NASHVILLE—The mobile and REMI production company TNDV has announced that it headed south into Mexico to live-produce the three-day 2025 Zane Grey Championship Playoffs, a sport fishing tournament streamed live on ESPN+ from Oct. 18-20.

For the production, TNDV shipped a REMI flypack and camera jib to the production site in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, for what was the company’s first live-to-air project outside the United States.

TNDV managed all content acquisition and live set audio for the streaming broadcasts over all three days, delivering live, three-hour program feeds to the TCL REMI broadcast facility, located at The Plex production facility in Fort Worth, Texas. TNDV leveraged SRT connectivity for secure, low-latency signal transport between the two points, ensuring a consistent near-real-time feed for all live broadcasts, reported the company, which is part of the Live Media Group.

TNDV’s custom flypack kit included four Kokusai Denki HD cameras for video capture and Haivision Makito X H.264 encoders for SRT transport, plus Sennheiser MD46 handheld mics and HMD 27 headsets for talent audio. Commentators on the live set used personal Model 214A announcer’s consoles from Studio Technologies, a Dante-enabled audio product that eliminates talkback, delays and other problems that interfere with discussion and intelligibility. This was a bit of a changeup from TNDV’s previous work with the TCL REMI team, which typically handles commentary locally.

“TCL’s usual strategy of producing commentary in-house removes all video and audio delay concerns,” Rob Devlin, president, TNDV, said. “The commentators for this event would often talk about what they are seeing on TV, and they needed to hear themselves in real time rather than on a two-second delay from flowing to the control room and back. The announcer’s consoles remove those distractions, and since we provide our own audio feed, we use them to manage each commentator’s mix.”

While the live set was staged in an open-air plaza by the action, TNDV had to get creative in other areas. The sole TNDV technician on-site, Devlin, transformed a hotel conference room into a temporary control room that was almost precisely 300 feet from key acquisition and production points. That kept home runs for all cables within the distance threshold, including dedicated camera cables and Cat5 for audio. Key components included an AJA router, Haivision encoding and camera engineering gear.

Three of the Kokusai Denki cameras were arranged in fixed positioned along the shoreline, while the fourth was added to a jib for live set coverage. And since no truck was required for the production workflow, shipping a jib required another dose of creative thinking, TNDV explained.

“Jib systems are largely built on site at events using barbells as a counterbalance to camera weight, which keeps everything nice and level,” Devlin said. “Shipping barbells amounts to extremely expensive shipping weights. We developed the idea of using water weights, which means shipping empty bags and adding 250 pounds of water on location. That made it feasible to ship an 18-foot arm, which was the ideal size for this event.”

Devlin also explained that driving a truck to Cabo San Lucas, located on the southern tip of Baja California, proved impractical for both business and technology reasons. “It’s a 20-hour drive from San Diego to Baja California, and there are desert roads all along that route,” Devlin said. “The fuel savings alone made sense, but the expense of sending a full truck crew for a modest-sized production didn’t equate. We restructured an existing TNDV flypack to meet size and weight parameters, and TSA and FAA air shipping requirements. Our flypacks have grown in popularity for many reasons, but this project was a prime example of positioning the flypack as an economical choice.”

More information is available at www.tndv.com.

Remote Production as a Strategic Standard
In recent years — particularly following the pandemic — new methods of television production had to be adopted. Initially, technology would typically evolve in response to cost optimization needs or equipment obsolescence, as is common in the electronics industry.

However, during the pandemic and beyond, many of these methods rapidly evolved and became permanent fixtures. In this article, I want to focus specifically on the rise of remote broadcast productions using the REMI (Remote Integration) model.

Having worked for over 15 years in the broadcast industry for major networks in Latin America and the United States — including Fox Sports, ESPN, and now Univision — I’ve witnessed firsthand how REMI production has evolved to a point where its operational cost savings and system flexibility have made it not just viable but a continuously expanding solution. Combined with the sustained development of IP-based workflows, REMI has become a strategic standard across modern broadcasting.

Inside a Real-World Hybrid REMI Deployment
Last year, among many other productions at Univision, I had the opportunity to serve as the lead broadcast engineer from our Miami facility for Super Bowl 2024 in Las Vegas. For this event, we deployed an OB truck on-site and executed a hybrid REMI production. A full production team was sent to the venue, while the main production was carried out remotely from Univision’s control rooms in Miami.

Audio and video signals from the field were transported over IP links using dedicated encoding and decoding equipment, while intercom communications were established through trunked IP-based connections between the truck and the central facility. This REMI configuration was not initially intended to reduce costs, but rather to ensure the robustness and redundancy required for an event of such magnitude.

In contrast, during the Leagues Cup 2024 soccer tournament, we implemented a more cost-optimized and flexible REMI model aimed at supporting multiple simultaneous productions. Remote communication systems were deployed to two separate venues using rented OB units, while a third location was connected via our own mobile production truck.

All sites were integrated into our centralized infrastructure in Miami. In this architecture — which I was actively involved in designing — I built two customs “REMI Boxes” that enabled the transport of camera tally signals and full intercom connectivity, linking field crews with the centralized control room.

The system performed flawlessly, allowing a single production control room in Miami to manage back-to-back shows across three different remote locations. Return feeds for tally, comms, and audio/video were transmitted without issue.

Notably, the remote locations that used the REMI model experienced a significant reduction in operational costs, validating this modular approach as both technically and economically effective. The outcome was not only rewarding from an engineering perspective but also strategically beneficial for future deployments.

Benefits Beyond Cost
As previously mentioned, one of the key advantages of REMI productions is the ability to deploy smaller crews to remote locations compared to traditional full-scale on-site productions. This results in a significant reduction in operational costs without compromising quality or control.

Beyond cost savings, the REMI model enables back-to-back productions using the same production control room and crew, covering multiple remote locations in succession. This level of efficiency not only optimizes personnel and equipment usage, but also expands the broadcaster’s capacity to cover more events within tighter timeframes — all from a centralized facility.

Challenges
While the operational workflow is often straightforward for production crews, the engineering side demands careful planning and technical precision. Engineers must conduct latency and connectivity testing, anticipate failure points, and configure complex systems — often across hybrid IP/SDI environments.

When these elements are addressed with sufficient lead time and preparation, the results are consistently reliable and efficient. As this model becomes more widespread, the need for engineering professionals with hands-on experience in both IP-based and legacy broadcast workflows becomes increasingly critical to ensuring seamless execution.

Conclusion
In my view, the REMI model is no longer just the future of broadcast production — it is the present. What began as a response to logistical and operational challenges has now matured into a reliable, scalable, and efficient production standard. As IP-based infrastructure and cloud technologies continue to advance, REMI workflows will only become more powerful, more accessible, and more deeply integrated into the fabric of modern broadcasting.

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Live Media Group has launched its latest mobile production unit, the MU-28, which is a SMPTE 2110-7 IP-based truck built specifically for remote REMI production.

The company said that the unit offers a high level system compatibility, seamless integration, and futureproof technology that allows the MU-28 to provide clients with a flexible, high-performance broadcast infrastructure that can be tailored to their individual needs.

“Our new production truck is a testament to how we’re delivering on our partners’ needs while pushing the flexibility of today’s broadcast technology,” said Michael Sullivan, president of Live Media. “It’s evident that this industry is continuing to evolve, and this truck focuses on that evolution being built from the ground up with REMI production in mind. This achievement reflects the skill and dedication of our team, and our commitment to delivering tailored broadcast solutions for our partners.”

Designed to support large-scale remote production while reducing setup and operating costs, MU-28 features ARISTA cloud networking infrastructure, an EVS Strada router, and a Cerebrum routing and control system. The unit can be directly integrated into client facilities, which reduces the need for additional equipment and setup time. Multiple trucks in the company’s fleet now feature the EVS Strada with Cerebrum control, which also allows MU-28 to combine its capabilities with others in the fleet on larger productions, the company explained.

“This truck is built to quickly power up and go, but it also complements the growth of remote studios becoming more prevalent,” explained Ryan Jones, senior vice president of iInternal operations at Live Media and a key leader on the MU-28 build project. “We’re recognizing the future of the industry and producing a good product to showcase that.”

That makes the MU-28 is more than just a REMI truck. It is configured as scalable hub for a variety of production needs. The truck’s layout also allows for clients to reduce other costs associated with broadcast leading to a unit that supports both large-scale remote workflows but also other support needs.

“In our conversations with our partners on this truck, we took a holistic approach on a production and challenged our team to solve not only the technical challenges but other challenges that many broadcasters face,” Sullivan continued: ”The team really delivered on these objectives, and we’re excited to have this truck join the rest of our fleet.”

Visit livemediagroup.com for more information.

AUSTIN, Texas—FloSports is a U.S.-based sports media company that specializes in live and on-demand streaming of more than 25 underserved sports to hyper-passionate fan bases.

As senior director of live production at FloSports, part of my role is to ensure we deliver a quality product to our viewers, and a big part of that is transmission quality and stable contribution streams. In the early days, internet bandwidth made this challenging and we didn’t have nearly the scale we do now. Last year, we streamed more than 40,000 live sporting events including all of the stick-and-ball sports, along with wrestling, grappling, track and field, motorsports, cheer competitions and tons of collegiate athletics.

Our customers aren’t necessarily interested in all the sports that we stream, however. They’re interested in their sport and a particular game. They expect a good quality on-air product and they don’t necessarily care how it gets there.

On-Site and REMI
With that in mind, reliability in production is something that is critical to our operations. Given the wide variety of events we stream, there is a split between those produced by our partners and those produced by our team. Until recently, most of the events we produced ourselves were handled completely on-site, but in recent years, we started to incorporate REMI production coverage. In both these instances, that is where TVU Networks comes in.

Our relationship with TVU started because we were seeking a backup transmission solution that didn’t need to rely on a standard internet service provider. We needed a way to send high-quality, composited audio and video back when ISPs didn’t work well or when we didn’t have enough bandwidth. To maintain uninterrupted live coverage, we deployed TVU One mobile units as backups where our contribution feed started, ensuring resilience against potential connectivity issues.

After we realized the success of integrating the units and the benefits we were seeing—ultra-low latency, ease of use, relia­bility and seamless integration with the TVU ecosystem—the partnership grew significantly.

Now, we’re doing REMI productions with TVU, utilizing its IP-video solutions to produce live programming from remote venues, such as a cross-country course or dirt racing track, where traditional broadcasting infrastructure may be lacking. We’ve also started moving more to the cloud, utilizing TVU Producer to produce live events remotely. This offers us plenty of flexibility as we bring everything back in-house to our facility in Austin to put it all together.

More Time at Home
The most obvious benefit we see with TVU is efficiency; we want to save money where we can without compromising the quality of the product we put out. TVU definitely offers flexibility when it comes to REMI workflows, which in turn allows us to bring production in-house, where we can maintain consistent crews who know our gear and workflows. This also has an impact on our team’s quality of life—less travel and less time on the road means more time at home, which is beneficial for everyone involved in our productions.

Today, TVU has become a foundational piece of how we are evolving as a production company. In this business, consistency is everything: consistent streams, consistent quality, consistent crews. The flexibility we’ve gained by using TVU’s IP and cloud-based tools has allowed us to rethink how we cover live sports—not just in terms of cost and logistics, but also in terms of people. We can focus on building long-term teams and workflows that grow with us while still delivering the kind of seamless, high-quality viewing experience that our audiences expect.

As we continue to expand and refine our production capabilities, partners like TVU are instrumental. They don’t just just help keep us up to date with the tech, they also help us lead, which, in turn, keeps our customers happy.

For more information, click here.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.— Live Media Group Holdings (LMGH) has built and integrated a new production control room at TNDV headquarters, one of its three divisions, leveraging REMI (remote integration model) production.

“With REMI, the value proposition is that there’s no need to setup or build a full production suite at a remote location or send out skilled technical crew members to work the event. This cost-efficient approach allows for substantial savings on airfare, hotel and other travel costs, as well as streamlining complex logistics,” said TNDV president Rob Devlin. “Now, high-resolution camera feeds travel to us over IP and/or satellite from the remote location and our rich local talent pool handles the work right here.”

During the pandemic, TNDV sister company GameTime Productions began packaging live remote event productions for major networks, such as ESPN. When GameTime landed its first REMI production contract, TNDV had only 15 weeks to build its centralized video production control facilities to capitalize on the opportunity, it said.

A swift decision was made to convert an often-idle greenscreen studio that had been used for occasional satellite media tours. In its place, it designed and integrated an impressive, fully equipped 28-by-17-foot production control room suite, LMGH said.

The production control room is based on the Ross Video Ultrix Acuity platform with Ross XPression for real-time graphics creation. It integrates the Ross Acuity software-defined production engine with 4 M/E switcher cards, Ultrix hybrid routing and multiviewer capabilities, it said. 

The suite also provides adjacent, isolated areas for mixing digital audio and generating EVS-based sports replays and highlights, as well as comfortable seating for producers, technical directors, other team members and guests. If there’s a surge in demand for the REMI service, TNDV can harness a second control room that’s identically configured on its Elevation mobile unit, which is parked outside the building, it said.

TNDV’s facility already offered the critical REMI components, such as robust, reliable fiber-based high-speed internet and satellite uplink connectivity. TNDV added Haivision Makito X4 HEVC encoders enabling Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) of ultra-low latency 4K/UHD and HDTV High Dynamic Range (HDR) contribution video.

The Haivision Makito X4 platform ensures all incoming video signals for a particular event remain in sync for precision mixing and that the final program is dependably distributed to a customer’s destination. “Having these multiple tiers of transmission and networking is highly advantageous to REMI production and really sets this service apart,” said Devlin.

While the primary target is live sports, Devlin expects some projects will also come from music festivals and other live entertainment events—a core component of the TNDV live production business. The REMI control room first became operational in June 2024, with a series of women’s softball games produced for Athletes Unlimited. This new network of professional sports leagues specializes in delivering women’s pro basketball, softball, volleyball and lacrosse games for broadcast on networks, such as ESPN and Bally’s.

“With our new REMI service, we can now work with our media and entertainment customers any way they prefer,” said Devlin. “On-site production will never completely disappear, but in an era where many networks are hungry for content, using a REMI workflow helps with efficiency in delivering high-quality productions at lower cost. REMI saves content creators and broadcasters their two most valuable production commodities, time and money.”

More information is available on the TNDV and LMGH websites. 

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Reruns are nothing new to television, but not so much when Mother Nature typically waits a few hundred years to put on a repeat performance.

Next week’s total solar eclipse, however, is a notable exception. Many of the reporters, news photogs and newsroom personnel covering the Great American Eclipse in August 2017 are still alive and likely working the April 8 redux.

Not only will these broadcasters have the benefit of experience from the 2017 solar eclipse, but also those assigned to cover what Scientific American has dubbed “The Great American Total Solar Eclipse of 2024” will have a few tech, organizational and distribution improvements to enhance their coverage and reach viewers.

“If it exists, we will be using it,” says Lane Michaelsen, group news director at Sinclair Broadcast Group, which has 18 local TV stations in the eclipse path.

“It starts with the simplest [technology], the iPhone with a special lens and the LiveU app,” he says, and ascends up the live television technology ladder to traditional ENG cameras, microwave trucks and SNG vehicles. “Like I said, if it exists, we’re using it.”

Eclipse Basics
Next week’s total eclipse will cross the U.S. border around 12:30 p.m. CDT along the southwest edge of Texas, enveloping Eagle Pass. It will travel in a northeasterly direction across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. By about 4:35 p.m. Atlantic Daylight Time, it will exit the upper reaches of northeastern Maine, passing into Canada.

While it’s only been seven years since the last total eclipse swept across the nation—that time from the Pacific Coast of Oregon traveling southeast and ultimately crossing into the Atlantic Ocean at South Carolina—it’s a rare occurrence. As Bob Berman, astronomer editor for “The Old Farmer’s Almanac” noted in a recent online article: “For any given place on Earth, a total eclipse of the Sun appears just once every 375 years [on average].”

For example, the last time a total eclipse blanketed what is now Dallas, one of the major U.S. cities in the path of next week’s eclipse, predates the first TV broadcast of a drama in 1928 by 307 years.

The relatively short interval since the last total eclipse to cross the U.S. has given broadcasters and the public a recent taste of what to expect this time around, and it appears people’s appetite for all-things eclipse is enormous—whether that’s in person at outdoor venues like Niagara Falls or the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which is selling tickets for $20, or watching on a television or digital platform.

Gray Television, for instance, will stream continuous live coverage of the total eclipse on more than 500 group station websites, connected TV and mobile apps as well as via its Local News Live (LNL) streaming news network, says Lisa Allen, vice president and general manager of the Gray Television Washington News Bureau.

The level of interest in the eclipse among the public is so large local and state governments are taking steps as well. Multiple Texas counties have issued disaster declarations for the day. Gov. Eric Holcomb of Indiana has declared a statewide disaster. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has signed an executive order instructing state agencies to make preparations to assist residents and visitors traveling to the state for the event.

Prompting these actions is concern over the sheer number of people who will be visiting these and other locations and the strain they will place on public infrastructure. For example, Indianapolis may see an influx of more than 100,000 people. Ohio is preparing for between 125,000 and 500,000 people visiting to witness the eclipse.

The crush and contribution
Not only does the crush of eclipse gazers raise the prospect of clogged thoroughfares, resource shortages and safety concerns, it also runs the risk of swamping cellular networks in some areas, which raises concerns for broadcasters relying on IP-newsgathering to contribute footage from the field.

“I told our 18 stations [in the path of the eclipse] to make sure those live trucks and satellite trucks start and work because with LiveU we rarely use them [the vehicles],” says Sinclair’s Michaelsen. “But if you are looking at Dayton, Ohio, where they’re talking about shutting down the Interstates and an invasion into the smallest towns, LiveU might not work [on overcrowded wireless networks].”

At some locations along the path of the eclipse, Sinclair has contracted with phone providers for fiber optic drops as an alternative to wireless networks for contribution from its LiveU transmitters, he adds.

The broadcasters interviewed for this article agreed that although 5G wireless networks will play an important role, it is unclear whether they will stand up to the massive cell traffic expected at well-attended venues and deliver the bandwidth required to contribute their shots.

Gray Television, which has at least 23 stations in the eclipse path, also is warning its local newsrooms about the possibility that wireless networks could be overwhelmed. “IP transmitters will be the primary contribution technology,” says James Finch, Gray Television vice president of news services, adding that in some locations satellite transmission will provide redundancy.

That will be particularly important in two locations where the station group has no stations but is sending crews. “Outside the Gray footprint, there are a couple of places that we’ll be going,” says Finch. “We’re planning to be in Indianapolis, and we plan to be at Niagara Falls because we know that there are some big events in those locations.”

E.W. Scripps Company stations will use land connections to ensure contribution from its TVU Networks backpack IP transmitters succeed from heavily attended eclipse-viewing locations when possible, says Matt Simon, deputy managing editor at Scripps.

“They’re talking about up to 1 million people traveling to Texas for the eclipse, and 100,000 going to Fredericksburg [Texas],” he says. “We are looking at a bar-brewery there that has a viewing party and would allow us to [have] hardline transmission so we are not relying on cell cards.”

The broadcaster also will turn to Starlink satellite connectivity for its TVU Networks IP transmitters to bypass potentially swamped wireless networks. “Starlink wasn’t a thing in 2017 during the last total eclipse. Now it is,” says Simon.

Over the past year, Scripps has deployed Starlink transmitters across the station group and successfully used them to contribute reports from Ukraine. “It’s proven reliable, even when in motion from a vehicle,” Simon says.

News-Press & Gazette has two stations in the path of the eclipse, KVIA in El Paso, Texas, and KMIZ in Columbia, Mo., says Michael Fabac, NPG vice president of content and station promotion.  

“Five NPG markets were in the path of totality in 2017, so our coverage plans were much more extensive then,” says Fabac.

“In 2017, we incorporated ENG live trucks in addition to LiveU backpacks, but [we] will be entirely dependent on the wireless technology this time around.”

Coverage, control and distribution
As two of the largest station groups in the country, it should be no surprise that Sinclair and Gray Television have multiple stations along the path of the eclipse, starting in Texas and concluding in Maine.

Both also plan to leverage their extensive digital presence in addition to their on-air channels to deliver in-depth coverage of the eclipse. 

“One of the things mentioned to us from 2017 is the audience found it difficult to find somebody who was just tracking the actual eclipse without people talking over it or without other live shots,” says Michaelsen. 

“This time we’re using technology that should allow us, depending on cloud cover, to track just the eclipse—so no voiceovers, no context and perspective. Just here it is.” Sinclair will live stream that coverage on the websites of its more than 190 stations around the country, not just its news-producing stations, and on YouTube. 

The station group will provide a second feed, produced out of Sinclair’s WJLA in Washington, D.C., via The National Weather Desk platform. Many of the group’s 200 meteorologists will participate in the coverage from different sites around the country.

For instance, a group from San Antonio, Texas, will be with NASA scientists at “a yet-to-be-named” location where powerful telescopes will be used to capture the eclipse, and another will be outside Dayton, Ohio, joining the tens of thousands of people expected on hand to get their reaction, he says.

Two Sinclair meteorologists will anchor the feed and interview in-studio guests and live field guests. “The idea is that we’ll always have the eclipse on the screen, but then we’ll be adding context and perspective and show how it’s affecting people across the country,” says Michaelsen.

Gray Television will operate from two control rooms—one responsible for the two-and-half-hour fully produced Local News Live special on the eclipse and the other to produce a distributed feed of raw footage from cameras of stations from around the group, says David Donaldson, broadcast operations at the Gray Television Washington News Bureau.

“This feed is for use as live pictures, bump-ins and outs for use in a newscast,” he says. “We will be building this guaranteed feed with cameras curated from stations within the Gray footprint, including field cameras with shots of the eclipse as well as fixed skycams pointed at the sun during the event,” says Donaldson.

Building the feed at the station’s Washington, D.C., bureau relieves local Gray Television stations from the burden of “determining where to get a beauty shot,” he says.

Perhaps the biggest difference in technology between the 2017 and this year’s eclipse for Gray is the existence of its Local News Live streaming news network. “For the first time, Gray is able to showcase local markets and their eclipse coverage on one platform,” says Gray Television’s Allen.

“We are giving our local Gray journalists a national platform to share their unique and memorable coverage from their local communities,” she says. “LNL's greatest and most powerful asset is our local journalists who best report the news from the heart of their communities, and we (LNL) take it to the eyes of the country. This is an example of how we can unite our newsrooms and audiences during an unforgettable event.”

For those in their early careers in the newsrooms and the field reporting on the eclipse, one can only wonder what lessons they will take away from covering The Great American Total Solar Eclipse of 2024 that will help them the next time a total solar eclipse traverses the country—20 years from now on Aug. 22, 2044.

(Editor’s note: NBCUniversal Local has announced that it will present comprehensive coverage of the upcoming total solar eclipse on its NBC and Telemundo streaming news channels on April 8, beginning at 12 p.m. ET / 9 a.m. PT. Fox Weather has laid out some of its tech plans here. Hearst Television, Nexstar Media Group and CNN were contacted for interviews. They either declined or did not respond.)

BURBANK, Calif.—PSSI has announced that it demonstrated a significant expansion of its remote production capabilities last month with the production of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s "The Road to UFC 2" from Shanghai, China. 

The live production in Las Vegas in May involved 24 camera feeds that were acquired from Shanghai via remote integration through transmission services provided by PSSI Global Services, a live event management, transmission, production and connectivity provider serving clients across the globe. 

PSSI reported that the scale and distance of the event represented a significant expansion of the remote production model and that the successful event demonstrated that PSSI can help clients of any size expand globally without compromising production quality and reliability. 

The REMI production model enabled UFC and its production partner, ConCom, to reduce its production footprint by providing an alternative to traveling overseas with an entire production team.

"A college football game as a 10-channel REMI is now part of the weekly repertoire in the US, but we are pushing the boundaries with scale and distance,” said Garrett Hunt, who leads PSSI’s project management team. “UFC is the perfect partner for this initial venture because their global reach is so expansive. Our work in Shanghai and Vegas shows there’s no corner of the world we can’t reach to produce a world-class show with fewer boots on the ground than ever before.”

PSSI sent its newly acquired Appear media processing and delivery equipment and two senior engineers to Shanghai to facilitate this broadcast. Appear's X Platform enabled high-density HEVC encoding/decoding for the event, converting 24 HD camera signals and 8 return feeds into high-quality HEVC, low-latency transport signals. 

In addition, PSSI turned to Telstra to provide one gigabyte of data for the event via their Special Events Network, as well as an IT interface for remote engineering. PSSI also engaged Nextologies to design multiple payload data tunnels for comms, scoring, and camera tallies between the Shanghai Media Group facility and UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

“What we were able to accomplish in Shanghai could be tailored to any company with an interest in efficient international REMI productions,” said Tracy Michaels, director of project engineering, who architected this solution alongside PSSI’s partners at Appear, Telstra, and Nextologies. “What sets this REMI apart is the rapid-deploy set/shoot/strike model that can be scaled up or down for any event around the world.”

For more information about PSSI, visit http://www.pssiglobal.com. 

LAS VEGAS—VidOvation has announced that the company is investing in additional Haivision products for its rental offering to satisfy increasing customer demand for live REMI (Remote Integration) and at-home production solutions.

With the Haivision Pro video transmitter, mobile encoders, and Haivision StreamHub advanced receiver and distribution platform, VidOvation can provide video transport for live sports productions, newsgathering, reality TV, and other live event productions, the companies said.

In addition, VidOvation also offers carrier-agnostic e-SIMs with domestic and global support of 4G LTE and 5G cellular networks.

"VidOvation has almost a decade of experience with the Pro transmitters and StreamHub," said Jim Jachetta, executive vice president and chief technology officer, VidOvation. "VidOvation originally launched these products to the North American market for Aviwest before the acquisition by Haivision last year. Our customers appreciate the depth of this experience, and that they're not just getting gear from us, they're getting 24/7 technical support, the know-how, and professional level consultations on simplifying their live production workflows."

The Haivision Pro deployed with VidOvation e-SIMs can automatically connect up to eight cellular modems to the best local cellular networks, such as Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, the companies said. 

That means customers no longer need to swap out SIMs for an alternate carrier if a carrier is unavailable in a particular area or region. Instead, the VidOvation e-SIMs automatically switch to the best available cellular network in real time, the company said. 

VidOvation provides cellular connectivity in more than 120 countries around the world.

"VidOvation has been providing customers at-home and REMI production capabilities since 2016. The technology took off during the pandemic, and it's not slowing down," said Jachetta. "The Haivision solution has enabled multicamera capture of live content at remote locations with management and production from a centralized main studio or control room. It makes perfect sense regarding efficiency, workflow simplicity, and cost savings. Many people adopted these at-home production workflows because, at the time, they had to. Now, it's their preferred option."

PITTSBURGH—NEP Group announced this week the launch of its “MLS Season Pass” platform,” a multitude of services to support Major League Soccer’s full season of more than 950 matches. The launch is part of the global production company’s efforts to expand its market through new strategic partnerships, and marks the culmination of 18 months of investment, proprietary R&D and “strong execution of the company’s strategic vision,” the company said.  

As part of the MLS partnership, NEP is providing mobile units on-site at every venue; remote and/or centralized support of multiple game feeds from NEP’s New York, Miami and Los Angeles production hubs; studios and control rooms supporting Spanish and English-language pregame, postgame and whip-around shows; media asset management through NEP’s Mediabank product; technical management, crewing and operations support, connectivity between venues; and other infrastructure and systems management.

Along with NEP's MLS partnership, the company has also partnered with the XFL (now in its second season) and also provided support for the integration of centralized, cloud-based workstreams with traditional live production support for the recent Olympics, Commonwealth Games and World Cup. 

NEP also announced a series of new partnerships with the PGA TOUR, NASCAR, Swedish Ice Hockey, World Rally Championship and the new Dyn Media Sport offering in Germany. These new partnerships are in addition to NEP’s existing Centralized and Connected Production offerings available worldwide, as well as recent contract extensions to support NFL broadcasters, this year's Women’s World Cup in Australia, and Indian Premier League coverage in India.

So far in 2023, NEP has launched four new TFC-powered U.S. mobile units—Supershooter 7 and Supershooter 62 were launched in March and Supershooter CBS received a TFC upgrade, also in March.

“For us, listening and adapting to our clients’ needs is the most important part of our business, and these needs, whether based on advanced technology, reduced costs, increased safety, or something else, are changing rapidly. Our strategy, and now its execution, has been a direct response to that,” says Brian Sullivan, CEO of NEP. “We want to give all our clients the most flexible and forward-looking solutions possible. Our new partnerships in the U.S. and around the globe are a testament to the strength of our people and their ingenuity. And these deals prove the path we’re on is the right one, equipped to lead our industry into the future.”

NEP will be in Booth #C4535 in the Central Hall of the LVCC during the 2023 NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 16-19.

LAS VEGAS—Nextologies has established a co-location and western U.S. REMI and network operations center with the UFC APEX production facility here and will provide live demos of the new REMI solution at the 2023 NAB Show, April 15-19. 

Productions coming to the Las Vegas area will have the opportunity to use the facility, which: 

• Leverages Nextologies’ hardware within UFC APEX to transmit signals with ultra-low latency and produce multi-camera live events from a centralized studio. No bonded cellular or legacy transmission strategies are required. 
• Minimizes staff needed and simplifies onsite technology and infrastructure requirements.
• Delivers signals into APEX via Nextologies’ broadcast-quality live video delivery platform.
• Leverages co-located UFC APEX and Nextologies facilities for audio mixing, video switching, graphics, SCTE marker insertion, frame rate conversion, transcoding, encoding, and streaming. 
• Distributes programming via private fiber or public/private internet using Nextologies’ existing worldwide network of more than 2,000 delivery points. Signals can be delivered in any format required by any taker, opening up new revenue-generating opportunities. 

“The collaboration with Nextologies and 10TX [a Nextologies brand] provides UFC an in-house technology partner to assist in developing new solutions that position UFC Apex as a premier event and broadcast facility in Las Vegas,” said Tim O’Toole, senior vice president of event production at UFC. “Offering our production resources and talent to outside organizations has been a goal of UFC APEX since its inception.” 

The Nextologies 10TX brand leverages the company’s XAAS (everything as a service) hardware, software and hybrid cloud infrastructure.

“The technology backbone of this new REMI solution has proven reliable and effective over the last decade for live TV, and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to launch 10TX and partner with UFC to extend a game-changing solution to even more live productions,” said Nextologies CEO Sasha ZIvanovic.

See Nextologies in NAB Show booth W2959 in the West Hall of the LVCC.

More information is available on the company’s website.

LAS VEGAS—Vidovation today announced that the company is investing in additional Haivision products for its rental offering in response to increasing customer demand for live REMI (Remote Integration) and at-home production solutions.

Vidovation offers its customers the Haivision Pro video transmitter, mobile encoders, and Haivision StreamHub advanced receiver and distribution platform, providing video transport for live sports productions, newsgathering, reality TV, and other live event productions. Further simplifying production workflows, Vidovation also offers carrier-agnostic e-SIMs with domestic and global support of 4G LTE and 5G cellular networks.

"Vidovation has almost a decade of experience with the Pro transmitters and StreamHub," said Jim Jachetta, executive vice president and chief technology officer, Vidovation. "Vidovation originally launched these products to the North American market for Aviwest before the acquisition by Haivision last year. Our customers appreciate the depth of this experience, and that they're not just getting gear from us, they're getting 24/7 technical support, the know-how, and professional level consultations on simplifying their live production workflows."

The Haivision Pro deployed with Vidovation e-SIMs can automatically connect up to eight cellular modems to the best local cellular networks, such as Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Customers no longer need to swap out SIMs for an alternate carrier if a carrier is unavailable in a particular area or region, according to the company. Instead, the Vidovation e-SIMs automatically switch to the best available cellular network in real time. The advanced e-SIM cards are agnostic to the device and cellular carrier and do not require any configuration. Vidovation provides cellular connectivity in more than 120 countries around the world.

Haivision StreamHub is an advanced receiver, decoder, transcoder, and streaming hub that allows users to receive transmissions from various field encoders and transmitters, enabling quick, easy, and simultaneous sharing of high-quality live content with multiple affiliates or other broadcast facilities. The StreamHub software makes this integration possible with support for up to 16 IP inputs and outputs supporting IP protocols such as SRT, NDI, RTMP, TS over IP, HLS, and others. In addition, StreamHub is vendor-agnostic and universally compatible with third-party encoders and transmitters.

"Vidovation has been providing customers at-home and REMI production capabilities since 2016. The technology took off during the pandemic, and it's not slowing down," said Jachetta. "The Haivision solution has enabled multicamera capture of live content at remote locations with management and production from a centralized main studio or control room. It makes perfect sense regarding efficiency, workflow simplicity, and cost savings. Many people adopted these at-home production workflows because, at the time, they had to. Now, it's their preferred option."

Vidovation will be in Booth W2114 in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center during the 2023 NAB Show, April 16-19.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—TVU Networks will introduce the TVU RPS One, an all-in-one hybrid cloud and studio remote production solution at the 2023 NAB Show, April 16-19 in Las Vegas. The new product combines the synchronized multicamera encoding and transmission functionality in TVU’s RPS (Remote Production System) in an ultra-compact and rugged form factor with six integrated 5G modems for wireless transmission.  

In conjunction with TVU's robust live cloud production platform or TVU RPS decoders, RPS One delivers an end-to-end cloud-based or on-prem live video production solution from field capture to distribution, TVU said. RPS One's unique ability to transmit wirelessly to the cloud and an on-prem decoder simultaneously enables production teams to create distinct programming using the same sources or set up a mirrored production environment for backup purposes.

"After extensive feedback from our global customers, we've combined RPS's power of fully synchronized multi-camera feeds at sub-second latency with the portability, 4K HDR quality, speed, and real-time wireless streaming capabilities of TVU One," said Paul Shen, CEO, TVU Networks. "RPS One equips content creators with everything they need for faster, more efficient, and more reliable workflows from anywhere. We're excited to demonstrate RPS One's capabilities to NAB attendees, and we believe they'll be impressed with its speed and connectivity."

The company says the TVU RPS One transmission device is the only product in its class that supports six,  next generation embedded 5G sub-6 GHz modems. It boasts an innovative 5G MIMO antenna array that guarantees the seamless operation of all built-in 5G modems at peak performance simultaneously. This feature is complemented by six next-generation 3GPP Release 16 modems, which provide comprehensive support for 5G SA and NSA modes, as well as compatibility with the most widely-used 5G, LTE, and 3G bands worldwide.

Additionally, the RPS One's dual WiFi modules, equipped with MIMO antennas, ensure top-notch connectivity with local devices and multiple available networks concurrently, delivering unmatched performance and versatility in the world of wireless communication.

RPS One has four 3G-SDI inputs that support 1080P/1080i/720p  HDR remote production. It also supports up to 16 channels of embedded audio (SDI), and up to 8 channels of embedded audio (HDMI).  It also supports a low-latency, single Return Video Feed from an SDI or IP input on any TVU Transceiver or TVU Cloud service allowing virtually any source to be routed to the field. 

RPS One simultaneously aggregates up to 12 data connections including internal/external cellular, WiFi, Ethernet, IP Microwave, Satellite (Ka/Ku/BGAN/Starlink) and more. It includes up to six embedded 5G/LTE/3G modems, embedded 2.4/5GHz WiFi, Ethernet, and four USB connections for external modem connections.

TVU Networks will be in Booth W1821 in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. 

NASHVILLE—Mobile production and audio facilities provider TNDV this week announced its adoption of LiveU rackmount decoders to support its evolving production business requirements, including remote integration model (REMI) production, while minimizing the cost of live acquisition and media networking.

TNDV recently bought a pair of LiveU LU20000 rackmount decoders. The units are used on its trucks and as part of its live production workflow in its Nashville network operations center (NOC).

The company also uses LiveU LU300 HEVC portable field transmitters for live content acquisition and to stream to its trucks and the NOC, it said.

“The simplicity of sharing the LU2000 between studio and remote applications was a major selling point for us,” said TNDV president Rob Devlin. “We can plug these into our network facility infrastructure on short notice and quickly integrate them into a remote broadcast that we manage from here in Nashville.” 

“We can just as quickly unplug it, put it on one of our trucks, and use it as part of a wireless camera system to capture a sports or entertainment event. We can even use it to provide reliable crosstown connections,” he said.

Recently, TNDV embedded two cameras outfitted with the LiveU wireless transmitters along with five wired Hitachi HD5000 cameras for coverage of the ACC Rowing Championship.

The races were recorded and returned to the ACC Network for post-production, with parts airing on a subsequent two-hour ACC Network special broadcast.

“We really wanted to make it more exciting than the traditional rowing event that anyone can watch from the shoreline,” said Devlin. “LiveU’s technology allowed to us get much closer to the action. We added them to what the ACC calls ‘chase boats,’ which placed us right next to the competitors on the lake.”
In the Nashville NOC, the LiveU LU2200 have helped TNDV manage the company’s growing REMI production business.

“We do a lot of live entertainment events, and as usual we had a busy season of concert festivals,” said Devlin. “While it’s not quite as exciting as how we use these on location, the dependability factor in our network facility is critical for REMI productions. Each of these units can take in four remote live HD feeds. It’s more of a set-it and forget-it type of application, but the reliability in performance is very important.”

TNDV leverages the LiveU Central management portal to monitor connections, quality and adjust settings as needed, he added.

The company has even used the LiveU LU2200 to assist with 4K transport over four-mile hop between venues during a concert assignment in Las Vegas.

More information is available on the company’s website.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—Live event solution and services provider CP Communications has opened a new office in Los Angeles, a move that brings the company back to L.A. after a 10-year hiatus. 

“The business models have changed, and we have changed with them,” said Kurt Heitmann, CEO, CP Communications and Red House Streaming. “We are focused on high-end 4K production gear, RF camera packages, multi-camera PTZ production systems, and more for broadcast and AV customers.”

The LA office is led by Ian McKelvy, general manager, CP Communications, who joined the company in late 2019. “L.A. is such a huge market, and a strategic market,” said McKelvy. “And to better serve that market, you need to have boots on the ground. We really want to showcase our solutions, from more traditional broadcast productions to the bonded cellular live streaming solutions we offer through our Red House Streaming subsidiary. This is an exciting opportunity for CP Communications.” 

McKelvy expects a presence in Southern California will provide the company the opportunity to collaborate with design groups in the area and attract corporate clients. The new office will also help drive REMI production and live streaming business back to the Red House Streaming (RHS) studios in St. Petersburg, Florida.

“Coming out of the last couple of years, people don’t necessarily want to fly to a studio,” McKelvy explained. “They are starting to realize just how much you can do with streaming. There’s so much opportunity for our streaming business, and we offer many different solutions for the corporate video market. By stocking our hardware locally and providing local technical support and expertise here, we can better support our customers and their projects.”

While L.A. is a main focal point, the new CP Communications office also provides better access to other clients in the region. “With an office on the West Coast, we can get gear quicker and more efficiently to markets like Las Vegas and San Diego,” McKelvy said. “We also have some great clients in the Northwest, including Portland and Washington State, so we will be able to better service them as well.”

The new CP Communications office is located at 15907 Blythe Street in Van Nuys, Calif.

SYDNEY—Gravity Media and the Mana Sports and Entertainment Group partnered on coverage of the June 5 head-to-head men’s endurance sport race in Germany that relied on an advanced REMI (remote integration model) production setup.

The race, a head-to-head contest between Kristian Blummenfelt and Joe Skipper and between Nicola Spirig and Kat Matthews not only was one for the history books in which a full-distance triathlon was completed in less than seven and eight hours, respectively, but also proved to be a remarkable achievement for the REMI model.

“This event was a great opportunity to demonstrate a ‘proof of concept’ and to highlight what can be achieved through experience and innovation. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the event. Technically [a] great achievement; everyone involved should be very proud –well done,” said Gravity Media CEO John Newton.

Some 50,000 people across the globe watched the race on YouTube and Facebook. Nine and half hours of live coverage of the Pho3nix SUB7 SUB8 Triathlon in Germany, powered by Zwift race was produced from the Gravity Media Production Centre in Sydney.

Coverage of the event spotlighted Gravity Media’s technical innovation. Sixteen cameras beamed in from the Laustitzring racetrack in Brandenburg, Germany, fed the remote IP broadcast switched from Sydney. Live coverage of racing was bookended with pre- and post-race content, featuring special guests, pre-recorded content and technical analysis.

“Gravity Media has a great reputation globally for not only providing complex technical solutions, but also for our highly credentialed and talented production team,” said Saul Shtein, director of Production & Content at Gravity Media Australia. “The Sub7 and Sub8 is an example of a cost-effective, full-turnkey production. From working with the client on the initial concept, pre-production, graphic design, crewing… right through to the telecast of the event.”

Live coverage was streamed on the Pho3nix Foundation’s YouTube channel. A peak of 28,880 concurrent viewers watched the racers finish under goal time. There were 202,300 logged views after 24 hours, and the stream is projected to exceed a quarter of a million views over the next week, Gravity Media said.

Coverage was also mirrored on Facebook, where it reached 174,438 views and 15,995 link clicks. Related social media post engagement logged a 600% increase from baseline, it said.

More than 90 Gravity Media personnel from Australia and France produced the coverage, said Mike Purcell, head of production and executive producer at Gravity Media Australia, adding that equipment from all of the company’s offices, including Germany and the U.K. was used.

“This event has been a great achievement at every level. Besides the technical achievement which has been brilliantly executed by the technical teams, on a complicated and very advanced set-up, it has also been a great collaboration between the Gravity Media offices across the globe,” said Solene Zavagno, general manager at Gravity Media France.

Gravity Media used a large amount of equipment to provide the necessary communications and video circuits used. Talkback was delivered via Unity communications using bonded devices. A total of 20 cameras were deployed, including specialty cameras on motorcycles and a drone. Polecams and a Shotover camera with gyro-stabilized head were also deployed.

All feeds were transported via AviWest bonded IP transmitters. Other tech included 20 EVS record ports spread across three XT3 servers linked in the control room, sever SRT return video fees, three GFX engines and multiple edit suites in Germany and Australia. Personnel included two dedicated highlight loggers, a social media team managing all social content and on-screen graphics from Gravity Media’s Australian design team and produced by Girraphic, the company said.

“This project required complex engineering solutions. We collaborated closely with the Gravity Media team in France to connect both sites through IP comms and bonded camera technology. Our facility has been designed to cater for both remote productions and traditional broadcast methods. This unique flexibility allows us to be agile for any production be it small or large, anywhere in the world,” said Adam Dodman, studio engineering manager at Gravity Media Australia.

More information is available on the company’s website. Video coverage of the triathlon is available online. 

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—CP Communications and its subsidiary Red House Streaming have announced that they’ve gradually evolved their St. Petersburg, Florida headquarters into a specialized broadcast and IP production center and that they've rebranded it as Red House Streaming Production Center.

As part of that effort, the company has now deployed a varied network infrastructure of 1Gb and 10Gb pipes that interface with its two homegrown RHS studios and new RHS-36 truck, allowing the company to seamlessly manage live content coming from and going to any location globally – without leaving the property, and without leaving the IP domain if desired. 

These advances, along with the ability for clients to bring their own production trucks to interface directly with the IP network infrastructure, have inspired CP and RHS to formally rebrand the facility as Red House Streaming Production Center. 

The facility has already hosted several REMI productions, including the Bermuda Track and Field Championships and two ACC Golf Championship events.

“We differ from conventional production centers because we offer a true all-IP production ecosystem,” said Kurt Heitmann, CEO, CP Communications and Red House Streaming. “We offer multiple levels of professional production using traditional studio or control room workflows. Regardless of which production service is used, we acquire in IP, we produce in IP, and we distribute in IP. We can keep it all in IP with our vMix workflows, or also decode content for a traditional SDI workflow onboard RHS-36. We can then encode it back to IP for distribution.”

Heitmann added that the Red House Streaming Production Center uses Internet Protocol compression standards in ways that allow clients to capture, edit, process and deliver programming in their preferred formats. 

“We work in compressed environments, instead of moving uncompressed content around the facility on network cable,” said Heitmann. “Working in compressed environments is what gives our clients the freedom to manage content to and from anywhere globally over IP in a variety of formats, including RTMP, RTSP, SRT and NDI.”

The first 2022 REMI production project from Red House Streaming Production Center was the Bermuda Track and Field Championships for Carr-Hughes Productions (CHP) that aired on NBC Sports. 

This project utilized CHP’s High Rock mobile truck. Red House Streaming engineered a layer 2 network that transported eight video signals with 32 channels of audio, RVON communications, control data for cameras, return video and scoring data to and from Bermuda. 

“Basically, we extended the truck and production center networks to Bermuda,” said Heitmann. “The NBC announcers were in RHS Studio A and the international commentator was in RHS Studio B, and it was as if they were onsite.”

CP’s RHS-36 mobile unit was later brought in for the ACC Women’s Golf Championship, which took place in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina. CP and RHS acquired eight bonded cellular signals from the Reserve Golf Club and natively placed them into the traditional control room workflow onboard RHS-36 back at Red House Streaming Production Center. 

The content was managed and processed on board RHS-36 in a traditional SDI video workflow, which includes a Ross Video Carbonite switcher, Ross Xpression graphics, Evertz Dreamcatcher replay systems and Yamaha audio mixing, before being distributed over IP to the web. A similar project for the Men’s ACC Golf Championship event live from Panama City, Florida followed one week later.

“The ACC Women’s and Men’s Golf Tournaments were the proving ground, as there were six hours of live transmission with eight cameras including an RHS CamSTREAM, a drone and six traditional cameras - all coming into RHS-36 over bonded cellular,” said Heitmann. 

While RHS-36 offers a more traditional control room environment, RHS Studios A and B offer true studio workflow environments for clients that truly want to keep it all in IP. “We are using our vMix studio switching workflows in the two RHS studios, which keep everything in native IP,” he said.

Heitmann added that the company’s new FastReturn system brings another important differentiating layer to the company’s REMI production arsenal. 

FastReturn can ingest any H.264 baseline profile RTMP stream, supporting HD resolution and 128kbit stereo audio with bit rates up to 10 MBps with less than 400ms of latency, and then place live-acquired content from the cloud directly into Red House Streaming Production Center’s IP network. CP and RHS technicians architected the IP network infrastructure for optimized redundancy and failover, and added an enterprise broadband pipe to support future 4K, 8K and similar high-bandwidth productions. 

“We have 1Gb backup pipes for transmission, engineering and other production arms that assure uninterrupted service, and we have a full NOC for monitoring and quality assurance as well as to manage remote talent,” said Heitmann. “It’s all about providing the most flexible and reliable solutions for today’s varied REMI productions, and we can handle it all from Red House Streaming Production Center.”

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—At about midway through the inaugural United States Football League (USFL) season, the well-known television production technique dubbed REMI, or Remote Integration Model, is once again proving itself to be invaluable—but this time with a twist.

Rather than simply offering an alternative to traditional on-site TV production, the same REMI implementation serves centralized production control in Los Angeles for FOX Sports and Stamford, Conn., for NBC Sports as well as the league itself in Los Angeles, powering USFL replay, which is done under contract by Fox.

“To do that really involved an absolute plethora of transmission gear and real deep network insight into both [network television] workflows and concepts,” says Brad Cheney, vice president of field operations and engineering at Fox Sports.

More than 120 feeds leave Birmingham via 19 gigabits of bandwidth, a combination of private and public circuits as well as satellite backup. About half land simultaneously in Stamford and Los Angeles and the other half are discrete to each location. Even though separate game productions are done in Stamford and Los Angeles, remotely doing replay on the West Coast means both locations are always on.

“Even when NBC is doing a show, you couldn’t just flip the switch and send all transmission to NBC and call it a day,” says Cheney. “Those cameras come back in real time to Los Angeles for the replay center…. All of that depth of access that we built for the show is interacting with NBC Stamford full time. From that level, the integration is absolutely peer-to-peer constantly.”

The ‘New’ USFL And TV Production
The “new” USFL kicked off its first season in April with eight teams playing a 10-game schedule. The word “new” is being applied to this incarnation of the league because the idea of a second professional football league has been around for decades. The USFL traces its historical roots to 1965 when David Dixon, a businessman in New Orleans, conceived the idea for a pro league that played during the summer in NFL and college football off-seasons. That league actually formed and played three seasons, 1983-1985, before folding.

The new league, which reportedly is owned by Fox Sports through a business entity called The Spring League, is being led by Brian Woods, its co-founder and president, and Daryl Johnston, USFL executive vice president of football operations and a former Dallas Cowboys fullback who played on three Super Bowl championship teams.

All regular season games are being played in Birmingham. Three postseason games will be played as well, concluding July 3 with the USFL Bowl, which will be played at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio, adjacent to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The teams are divided into two divisions, which include the Michigan Panthers, New Jersey Generals, Philadelphia Stars and Pittsburgh Maulers in the north and Birmingham Stallions, Houston Gamblers, New Orleans Breakers and Tampa Bay Bandits in the south. 

Centralizing regular season play in one city—as opposed to playing in four different cities each week—means there was no need to roll traditional OB trucks across the country from venue to venue. REMI was a good fit, says Cheney.

The first week of the season was an exception with traditional mobile facilities on site at the 47,000-seat Protective Stadium where the University of Alabama, Birmingham, Blazers play. Legion Field, the former home of the UAB Blazers, is also being used.

There were remotely produced elements added for the first two games of the inaugural weekend, however. NBC Sports added quarterback stats, scorebug, production and commentator telestrators, from Stamford. The third game that weekend between the Philadelphia Stars and New Orleans Breakers was produced entirely in Stamford.

Fox Sports began to prepare for USFL production preparations in December 2021. Two weeks later, the sports broadcaster’s CEO Eric Shanks and Brad Zager, its president of production and operations/executive producer, came to Cheney and his team with a new development.

“They said, ‘Hey, by the way, we’ve got a second television partner, NBC, and we’re going to do it all together,’” recalls Cheney.

Enter NBC Sports
Fresh off its overlapping production of the Winter Olympics from Beijing and Super Bowl LVI from SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, NBC Sports took on production of USFL games in partnership with Fox Sports.

For its productions, NBC Sports is using more than 68 video paths from Birmingham to Stamford, says Craig Bernstein, the sports broadcaster’s vice president, remote technical operations and engineering.

Relying on a combination of compression codecs, including JPEG2000, HEVC and H.264, NBC Sports has reduced latency between the stadium and Stamford to “nearly a non-factor,” he says.

From a production point of view, the broadcasters are using nearly 60 cameras to cover the biggest games—comparable to the number used for NFC and AFC championship games—and no fewer than 30 for others, says Cheney.

In the case of Fox Sports, 70 microphones are capturing audio on the field. NBC Sports has added three additional stereo microphones—high left end zone, high right end zone and far 50-yard Mezzanine level—to create and capture enhanced sound. The broadcaster is creating a 5.1.4 mix in Stamford, which is being mixed down to 5.1 for air, says Bernstein.

Games are being shot in 1080p HDR. NBC is distributing 1080i HD to viewers, Fox is distributing its shows in 4K to affiliates and cable partners. Most Fox affiliates are down converting to 720p for broadcast, but some are also on-air in ATSC 3.0, which supports 4K. “I believe some of them are also doing so (broadcasting the games in 4K) and some are leveraging their cable partners,” says Cheney. 

New Perspectives
Specialty cameras play a big role in production of the games. Helmets are equipped with cameras as are referee hats. There are also wireless line-to-gain pylon cams, drone cameras, says Bernstein. The Ump cameras are particularly valuable, adds Cheney.

“One thing people forget … [with] the helmet cam is when you're running with a football, your helmet is moving side to side, because you’re looking ahead to see what's going on, see where that hole is, as you're moving,” says Cheney. “While we get some really amazing things on it, it can also give you motion sickness at the same time.”

In contrast, the Umpires stand still and are focused. “You really see the play at head level coming at you,” he adds.

Among the most noticeable shots are those from a dual SKYCAM setup—with one positioned high and the other low, similar to what NBC Sports uses in its “Sunday Night Football” productions. While using two SKYCAMs isn’t new in football production, the impact of positioning one from the defensive point of view and the other from the offense’s perspective “is massive,” says Cheney.

With the defensive side SKYCAM, producers can zoom in and ISO on players running towards the camera—“something we’ve never been able to do before,” says Cheney.

“Now all of a sudden, we have a moving end zone camera,” he says. “We’ve put a 24x lens on it, and it’s in people’s noses. And because of the other coverage cameras there, even the low sky camera on the offensive side of the play runs lower, doing more and pushing things a bit.”

While the producers and technical staff come from different networks, both NBC Sports and Fox Sports have worked well together, learning from one another and synthesizing new perspectives into the production of each of their shows. Even with production of the opening game—a simulcast by both Fox and NBC—both sides worked closely together.

“That night we were launching that simulcast, Brad Zager and (NBC Sports executive producer and president, production) Sam Flood were sitting next to each other the whole time, discussing what to do—how to make the show,” says Cheney.

Bernstein echoes Cheney’s comments. “Working with our partners at Fox has been both a unique and rewarding experience, including working together to engineer dual solutions using a common set of equipment and personnel. I’m looking forward to continuing the partnership as the league continues to gain traction,” he says.

The Covid pandemic of the past two years has accelerated the process, technology and acceptance of credible 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 international trips and was shocked that broadcasters 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 commentators 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 forefront of remote production as early as the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta when NBC sent three dozen video feeds to New York where editing, replays, graphics and other production tasks were based. At the time, remote Ethernet controls and a file-based workflow did not exist.

In 2013 Mazza’s team opened the Stamford 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 competition 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 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 soundproof 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 currently 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 camera 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 Glenn 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 sometimes 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 technical manager and a couple of utilities. Ninety-five percent of the time the presenters are on-site.

“For something like baseball or softball we will also have interview headsets in each dugout,” 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, virtually all aspects of remote control production had been tested and proven. Manufacturers 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 entertainment? How did that work out? Clearly the benefit 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? My new pet peeve is CNN hosting a rotation of commentators on a hotel balcony in Lviv, Ukraine. The background for host Brianna Keilar looks like a tinted surreal photograph—spooky and miserable. I have to ask: What is the entertainment value? 

PALO ALTO, Calif.—A new player in the North American encoding market arrived last month with its eye set on sports contribution, network broadcasters, telcos, MSOs and direct-to-home service providers.

Appear, which traces its roots back to 2004 as a spinoff of Tandberg Television, has entered the North American market with four products: X Platform, a high-speed video networking, IP security and advanced compression solution; XC Platform, a modular head-end platform for IPTV and broadcast with support for acquisition, compression and stream processing; X10 DSNG: a digital satellite news gathering encoder-decoder and satellite up- and downlink in a single chassis; and NEO10, a software-based compression solution, says Ed McGivern, general manager.

The Oslo-based company, which has distributed its products in the U.S. since 2008 through Sencore under the DMG brand name, will continue to have a distribution relationship with Sencore but is also building direct distribution and has begun to build a North American sales, marketing and technology team, he says.

Coming to North America was motivated as much by evolving production workflows as it was by technology developments, says McGivern.

“The market segment in 2020 and 2021—with the advent of a lot of REMI remote productions and the building of SMPTE ST 2110 networks, as well as the migration to IP, cloud-based live production and playout technologies—[are areas where] we've really done a lot of work in Europe and in North America through Sencore,” he says.

The pandemic helped to drive adoption of REMI by many broadcasters and production companies to maintain the safety of workers who otherwise would have been in unacceptably close proximity to one another. 

“REMI remote production technology has existed for years," McGivern said. "I think what some of the pandemic has proven to us is that operationally it can be done. Operationally, they were forced to be remote, which helped create demand for high-speed networks, dedicated private-line networks and then low latency contribution.”

This development helped create what McGivern calls “a pure growth opportunity” for Appear in North America. “The demand is there, the product suite is there and the market is really looking for a standards-based company that does best of breed for compression, codecs, ground-to-cloud, cloud-to-ground JPEG XS and low-latency, high-availability products,” he said.

At the moment, Appear is content to build its North American business on these products; however, the company has its eye on the adoption of ATSC 3.0 by broadcasters and the chance to meet their encoding needs, he says.

To date, Appear has conducted some encoding trials and tests in North America and is “keen to pounce on” 3.0 as TV broadcasting evolves and migrates to the new standard, says McGivern. 

“We’re very close to that, and we’re looking at where that market segment is going to take our North American customers and viewership and will be ready to deploy a support platform for ATSC 3.0 as we move forward,” he says.

To date, Appear has assembled a North American team in Nevada, California and Minnesota. Mark Andrews has been named vice president of sales for North America. The company will make its first NAB Show appearance since announcing its North American operations this April (23-27) in Las Vegas.

At the show, the company will debut its new NEO20, a plug-and-play solution offering accelerated HEVC transcoding simultaneously with AVC transcoding, which simplifies server deployment and operations.

The NEO20 can receive MPEG TS IP RTP/UDP and SRT streams and deliver both MPEG TS IP RTP/UDP output and most common HTTP push formats. It also can transmit streams in SRT format.

See Appear at NAB Show booth W8917.

More information is available on the company’s website. 

LAS VEGAS—Broadcast Management Group (BMG) has selected Utah Scientific’s Utah-400 Series 2 288x288 routing switcher for signal distribution at its new Las Vegas production center being built from the ground up to enable Remote Integration Model (REMI) production, Utah Scientific announced.

"One of the silver linings of the current pandemic is that it has accelerated several important trends that were already shaping the future of broadcasting, and REMI is no exception," said Todd Mason, BMG founder and CEO. "With so many productions suddenly having to rely on remote workflows and key talent working from home offices, we saw an opportunity to offer a one-of-its-kind, world-class REMI facility that could meet their needs both now and in the post-COVID future."

The facility, which cut over to REMI operations March 8 with the live broadcast of the U.N. Women’s global conference and daily live shows, is using the routing switcher as the core of the facility’s signal routing infrastructure. 

The REMI production facility will take over production of regular game and post-game coverage March 20 for the American Hockey League’s (AHL’s) Henderson Silver Knights presented by Sinclair Broadcast Group’s KVCW-TV, the company said.

The facility’s production control room is rather small. However, BMG has deployed a datacenter approach to REMI, which enables production talent to access content and workflows remotely without having to be on site.

This approach requires a high degree of reliability. Utah Scientific’s no-fee, 10-year hardware warranty, which includes maintenance and support, therefore proved to be a big reason for BMG’s selection of the Utah-400 Series 2, the company said.

"Choosing the right routing system was one of the biggest decisions we faced for the new facility, and we knew we couldn't go wrong with Utah Scientific,” said Mason. “With its expandability and support for every type of signal format, the Utah-400 Series 2 is the future-proof router we need as we continue to grow and migrate to full IP-based operations in the years ahead.”

More information is available on the Utah Scientific website.

MONTREAL—Updates to Matrox Video’s Monarch EDGE 4K/multi-HD encoder and decoder units have been announced, highlighted by the introduction of new remote production (REMI) workflows.

The Monarch EDGE technology can deliver up to four synchronized HD/3G-SDI camera feeds or a single 12G-SDI signal—in both native progressive and interlaced video formats—with glass-to-glass latency as low as 100 ms. According to Matrox, this reduces the number of production staff and resources required in the field. 

Two Monarch EDGE units can fit into a single 1RU rack space. The encoder and decoder pair also includes next-generation connectivity, including tally and talkback I/O and support for standard MPEG-2, RTSP and SRT streaming protocols.

Other new features available via the Monarch EDGE update include the ability to encode eight channels of audio per stream from a selection of 16 embedded audio sources per SDI input. Users can also record to a USB drive or network attached storage, allowing for the capture of multicamera ISO recordings.

The new Matrox Monarch EDGE driver is available for download. For more information, visit www.matrox.com.  

With lockdown measures easing in many places around the globe and a return to something resembling “life as normal” hopefully on the horizon, one thing in particular is on the minds of ardent sports fans: namely, getting live games back on their screens. Rebroadcasts of classic games and sports documentaries such as “The Last Dance,” the acclaimed Netflix and ESPN series, are feeding the appetite for all things sports while live events have been put on hold. A spike in esports on TV screens, such as the record breaking eNascar iRacing series, has also helped. Yet these options only go so far in satisfying sports fans’ hunger for genuine, live physical events.

As the world steadily comes to grips with the global pandemic, leagues and broadcasters are now keen to find the most straightforward ways to get live sporting events back on air as soon as they can. A return to life-as-normal is of course a shared goal for most industries, but what has become clear is that, even with an easing of restrictions and economies slowly opening up, the effects of COVID-19 will continue to reverberate in sports and other walks of life.

A world in which arenas are packed with fans, and international travel is once again the norm for teams and sporting personalities, will not return any time soon. Instead, sports leagues and rights owners must prioritize the welfare and well-being of staff, fans and players, likely leading to a “halfway house” scenario: games played behind-closed-doors with just key participants attending. As broadcasters and sports leagues around the world look at ways to begin bringing live sports back on air, one approach makes more sense than ever: remote production (REMI).

PLUS: Fox Sports, NASCAR Prep for Live Production

KICK-STARTING THE SPORTING CALENDAR

While the remote approach to live production has been leveraged for some larger events, it is still the exception rather than the rule for mainstream sports. However, as broadcasters, other rights holders and leagues make the gradual transition towards normality, finding new, safer ways to deliver the compelling live sports content that fans demand is imperative. Indeed, the time is right for remote production. It is a practical, deliverable and proven option for producing live events that lightens the load when it comes to travel, equipment and on-site staffing.

Remote production eliminates the need for large mobile units and crews at the event venue itself, creating a safer environment for production staff by ensuring that social distancing guidelines can easily be met. Employing remote capabilities means broadcasters and leagues can centralize production at their home studios or a dedicated third-party location—such as one of The Switch’s remote production facilities in Burbank or New York—with minimal crews onsite. This model involves broadcasters transmitting camera feeds, audio and equipment control over a private fiber network, at low latency, to the central facility. From here, operators can then remotely configure cameras and other equipment at the event site. 

In short, as lockdown conditions ease, the REMI approach—pioneered over the past few years by The Switch and other live broadcast innovators—offers a faster and safer route for leagues, rights holders and fans to get what they want: live sports back on air.

As we steadily move into the post-COVID era, remote production of live sports events is coming into its own—especially where rights holders tap into the expertise of a partner that understands live sports and has deep experience in remote production. In fact, remote production has already been leveraged by major sports networks and rights owners, such as NFL Network, which leveraged The Switch’s REMI services to produce and deliver a 10-game Conference USA college football schedule in 2019. 

PREPARING FOR THE ‘NEW NORMAL’ OF LIVE SPORTS

Post lockdown, the advantages of remote production go far beyond the ability to have smaller crews and less equipment on site. The more than 30% cost savings give broadcasters and other rights holders the scope to improve efficiency and even explore ways that they can deliver live content, from online streaming of shoulder programming through to social media integration.

Traditional linear TV has traditionally dominated live sports viewing, but it is far from the only game in town today. The live sports on-air vacuum is accelerating consumer take-up of streaming, with the new stay-at-home society accessing more streamed content than ever. Online streaming platforms have witnessed a 43% jump in viewership in the week starting March 29, according to analytics firm Stream Hatchet. Similarly, esports streaming service Twitch saw a 60% jump in viewership in March this year. When normal conditions resume, traditional sports broadcasters and leagues will need to meet this uptick in the demand for content across all platforms.

Aside from significant cost savings, remote production offers the potential for higher-quality production, with the ability to support more camera feeds and specialty equipment, such as SkyCam and RF cameras. Centralizing production also brings the advantage of greater flexibility, and the ability to cover multiple events in one day—and REMI’s reduced need for travel and shipping of equipment makes it more environmentally friendly.

What’s more, having a core group of experienced technicians covering a series of games for the same league is of huge value to broadcasters. An experienced crew knows what to expect, what to do and, critically, having worked together on a number of high-level broadcasts they will have established great communication, ensuring productions flow seamlessly and maintain the same look and feel across the season. 

LIFE BEYOND LOCKDOWN

By enabling production crews to work in a home studio with reduced travel, remote production can also transform the impact on the work-life balance of staff, making careers more sustainable. This also means the pool of talent widens; skilled people who are normally unable or unwilling to constantly travel will now be drawn to working in the sector. These considerations will likely play an increasingly central role in the future evolution of live production.

Remote production offers a win-win for fans and rights holders, and it makes a compelling case for becoming the “new normal” for live sports. With rising costs and elevated consumer expectations already putting pressure on the live sports industry, remote production provides many of the answers that broadcasters and content producers seek. In addition to providing a means to get live sports back on air as soon as possible, this approach also provides the tools broadcasters need to take sports production to the next level. 

Glenn Adamo is managing director of Production Services at The Switch.

NORTHFIELD, ILL.—Golf’s Western Amateur Championship, which took place July 30-August 4 at the Sunset Ridge Country Club, in Northfield, Ill., near Chicago, has been an annual event since 1899. Despite the importance of the event, traditional broadcasters have passed it by, primarily because they couldn’t justify the cost of producing live HD telecasts for a niche audience.

For Lowell Thaler, president of Thaler Media in North Palm Beach, Fla., however, it provided a great opportunity to cover the event live in HD—the first time in the event’s history. Working closely with his client, the Western Golf Association (WGA), the Thaler team streamed 12 hours of live coverage to Golf Channel’s digital platforms, including golfchannel.com and its mobile app. The feed was also carried on the WGA’s Facebook page and website, thewesternamateur.com.

“We were able to produce this event very affordably—at perhaps a tenth the cost—compared to the overhead typically associated with a live broadcast-quality HDTV show by leaning heavily on NewTek gear, NDI networking, and LiveU’s transmission system,” said Thaler. “We managed to shave costs without compromising high-end production standards, such as expert shot composition, picture and sound quality."

Thaler was able to produce the entire show from a studio a time zone away, in his hometown of North Palm Beach using what can best be described as a remote IP streaming production approach.

“It’s been logistically and financially challenging to send large crews, HD trucks, and/or elaborate fly packs to remote production sites,” said Thaler, “But this IP streaming production strategy is now a robust, viable alternative.”

WORKING SMART

Empowered with the IP-focused technology, the production crew sent to the Chicago-area golf course was designed with efficiency in mind. The team was made up of just one producer, an editor, four camera operators and a sound mixer. Three of the camera operators moved freely around the golf course, following the players from hole to hole to get the perfect shot.

Since there was no production control facility or mobile video unit on-site to switch and output the program feed, each of the camera operators wore a backpack containing a LiveU LU600 HEVC and LU500 IP-based transmission system. These modems with HEVC HD video relayed their respective camera video and audio signals via an IP pathway to a LiveU LU2000 multi-output server situated at a master control facility 1,300 miles away in South Florida.

Much of the golf action was covered by multiple cameras, and occasionally, camera operators could be seen in the live shot trying to capture it from a different angle, which gave the production a fresh, dynamic look. This was state-of-the-art photography; not the shaky-cams or webcams all too common on streaming platforms. All of the camera work was done in remarkably steady handheld mode, with excellent shot composition, using high-end Sony F55 cinema-grade cameras.

A small remote talk show set was set-up inside the Sunset Ridge clubhouse. The program’s co-anchors sat at a desk to deliver color commentary and game analysis.

A virtual set filled the green screens behind them and in front of their desk, making it appear as if they were enmeshed within a virtual studio far larger than the actual physical space. This was one of the virtual sets Thaler selected from the NewTek virtual set collection that came with the TC1.

OUT OF THE BOX CONTROL

The master control facility, which consisted of a two-room suite, can be described as a completely nontraditional, ad hoc broadcast setting. This South Florida site was crewed by nine people, including the producer, director, TD, audio mixer, live graphics and replay teams.

One of the master control rooms served as a main studio where a third anchor sat in front of a green screen to provide additional commentary. A different but complementary NewTek virtual set was keyed into the background to distinguish it from the first. After commentary, the South Florida anchor would toss the program back to the anchor team at the Chicago clubhouse.

The other room at master control housed a NewTek TriCaster TC1 IP production switcher. As a frame-accurate 4K UHD/60p-capable switcher with an all IP architecture, the TC1 is a 16 input, 4-M/E switcher with multi-bus mix/effects, animated titles and transitions, chromakey, built-in video servers, clip players, graphics channels, a virtual set system, and more. The TC1’s virtual set generation and editing capabilities were maximized on this production.

The production control workflow also included a NewTek 3Play 3P1 replay system, which allowed a replay operator and replay producer to provide SLOMO replays, and playback of aerial footage captured by the camera on a drone flying over the golf course throughout the broadcasts.

A NewTek Live Text CG system running on a laptop provided lower third supers and other on-screen graphics. And a NewTek Live Panel audio mixing control panel was used to combine all of the audio sources—including camera audio and natural/ambient sound—into the final program audio mix.

SKYPE CHANNEL BROADCAST

“Using a simple, streamlined, get-it-done approach, we were able to cover an event that was never covered live before,” said Thaler. “The key was the way we were moving signals between the two sites in real-time, so that the Chicago and Florida production teams could work together seamlessly as if they were both at the same site.”

This included the use of the four Skype channels on the NewTek Talk Show to send the TC1’s program output as a “return” feed to provide essential reference monitoring to the Chicago team. This mix-minus audio feed was then split to each of the anchor’s headsets, essentially serving as an IFB. TalkShow also enabled Skype interviews with guests to be fed back to the TC1 in master control.

The end-to-end LiveU transmission system was critical to tying the two remote groups together because this was the method for relaying the camera ISOs and audio back to special LiveU LU2000 server in the control room.

This Linux server relayed the camera signals via NDI for video over IP networking to the TC1 switcher where the TriCaster operator could mix these live camera inputs with all the other production elements, including features, such as historical vignettes and player profile clips.

PARTNERING FOR INNOVATION

Thaler worked with Miami-based equipment supplier and systems integrator Midtown Video, who provided a range of video and audio production equipment as well as NewTek/LiveU-savvy technicians to help ensure the live production ran smoothly.

“Golf tournaments present logistical challenges to traditional broadcasts because there are essentially miles of wiring and cabling that have to be run to support acquisition,” said Fernando Iglesias, Midtown Video’s vice president of operations. “It wouldn’t be feasible or cost-effective to do these cable runs, or to deploy a high-end HD production truck, for an event like this.”

Midtown Video also provided technical support needed to turn one of the LU600 HEVC units into a “data bridge” so the Chicago crew would have a solid Wi-Fi hot spot on the golf course. This enabled them to have dedicated bandwidth to ensure they could reliably send a Skype program return feed to the Chicago team—a critical transmission connection—and not rely on the venue’s existing Internet bandwidth.

“But with the LiveU transmission system, the broadcast cameras connect directly to backpacks so that the cameramen can move freely around the golf course without any need for long-distance, labor-intensive fiber runs,” Iglesias explained. “Combined with the NewTek production and NDI networking systems, this IP-based approach is extremely cost-effective compared to traditional HD-SDI broadcast.”

Many of the products and technologies powering the live streaming production were either not yet available just a few years ago. Today, by using innovative technologies in the IP live production space, Thaler Media produced a broadcast-quality product as if they were on-site with a full production unit and crew, all while considerably reducing the costs and streamlining the workflow.

“Our 2018 Western Amateur live stream has proven to skeptics that live shows and events that have never been broadcast before can now be produced and streamed, with high-end broadcast quality, very affordably, reliably, and successfully, and for video producers like me, that opens many doors of opportunity.”

LOS ANGELES--About a year ago I wrote about REMI (REMote Integration) sports production (also known as “At Home”), which is a trend for covering live sports that requires less equipment and personnel on-site and shifts much of the live production activities to the broadcaster’s central production center/network center.

Enabled by robust and affordable telecommunications capabilities from the stadium/arena, the camera (and microphone) signals are sent back to the central production center, integrated with graphics, replays, effects and b-roll materials. Usually a small utility truck is sent to the remote site, with cameras and microphones as well as video encoders.

Local camera operators and utility crew roll out the cameras and microphones while an A2 is usually on-site (and may have driven the truck) to set up coms and in some cases provide a sub-mix of the natural sound (crowd). Examples of this type of production are used extensively in college sports (except football and men’s basketball) as well as some professional sports. In smaller productions (1-5 cameras) the truck is replaced by a portable field pack.

BEYOND THE CENTRAL PRODUCTION CENTER

However in many cases REMI still uses first-class professional cameras and production gear. These require operators who are well trained in the use of this equipment. For some sports, this is still a high bar in terms of cost, especially the huge capital cost to build such facilities.

In response to REMI, a new type of live sports production has evolved, one that does not need a central production facility and therefore can be produced anywhere there is a solid internet (IP) connection. Further, instead of hard-wired cameras and microphones, this new production called “Virtual Production” by Sony uses wireless connectivity from camera (and microphone) to a cloud-based production service. No heavy production equipment, no wires!

The sports event can be produced via an app on a tablet, laptop PC or even a smartphone. The “control point” can be augmented with multiple video monitors and audio speakers/headsets. The solution even includes return channels for communications (IFB) and video returns. Further, there can be multiple productions simultaneously using the same camera and mic feeds but outputting specialized line cuts. Finally, this may not be limited to just a professional producer, the same cameras and audio can be available to fans to generate a personalized feed that can be shared via social media.

Taking advantage of this freedom of wires and professional gear, even professional productions can cover parts of an event that are near impossible to cover using conventional TV coverage techniques. For instance, at the Red Bull Alpenbrevet alpine motorcycle race where there isn’t space or room for a production vehicle, a roving camera operator--connected via 4G wireless modem--can cover any part of the event that is accessible.

REQUIREMENTS

Is this Virtual Production (VP) the future of live sports coverage? What are the challenges and downsides of going virtual in the cloud? Some necessary technologies that enable Virtual Production are large wireless bandwidth on site with low latency, connectivity to the internet that is reliable and high bandwidth, and a VP service available and affordable in a data center relatively close to the event (to minimize delays). Finally, what is also needed is a production client app that can enable all the features needed by a production, with low latency of both signals and commands, that can run on typical laptops/tablets/smartphones with online support during the production in case of problems as well as help in setting up the VP service.

For now the offering from Sony is somewhat limited to switching up to six camera feeds, graphics insertion, limited effects (picture in picture, transitions) and audio mixing. Camera synchronization--and to some extent error recovery--requires around 2 seconds of delay, which is deemed to be acceptable for some productions. The other unique advantages that VP provides is a “pay as you go” approach to cost, thanks to implementing VP on the Amazon AWS cloud. For those interested in delivering via the internet using social media live features, this approach has a clear advantage of already being in the cloud. In addition, new features and functions can be rolled out without bringing the truck back to base and wait for the retrofit. Once upgraded on the hosted servers, the new features are immediately available.

[Read: HPA 2016: Remote Live Production]

The costs associated with VP are based on a monthly subscription for a certain number of hours of production. Included are up to six camera feeds, two playout servers, two logo keyers as well as the VPS production user interface. Additional costs may occur due to the wireless camera feeds that use wireless carrier 3G/4G (and in the near future 5G) data services. Finally, there is the cost to distribute the live feed over the internet, which could be free for some social media services (i.e. YouTube Live) or if using a commercial grade CDN such as Akamai, the cost is typically based on the number of concurrent streams. In addition, if the show is archived there will be costs to store the content and cost to retrieve it later.

OTHER VARIATIONS ON THE VP MEME

While the Sony VPS is a full IP/cloud-based approach using wireless cameras, there are other applications that take advantage of the new video technologies. NEP in their facility outside Amsterdam, offers a production facility for REMI production using their own data center, connected via fiber to major stadiums and arenas. The production facilities are rented (much like a remote truck) but only charged for the time used by the production. NEP has also used wireless IP cameras using point-to-point links (Ubiquiti Wireless) at the Coachella music festival to enhance coverage of the event. The use of IP connectivity allowed the production to remote control the cameras (Panasonic PTZ type). This obviated the need to run fiber optic cables to each camera in order to cover the sprawling event.

Teradek has a live production solution called Live: Air Action. Using their bonded wireless encoder/modems(VidiU or CUBE), connecting cameras (including iPhones/Android Smartphones) via a cloud server (Teradek CORE Integration) the Live:Air Action application lets a producer switch cameras, with limited effects, add graphics, record and playback, and has an audio mixer. Stream live over social media sites or via CORE.

Globo TV, the biggest TV network in Brazil, wanted to cover The World Surf League 2017 finals from Honolulu. Using three Sony FS5 cameras with VidiU Pro encoders with 4G LTE modems, Globo integrated with Live: Air Action to switch the cameras and stream using a Bond 4G/LTE modem to connect to Facebook live. Live:Air Action enabled the producers to add graphics including stats as well as integrate commentary and interviews with the third camera feed. Using the iPad app for Live:Air Action meant the producers could be close to the beach and the live event.

Newtek Tricaster has been used for years to provide alternative coverage, usually for social media or OTT streaming. They have developed an IP video networking environment, NDI, which allows for the use of IP cameras as well as interconnecting third-party equipment.

Recently Thaler Media used Tricaster and NDI along with LiveU wireless camera systems to cover the 2018 Western Amateur Championship in Northridge Illinois (near Chicago) while producing the live feeds at their facilities located in North Palm Beach Fla. The streams were sent to the Golf Channel’s digital platform.

On site at the Sunset Ridge Country Club were a producer, editor, four camera operators and sound mixer. Three of the cameras were mobile and used LiveU’s LU600 HEVC and LU500 IP-based transmission system to send the camera signals back to a LU2000 server located at the master control facility in Palm Beach.

The camera of choice was a Sony F55, which provided first class imagery. They set up a talk show set in the Sunset Ridge clubhouse and had the program’s co-anchors provided commentary and analysis, while a virtual set (greenscreen) provided the set background. An additional third anchor position was set up at the master control room in Florida, where the local program anchors could throw to the anchor at the main control studio. Tying it all together was a NewTek TriCaster TC1 IP production switcher with 16 inputs and 4 M/E decks, chromakey, graphics/titles, transitions, video server and virtual set support. NewTek 3Play replay systems provided SLOMO replays as well as aerial footage captured by camera flying on a drone over the course. Four Skype channels were used to provide return feeds to the Chicago on-air announcers including mix-minus and IFB.

While not up to the level of a major PGA event broadcast coverage, for the first time the Western Amateur Championship was covered live in HD, an event that in the past drew future golf greats including Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson and Ben Crenshaw.

HOW WILL SPORTS BROADCAST PRODUCTION EVOLVE?

Clearly today there are many choices to capture live events in video, from big broadcast TV trucks to REMI to REMI in the cloud and finally, smartphone cameras and live video apps. For large events, with commensurate rights fees and audience sizes, professional broadcast OB vans, connected via satellite and/or fiber-optic telecom, will be the choice of live production for the foreseeable future.

On the other end, with all the available tech available in our hands (smartphones) coupled with social media sites providing distribution for live video, your child’s AYSO soccer match can be covered with multiple cameras, graphics and replays (and sound) to be seen by your friends and family on YouTube or any of the other social websites. In between big time pro sports productions events and Little League games, productions are using lower-cost solutions that use mobile wireless networks or WiFi networks, along with cloud-based apps to produce a video program that has many of the aspects of the big pro productions as well as providing professional level tools such as graphics and stats, IFB, and replays. Ingenious production teams, motivated to cover events that in the past were not economically viable for live coverage, are leveraging these new tools and providing to modest sized audience, content that in the past would have been just highlight clips in the evenings sportscast.

The keys to success is finding the right balance between cost and coverage, having robust wireless connectivity, reliable and deterministic Internet bandwidth, and a team able to adapt and learn this new way of producing live content. 

Jim DeFilippis is CEO of TMS Consulting, Inc., in Los Angeles. He can be reached atJimD@TechnologyMadeSimple.pro. See more at hisauthor archive.

PITTSBURGH—At the NEP Systems Integration Group, we design and build television production, mobile truck, and flypack systems for content producers whose needs change from show to show. We consider every design in light of space, size, weight, and power consumption—and also in terms of flexibility, which is why we equip many of our production systems with KVM technology.

For many of our mid-size mobile production units, we count on KVM switches and extenders from IHSE’s Draco tera and Draco vario. With a simple keyboard command, our operators, engineers, and producers can use their own workstations to connect instantly to and control another device within the truck—with no delay or visual artifacts. By defining and recalling specific connections on a per-show or per-day basis, operators can access just the equipment they need for any production.

Size, density, price point, and flexibility all make the Draco KVM systems a good fit for the mid-size truck niche. With the 6-U Draco chassis, we typically use a CPU card and an extender, or a second card for serial control for much of the equipment. We often just use two pairs of transmitters or two pairs of receivers, but we can get three of those pairs into a 1RU chassis that can go pretty much anywhere.

OPTIMIZED FOR REMOTE

Design engineer Martin Eibeck laid out the KVM system for EN3, our new, twintrailer mobile unit for network sports production. In a more traditional twin-truck combination, the A unit would handle record/replay in addition to production audio and video, but we designed EN3 so that operators in the B trailer can handle record/replay if needed. With an IHSE Draco compact KVM switch providing a matrix of 48 copper ports for A with an additional 16 fiber ports available for B, we use eight-channel Draco CWDM modules to mux and demux KVM signals between the record servers on A and the operators on B. Record/replay workstations are configured with Draco vario KVM DVI combination extenders. This creates a highly flexible mobile operation in which both units can be configured to meet a given show’s requirements; operators can move between B to A, plug their controllers into the KVM serial port, and simply recall their servers without changing wires or moving cables.

The KVM equipment has optimized EN3 for remotely integrated at-home production (REMI) and graphics remote integration (GREMI), two powerful and relatively new approaches that lessen the allow core crew working on site to set up and test the system and, as air time nears, switch all the KVM connections to the remote operators—replay or graphics operators or others — helping to run the show from the broadcaster’s fixed facility.

As we engineer ever-better workflows, we appreciate IHSE’s willingness to help us build each system the way we want it. (We’re not all that shy about making special requests that allow us to design and build facilities that stand out from the competition.) We enjoy a great working relationship with IHSE, and the company’s KVM equipment has served us reliably and well.

Joseph Signorino is vice president, systems integration for NEP US Mobile Units and can be reached atjsignorino@nepgroup.com

For more information, visitwww.ihseusa.comor call 866-721-0744.

LOS ANGELES—Sports broadcasting is one of the more demanding activities in television. Specially built trucks (or “OB Vans”) roll in the night before or perhaps the early morning. Utility crews and technicians converge and start rolling out cables and gear to be installed for the game later that day. The production truck (or trucks) is powered on, sometimes with shore power, sometimes with a generator, sometimes both. Inside, the production crew preps for the day, prebuilding effects and graphics, editing b-roll packages, checking the cameras and microphones, setting up comms, connecting back to the network center via fiber or satellite. As the game nears, the director meets with his camera crew, the producer works with the announcers, and everyone else is busy transitioning from setup to operations.

Crews are either locally sourced or travel in; hotel arrangements, local transport and meals are additional logistics to contend with. Veteran crews make it seem easy for the ‘A’ game, but not so much for the B- and C-level productions that may look more like an amateur team using antiquated gear.

It’s a crazy way to cover events that are prescheduled at locations visited many times during the year. But what if there was a way to produce the event from a central fixed location, maybe thousands of miles away? What if the local requirements could be reduced to the core functions while all the elaborate production is done from a full-time production facility with teams of well-trained production personnel? There would be no need for a large specialized vehicle, representing millions in television production equipment on wheels and no travel and hotel or meals to organize and pay for. 

TWO DECADES OF EXPERIENCE

Well, it’s been happening for quite some time. In 1996, NBC Sports took advantage of Atlanta’s proximity to New York and leveraged their new digital equipment infrastructure (Genesis) rebuild at 30 Rockefeller Center to do preproduction and graphics builds for the Olympics, as well as highlight packages remotely in New York. All it took was multiple digital video circuits between the International Broadcast Center at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta and 30 Rock, the will to do it, and the coordination and communications to make it feasible. 

In the last few years, sports networks have increased their efforts to enable “At Home” or REMI (REMote Integration) production, especially for college sports. The key factor is access to high bandwidth/low latency connectivity coupled with a flexible work force that can be trained to do the localized work needed at the remote site. Fixed facilities coupled with a small vehicle to transport the production gear (mainly cameras and microphones) to the stadium or arena enable the central production facility to put on live sporting events while located miles away. 

Big Ten and Pac 12 were two of the first collegiate sports leagues to go down the At Home path. Then ESPN with the SEC Network as well as other college sports have deployed REMI to take advantage of the newly built all-IP production facility in Bristol, Conn. (DC2). But it hasn’t been just for college sports; ESPN used REMI extensively for the 2016 X-Games.

HOW DO THEY DO IT?

Aside from fiber interconnect with bi-directional Gb/s IP pathways, At Home productions have taken different approaches to the on-site equipment and operation. For some college sports, such as swimming/diving, wrestling, volleyball, etc., Pac 12 developed a mobile rack with all the terminal gear to interface to a high speed internet connection and deploy up to six cameras and microphones.

For larger events or outdoors, a small van or truck arrives on the scene and a small local crew deploys the equipment (cameras, microphones, terminal gear) and then operates the cameras and creates audio submixes. At some events, a hybrid approach is taken where there is both on-site production and camera and microphone signals are transmitted back to the central production facility.

For those events where fixed connectivity is not available, wireless connectivity via 4G/5G mobile bonded cellular can be used to stream camera signals to a central production facility. NESN, with production facilities in Boston, uses cellular camera backhaul to produce pre- and post-game coverage, live reports and press conferences at major sports events.

“The Switch,” a global media and transmission solutions provider focused on high quality live video transport, offers a cloud-based live production environment called “Cumulus.” Coupled with “Home Runs,” their video transmission service uses DTM (Dynamic Synchronous Transfer Mode) to enable At Home production. DTM, unlike IP, provides dedicated bandwidth with guaranteed QoS. By enhancing Home Runs with Cumulus, The Switch demonstrated a complete television production at the 2017 NAB Show that included a SkyCam aerial camera system--"Sky Command"--in Denver (Dick Sporting Good Park), with remote integration from The Switch studio facilities in London and Los Angeles with SMT's designed 3D graphics and patented Camera Tracker Technology, which allows virtual graphics to be inserterd over a moving camera, controlled by personnel located at The Switch booth in the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Meanwhile, over in Europe, an example of REMI—as well as cloud production—is in operation. The NEP Hilversum facility, just outside Amsterdam, has connectivity with a telecom provider that has access to high-speed IP connectivity to a variety of venues, including major soccer stadiums. By leveraging existing facilities at a media center in Hilversum, producers can book studios and control rooms, as well as telecom and data center functionality to produce an event, pay only for the time used and then move on while the next production moves in. 

The latest event in Europe involved a REMI “proof-of-concept” that proved that live uncompressed camera signals can be sent over 1,000 miles to a production center where a live sports event is produced, with replays and graphics as well as enabling streaming, 360-degree VR and archiving functions. Gearhouse Broadcast, using gear and software from Snell Advanced Media (SAM), delivered live signals from the UEFA Under 21 Championship Final in Krakow, Poland, to the BT Sport Centre at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. Five Sony HDC 4300 4k/HD camera signals were sent via dual redundant 100GB Ethernet links, which were provisioned by Level 3.

THE CHALLENGES

Live television requires tight teamwork; being on-site, working in close quarters, and knowing you are on your own at a remote site brings out the best in everyone. The downside is the cost and time lost due to travel, setup and breakdown. REMI and At Home brings the remote camera and audio signals back to a fixed facility, which can be used for multiple events throughout the year without having to travel thousands of miles, perform set up and breakdown multiple times. The production team is sourced locally so travel is minimized but the quality of production can be consistent. 

But there is a clear requirement to make At Home work: reliable, affordable and low-latency transmission facilities between the remote site and the central production facilities, as well as the need for reliable, low-delay communication systems to coordinate between the remote site and the central production team. In addition, local camera operators, audio/coms specialists and other skilled operators have to be sourced. There is a growing shortage of people trained in these skills as the role of traditional broadcast operations shrink. Training new hires to replace retirees is going to be needed for At Home productions to be successful. 

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?

As the “‘big kahuna” of production, live TV requires planning, reliability and attention to detail, while having the ability to pivot and deal with any contingency. At Home mitigates some of the risk by centralizing operations and facilities, thereby improving efficiency and reducing costs; but there is still the need to rely on local talent to operate the field equipment. 

With the industry transitioning to a “cloud” approach, where all signals are in a data center, individual production team members can be anywhere as long as there is reliable, fast connectivity. However the key to successful REMI production will be access at all sites to a reliable, high-speed, low-latency telecom network that is both ubiquitous and cost-effective.

Jim DeFilippis is CEO of TMS Consulting, Inc., in Los Angeles. He can be reached at JimD@TechnologyMadeSimple.pro. See more at his author archive.