Vendors including CP Communications, Ross Video, LTN Global Communications and BitFire have ramped up products and repurposed facilities to meet the surging pandemic need for remote production. Above, inside LTN Global Communications’ Kansas City, Mo., production facility.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began roiling the broadcast industry in March 2020, technology vendors have stepped up to create new products and new facilities to meet the challenges of remote production. While the COVID situation in the U.S. has improved markedly this year and many broadcasters have returned to their studios, usage of these new remote production tools hasn’t slowed down as networks and sports leagues appreciate the new flexibility and efficiency they provide.
The common denominator among these new remote production systems is using the internet for live video and audio transmission as well as device control, often in a hybrid architecture that combines software applications running in the public cloud with traditional on-premise hardware located at a broadcast center or studio. They also include a healthy dose of the type of traditional customer service that broadcasters have come to expect from their key vendors.
CP Communications’ CamSTREAM And Streaming Studios
Several mobile production specialists pivoted last year to create new remote production options. CP Communications, a longtime provider of wireless audio and video links, RF frequency coordination and other production services for live sports and entertainment events, had its core business basically halt overnight. As the company worked to help its customers, it saw a need to provide higher-quality video and audio from remote contributors than could be achieved over conventional videoconferencing systems like Zoom.
So, CP created a turnkey system to solve the problem called CamSTREAM. With Wi-Fi, ethernet or bonded cellular connectivity, CamSTREAM includes a compact Sony or Panasonic PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) camera that can be controlled remotely through a web interface; lavalier or handheld mic; an H.265 encoder; and a 10-inch built-in HD monitor for watching return video. Compact enough to fit in a standard flight case, CamSTREAM can be FedEx’d to talent and set up in less than 10 minutes. It can be leased or purchased, with the price ranging from $15,000 to $23,000 depending on configuration (adding a bonded encoder, for example, costs more).
CamSTREAM has since been adopted by CBS and other major networks to pipe remote talent into studio shows and to provide remote commentary for live events, as well as by several large corporations. There are about 50-100 systems deployed in the field today. Developing a high-speed return video capability for the system was key.
“The sports use is obvious,” says CamSTREAM COO Jerry Gepner. “If you have a commentator at home, the faster you can get him or her the return feed, the closer you are to real time. You’re never going to get it to zero, but we’ve been able to get coast-to-coast down to about half a second.”
CP Communications is also offering new IP-based remote production services through Red House Streaming Studios, a 5,600 square-foot facility the company has created within its St. Petersburg, Fla., headquarters comprising a conventional studio equipped with several CamStreams, a separate green screen stage and an adjoining control room running software-based production tools like the VMix production switcher. The Red House facility is being used for a range of streaming and broadcast productions, leveraging a dedicated data circuit from Crown Castle.
While the bulk of the work at Red House is headed to Facebook Live or YouTube, the studio is also used regularly by a U.K.-based client to provide OTT and broadcast coverage of second tier (Formula 4) auto racing in the U.S. in what Gepner calls a “fast return” workflow, based on WebRTC transport. Sometimes this client even uses a Red House control room to “pre-switch” camera feeds before they are sent back to the U.K., thus cutting down on bandwidth requirements.
“We’ve designed for them a package of 10 to 12 bonded cell encoders and cameras that they are able to send out in the field to cover a particular race,” Gepner says. “And they do send a production manager. But there is no truck, and there are no onsite commentors. It’s done as a REMI using this technology, and they’re assembling it back in the U.K. And it’s near real-time — within a couple seconds it’s on the air.”
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