning sessions from the curling competi-
tion were captured and produced at the IBC
[International Broadcast Center] in Torino
and then switched all signals and control over
to NBC facilities at Englewood Cliffs [N.J.] for
the evening sessions.”
After the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, I began
to see the demand for space at the IBC start
to decline and clearly by Beijing 2022, rights
holders’ demand for venue space was even
Glenn Stilwell has been on the mixing desk for Pac-12 since it began centralized production of
further reduced, particularly by NBC. its games in 2013.
“NBC developed what is known as the ‘Off
Tube Factory,’ which were temporary sound-
proof booths at the SPOC in Stamford where technical manager and a couple of utilities. can be a low-attention activity and the
over time more and more of the sports were Ninety-five percent of the time the present- producers are always trying to keep viewers
called off tube,” Craig said. “At the Beijing ers are on-site. eyeballs. But just because engineering can
Winter Games there were no commentators at “For something like baseball or softball we do a remote from somewhere on earth why
any venue, everything was announced ‘off tube’ will also have interview headsets in each dug- should they? l
except for Opening Ceremonies. NBC is current- out,” Stilwell added. “In-studio there is the
ly using Lawo Commentary Units, which allow director, producer, technical director, audio
Dennis Baxter has contributed to hundreds of live events
for more signals to and from the IBC.” mixer, graphics operator, font coordinator, including sound design for nine Olympic Games. He
bug op, and 1–4 replay [tape] ops.” has earned multiple Emmy awards and is the author of
PAC-12 CENTRALIZED PRODUCTION “A Practical Guide to Television Sound Engineering.”
His current book about immersive sound practices and
The Pac-12 first started doing centralized TESTED AND PROVEN production will be available this month. He can be reached
production in 2013 with 35 shows in their I think when live sports shut down in 2020, at dbaxter@dennisbaxtersound.com.
By Ronan Poullaouec
W
hen the Covid global health
crisis hit, the broadcast
industry quickly adapted. Live
remote production increased,
especially for sports events. A recent industry
report found that when covering live events,
broadcasters are increasingly turning to remote
production, with 39% of those surveyed already
employing remote production or remote inte-
gration model (REMI) workflows. Almost half of
those surveyed (46%) indicated that REMI/at-
home technology is one of the most important
trends for their organization in the future.
Today, a majority of live sports events are re-
motely produced in some capacity. This trend is
expected to continue in the future. Live remote
production not only increases operational effi-
ciency and cost savings for broadcasters, it also
enables them to unlock the production quality
and to invest in and produce more content.
5G Remote
with an on-site studio or outside broadcast
truck. Beyond reducing the number of people
needed onsite and reducing the cost, it also
helps to produce more content for tier 2 and
tier 3 sports and improves the live production
Production Is
of tier 1 sports by using more cameras within
the venue.
Indeed, more and more cameras are now
based on IP technology. This includes PoV
Setting a New
and PTZ or embedded cameras connected to
5G transmitters. Thanks to these new produc-
tion setups, broadcasters can provide better
sports coverage. These camera setups are
Standard for
easy to control remotely and give viewers an
immersive view of the venue, covering every
angle of the field. For instance, small cameras
and transmitters are frequently used in tight
Live Sports
spaces, such as the inside of a racing car or a
racing boat, allowing viewers to get up close
with the action.
Of course, there are challenges with remote
production, such as ensuring good connectivity.
Broadcasts
About 99% of remote productions are based
on IP technology. If the network is not stable,
remote control will be impossible. Using a re-
liable transmission technology, broadcasters
can guarantee a strong connection between
Meeting the challenge of ensuring reliable connectivity the field and the studio.
Furthermore, latency can be an issue during
September 2022 13
5g connectivity
Timeline Television’s remote production model for SailGP relies on “big data pipes” for fast network links with high bandwidths.
S
ports broadcasting has always been feed. In this instance, Sky commentators, venues. “Because of that we are very aware
able to cover the action on location presenters and reporters traveled to New Zea- as a company of the impact on the environ-
through specialized outside broad- land, while crews in the UK worked remotely. ment,” he comments. “What we wanted to do
cast (OB) vehicles housing the nec- “It was the furthest distance away to prove was create more inclusive broadcast opera-
essary audio, vision and graphics equipment. latency would not be a hindrance,” Clement tions [so] all production spaces are accessible.
Today, with the advent of remote production, comments. We have so much gear at our Stratford studios
that concept has been turned around the oth- that is able to enhance content and we want-
er way. Picture and audio mixing, plus graphic ADVANCE PLANNING ed to reduce travel times and give access to
and caption insertion, is carried out at the As a result, Sky Sports drew up a five year our galleries through a centralized workflow.”
main broadcast center with signals sent from plan for moving production of its major sport- It was the potential of such setups, ob-
the location over communication links. ing rights, including Formula 1 motor racing, serves Charlie Cope, head of operations for
Two of the U.K.’s leading sports broadcast- Premier League football, cricket and tennis, BBC Sport, that convinced people remote
ers, Sky Sports and BT Sport, began consider- to remote models. Similarly, BT Sport had a production was viable. “The technology got
ing a move to this methodology long before four-year plan, which began with National to the point where there was no reason not
it became a necessity during the Covid crisis. League football. This is the lowest division in to do more remote productions,” he adds.
Sky Sports started trialing remote production English professional football and although “Latency issues had been overcome and
technologies in 2015, primarily, explains media coverage of it had been increasing on the cost side international connectivity
director of operations James Clement, as since the late 2000s, as Jamie Hindhaugh, [meant we] could afford to bring back multi-
a means of creating content across all the chief operating officer of BT Sport, explains, ple feeds.”
broadcaster’s rights and making the best use connectivity at stadiums was an issue. The carbon footprint caused by large num-
of its resources. “It wasn’t just a technology “We did a lot to try out technologies be- bers of staff traveling to cover sports overseas
project,” he says. cause none of the National League grounds was another consideration for BBC Sport as it
The 2015 trial led to full remote produc- were connected,” he says. “We started out assessed remote production during 2018–19.
tion techniques for the 2017 British and Irish with 4K coverage using satellite uplinks but Despite that, Cope says pre-Covid there was
Lions rugby union tour of New Zealand. The also cameras over 4G.” some opposition to throwing out the old op-
BREAKING BARRIERS
The global health emergency also forced
the hands of some independent sports pro-
duction companies. “Before the pandemic we
were looking at remote production but had no
real need or saw any advantage in going that
route at the time,” says David O’Carroll, op-
erations director of Aurora Media Worldwide.
“A lot of the productions we work on are new
or up-and-coming properties where there’s
a great deal of on-the-ground development
that goes on between the broadcast, events
and digital teams on-site.”
Because of this, the usual operating model
of Aurora Media—which works on Extreme
Johan Kristoffersson of Rosberg X Racing gives the camera a thumbs up after an Extreme E race.
E electric off-road racing, Formula E elec-
tric motor racing and the Six Day Cycling
Series—had been based on the traditional OB across the line from it being talked about to it individually or in combination. The most
truck. “What we found, though, was that the actually happening.” basic, which was used for the WSL before
technology to be remote all existed and the By contrast, prior to 2020, Timeline Tele- Covid, relies on cellular-bonded backpacks
barrier to it was [based] around collaboration vision had been working on remote produc- connected to 4G data networks. “The only
on-site and the production team’s familiar- tions of Women’s Super League football, the crew that go out are the camera operators
ity with the truck and being at the venue,” SailGP sailing championship and the National and the sound assistant,” comments Harnett,
explains O’Carroll. League for BT. “They all have slightly differ- “but you can have a really comprehensive
Once Covid made on-location working out ent models but we were working on those production.”
of the question, O’Carroll says production shows remotely pre-pandemic,” comments Model two is based on satellite technol-
staff soon realized working remotely was not David Harnett, Timeline’s head of operations. ogies, with four cameras embedded on an
the impediment they had feared: “The tech- “When the pandemic hit it changed the entire 18 MHz carrier through the use of modern
nology was such that they didn’t feel remote industry.” compression techniques. “We radiate two sat-
and were working in a familiar operating He explains that Timeline has three mod- ellite carriers and bring in up to eight camera
environment. The pandemic helped us get els for remote production, which can be used Continued on 20
Continued from 17
feeds to our broadcast center or to BT Sport
at its Stratford hub,” Harnett explains. “You “We accommodated more games and I don't think we
can produce a high-profile match but with the would have been able to achieve the number required if
benefits of reduced crew, using a satellite van
rather than a large OB truck.” we had stayed on the traditional workflows”
The third model, used on SailGP, Formu- JAMES CLEMENT, SKY SPORTS
la E and Dubai horse racing, relies on “big
data pipes” for fast network links with high using the blueprint of our EFL coverage,” he other requirements. These range from fiber
bandwidths. In this way, 40-50 feeds of video adds. “We accommodated more games and connectivity to accommodate UHD, HDR and
can be transported with, Harnett says, almost I don’t think we would have been able to Dolby Atmos on PL coverage (as is the case
no latency. “There’s obviously a trade-off be- achieve the number required if we had stayed with Sky) to 4G for Super League rugby league
tween connectivity versus travel and expenses on traditional workflows.” matches. Hindhaugh sees the next step as 5G
but model three is really good and is what BBC Sport’s Cope observes that the carriers, something BT Sport demonstrated
most companies are talking about in terms of Covid-enforced changes brought by remote in 2018. This, he says, has the advantage of
remote production,” he adds. production have transformed how people network slicing, can create virtualized and
work covering FA Cup games, which previous- independent segments within a network. In
PLAYING CATCH UP ly involved a lot of time on the road. “They addition to this, network slicing also offers
That is certainly the case for Sky Sports, would be traveling the length and breadth of the guaranteed latency, bandwidth and quali-
which built up the number of events it the country but now it can be done remotely ty needed for live broadcasting.
produced remotely using Gigabit (scaling to from Salford,” he says. “That means the crew As well as these technologies, there is the
10 Gb) fiber connections, including for the does not have to travel and can be back home potential of the public internet. Sky Sports
English Football League (EFL), in the years up with their families the same day.” has been testing this for netball coverage,
to 2019. “Our plan was to start remote cricket As for connectivity, Cope says links should using error correction to give more latency.
coverage in 2020, have the Premier League suit the location and technology the produc- “It can be challenging but we wanted to pro-
(PL) running at the end of 2022 and then be tion is looking for. “On high-profile produc- vide more content,” says Clement. However,
pretty much moved over to full remote by the tions we’re using resilient fiber solutions he notes that viewers will not be seeing the
end of 2023,” says Clement. with satellite back-up,” he continues. “On the Premier League produced over the internet
Covid brought all that forward dramatically. other side, Whisper is producing the EFL for any time soon.
After the initial period of no sport at all, Sky— us using mobile-based systems brought back But sooner rather than later has been the
and other sports broadcasters—found itself over LiveU portable streaming packages. We case for remote production. Sky Sports has
in the position of catching up with numerous accept that there is some latency involved delivered its five-year plan three years early.
postponed matches and events, including 100 but satellite is still useful there as a back-up, BT Sport’s four-year project came in two years
PL games in 40 days. “As lockdown ended we rather than as the main system.” ahead of schedule. Which is making TV sports
worked with our suppliers to build temporary BT Sport has 10 models, depending on nearly 100% remote while, at the same time,
facilities at Sky Studios, the sport, what cameras are being used and totally connected. l
Video and Audio how the feeds and backhaul will be handled.
Before planning an on-site production, ask
what types of connections are available and
Transportation –
what sort of bandwidth can be expected from
each. If it’s IP-based, find out whether back-
ups exist in case the main feeds fail.
Remote Production
disrupted.
The latency of the remote site connection
is also an issue. 5G, for example, is an appeal-
ing prospect for video transportation, but it
When it comes to feeds, not all sites are created equal isn’t where it needs to be quite yet. If a site
is offering 5G as its primary IP connection,
ask whether the Ultra Reliable Low Latency
puzzling over their options, because it isn’t Communications application is available with
By Geoff Bowen as simple as many would have them believe. that connection.
Everything depends on the telecommunica- One piece of equipment that can help mit-
T
he concept of remote production— tions infrastructure that will be in play for igate your bandwidth issues is a good-quality
moving the raw content generated at each event. Traditional sports arenas are no encoder, which provides low-latency com-
a site event back to the main facility problem: there will be dedicated fiber links pression to make video easier to transport
for production and management— with all the high-speed bandwidth you need. over IP. Some remote video equipment
has been gaining popularity in the broadcast But what about the non-traditional locations? includes cursory encoders, but those encoders
world. Mobile/site content has also been gain-
ing wide popularity, with the ability to offer
viewers a wide range of sporting events and Before planning an
on-site production, ask
other on-site broadcasts via traditional over-
what types of connections
the-air, cable and streaming options. are available and what
When Covid hit, broadcasters were faced sort of bandwidth can be
with a dual dilemma—their viewers wanted expected from each.
even more remotely generated content to
make them feel more connected while they
were staying at home, but the broadcasters
needed to keep their own personnel safe
and secure while generating that increase
in content that the audiences demanded.
Remote production quickly came into play as
S
ky has a long history of adopting gallery now, it may seem that little has we needed confidence that video would look
new technologies. The move from changed, but that’s exactly the point; adding right everywhere in the chain.”
analog to digital all those years ago HDR has been a story of minimizing changes HDR’s not just about the cameras. Hughes’
in 1998 brought more channels and to the workflow. Through careful research and work extended to ensure workflow compati-
improved the audio and picture quality. More planning, Sky has added HDR to live trans- bility with systems including studio graphics,
recently, Sky Glass was a bold move on many missions with no increase in headcount and channel branding, playout servers and adver-
fronts all of which were aimed at a better disruption has been kept to a minimum by tising content.
viewing experience. Sky Glass is a UHD TV only using HDR in key positions such as the Sky is using HLG, a popular HDR format
offering, which is no surprise from a company technical supervisor and match director. for live broadcasts. Its full name is hybrid
that’s delivered UHD programming for six Along with HDR, Sky has moved to using log-gamma, which is a nod to the way the
years now, and it also supports Dolby Atmos the BT.2020 color space, a standard that format works. HDR requires a different inter-
which Sky’s been broadcasting in for four allows many more colors than the Rec.709 pretation of the digital video data signals that
years. But for those who believe in the “better colour space popularized by HD SDI. This is we’ve grown used to employing. SDI video has
pixels” philosophy of quality over quantity, an important element to sports events, which a stream of numbers that describe the bright-
High Dynamic Range (HDR) is the technology often involve highly saturated colors around ness of a scene. Just like the Lookup Tables
to look out for. the stadium, on players’ kits and on match (LUTs) used in camera work and color grading,
Starting in 2020, Sky customers could balls. HDR standards define how image “luminance”
watch on-demand content in HDR. August Carys Hughes, senior picture quality engi- levels are distributed between each number
last year saw HDR arriving on live English neer at Sky explains the challenges bringing and the next. Converting between SDR and
Premier League matches and has expanded to HDR to their well understood UHD workflows. HDR requires correct selection and applica-
700 events per year. “Anything we do in HDR, has to work for our tion of specific LUTs.
In a recent TV Tech Talk, moderator Wes Simpson discussed the latest each other and just minimize the amount of
people that are in a control room. So I said
challenges, opportunities and trends in the growing field of remote two, but really it was three.
production, also known as “REMI.” The following is an edited transcript
of his discussion with Deon LeCointe, director of network solutions with Steven Bilow: Deon said something really
important when he mentioned having fewer
Sony, Steven Bilow, senior product marketing manager with Telestream staff on site, and being able to do more re-
and Dan Maloney, technical marketing manager with Matrox Video. motely with the newer technologies because
when I think of it from a business perspective,
Wes Simpson: Remote production got a big nectivity to drive their actual environments. everybody is always buying new equipment
boost from the pandemic, but what factors are And then there's the cost aspect. They now because there's new technology.
driving broadcasters to continue growing their have the ability to do things like resource But what you really want to do is be able
remote production capabilities going forward sharing or remote production (REMI), where to make the most efficient use of that capital
from today? you can deploy a minimized amount of equip- investment as you can, and one of the reasons
Deon LaCointe: There's two things, first it's ment and personnel on site to capture your I think remote production is going to continue
the technology and the fact that it's possible content. You have the ability to share resourc- is because people now can, not only when they
now. IP technology for video has been around es from production to production. make a capital investment; they're able to do
for a long time but I think a lot of people And I think, hopefully, this starts to di- it maybe in a little bit larger scale than they
think about streaming applications, transport minish more and more over time. But I think could before because you're now able to use the
streams, and so on, but recently with the the pandemic was a big driving factor. It's the equipment you buy, the software you buy, the
advent of technologies like 2022-6, 2110, peo- elephant in the room—I think there's still the trucks and you build across a larger number of
ple now feel way more comfortable building continued drive for protective measures by potential events.
broadcast infrastructures that allow that con- keeping a large number of people away from In the old days if you wanted to do some
sports production or you wanted to do a live fear than they might have in the past because
event, you needed to bring your truck in and they were able to do it in We've seen a number
you needed to set it up and everything. We still of sporting and news events are being done
have to do that for live events, but you have so remotely, so it's growing and the world is your
many fewer people on-site that you can now oyster. But if you're doing it just for the sake
take the capital you invest, say, in building a of doing it, you should probably rethink what
truck or building internal infrastructure, and your outcomes are.
you're able to deploy that in a way where you
can actually, let's say, do multiple shows in a WS: Are there any applications where remote
week that you could never do or even potential- production is not a good idea?
ly do multiple shows in a day. DL: My response to this or similar questions
is: Don't do remote production just for the
Dan Maloney: The only thing I would add is sake of doing remote production. Everybody
that the pandemic specifically forced content runs their business differently; everybody
creators, producers to to get creative and do knows when they have a primetime show, and
whatever they could with spit and bubblegum they don't want to put it at risk. If you're go-
to try to keep the show going and keep the ing to deploy a traditional production truck, I
events rolling. And they developed a lot of think there's a certain financial threshold.
good content, despite the fact they had limit- We've seen the Olympics was done in remote “I think there's still
ed technology.
So that really opened their eyes for what
production. We've seen a number of sporting
and news events are being done remotely, so
a place for camera
was possible, and once they got the taste for it's growing and the world is your oyster. But if operators to be sitting in
what was possible, now that the restrictions you're doing it just for the sake of doing it, you
that truck. And even if
Photo credit: Sony
are removed or slightly removed, they can go should probably rethink what your outcomes
ahead and really start experimenting with less are. What efficiencies are you achieving? What it's just one guy shading
benefits and objectives are you achieving? Be-
cause it's still not an easy thing to do and a lot cameras, there are certain
of thought still has to go into it. tasks that are still best
DM: I just want to add that although the done on site.”
technology might be there, if your creative STEVEN BILOW, TELESTREAM
staff—the directors and some of the staff run-
ning the equipment aren't—and they're much
more comfortable being in a live environment
and getting content produced that way—then choice of who's using what equipment, what
maybe you don't force it down their throat. So people you want, maybe have a broader se-
there really is a people aspect to it as well. lection of who you want to use on your team
who’s producing the predictive killer shots
SB: There are some tasks that might still best and you want to fly them around. You really
be done on-site, or at least I haven't seen peo- have the choice now of having your absolute
ple trying to do them too much remotely, for best creative people, anywhere you want in
example, camera shading. If you’ve got a truck the world. I'm not downplaying the creative
with 16 cameras on it, you've got to shade aspects of this because there are people who
them and I think there's still a place for camera do things that I admire that I could never do.
“We've seen a number operators to be sitting in that truck. And even But I think if you look at the creative side of
of sporting and news if it's just one guy shading cameras, there are things, there are more choices in terms of the
certain tasks that are still best done on site. creative people that you bring into a produc-
events are being done tion than you do having the technical people
remotely, so it's growing WS: What about the things that we all do when
we're doing live events or even doing pre-recorded
who have to debug a problem, for example.
So I think, in the broad sense, being able to
and the world is your events in terms of monitoring and maintain- monitor a lot of distributed systems remote-
oyster. But if you're ing and watching the video to make sure that
things are happening the way that we expect
ly—whether it be 2110 or 2022-6—you have
things spread out remotely and you need to be
doing it just for the sake them to go? What are some of the techniques for able to monitor them from a central location
of doing it, you should monitoring these feeds remotely and entering and
exiting cloud environments and things like that?
for example. And the reason I think that is,
is because you can have your best people
probably rethink what SB: As far as monitoring goes, let's say for creatively anywhere you want in the world,
example, you have camera operators on-site, but you don't have that big of a choice of the
your outcomes are.” but other people are doing editing and build- best technical people in the world. So what you
DEON LECOINTE, SONY ing packages all remotely and you have this Continued on 32
Continued from 29 deployed? If in a traditional REMI—and I going back to all in-person and I think that
want to do is maybe centralize them and have use the word "traditional" loosely—you have kind of follows what you're seeing going on in
them centrally monitor a distributed system. your cameras deployed to the field, the sig- corporate America, where we're being told "it's
nals are all coming back from multiple sites, time to come back to work."
DL: If I can add to that, coming at it from a lit- so there are potentially different network So, it's not that the amount of remote pro-
tle bit of a different angle, the goal of building latencies that are coming in. ductions have gone down, but definitely you
out these remote production environments or If your switcher and your processing can walk into a lot of broadcast facilities, like
production-at-a-distance environment is that hardware are back at headquarters, as the here in New York, you go to our control room
to try to emulate an in-facility production as signals land in the switcher, when you switch and there's a full complement of personnel
closely as possible. So, you want to emulate your signals, you shouldn't see any latency in there. I don't have percentages, but I can
those workflows. You don't want to put the because the latency has already been taken still see that there's some that are moving in
broadcast engineers or your production staff up from the network side, from traversing the that way. And there are others who are still
in a position where they can tell the difference, distance. If your panel is located at headquar- like, "No, we're still working out of our living
and now they have to operate differently. ters, but your switcher, your processing, is rooms, and we have the technology to do it.”
located at the remote site, that's where you I think it's going both ways right now.
WS: What about latency issues? could see a difference switching from source
DL: We kind of dealt with this a few years ago, A to source B. DM: There are people going back and there
when REMI was really coming to maturity, Now the key to remember is, as long as are other media production companies that
and we came up with a term called "opera- it's going into the switcher in time, then are going to be perfectly happy to remain
tional latency." If you're a technical director, you're good because all of the signals are remote. And they build a business on that
you're sitting in front of the switcher. You're fine; they’re timed and they're good to go. versus some of the more traditional operators
bringing in a whole bunch of remote feeds... And then there are technologies within 2110 who are like, "well, we know how to do things
How long does it take between when I switch where they put in the RTP timestamp in the the old way and we're comfortable doing
from source A to source B before I see the stream. There are systems out there that can that." So it's here to stay in various capacities
changeover in my multiviewer? make those frame accurate so you can line at various organizations.
And I think there's two ways of look- things up. So you should be good on having
ing at it: One is, where is your equipment your signals coming in and being lined up WS: I think you've got a good point there. So
correctly within the switcher. one of the things about a lot of these remote and
hybrid workflows is that they really rely on high-
DM: I'll give you one of the examples where speed high-availability data links, so I don't see
we as equipment vendors should try our best that trend going away.
to minimize latencies for things like talkback, DL: I think broadcasters were all hoping for a
when, for example, if a production director significant drop in the costs of fiber connec-
is remote or, excuse me, in studio or back at tivity, with telcos between different facilities.
headquarters, and he's talking to his camera If you're coming from a sports venue, or doing
operators, you don't want him to be 15 sec- election coverage or something like that, and
onds behind. if you look at it in a smaller timeframe, like a
But when you're looking at a one-second two-to-five year timeframe, you might argue
latency or so or less, then that's usually that the cost hasn't come down at all—in fact,
quite manageable. If they have to do small you might argue it went up. But if you look at
adjustments, you know, frame-accurate cuts it in a broader timeframe, 10 years or more,
for example, everything is in sync coming in, the cost of the links have actually come down
doesn't matter if things are all delayed by the so I give the telco some credit there. But the
same amount, no big deal. But the inter- broadcasters are still going to have the rest
personal discussion—if you’re using Zoom of your links for your big primetime events—
or Skype or some other type of, not even a you're going to have dual, you're gonna go
professional means of talkback back to the terrestrial and satellite.
“The pandemic camera operators—that's very low latency, But I also think a lot of interesting things
specifically forced content so trying to bring those things back in as low are happening in the way of 5G. All the stadi-
latency as possible is an important task we ums in the NFL are talking about 5G connec-
creators, producers to get strive to achieve. tivity, but then you have to figure out, well,
creative and do whatever you're not going to use the 5G connectivity
WS: Among the trends—going full-time remote that's being used by the fans, right? So you’ve
they could with spit and or a hybrid model or back to all in-person, what got to figure out, are you deploying 5G for the
bubblegum to try to keep do we see going forward?
SB: I don’t think we’re ever going to go back
production environment? The technologies
are coming along, but it always just comes
the show going and keep to all in-person. down to cost and implementation.
the events rolling.” DL: Interestingly enough, I'm seeing a mixed You can access the full hour-long webcast
DAN MALONEY, MATROX VIDEO bag. I'm actually seeing a lot of broadcasters here. l