SPECIAL GUIDE: Remote Production

September
2022
ebook

www.tvtech.com

Remotely
Speaking
Tracking the trends
and evolution of
remote production

Sponsored by
 editor's note

September 2022

FOLLOW US
www.tvtech.com
twitter.com/tvtechnology

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

24 Live HDR Remote

COMMENTS?
Production at Sky Sports
Have a comment or suggestion about this ebook or other ebooks
28 ‘Don’t Do Remote from TV Tech? Drop us a line at tvtech@futurenet.com.
Production for the Sake ON THE COVER:
of Doing Remote Tokyo Sound Production Inc. (TSP) recently deployed Matrox Video's Monarch EDGE
Production’ remote production encoder and decoder pair for multi-camera web broadcasts.
Photo credit: Matrox Video

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | Special Guide: Remote Production | September 2022 3

cloud-based production

Sky Germany
has combined
cloud-based
production
technologies
with 5G
contribution
to transmit a
handball match.

Image credit: Sky Germany

How Covid Forced Broadcasters

to Go Remote
Up until two years ago, cloud-based production was a choice, since then it’s become a necessity

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

of people to work in close quarters. When live

sports are added to the mix, with stadiums
filled with people, it becomes impossible to
mount a traditional sport OB without the risk
of it becoming a super spreader event.

4 September 2022 | Special Guide: Remote Production | www.tvtech.com | twitter.com/tvtechnology

 cloud-based production

ful, three things are required: desire, oppor-
tunity and necessity. Until now, the third item
on the list has been lacking. The pandemic
changed the way the world does everything,
and video production was no exception.
Necessity has now entered the equation, and
broadcasters and production companies are
scrambling for ways to meet the demand for
content, while remaining safe.
Broadcasters like Discovery and Comcast
have already moved their supply chain to
the cloud in terms of the delivery of finished
programs. However, until recently, remote
contribution was restricted to slower-than-
real-time file delivery from Wi-Fi hotspots or
ethernet connection points.
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.
• In situations where access to a fixed
broadband connection is not available,
mobile networks are filling the gap. These
networks have moved from the 3G data
rates of 3 Mbps only a few years ago, to the
widespread availability of 4G networks with
data rates of 20 Mbps. 5G networks have
been rolled out in many urban areas, and
not only provide an average data rate of
100+ Mbps, but also offer quality of service
provisions to ensure reliability of transmis-
sion. The upload speeds have also in-
creased enough to make real-time control
of remote systems feasible.
• The cloud-hosting environment has ma-
tured, with relatively inexpensive options
provided by AWS, Google, Azure and others.
The “hardware on demand” model offered
by cloud services significantly reduces cap-
ital expenditure for both broadcasters and
production companies.
• The introduction of new media-centric
video over IP transport protocol, NDI (Net-
work Device Interface) allows for real-time,
ultra-low latency video on existing IP video
networks. Developed by NewTek, NDI is be-
ing used by vendors like Sony and Imagine.
Advances in broadcast technology tend
to move in one direction—increased quality,
increased functionality, and increased costs.
These new developments move in multiple
new directions—increased flexibility and
reduced costs, without a reduction in quality.
Although many of the productions that
have moved to cloud-based workflows did
so in response to emergency conditions, it is
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
engineer using Vectar Plus, a live production solution from Vizrt.
unlikely that all of them will return to previ-
ous approaches as the world opens up again.
These new systems have been “battle tested”
and have stood up to the challenge.
Just as offices have moved permanently to
hybrid working, the broadcast industry is likely
to continue to use hybrid workflows, using
traditional studios and OBs where appropriate,
and remote working where it is most effective.
To be fair, using compressed NDI feeds over
consumer-grade networks is not up to the
“gold standard” of SDI, C-band and now 2110,
but the convergence of all these technological
advances has brought us to a watershed mo-
ment when the old joke, “fast, cheap, good—
pick two” is in danger of being retired.
TWO CASE STUDIES: MEDIA.MONKS
AND SKY DEUTSCHLAND
In late 2020, Netherlands-based mar-
keting and advertising services company
Media.Monks was commissioned by a major
sports league to produce 20 games in 4K
UHD. However, thanks to Covid restrictions,
the on-site OB crew would be limited to two
people at each match, and they would have
only a 4x4 tabletop to house their equip-
ment.
They developed a workflow to produce
multiple, simultaneous games that would in-
clude six unmanned cameras placed around
each arena supported by a camera technician
and one encoding engineer using Vectar
Plus, a live production solution from Vizrt.
“We looked at other products in the
cloud to serve our purpose and there was
no product out there that could handle the
workflow the way we wanted it to go,” said
Lewis Smithingham, Media.Monks director
of creative solutions. “Our production trucks
can work around the world in a single day.
It’s fascinating to see that type of business
transformation occurring.”
A big plus is that this approach has enabled
Media.Monks to keep its global staff of 6,000
people fully employed throughout the pan-
demic.
Sky Germany has combined cloud-based
production technologies with 5G contri-
bution to transmit a handball match. The
production was executed fully in the cloud
with a mixture of broadcast and mobile
phone cameras, LiveU’s 5G transmission
technology, Vizrt’s switching, graphics and
sports analysis tools, all deployed in AWS
and facilitated by NDI.l

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | Special Guide: Remote Production | September 2022 5

remote integration

The Ways Audio Adapted to

the New REMI Normal
Enough work had been done prior to the pandemic to make the transition easier

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.

8 September 2022 | Special Guide: Remote Production | www.tvtech.com | twitter.com/tvtechnology


Photo credit: boonchai wedmakawand/Getty Images
In 2013 Mazza’s team opened the Stam-
ford Production Operations Center (SPOC) in
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
further reduced, particularly by NBC.
“NBC developed what is known as the ‘Off
Tube Factory,’ which were temporary sound-
proof booths at the SPOC in Stamford where
over time more and more of the sports were
called off tube,” Craig said. “At the Beijing
Winter Games there were no commentators at
any venue, everything was announced ‘off tube’
except for Opening Ceremonies. NBC is current-
ly using Lawo Commentary Units, which allow
for more signals to and from the IBC.”
PAC-12 CENTRALIZED PRODUCTION
The Pac-12 first started doing centralized
production in 2013 with 35 shows in their
first season and in 2021 met their yearly
production goal of 850 live events using the
centralized model. I asked Glenn Stilwell,
who has been on the mixing desk since the
beginning, about latency issues and lip sync.
“In order for it to work, engineering
designed a custom piece of software to run
local DSP and then the audio stems are
directly embedded into the camera path,” he
said. “[It’s] very reliable and always within
2ms because it’s embedded on-site before
it’s shipped to us. They now use four cam-
era paths with up to eight stems each; so 32
stems possible, although the older vans can
only do four channels on the fourth path.”
I also asked him about the number and
positions of on-site crew and studio crew.
“On-site there usually is one or two audio
assists, a video operator, although some-
times the OB EIC shades the cameras when
the shows are indoors and there is not much
variation in light,” he said. “There would
be the camera operators, a unit manager or
Glenn Stilwell has been on the mixing desk for Pac-12 since it began centralized production of
its games in 2013.
technical manager and a couple of utilities.
Ninety-five percent of the time the present-
ers are on-site.
“For something like baseball or softball we
will also have interview headsets in each dug-
out,” Stilwell added. “In-studio there is the
director, producer, technical director, audio
mixer, graphics operator, font coordinator,
bug op, and 1–4 replay [tape] ops.”
TESTED AND PROVEN
I think when live sports shut down in 2020,
twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | Special Guide: Remote Production | September 2022
remote integration
virtually all aspects of remote control produc-
tion had been tested and proven. Manufactur-
ers and engineering departments accelerated
the effort and budgets to get and keep live
sports and entertainment on the air, clearly
solidifying the new workflow.
I understand the arguments that the
announcers should be on-site to soak up
the energy and be close to the athletes and
coaches at a live event—OK, perhaps a couple
of sideline reporters, but not the entire play-
by-play and color team. And why have the
halftime jibber jabber overlooking an empty
field? Remember during the 2022 NFL playoffs
when the commentators’ set ended up in front
of a PA cluster used for the halftime entertain-
ment? How did that work out? Clearly the ben-
efit of having the announcers on the sideline
vanished with the first guitar strum.
The magic of being on location is the roots
of live sports production—the vibe, energy
and the ability to capture it all and craft a
story. Television—and particularly sports—
can be a low-attention activity and the
producers are always trying to keep viewers
eyeballs. But just because engineering can
do a remote from somewhere on earth why
should they? l
Dennis Baxter has contributed to hundreds of live events
including sound design for nine Olympic Games. He
has earned multiple Emmy awards and is the author of
“A Practical Guide to Television Sound Engineering.”
His current book about immersive sound practices and
production will be available this month. He can be reached
at dbaxter@dennisbaxtersound.com.
9
5G connectivity

12 September 2022 | Special Guide: Remote Production | www.tvtech.com | twitter.com/tvtechnology

 5g connectivity

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.

EXAMINING THE BENEFITS AND

CHALLENGES OF LIVE SPORTS
REMOTE PRODUCTION
One of the biggest reasons broadcasters
are implementing remote production work-
flows for live sports is because it drastically
simplifies the production workflow compared

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
Meeting the challenge of ensuring reliable connectivity
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
the field and the studio.
Furthermore, latency can be an issue during

September 2022 13
5g connectivity

a live remote production. Broadcasters need a

solution that will provide the lowest possible
transmission latency between the venue and
the studio. If there is a substantial amount of
latency, it will be difficult for broadcasters to
manage camera switching and can impact the
quality of experience for viewers.

THE PROJECTED IMPACT OF 5G ON

LIVE SPORTS REMOTE PRODUCTION
5G technology has been a game changer for
remote production, offering even more capac-
ity and better coverage than 4G. The feedback
thus far from broadcasters, production com-
panies, and TV stations using 5G technology
has been extremely positive. During the 2021
Tokyo Summer Games, 5G technology was
used successfully for the live video production
of the opening and closing ceremonies as well
as for the coverage of several events.
However, 5G is currently in the initial stage,
with the first deployments of 5G standalone
networks now underway. The second phase of
5G will be revolutionary, offering broadcasters

Photo credit: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

quality of service with reserved bandwidth and
allowing them to ensure an outstanding quality
of service for live sports events. This upgrad-
ed version of 5G was used during the Oympic
Winter Games in Beijing and will be available
at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Enhanced 5G
standalone technology will also help reduce
transmission latency and will change the
way broadcasters use 5G technology for their
production. The new quality of service and
enhancement of 5G coverage will improve the
responsiveness of remote productions.
Given that 5G standalone
technology will offer
increased services on top
of higher bandwidth, we
anticipate a significant
increase in live
productions
relying on 5G in 2022
and beyond.
Given that 5G standalone technology will
offer increased services on top of high-
er bandwidth, we anticipate a significant
increase in live productions relying on 5G in
2022 and beyond.
Enhanced 5G
technology was used
for remote production
during the 2022 Winter
Games in Beijing
EMBRACING LIVE REMOTE PRODUCTION
IN THE REAL WORLD
During the Covid crisis, broadcasters large-
ly embraced the concept of remote production
for live events—the PGA Tour is one such
success story.
One of the PGA Tour’s production goals
was to limit the number of people on the
golf course. PGA Tour produced multiple
golf tournaments events, including one at
Seminole Golf Club near West Palm Beach,
Fla,, in REMI style with handheld cameras, a
drone camera, and a camera in a plane flying
over the golf course. Each camera leveraged
a specialized bonded-cellular transmitter to
get signals from the course to a production
facility hundreds of miles away.
Advancements are also happening in the
real world with 5G remote production. This
past year, Greece saw the first live television
broadcasts via 5G—during the final of the
Greek Cup, broadcaster Cosmote TV success-
fully controlled two robotic cameras from a
remote studio and transmitted high-quality
audio and video via 5G. The robotic cameras
utilized 5G ultra-compact HEVC transmitters
in combination with a high-performance
transceiver to transmit HD images and sound
from the stadium in perfect synchronization
and without any delay. Thanks to the low
latency enabled by the 5G network, Cosmote
TV controlled robotic cameras in real time.
The innovation displayed by Cosmote TV is a
sneak peek of what’s to come in the future as
broadcasters transition from using traditional
infrastructure to 5G networks for live remote
production.
CONCLUSION
The Covid crisis accelerated remote pro-
duction workflows for live sports events. Since
the start of the pandemic, more and more
broadcasters are adopting remote produc-
tion for live sports. Under a remote produc-
tion workflow, broadcasters can utilize POV
cameras to a greater extent and can directly
embed cameras in tight spaces in order to
provide a unique, close-up view of what is
happening. As 5G deployments heat up, it will
be interesting to see how remote production
further evolves for live sports. l
Ronan Poulaoeuc is the Chief Technology Officer and
Co-Founder of AVIWEST

14 September 2022 | Special Guide: Remote Production | www.tvtech.com | twitter.com/tvtechnology

live collaboration
Timeline Television’s remote production model for SailGP relies on “big data pipes” for fast network links with high bandwidths.
Remote Sporting Models
A look at how European broadcasters adapted to the new workflows
of remote sports TV production
By Kevin Hilton
S
ports broadcasting has always been
able to cover the action on location
through specialized outside broad-
cast (OB) vehicles housing the nec-
essary audio, vision and graphics equipment.
Today, with the advent of remote production,
that concept has been turned around the oth-
er way. Picture and audio mixing, plus graphic
and caption insertion, is carried out at the
main broadcast center with signals sent from
the location over communication links.
Two of the U.K.’s leading sports broadcast-
ers, Sky Sports and BT Sport, began consider-
ing a move to this methodology long before
it became a necessity during the Covid crisis.
Sky Sports started trialing remote production
technologies in 2015, primarily, explains
director of operations James Clement, as
a means of creating content across all the
broadcaster’s rights and making the best use
of its resources. “It wasn’t just a technology
project,” he says.
The 2015 trial led to full remote produc-
tion techniques for the 2017 British and Irish
Lions rugby union tour of New Zealand. The
16 September 2022 | Special Guide: Remote Production | www.tvtech.com |
standard approach would have been to ship
out ENG crews and equipment for producing
Sky-style presentations to enhance the host
feed. In this instance, Sky commentators,
presenters and reporters traveled to New Zea-
land, while crews in the UK worked remotely.
“It was the furthest distance away to prove
latency would not be a hindrance,” Clement
comments.
ADVANCE PLANNING
As a result, Sky Sports drew up a five year
plan for moving production of its major sport-
ing rights, including Formula 1 motor racing,
Premier League football, cricket and tennis,
to remote models. Similarly, BT Sport had a
four-year plan, which began with National
League football. This is the lowest division in
English professional football and although
media coverage of it had been increasing
since the late 2000s, as Jamie Hindhaugh,
chief operating officer of BT Sport, explains,
connectivity at stadiums was an issue.
“We did a lot to try out technologies be-
cause none of the National League grounds
were connected,” he says. “We started out
with 4K coverage using satellite uplinks but
also cameras over 4G.”
twitter.com/tvtechnology
According to Hindhaugh, the “key chal-
lenge in sports production” had been people
traveling sometimes long distances to get to
venues. “Because of that we are very aware
as a company of the impact on the environ-
ment,” he comments. “What we wanted to do
was create more inclusive broadcast opera-
tions [so] all production spaces are accessible.
We have so much gear at our Stratford studios
that is able to enhance content and we want-
ed to reduce travel times and give access to
our galleries through a centralized workflow.”
It was the potential of such setups, ob-
serves Charlie Cope, head of operations for
BBC Sport, that convinced people remote
production was viable. “The technology got
to the point where there was no reason not
to do more remote productions,” he adds.
“Latency issues had been overcome and
on the cost side international connectivity
[meant we] could afford to bring back multi-
ple feeds.”
The carbon footprint caused by large num-
bers of staff traveling to cover sports overseas
was another consideration for BBC Sport as it
assessed remote production during 2018–19.
Despite that, Cope says pre-Covid there was
some opposition to throwing out the old op-
 live collaboration

erational practices. “There was more editorial

resistance to changing the working models of
having a dedicated team on-site,” he com-
ments, “but the pandemic pushed us to the
point where it wasn’t a choice any more.”

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

Extreme E’s production team

hard at work in the desert.

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | Special Guide: Remote Production | September 2022 17

live collaboration
Continued from 17
feeds to our broadcast center or to BT Sport
at its Stratford hub,” Harnett explains. “You
can produce a high-profile match but with the
benefits of reduced crew, using a satellite van
rather than a large OB truck.”
The third model, used on SailGP, Formu-
la E and Dubai horse racing, relies on “big
data pipes” for fast network links with high
bandwidths. In this way, 40-50 feeds of video
can be transported with, Harnett says, almost
no latency. “There’s obviously a trade-off be-
tween connectivity versus travel and expenses
but model three is really good and is what
most companies are talking about in terms of
remote production,” he adds.
PLAYING CATCH UP
That is certainly the case for Sky Sports,
which built up the number of events it
produced remotely using Gigabit (scaling to
NEP’s centralized production
facility in Soho received
Extreme E’s location feeds
via satellite.
10 Gb) fiber connections, including for the
English Football League (EFL), in the years up
to 2019. “Our plan was to start remote cricket
coverage in 2020, have the Premier League
(PL) running at the end of 2022 and then be
pretty much moved over to full remote by the
end of 2023,” says Clement.
Covid brought all that forward dramatically.
After the initial period of no sport at all, Sky—
and other sports broadcasters—found itself
in the position of catching up with numerous
postponed matches and events, including 100
PL games in 40 days. “As lockdown ended we
worked with our suppliers to build temporary
facilities at Sky Studios,
20 September 2022 | Special Guide: Remote Production | www.tvtech.com |
“We accommodated more games and I don't think we
would have been able to achieve the number required if
we had stayed on the traditional workflows”
JAMES CLEMENT, SKY SPORTS
using the blueprint of our EFL coverage,” he
adds. “We accommodated more games and
I don’t think we would have been able to
achieve the number required if we had stayed
on traditional workflows.”
BBC Sport’s Cope observes that the
Covid-enforced changes brought by remote
production have transformed how people
work covering FA Cup games, which previous-
ly involved a lot of time on the road. “They
would be traveling the length and breadth of
the country but now it can be done remotely
from Salford,” he says. “That means the crew
does not have to travel and can be back home
with their families the same day.”
As for connectivity, Cope says links should
suit the location and technology the produc-
tion is looking for. “On high-profile produc-
tions we’re using resilient fiber solutions
with satellite back-up,” he continues. “On the
other side, Whisper is producing the EFL for
us using mobile-based systems brought back
over LiveU portable streaming packages. We
accept that there is some latency involved
but satellite is still useful there as a back-up,
rather than as the main system.”
BT Sport has 10 models, depending on
the sport, what cameras are being used and
twitter.com/tvtechnology
other requirements. These range from fiber
connectivity to accommodate UHD, HDR and
Dolby Atmos on PL coverage (as is the case
with Sky) to 4G for Super League rugby league
matches. Hindhaugh sees the next step as 5G
carriers, something BT Sport demonstrated
in 2018. This, he says, has the advantage of
network slicing, can create virtualized and
independent segments within a network. In
addition to this, network slicing also offers
the guaranteed latency, bandwidth and quali-
ty needed for live broadcasting.
As well as these technologies, there is the
potential of the public internet. Sky Sports
has been testing this for netball coverage,
using error correction to give more latency.
“It can be challenging but we wanted to pro-
vide more content,” says Clement. However,
he notes that viewers will not be seeing the
Premier League produced over the internet
any time soon.
But sooner rather than later has been the
case for remote production. Sky Sports has
delivered its five-year plan three years early.
BT Sport’s four-year project came in two years
ahead of schedule. Which is making TV sports
nearly 100% remote while, at the same time,
totally connected. l

Video and Audio
Transportation –
The Key to Quality
Remote Production
When it comes to feeds, not all sites are created equal
By Geoff Bowen
T
he concept of remote production—
moving the raw content generated at
a site event back to the main facility
for production and management—
has been gaining popularity in the broadcast
world. Mobile/site content has also been gain-
ing wide popularity, with the ability to offer
viewers a wide range of sporting events and
other on-site broadcasts via traditional over-
the-air, cable and streaming options.
When Covid hit, broadcasters were faced
with a dual dilemma—their viewers wanted
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
an option.
The 2021 Olympics in Tokyo were a solid
case in point. Broadcasters sent 39% fewer
people than would be usual for such an event,
with much of the production being handled
back at their primary facilities or via a remote
production company.
CENTRALIZE PRODUCTION
Sending fewer people not only kept broad-
cast personnel safe; the broadcasters imme-
diately noted a dramatic reduction in costs as
the amount of on-site equipment plummeted
and the need for transportation, housing, and
other site expenses went down as well.
Increasing the volume of on-site broadcasts
for viewers also became more viable because
of the ability to centralize production, which
allows the use of the same production crew to
handle multiple events on the same day.
While remote production appears to be
here to stay, many broadcasters are still
puzzling over their options, because it isn’t
as simple as many would have them believe.
Everything depends on the telecommunica-
tions infrastructure that will be in play for
each event. Traditional sports arenas are no
problem: there will be dedicated fiber links
with all the high-speed bandwidth you need.
But what about the non-traditional locations?
Before planning an
on-site production, ask
what types of connections
are available and what
sort of bandwidth can be
expected from each.
The problem is that not all sites are created
equal: some still have highly reliable infra-
structure, such as a pro team sports stadi-
um with dedicated fiber, while others offer
different types of connections that may differ
wildly in the level of bandwidth and amount
of equipment that can be connected at once.
No one wants to plug their video and audio
feeds into a shaky internet connection and
end up with an unusable product (and possi-
ble penalties for not providing the contracted
coverage requirements).
PLAN YOUR STRATEGY
Obviously, a bit of homework is required
before planning a remote event to determine
twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | Special Guide: Remote Production | September 2022
transmitters on the go
how the feeds and backhaul will be handled.
Before planning an on-site production, ask
what types of connections are available and
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.
Another critical step is to determine the
level of security on those connections. If
they’re visible to hackers, they can be easily
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
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
Communications application is available with
that connection.
One piece of equipment that can help mit-
igate your bandwidth issues is a good-quality
encoder, which provides low-latency com-
pression to make video easier to transport
over IP. Some remote video equipment
includes cursory encoders, but those encoders
Photo credit: Sommer Cable
may not be up to the task when presented
with varying IP speeds or other bandwidth
issues, and they may not have a comfortable
level of IP security.
Standalone encoders, while admittedly
increasing the amount of equipment going
to the on-site location, are usually the best
choice for equipment connection, IP connec-
tion, and high levels of security.
When selecting an encoder, make sure it has
the versatility needed to handle the available
bitrate, video resolution capability and equip-
ment inputs needed for the available connec-
tion as well as robust firewall capability. l
Geoff Bowen is Senior Solutions Architect for Appear.
21
image quality
Sky Sports’ studio
Live HDR Remote
Production at Sky Sports
How the U.K. sports broadcaster seamlessly produces
programs in both SDR and HDR 700 times a year
By Kevin Hilton
S
ky has a long history of adopting
new technologies. The move from
analog to digital all those years ago
in 1998 brought more channels and
improved the audio and picture quality. More
recently, Sky Glass was a bold move on many
fronts all of which were aimed at a better
viewing experience. Sky Glass is a UHD TV
offering, which is no surprise from a company
that’s delivered UHD programming for six
years now, and it also supports Dolby Atmos
which Sky’s been broadcasting in for four
years. But for those who believe in the “better
pixels” philosophy of quality over quantity,
High Dynamic Range (HDR) is the technology
to look out for.
Starting in 2020, Sky customers could
watch on-demand content in HDR. August
last year saw HDR arriving on live English
Premier League matches and has expanded to
700 events per year.
24 September 2022 | Special Guide: Remote Production | www.tvtech.com |
INVISIBLE CHANGES
Bringing HDR to live broadcasts was no
small task. Looking around the truck and
gallery now, it may seem that little has
changed, but that’s exactly the point; adding
HDR has been a story of minimizing changes
to the workflow. Through careful research and
planning, Sky has added HDR to live trans-
missions with no increase in headcount and
disruption has been kept to a minimum by
only using HDR in key positions such as the
technical supervisor and match director.
Along with HDR, Sky has moved to using
the BT.2020 color space, a standard that
allows many more colors than the Rec.709
colour space popularized by HD SDI. This is
an important element to sports events, which
often involve highly saturated colors around
the stadium, on players’ kits and on match
balls.
Carys Hughes, senior picture quality engi-
neer at Sky explains the challenges bringing
HDR to their well understood UHD workflows.
“Anything we do in HDR, has to work for our
twitter.com/tvtechnology
SDR viewers.” she says, “It was important
to validate conversions to and from SDR.
This project touched many workflows and
we needed confidence that video would look
right everywhere in the chain.”
HDR’s not just about the cameras. Hughes’
work extended to ensure workflow compati-
bility with systems including studio graphics,
channel branding, playout servers and adver-
tising content.
Sky is using HLG, a popular HDR format
for live broadcasts. Its full name is hybrid
log-gamma, which is a nod to the way the
format works. HDR requires a different inter-
pretation of the digital video data signals that
we’ve grown used to employing. SDI video has
a stream of numbers that describe the bright-
ness of a scene. Just like the Lookup Tables
(LUTs) used in camera work and color grading,
HDR standards define how image “luminance”
levels are distributed between each number
and the next. Converting between SDR and
HDR requires correct selection and applica-
tion of specific LUTs.

Hughes explains, “Adding HDR to live
broadcasts, and conversion functionality to
and from SDR, was in part an extension of a
lot of the signal processing understanding
and validation required of our team to ensure
that our earlier launch of HDR for on-demand
was a success.”
MINIMIZING THE IMPACT
Fluent conversion between HDR and SDR is
essential to meeting Sky’s aims of minimizing
the impact of HDR program delivery to staff. In
fact, there is little HDR monitoring in the gal-
leries at all, as David Adams, senior technical
supervisor for remote workflows explains: “We
use the same down-mapping everywhere in
our gallery that our SDR viewers will see, even
when shading the cameras. This allows us to
keep everyone working in SDR with the assur-
ance we have eyes on the picture the majority
of our viewers are seeing.”
Sky has been producing sports pro-
grams using remote production since 2020.
Although the pandemic certainly acceler-
ated Sky Sports’s plans to move to remote
production, Sky’s commitment to environ-
mental sustainability was already working to
reduce travel in this way. The remote trucks
for Formula 1, football and cricket are op-
erated by third parties who are in-step with
Sky Sports’ move to remote production and
helped pioneer the project in the early tests
where a single HDR centre camera mirrored
the in-production SDR camera.
Quality viewing is done both
on SDR and HDR monitors.
Sky Sports’ master control
“Line-ups are an essential part of deliver-
ing an HDR program,” comments Adams, “so
we use test cards designed for HDR such as
the EBU 3373 and ITU 2111 HLG bars.”
This isn’t without its challenges where Sky
delivers an SDR program feed internally or to
third parties. When a third party is expect-
ing SDR, receiving a picture that says “HLG
2160p50” is confusing but more importantly,
on a waveform monitor the colors won’t be
in the target boxes and the luminance values
will appear incorrect. Adams believes creating
twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | Special Guide: Remote Production | September 2022
image quality
a simpler test card for operational use is
the way forward when exchanging with SDR
organizations.
Monitoring HDR video is limited to one or
two locations within the OB truck, and five
positions within Sky’s production facilities
ahead of transmission. Quality viewing is
done both on SDR and HDR monitors in
conjunction with highlighting overviews on
a Telestream PRISM waveform monitor. The
“stop display” and “false color overlay” high-
light areas of the picture which are outside
of the normal color gamut or outside of SDR
dynamic range.
These displays are critical because
they describe the image in a way an HDR
monitor doesn’t. HDR monitors will show
the user if a picture looks good for HDR,
but it won’t give insight into how much the
picture will be changed for SDR. The PRISM
also allows the SDI payload ID to be seen,
which is used extensively in the workflow.
The payload ID contains format information
about the video including its resolution,
structure and HDR metadata. With so many
possible combinations of video, Adams
worked with vendors to ensure monitors
and other equipment reconfigured them-
selves to follow the input video formats
when they are switched.
Bringing HDR to live sports on Sky is an
achievement born out of careful research,
building on top of knowledge gleaned from
Sky’s track record of building new technolo-
gies into their platforms. Adams concludes,
“Our goal was to, as much as possible, apply
HDR as a seamless layer on our regular pro-
ductions and I think we did just that.” l
25
production at a distance

‘Don’t Do Remote Production for the

Sake of Doing Remote Production’
What’s the ROI? And how do you maintain quality? Some industry experts weigh in

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

28 September 2022 | Special Guide: Remote Production | www.tvtech.com | twitter.com/tvtechnology

 production at a distance

sports production or you wanted to do a live
event, you needed to bring your truck in and
you needed to set it up and everything. We still
have to do that for live events, but you have so
many fewer people on-site that you can now
take the capital you invest, say, in building a
truck or building internal infrastructure, and
you're able to deploy that in a way where you
can actually, let's say, do multiple shows in a
week that you could never do or even potential-
ly do multiple shows in a day.
Dan Maloney: The only thing I would add is
that the pandemic specifically forced content
creators, producers to to get creative and do
whatever they could with spit and bubblegum
to try to keep the show going and keep the
events rolling. And they developed a lot of
good content, despite the fact they had limit-
ed technology.
So that really opened their eyes for what
was possible, and once they got the taste for
what was possible, now that the restrictions
Photo credit: Sony
fear than they might have in the past because
they were able to do it in We've seen a number
of sporting and news events are being done
remotely, so it's growing and the world is your
oyster. But if you're doing it just for the sake
of doing it, you should probably rethink what
your outcomes are.
WS: Are there any applications where remote
production is not a good idea?
DL: My response to this or similar questions
is: Don't do remote production just for the
sake of doing remote production. Everybody
runs their business differently; everybody
knows when they have a primetime show, and
they don't want to put it at risk. If you're go-
ing to deploy a traditional production truck, I
think there's a certain financial threshold.
We've seen the Olympics was done in remote “I think there's still
production. We've seen a number of sporting
and news events are being done remotely, so
a place for camera
it's growing and the world is your oyster. But if operators to be sitting in
you're doing it just for the sake of doing it, you
that truck. And even if

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
benefits and objectives are you achieving? Be-
cause it's still not an easy thing to do and a lot
of thought still has to go into it.
DM: I just want to add that although the
technology might be there, if your creative
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
maybe you don't force it down their throat. So
there really is a people aspect to it as well.
SB: There are some tasks that might still best
be done on-site, or at least I haven't seen peo-
ple trying to do them too much remotely, for
example, camera shading. If you’ve got a truck
with 16 cameras on it, you've got to shade
them and I think there's still a place for camera
“We've seen a number operators to be sitting in that truck. And even
of sporting and news if it's just one guy shading cameras, there are
certain tasks that are still best done on site.
events are being done
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
and the world is your events in terms of monitoring and maintain-
oyster. But if you're ing and watching the video to make sure that
things are happening the way that we expect
doing it just for the sake them to go? What are some of the techniques for
it's just one guy shading
cameras, there are certain
tasks that are still best
done on site.”
STEVEN BILOW, TELESTREAM
choice of who's using what equipment, what
people you want, maybe have a broader se-
lection of who you want to use on your team
who’s producing the predictive killer shots
and you want to fly them around. You really
have the choice now of having your absolute
best creative people, anywhere you want in
the world. I'm not downplaying the creative
aspects of this because there are people who
do things that I admire that I could never do.
But I think if you look at the creative side of
things, there are more choices in terms of the
creative people that you bring into a produc-
tion than you do having the technical people
who have to debug a problem, for example.
So I think, in the broad sense, being able to
monitor a lot of distributed systems remote-
ly—whether it be 2110 or 2022-6—you have
things spread out remotely and you need to be
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?
probably rethink what SB: As far as monitoring goes, let's say for
example, you have camera operators on-site,
your outcomes are.” but other people are doing editing and build-
DEON LECOINTE, SONY ing packages all remotely and you have this
for example. And the reason I think that is,
is because you can have your best people
creatively anywhere you want in the world,
but you don't have that big of a choice of the
best technical people in the world. So what you
Continued on 32

twitter.com/tvtechnology | www.tvtech.com | Special Guide: Remote Production | September 2022 29

 production at a distance
Continued from 29
want to do is maybe centralize them and have
them centrally monitor a distributed system.
DL: If I can add to that, coming at it from a lit-
tle bit of a different angle, the goal of building
out these remote production environments or
production-at-a-distance environment is that
to try to emulate an in-facility production as
closely as possible. So, you want to emulate
those workflows. You don't want to put the
broadcast engineers or your production staff
in a position where they can tell the difference,
and now they have to operate differently.
WS: What about latency issues?
DL: We kind of dealt with this a few years ago,
when REMI was really coming to maturity,
and we came up with a term called "opera-
tional latency." If you're a technical director,
you're sitting in front of the switcher. You're
bringing in a whole bunch of remote feeds...
How long does it take between when I switch
from source A to source B before I see the
changeover in my multiviewer?
And I think there's two ways of look-
ing at it: One is, where is your equipment
“The pandemic
specifically forced content
creators, producers to get
creative and do whatever
they could with spit and
bubblegum to try to keep
the show going and keep
the events rolling.”
DAN MALONEY, MATROX VIDEO
32 September 2022 | Special Guide: Remote Production | www.tvtech.com |
deployed? If in a traditional REMI—and I
use the word "traditional" loosely—you have
your cameras deployed to the field, the sig-
nals are all coming back from multiple sites,
so there are potentially different network
latencies that are coming in.
If your switcher and your processing
hardware are back at headquarters, as the
signals land in the switcher, when you switch
your signals, you shouldn't see any latency
because the latency has already been taken
up from the network side, from traversing the
distance. If your panel is located at headquar-
ters, but your switcher, your processing, is
located at the remote site, that's where you
could see a difference switching from source
A to source B.
Now the key to remember is, as long as
it's going into the switcher in time, then
you're good because all of the signals are
fine; they’re timed and they're good to go.
And then there are technologies within 2110
where they put in the RTP timestamp in the
stream. There are systems out there that can
make those frame accurate so you can line
things up. So you should be good on having
your signals coming in and being lined up
correctly within the switcher.
DM: I'll give you one of the examples where
we as equipment vendors should try our best
to minimize latencies for things like talkback,
when, for example, if a production director
is remote or, excuse me, in studio or back at
headquarters, and he's talking to his camera
operators, you don't want him to be 15 sec-
onds behind.
But when you're looking at a one-second
latency or so or less, then that's usually
quite manageable. If they have to do small
adjustments, you know, frame-accurate cuts
for example, everything is in sync coming in,
doesn't matter if things are all delayed by the
same amount, no big deal. But the inter-
personal discussion—if you’re using Zoom
or Skype or some other type of, not even a
professional means of talkback back to the
camera operators—that's very low latency,
so trying to bring those things back in as low
latency as possible is an important task we
strive to achieve.
WS: Among the trends—going full-time remote
or a hybrid model or back to all in-person, what
do we see going forward?
SB: I don’t think we’re ever going to go back
to all in-person.
DL: Interestingly enough, I'm seeing a mixed
bag. I'm actually seeing a lot of broadcasters
twitter.com/tvtechnology
going back to all in-person and I think that
kind of follows what you're seeing going on in
corporate America, where we're being told "it's
time to come back to work."
So, it's not that the amount of remote pro-
ductions have gone down, but definitely you
can walk into a lot of broadcast facilities, like
here in New York, you go to our control room
and there's a full complement of personnel
in there. I don't have percentages, but I can
still see that there's some that are moving in
that way. And there are others who are still
like, "No, we're still working out of our living
rooms, and we have the technology to do it.”
I think it's going both ways right now.
DM: There are people going back and there
are other media production companies that
are going to be perfectly happy to remain
remote. And they build a business on that
versus some of the more traditional operators
who are like, "well, we know how to do things
the old way and we're comfortable doing
that." So it's here to stay in various capacities
at various organizations.
WS: I think you've got a good point there. So
one of the things about a lot of these remote and
hybrid workflows is that they really rely on high-
speed high-availability data links, so I don't see
that trend going away.
DL: I think broadcasters were all hoping for a
significant drop in the costs of fiber connec-
tivity, with telcos between different facilities.
If you're coming from a sports venue, or doing
election coverage or something like that, and
if you look at it in a smaller timeframe, like a
two-to-five year timeframe, you might argue
that the cost hasn't come down at all—in fact,
you might argue it went up. But if you look at
it in a broader timeframe, 10 years or more,
the cost of the links have actually come down
so I give the telco some credit there. But the
broadcasters are still going to have the rest
of your links for your big primetime events—
you're going to have dual, you're gonna go
terrestrial and satellite.
But I also think a lot of interesting things
are happening in the way of 5G. All the stadi-
ums in the NFL are talking about 5G connec-
tivity, but then you have to figure out, well,
you're not going to use the 5G connectivity
that's being used by the fans, right? So you’ve
got to figure out, are you deploying 5G for the
production environment? The technologies
are coming along, but it always just comes
down to cost and implementation.
You can access the full hour-long webcast
here. l
9000