For broadcasters to be profitable and stay ahead of the curve in this competitive market, they need to develop hybrid strategies with secure technology to accommodate remote workers without losing productivity. This was a direction the industry had been heading towards for some time, but the pandemic forced the industry’s hand at a more accelerated rate.
Planning for any kind of live TV broadcasting starts with a ‘what-if?’ list. What if the power source fails? What if a key production person gets sick or hurt? What if broadband internet access becomes unstable? What are the chances for each ‘what-if?’ and what back-up alternatives fit the budget? The list should be as lengthy as it is easy to edit.
A technology might seem to be near maturity when design approaches that were once theoretical, and impractical to build, become easier to make and start to hit the market. LED lighting isn’t necessarily easy to build in 2021, which is why it’s still not as affordable as we’d all like, but some advanced techniques are becoming more everyday.
The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) recently announced the release of a new Request for Proposals (RFP) for Broadcast Core Network technologies to enhance the ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard. The project is on a fast track, with initial responses due by December 31, 2021. Could Broadcast Core Networking be a new license for TV broadcasters to print money?
In some ways, the best DOP and a sadist have a lot in common: We strive to make our viewers suffer and the curious thing is, our audiences love us the more for it. Of course, DOPs, like most civilized people, wouldn’t think to wrench the fingernails from our viewers’ fingers; I’m not talking about that kind of suffering exactly.
The power and flexibility of cloud computing is being felt by broadcasters throughout the world. Scaling delivers incredible resource and the levels of resilience available from international public cloud vendors is truly eye watering. It’s difficult to see how any broadcaster would run out of computing power or storage, even with 4K and 8K infrastructures.
As Pro AV productions get more complex, the industry has longed for a set of common, ubiquitous, standards-based protocols for interoperability on a managed video-over-IP network. In 2017, as the first set of SMPTE ST 2110 standards were published, AV professionals saw the framework of their dream become reality.
Most live remote outside broadcasts are thoroughly planned by producers and directors who are often too busy to consider potential equipment problems. Technology is an engineering responsibility. Engineers must be ready for any circumstances that threaten to take the show off-script or off-air, from dead wireless mic batteries to unexpected foul weather. In live TV, anything can happen and probably will, usually at the worst possible time.
