Case Study: Australian Broadcasting Corporation upgrades studios with Telemetrics OmniGlide

National public broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has upgraded three of its main studios with new OmniGlide Robotic Roving Platform studio camera pedestals from Telemetrics, an innovator in robotic camera control, to streamline its operations. All of the new rovers were installed by local systems integrator TechTel and are now on the air in ABC’s Canberra, Melbourne, and Sydney production studio locations.

The latest installation was at ABC Canberra’s news studio to support its popular evening program “Insiders.” The studio also features three Telemetrics PT-LP-S5 pan/tilt heads on Telemetrics Televator elevating pedestals.

The ABC now has several Telemetrics pan/tilt heads and Televator pedestals in each of its metro sites across the country (including Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney). The Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney studios now all have OmniGlide rovers as well.

The rovers and other equipment was installed as part of a national studio automation project that included Viz Mosart automation and Viz Graphics, Grass Valley production switchers and video playout, and CueScript prompters.

The rovers were installed for their unique operation and easy maneuverability to robotically (or manually) move the rovers across 3 different sets on site. The crew also likes the OmniGlide’s ability to move smoothly for creative tracking shots while live on air.

Telemetrics notes new features for the OmniGlide this year include “Path Planning”, which is performed by the control panel working in tandem with the rover, and Collision Avoidance, which keeps the rover operating safely while it ‘learns” the environment. Combined, these new capabilities allow users to navigate complex nonlinear paths in a studio or event space while avoiding collisions with set pieces and studio personnel. Special AI-assisted software enables the rover to instinctively learn the space it is operating in and find the safest and least obstructed path from Point A to Point B.
 
For those used to working with the limitations of traditional robotic studio camera pedestals, the unique design of the OmniGlide helps it move like no other studio rover and now—with an optional onboard wireless transmitter and battery system to receive commands from an RCCP-2A control panel—the burden of heavy cables to the rover has finally been removed. The wireless system now includes a hot swappable battery system that gives the OmniGlide a continuous run time of 8-10 hours, depending upon the load it is carrying. The batteries can be charged on the rover and new batteries swapped in (without recalibrating), giving users full 24-hour operation if required. These batteries can be monitored in real time via the RCCP-2A control Panel.