Like many other institutions during the pandemic, the Budweiser Events Center had to find new ways to produce content. The arena was no longer able to present anthems or other special ceremonies from the ice, which led them to create a production space with a camera deck out of what was previously a utility area for spotlights. Needing to produce content at a further distance than ever before, the Budweiser Events Center team required a better PTZ with broadcast-quality video. Building off the Eagles’ previous experience using JVC GY-HM850 cameras for game film, the production team knew they could once again entrust the brand to do the job.

“We didn’t have a camera that could produce quality footage all the way from the rafters, so we decided to mount a JVC KY-PZ100 PTZ up there, since the team had such a good experience with the brand,” said Dillon Dannettell, Technical Services Manager at the Budweiser Events Center. “We were so impressed with that camera, we decided to replace all our old PTZs throughout the arena.”

In addition to the JVC PTZ camera that sits up in the rafters, several other KY-PZ100s are deployed in various capacities throughout the venue, which are all connected to a JVC RM-LP100 remote camera controller. Two are used as coach cams for the team, another is for game film and one additional camera is mounted at center-ice. On the production side, there are five more KY-PZ100s located in various positions around the arena to catch essential game play. This includes on the nets, under the scoreboard and one to cover the bench. For additional wide and tight game shots, the Budweiser Events Center also utilizes four GY-HM850 cameras.

“The JVC PTZ system allows us to have all our camera shots saved as presets, in addition to storing multiple positions in a preset group, which is really beneficial for the range of events we deploy in the space,” added Dannettell. “We have position groups set up for specific events. So, when we have basketball, rodeos, or other events, we don’t have to override the previous job ― we can recall the different presets. For example, position group one is hockey, group two is basketball, group three is rodeo, and so on.”

Dannettell adds that another standout feature for his team is the RM-LP100 remote camera controller itself. “As the engineer, I’m in charge of most of the games,” he continued. “If everything is going well, I’m able to watch the production and will use the controller to do game follow. It’s generally a wider shot and being able to follow the action with precision is great. The picture quality we get from the JVC cameras is really good and set up is easy since the cameras can operate over IP.”

Using the JVC cameras, the Budweiser Events Center has been able to produce quality broadcasts for AHL’s streaming platform, AHLTV, as well as its own board shows. In addition, the arena has previously broadcasted to ESPNU for NCAA Regional D1 Hockey, and they plan to utilize JVC for these broadcasts in the future as well.

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The Quantum-LinkMatrix unified wireless camera workflow brings together COFDM wireless camera systems and bonded cellular/5G roaming camera systems into one single managed solution. By integrating the two production workflows into one video source and configuration management platform, live event production teams can efficiently manage content capture from all types of wireless systems.

“One of the most pressing challenges for content owners is implementing optimum workflows to capture and disseminate live video,” said Mickey Miller, CEO of Vislink.

“These organizations demand end-to-end remote production solutions that can capture immersive content and stream it immediately across all available distribution channels and platforms. Our unified workflow solution has been engineered with their needs in mind and is an ideal complement to the increasingly prevalent live remote production model. The operational efficiencies and audience-building benefits that our solution delivers make it a gamechanger for broadcast and media professionals.”

The integration of the Vislink Quantum receiver with Mobile Viewpoint’s LinkMatrix leverages many existing LinkMatrix features for Vislink equipment, which together bring advanced capabilities to REMI productions. Notably, this includes being able to send wireless camera feeds directly to YouTube and social media accounts, as well as enabling remote control of Quantum functions from anywhere in the workflow.

The Vislink COFDM wireless camera systems and 5G/bonded cellular systems have been field tested to operate together seamlessly at a variety of high-profile events. This includes marathons, where action at the starting and finish lines are covered by COFDM systems, and the wider course is followed using bonded cellular technology, and stadium events, where COFDM camera systems provide immersive, closeup on-field action while bonded cellular systems support sideline reporting or team arrivals. Through the unified workflow enabled by the Quantum-LinkMatrix software control platform, the operational efficiencies created for the remote production bonded cellular market can be directly applied to the guaranteed quality, low latency, on-field COFDM wireless camera systems.

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Envivo Ribbon is a true fan engagement live production solution that enables users to drive over 16 million broadcast quality pixels to video walls and LED displays with dynamic and engaging content.

Building on the intuitive and powerful user interface and success of Envivo Replay, Envivo Ribbon further expands the live event production offerings first introduced with Envivo Studio with another powerful story-telling tool to keep fans engaged in every aspect of the live event at all levels of visual stimulus. Integrated with a limitless number of real-time data sources, content can be dynamically presented with immediate score updates, engaging statistics, timing information, and other relevant and engaging data.

“Envivo Ribbon incorporates the rich knowledge the company and its founders have of live production workflows with the intuitive and powerful user interface infrastructure introduced five years ago in Envivo Replay to provide customers with the most powerful live production and fan engagement product in the market.” said Adolfo Rodriguez, CEO of Variant Systems Group.

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The decentralization of workflows has advanced significantly with remote working. For production teams today, the on-screen talent, the technical staff, and the equipment can all be located nearly anywhere in the world. The growth in popularity of “teleporting” people into side-by-side, on-screen interviews and discussions is a great example.

Industry Insights: 2022 outlook from the broadcast production sector

By choosing software-defined and cloud-based production tools, broadcast professionals significantly reduce the need for ownership of expensive hardware, large production rooms, and bulky cabling. When deploying highly flexible remote workflows, the question becomes how to ensure each creator has the right tools needed for their specific workflow to harness the benefits. 

Software-defined remote workflows

An immediate advantage of remote productions for broadcast professionals is the greater accessibility to a larger talent pool. Studios can tap into designers, onscreen talent, and producers in different facilities, cities, and countries. For broadcasters and production teams, remote production enhances creativity in sourcing new capabilities and better utilizing existing resources. It also increases productivity enabling people to work from home or recruit them from locations never considered before—all without the time and travel expenses.

Recognizing broadcast professionals can produce an entire show from a remote location simplifies the on-site crew so it only needs to include the camera, audio, and lighting operators. In cases where automated and position-able cameras are accessible, on-site staff has an even lesser requirement. Today, it is possible to remotely automate and access the entire workflow—a completely unheard-of task previously.

Enhancements in compute and rendering technologies with virtual sets significantly increase the demand for more capable and photorealistic graphics design tools. For creatives, having these tools in hand, the only limitation to the art of possible is their imagination. With a more realistic production, the likelihood of amplified audience viewership heightens.

Over the last few years, we’ve seen Physically Based Rendering (PBR) pipeline technologies from the gaming industry integrate into television productions. The visual fidelity achievable today elevates virtual production to become more engaging and nearly indistinguishable from the norm for the average viewer.

Quality and consistency — fast

Production speed and quality are critical when discussing on-air graphics; however, production consistency is also a significant driver. Motion graphics — the lower thirds, logos, on-screen text, graphics, and animations — must adhere to brand styles and guidelines. Broadcasters require ways to ensure a consistent brand image across all productions. Cloud-based asset sharing, and management offer considerable advantages in this area, especially within a decentralized workflow. Production needs a unified appearance and visual story, which can be challenging when producers live and work around the globe. Cloud-based asset management keeps production graphics and content in line with the brand or network image.

Production today is no longer linear. From television to mobile to social, broadcasters need graphics to adapt based on the method of delivery. Production teams need to generate content once and version it many times for multiple endpoints. In an adaptive graphics ecosystem, designers prefer to create their scenes once, not several times, saving valuable resources and assuring brand consistency. Adaptive storytelling has become a significant area of development within the industry to save time and resources— allowing for more creative and engaging productions for audiences.

In the past, broadcasters had good reason to resist moving anything from their on-premises systems. However, there is too much opportunity available today to shy away from cloud-based workflows. Broadcasters are now more willing to try non-traditional workflows designed around different infrastructures, like the cloud, because of the countless benefits. For example, studios can spin up a production control room or a master control room in the cloud, use it, and then spin it down — quickly, easily, and consistently.

Revolutionizing time to market with new tools 

For the large, tier-one broadcasters with design teams that want to create everything from scratch, there are ready-to-use tools that can help tell a data-driven story. The players who don’t have vast resources may need out-of-the-box tools to get the production up and running by adding simple tweaks to pre-existing scene designs, adding logos and brand image, and then going live. The fantastic flexibility of cloud-based production tools allows organizations of all sizes to scale and advance their business appropriately with a much lower barrier to starting their production.

These new tools have significantly reduced those barriers for broadcasters to use a level of creative capabilities unheard of just a short time ago. A decentralized workflow allows broadcasters to save resources, time to market, and improve graphics quality. As a result, production is more efficient therefore creating – more stories, better told. 

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When I began my broadcast career at Sky more than 20 years ago, virtual production was far from a hot topic. In its infancy, early demos involved little more than replacing a chroma key background with a primitive virtual set. So naturally, many were left unconvinced by the technology—and only a few visionary experts could predict its true potential. 

Today, those predictions have come true. Broadcast graphics have evolved so that photoreal results are very achievable, and camera tracking has arrived on the scene—allowing virtual sets to be rendered in perspective relative to the camera, all in real time.

But even as virtual production swiftly becomes known as the industry’s solution to keeping audience figures high, I’ve still seen broadcasters look at the technology as something that needs to earn its keep. This makes sense. Sure, the results are impressive—but like all cutting-edge tech, there’s a fear that investments might soon become obsolete.

The broadcasters that will come out on top are those that deploy virtual production strategically—not just because it’s the latest thing, but for creative and editorial reasons. Whether you’re already working with virtual production, or plan to in the future, here are three ways the technology will enhance your pipeline in the next five years.

1. News and Sports Programs

Once upon a time, displaying information on a news broadcast meant putting white letters onto a velvet board. These days, things have changed. Whether it’s for election coverage or the latest football match, broadcasters need to deliver huge amounts of information, live on-air. 

This not only adds complexity, it can create a problem when you want to stand out. Modern broadcasters compete against hundreds of regional and national channels, who all typically receive the same data from the same sources. If one team scores, for example, everyone will report the same figure. 

Broadcasters that utilize virtual production gain an edge over the competition by not just managing data, but being able to break it down, in real time, with unique, attention-grabbing graphics. Using camera tracking technology like Ncam lets you experiment with foreground AR objects on set, which lends itself nicely to displaying the full gamut of stats as dynamic 3D objects rather than flat full-frame graphics. 

Last year’s Fortnite World Cup Finals, staged by Epic Games in New York City, are the perfect example. From an 80-foot-tall Marshmello to Fortnite characters standing right next to players, AR was used to elevate the quality of the final broadcast by seamlessly blending the real and virtual worlds—and estimates suggest that over two million concurrent viewers watched Kyle Giersdorf win the $3M solo grand prize.

2. Remote Productions

Before virtual production, capturing environments meant having a crew there to shoot them in person. Naturally, this required a lot of travel.

With virtual production, broadcasters can do everything from going on a virtual location scout to making a snow day or sunset last forever—not to mention creating segments in places they can’t actually be (like Mars, or The Weather Channel’s look at the eye of a hurricane ). This allows for much more creativity, all without moving an inch. 

As the industry works more remotely, using virtual production will allow broadcasters to tell compelling stories while spending far less time and budget transporting crews to new locations. It also makes shoots more environmentally friendly, and is perfect for privacy when capturing sensitive information; for example, commercials for unreleased products or embargoed news segments.

3. High-End Productions

With green screen pipelines in film, it’s common to “fix it in post” when mistakes are made. Unfortunately, that won’t work for broadcast, where schedules don’t allow the time or luxury to do so. Shows operating on higher budgets will be far more streamlined using virtual production, because all the visual effects and CG graphics are created during the pre-production process.

Using LEDs, for instance, offers the possibility of capturing final pixels in-camera, which will allow teams to create more impressive effects on shorter timelines. A great use case is building set extensions that convincingly blend physical and virtual environments—for instance, making small spaces appear much larger through the production process, without going into post.

BBC Sport’s new 360-degree virtual studio, which was built for Euro 2020 coverage, is a great example of what can be achieved with a higher budget. The studio allowed the presenters to put themselves in a stadium environment—only instead of fans, they were surrounded by 360-degree virtual imagery. This enabled the broadcast team to showcase more immersive storytelling for each city a match was being played in, from London to Rome.

Ready for the Future?

In a constantly evolving landscape, broadcasters have an increasing number of challenges to overcome. Emerging technologies like virtual production help us face them. When deployed strategically, virtual production can do everything from allowing broadcasters to diversify by showing data in new ways, to facilitating workflows that would have otherwise been impossible—such as remote pipelines or capturing final pixels in-camera.

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Designed by production designer Jason Sherwood, this Oscars set has switched from using the highly structural prosceniums used in the past few years in favor of curved, organic lines and textures.

This includes a stage backed almost entirely with a massive curved video wall along with an additional angled “fan-like” segment that started high stage left until meeting the floor on near the opposite end.

High above the stage, an additional video ribbon was installed.

Both of these LED elements could naturally be interpreted as a filmstrip, while the header one projected an air of being at the apex of the design — just like how Oscars are considered one of the highest awards in filmmaking. 

In some applications, the main video wall was used to create a “virtual” set piece of a second ribbon originating higher on stage right and disappearing behind the structural one. 

In this shot, the curved ‘fan’ to the left of the picture is a separate LED element, while the smaller portion coming from the opposite director on the right side of the screen is simulated using the LED video wall behind it.

All of these video panels were complemented by hard scenic elements, including internally lit curved frames and fly in set pieces including a rotating cylinder, open on one side, with a spiral inspired ribbon of LED on side and hard scenic backing it.

The piece, which also featured strings of Swarovski crystals, a continuation of the partnership between the company and the academy, could rotate, giving producers a wide variety of background configurations.

Other elements included large backgrounds pieces and curved elements with a textural look for ruffled fabric that could be dramatically lit in a variety of ways.

There was also a huge span of suspended crystals that could could over the entire width of the stage and, thanks to the LED panels behind it, be used to showcase a glowing gold Oscar statuette. 

It’s worth noting that the generous use of massive curved video walls is also becoming a common filmmaking technique that can be used as an alternative to green or blue screen shooting.

These are often driven by software that allows the environment fed behind the action to be moved within the 3D space and tie in to actors and real set pieces used during filming. 

Of course, this isn’t the first time LED video panels have been used during the Oscars or any other awards show, but it’s one of the largest scale implementations seen to date.

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ABC, Univision blend two brands together on debate stage

Located inside the Health & PE Center of Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas, the debate stage occupied what is normally a basketball court.

Using roughly 1/3 of the space, a variety of LED display technology and architectural elements were used to envelop the audience.

Set Design

ABC News Democratic Debate

View a gallery of this project…

“The way I laid out the seating and staging I wanted it to feel like the audience was part of the scenery to some extent, that they were very much involved,” said Seth Easter, who designed the space. “I didn’t want the backs of our talent blocking the views of the majority of the audience.”

The overall debate hall inside the Health & PE Center at Texas Southern University. All photos courtesy of Heidi Gutman/ABC News.

A nontraditional stage

Breaking away from the two previous Democratic debates of this cycle, ABC’s design focused on a more structural design for the debate hall, as the venue itself did not have a traditional stage but instead a blank canvas for a custom-built environment.

“I tried to go with something that’s more architectural,” notes Easter, “It feels more like an elegant space that can both shoot very large and small and intimate for the candidates themselves.”

“The set itself is not a full proscenium, instead it reaches out in two different spaces to hold the audience.”

Turning a gym into a debate hall

With a three week load in and over 20 tractor-trailers of scenery and staging elements, the end result is one of ABC’s largest undertakings.

“I think it’s probably one of the largest events we’ve ever done in terms of scale. It’s a scope that only comes every four years,” said Easter.

Behind the candidate’s lecterns, a curved LED provided the main backdrop with gentle angular animations while two large LED screens next to the stage provided opportunities for additional branding.

The set’s various screens, which included LED displays, traditional projection and even a floor LED, were handled by Fuse Technical Group, a company that has a history in the world of live event production.

ABC, Univision blend two brands together on debate stage

For the screen control, a system that is typically used for entertainment or live events was used to manage the content across the various video surfaces.

“I wanted it to feel like they were having this debate in a room that held as much authority as the debate itself,” notes Easter. “We do definitely have a lot of screens and LED floors and multiple different surfaces, project and everything else, but at the same time it needed to feel more classy.”

Prepared for changes

With the polls shifting in the weeks leading up the debate, ABC was ready for a debate of up to twelve candidates on one stage or a smaller debate of only five.

The design could easily accommodate both scenarios via a few quick changes to the scenery and through the usage of the video walls.

Lighting design for the debate was provided by Dennis Size of The Lighting Design Group.

The light grid and stage inside the debate hall.

With a grid at 30 feet and the realities of a live production, most of the instruments used to light the space were moving fixture LEDs, while conventional fixtures were used primarily for backlighting.

19 cameras captured the debate from inside the hall, including two Technocranes and two tower cams along with a full set of cameras in the spin room nearby.

The entire event was produced out of one production truck with ABC’s New York headquarters providing some production assistance.

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HBO confirms coffee cup on ‘Game of Thrones’ set was a mistake https://t.co/XxnnAYMV8K #TVNews #BroadcastNews

— TVNewsMix (@TVNewsMix) May 7, 2019

During the team’s Friday, May 10, 2019 game against the the Golden State Warriors, the team’s mascot, Clutch, walked by Clarke holding a coffee cup.

As he walked by Clarke, who plays Daenerys Targaryen on “Game of Thrones,” he pretended to notice her in the court side seats and went over to her, “kissing” her hand and bending at the knee.

Someone left a coffee cup in a ‘Game of Thrones’ shot https://t.co/jc9u2kccTy #TVNews #BroadcastNews

— TVNewsMix (@TVNewsMix) May 7, 2019

The Toyota Center’s stadium control room, meanwhile, carried a live feed of the exchange on the stadium’s large video screens so fans could watch the action unfold.

The control room also inserted a lower third identifying Clarke — in a “Game of Thrones” inspired font.

Clarke, meanwhile, responded by laughing and covering her face with her hands.

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