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5 Essential Elements of At-Home Live Remote Production Workflows
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Broadcast engineers and producers are always looking for better, more efficient ways to contribute and distribute video. This is especially true for sports broadcasters and live-TV producers, who regularly deal with backhauling live, high- action, multicamera, multisource video and audio — and now must also accommodate travel restrictions, and social distancing requirements.
At-home live video production, or REMI (remote integration model) production, is a great solution because it enables multicamera capture of live content at a remote location and management of production from the main studio or control room. It’s a common-sense approach that delivers big in terms of efficiency and cost savings, and it may well become the new normal. This guide will look at state-of-the-art at-home live production workflows, delve into essential elements of implementation, and describe how this model can help to reduce the cost, complexity, and time required for remote production.
/ -- Essential 1: Maintain Frame-Accurate Genlock and Lip Sync across Multiple Cameras
For at-home production for live reality TV, sports, and multi-camera field production, maintaining frame-accurate genlock and lip sync is among the greatest challenges … and most important capabilities. When audio and video are out of sync, the live program is simply unwatchable.
In workflows based on SMPTE ST 2110, precision time protocol (PTP) is used to synchronize clocks throughout a computer network and thereby support frame- accurate genlock and lip sync. Proprietary protocols can likewise support accurate timing, whereby facilitating the transport of perfectly synchronized video and audio, while also aggregating multiple network connections simultaneously, dynamically adapting the video bitrate in response to network bandwidth fluctuations, protecting stream content, and supporting retransmission of lost data.
/ -- Essential 2: Consider Using Unmanaged Networks - Cellular and the Public Internet
Until recently, working with a metro fiber optic Ethernet link or an MPLS network was the conventional option for live remote multicamera production, perhaps with cellular network or public internet serving as backup. Today, thanks to the ongoing refinement of bonded cellular technology, cellular and the public internet can be as or more reliable than satellite in supporting remote production workflows.
Using multiple cellular modems combining the 3G, 4G LTE, 5G and other available IP networks including Ethernet and Wi-Fi, cellular video uplink solutions provide resilience and support broadcast-quality video while enhancing freedom of mobility in the field. They’re ideal for at-home production workflows because when you’re going through the public internet or cellular, it doesn’t make a difference if you’re a thousand miles away or 10,000 miles away.
/ -- Essential 3: Take Greater Advantage of Your Technical Resources
If you’re in live sports, news, or reality TV, then you likely have a crack technical team capable of operating graphics, replay, and other systems expertly even in a high- pressure live environment. In a conventional live production model, you would send this team out along with several mobile production units for the duration of the event. All in all, you’ve put two or three production trucks worth of gear and dozens of skilled and specialized staff out on the road.
When you shift to an at-home live production workflow, you can keep much of your expensive equipment — and the specialists who operate them — in a centralized location. Rather than put a large mobile unit (or two or three) on the road for several days, you might instead use smaller trucks or more agile portable control rooms.
In doing so, you not only reduce travel and hospitality costs, but also free up time to work on additional projects. You can dedicate your valuable technical resources to multiple live events in a single day. Facilities already implementing at-home production are using “mission centric” workflows to keep multiple productions separate and prevent confusion or errors.
/ -- Essential 4: Capture Every Signal and Source
Whether you’re covering a sport such as football, baseball, or basketball, or you’re producing an up-close-and-personal reality TV show, you use a wide variety of cameras and microphones to catch every angle.
Whatever your environment, be it a crowded stadium or a high-speed chase, you need a solution that is both reliable and robust enough to ensure you can capture every signal from every source.
When you’re working with cellular solutions, reliability and robustness begin with high-quality, high-gain antennas. Modems with high sensitivity are also critical to maintaining a cellular connection not just to a network, but to different bands on that network. This means that even if there is congestion on some bands, your system can find one that’s not being flooded or overutilized.
/ -- Essential 5: Put Key Features/Capabilities to Work for You
Today’s cellular video field encoders come with an array of features that can simplify the at-home production workflow and contribute to a more interesting or dynamic show. Be aware of the valuable features or capabilities you’re getting, and learn how to put them to use.
A good codec can bring you significant efficiency gains. On-board, in-camera recording can serve as backup or, if a slow connection compromises the live feed, a second HEVC encoder can supply a higher – quality recorded version of the video for highlights or replays.
The combination of a data hotspot and a secure VPN connection can allow you to connect assets in the field such as PTZ camera to the same subnet as master control, establish remote control, and eliminate the need for an on-site camera operator.
Full-resolution return video that can be used for in-venue replays or to feed a high-res teleprompter (without an on-site production truck).
A user-friendly UI —native on the device and web-based too for access via smartphones, tablets, computers — can provide real-time access to data on signal strength, the bit rate going through, the band, priority, and more.
The ability to keep low-priority connections “warm” so they can automatically step in when backup is needed.
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Multiple modems, each with dual SIM cards, that make it possible to fire up whichever cellular network/provider is available .
Automatic live start to make sure camera and transmission feed comes back up quickly following battery swap.
Analog Audio Inputs. I’ve learned from working with sports and Field production companies that extra audio channels are always needed. The PRO and AIR-series both have stereo analog audio inputs on mini-XLR. Analog audio inputs give many VidOvation customers the ability to have extra microphones catching the action such as lapel microphones on commentators and talent, parabolic microphones capturing audio from a distance, Toptracer golf ball tracking systems and more.
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At-home live remote production is changing the way broadcasters, networks, and production companies create and deliver today’s most engaging programs. Find out how you can implement your own at-home live remote production workflow and realize the many benefits of centralized production using cost-effective cellular and internet video links.
Set up a meeting to discuss your questions, your project, and your technical requirements. VidOvation has engineered solutions for leaders in broadcasting. Find out what we can do for you!
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Rick Anderson VP - Sales & Business Development VidOvation - Moving Video Forward [email protected] +1 949-954-5282 www.vidovation.com
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