As broadcasters launch NEXTGEN TV and telecoms launch 5G, a couple of high-profile, rich-guys with rocket companies are racing to build new wireless data communications infrastructures to benefit everyone, everywhere.
In parts 1 and 2 of this three part series we discussed the benefits Remote Production has over traditional outside broadcasts, and the core infrastructures needed to make this work. In the third and final part of this series, we look at the challenges and costs associated with making live sports work effectively on Remote Production models to employ less equipment and crew on site, and to logistically cover more events using an IP infrastructure.
Since SMPTE formally standardized SDI in 1989, it has become the dominant video, audio and metadata transport mechanism for virtually all broadcast facilities throughout the world. Technology advances have not only made SDI incredibly reliable, but the specification has continued to progress, embracing ever increasing data-rates and video formats.
Veteran cinematographers and DOPs have long understood that lenses have a personality with a specific look and feel. In the same way that an actor imparts his or her interpretation on a film’s story, the DOP selects a lens that best supports the program’s emotional stakes. The ideal camera lens is one that contributes its own unique character and flare (literally) in order to produce the most compelling viewer experience possible.
In part-1 of this three-part series we discussed the benefits of Remote Production and some of the advantages it provides over traditional outside broadcasts. In this part, we look at the core infrastructure and uncover the technology behind this revolution.
Electronic camera manufacturers have spent – by some measures – something like the last twenty years trying to make digital cameras that shoot pictures that look like real movies. Now, they’re making cameras with larger and larger sensors, the better to simulate the sort of cameras that shot some of the greatest mid-twentieth-century movies, in the days of 70mm and VistaVision.
Since its adoption for NTSC, essentially every subsequent electronic distribution means for color images has relied on color differences, making it a topic of some importance.
Recent international events have overtaken normality causing us to take an even closer look at how we make television. Physical isolation is greatly accelerating our interest in Remote Production, REMI and At-Home working, and this is more important now than it ever has been.
