When COVID-19 first hit, content producers the
world over halted production operations, relying on existing content libraries
instead. As the pandemic wore on, they suffered what Accenture called “a major dent in the
supply of new programming”, and Cap Gemini termed a “content supply
shortage”.
“Those who are in live content production and
distribution will need to enable field workers by providing automation, remote
working and training solutions without compromising on security and compliance
guidelines,” stated the authors of a June 2020 Mindtree white paper about the new normal
in the media & entertainment industry.
Cap Gemini’s COVID analysis, also dated June
2020, suggests building safe production sets using digital technologies like
smart detection and managed access.
Remote production appears to be the solution,
but is it viable? Three companies spoke to APB+ about what’s really happening
with remote production today. Here’s what we learned about remote production
capabilities, where few people are on-location or working together in studios:
Not new to broadcasting
Remote production, especially for live events, had been ramping up
pre-pandemic, and continues to be popular today.
Grass Valley’s Vice President Sales,
APAC Greg de Bressac noted that broadcasters and production companies had already
been facing demand to create greater volumes of quality content more
efficiently, with static or shrinking budgets.
“This was a real driver for them to examine and adapt their
business models,” he said.
“So while remote production was already gaining ground before 2020, COVID-19
only accelerated this trend as our customers were forced to navigate through
social distancing measures and prioritise staff safety; remote models have
really come into their own.”
Susanna Mandel-Mantello, VP & Head of
Sales, Sports & Events, SES Video said, “While remote production methods
have been around for some time, the lockdowns and travel restrictions worldwide
have exacerbated the adoption of remote, cloud-based services and operational
models among broadcasters and content providers in a bid to enhance business
continuity and resilience.”
Kevin Mockford, MediaKind’s Director,
Contribution Processing & Product Management, shared that MediaKind
had supported NASCAR Productions and PSSI Global as
far back as 2018 for the Rolex 24 in Daytona,
Florida. This was the largest remote production of the time, he explained.
"Through the deployment of
MediaKind’s compression technology, which included AVP2000
Contribution Encoders and RX 8200 Professional
IRDs, PSSI Global Services and NASCAR Productions were able to simplify the
overall live event production workflow and leverage the use of advanced,
complex equipment from a permanent external facility," he said.
"The project was such a success,
NASCAR Productions and PSSI Global won a Technology & Engineering Emmy for
their work!"
A new ball game
Remote production shines for sports and live-event coverage.
Today, remote production is frequently used for live coverage of sporting events, Mockford said.
"It has also been invaluable for the live broadcast of eSports events due to the high-bandwidth network infrastructures in-place at eSports venues and the need to deliver numerous live feeds of gameplay at once to remote production facilities," he added.
There has been a spike in remote production among leading sports broadcasters such as Star Sports, said de Bressac.
“Before the pandemic, some of our major customers around the globe – such as Star Sports in India, some of our broadcast networks in Australia and SVT in Sweden – had already realised the benefits of remote workflows and successfully transitioned their live sports and/or news productions to more centralised models,” he said.
“With long haul travel more limited (and) as the Summer Games in Tokyo
approach, we expect many of the major broadcasters to put remote production
workflows in place, leveraging the ability to support a large-scale production
with fewer production staff on location.”
Solutions for new situations
Mandel-Mantello said that remote production has
ramped up slowly after the first COVID-19 lockdown in the first half of 2020.
“While broadcasters, content owners, sports
organisations, and media companies are looking for ways to increase
efficiencies and speed up the distribution of live broadcast and sports through
various channels, production crews continue to face difficulty in getting to
venues due to travel restrictions,” she said.
“In view of this, our product team was able to
adapt our existing offering and come up with a new solution. The SES IP switch
is a hybrid cloud-based and on-prem service platform for the delivery of broadcast
picture-quality video streams for broadcast contribution, production, and
distribution.
“This enables customers to obtain content
feeds from sports events even if their production crews cannot travel.”
Mandel-Mantello shared that SES has already helped
several Asian broadcasters produce a live broadcast of a US golf tournament
remotely with the new SES IP switch solution.
“We enabled the transmission of numerous live
video streams from cameras set up across the golf course to multiple recipients
globally in a low-latency, secure, reliable and cost-effective manner,” she
said.
Grass Valley has also launched new solutions
for remote production. “Innovations like our latest all-IP LDX 100 camera
platform, which connects directly to a network without the need for a separate
base station, make it possible to send just camera operators on site,” de
Bressac said.
“This type of working is attractive to broadcasters
and content creators worldwide as it frees up staff to focus on other, more
creative tasks.”
Remote production is here to stay
“We expect to see sustained demand for remote
production solutions in the months ahead, and believe the flexibility, agility,
scalability and cost-effectiveness offered by these cloud-based production methods
will make it a major trend moving forward in the broadcast industry,”
Mandel-Mantello concluded.
“While we expect to see more productions
return to ‘normal’ as markets increasingly turn the corner on controlling the
epidemic, many of these new technology adoptions will continue to be a
permanent part of the production process.”