Signal Transport: IP, 5G, RF, and Bonded Cellular
There are more options than ever for getting a signal from point A to point B (and even C, D, and E) and transport technologies continue to evolve rapidly. Signal transport service and technology providers discuss some of the latest developments that can make a difference to your production.
Speakers:
Janel Fleming, LiveU, Director of Sales and Sales Group Manager, Sports
Jim Jachetta, VidOvation, CTO and Co-Founder
Peter Larsson, BSI, President
Moderator:
Ken Kerschbaumer, SVG, Co-Executive Director, Editorial Services
Video Recording:
Learn more about At-Home Production (REMI) using Cellular & the Public Internet
Transcript:
Ken Kerschbaumer (00:00):
Peter, Jim, Janel, good to see you all. How are you all doing? How are you holding up?
Janel Fleming (00:04):
Good.
Peter Larsson (00:05): We're good.
Ken Kerschbaumer (00:05):
Okay. I think it's day 654 of the COVID pandemic. It says we laugh now until comes that way, the three months, five months. Anyway, good to see you all. Our goal here is to talk about some of the trends in transport technologies. Peter, I'm going to start with you because you are a hall of fame when it comes to transport technologies with the work you've done with wireless cameras over the years. And I want to kind of start with you as far as an overview of RF and then what you see some of the challenges, because obviously the spectrum situation, not getting any better out there. So kind of give us an update on where things stand right now.
Peter Larsson (00:43):
Well, the way I've always looked at the RF environment that we work in that there are effectively three different levels. There is a single RF camera that can be used for a new story or a sporting event. Then there could be two or three cameras. And then you get to some of the bigger car races or golf where you have 40 systems. And they both take different technologies. A lot of the LiveU or the bonded cellular systems are incredible for the single-camera situations specifically for news and somehow the sporting events. It's when we start getting up into those 40 plus cameras for the golf and car racing, and then we start running into issues. And unfortunately, although we think our marketplace is the most important one, and the world and the biggest one in the world is actually the cell phone systems that dwarf us.
Peter Larsson (01:40):
They have all the money in and they're coming in and buying up all the spectrum. So, as we try to find more spectrum to do what we need to do, we're finding that we have to go higher and higher and higher in spectrum. And one of the issues with that is that now, where you might've gotten away with one or two receive sites if you're down in the lower spectrum, as you get high, you have to put more and more receive sites out there. So, the available money is going down, but the cost of operating is going up. And that is about the biggest issue we face at the moment. One of the bigger ones also is for wireless microphones. With the repacking of the TV stations, a lot of the UHF spectrum is going away. I know the SVG is working with the FCC as well to try and come up with solutions. But again, we are a small little player in that marketplace as opposed to the cell phone companies.
Ken Kerschbaumer (02:41):
Yeah. Yeah, I know that there have been some recent filings from Shure and Sennheiser on the wireless microphone funds and we will be getting involved with those to helping support that as best we can.
Peter Larsson (02:51):
It's all good.
Ken Kerschbaumer (02:53):
So then what's the long-term implication? It is going to just get more complicated and more difficult? Is there a bigger threat here at all, potentially longterm?
Peter Larsson (03:03):
There are ways out of it but they all cost money, which is the problem. So, yeah, as the technology is becoming more important or as digital technology is maturing, everyone is going after minimal cell systems, multiple outputs, which allows the signal to be two way. The encoders are becoming more efficient with better quality and creditors. And that's reducing the bandwidth of the video that you require. So there are ways out, but as you've heard it described, nothing happens all of a sudden. So, it's just a very slow transition. And then we fall off the cliff and there's a brand new technology comes out there which will help everything move along.
Ken Kerschbaumer (03:51):
Right, right. Excellent. So, Janel, I wanted to bring you in here to discuss the Super Bowl. And Peter mentioned some of the smaller systems and the role for these smaller demands. And obviously I think the LU800 is stepping in there, right? With multi input needs. So, can you talk through some of the workloads we saw at the Super Bowl and then maybe sending in some other events in the spring in Florida potentially?
Janel Fleming (04:15):
Mm-hmm (affirmative), yeah. So, we're seeing obviously a large demand for REMI production because having the need to have reduced people on staff is increasing the need to do more stuff from a central location. So, we've deployed the LU800 late last year. We had this in development before COVID hit. So we were sort of thinking about that in terms of customers are going into venues that are camera wired into an IO panel. And this is sort of a easy solution to just roll up with a few encoders and be able to produce a game remotely. So, the Super Bowl, we had a ton of use cases, obviously not the game itself, but all of the stuff leading up to the game and throughout the weekend, where they couldn't roll their traditional production truck. They had limited personnel that were allowed to travel because they had to quarantine two weeks prior to that.
Janel Fleming (05:05):
And that displaced a lot of key people who do other things in their network. So between Fox Sports, Fox Deportes, they did REMI productions of shows on site. CBS Sports interactive exclusively used LiveU for all of their digital programming throughout the weekend. And we saw the LU800 used in one location more than we've seen it anywhere else. So, it was a great sort of us a rewarding thing to see that. We knew these this need would be huge and a multi input single device unit, especially having bonded cellular because connectivity was very much questionable. Where are you going to get located? Where do you do your studio show? So sort of the confidence that the network is there when they rolled up. So, it was very exciting. And then, of course, we've got some big news come spring training. As many people know, we have done a lot for baseball throughout the season, but spring training is going to be really exciting for us this year, because we're going to be used more than we've ever been used in the past. So-
Ken Kerschbaumer (06:07):
Excellent.
Janel Fleming (06:08):
... more to come.
Ken Kerschbaumer (06:09):
Great. That's great. So, Jim, I want to bring you in here as far as at home productions obviously, they've grown in popularity, no doubt over the last year or two. And there are issues when it comes to things like free [inaudible 00:06:23] or gen lock, lip-sync, especially because these productions are getting more complex. So, can you discuss that for a little bit? And then also for Peter and Janel, if you want to chime in as well, but Jim, from your perspective.
At-home Production Multi-Venue
Jim Jachetta (06:33):
Yeah, I mean to Peter's point that bonded cellular, and I'm sure Janel would agree, in the early days, the technology was really meant for news, a single camera, either news talent, and a cameraman, or sometimes the talent was the camera operator. We've come a long way from that. And to Janel's point, bonded cellular now is really working really well for multi-camera at-home production, REMI production. We do have devices that have multiple inputs, up to four cameras in one appliance. But where our customers are using our technology is camera mounted units that is all over the field. They could be all over the golf course, the PGA, the golf channel, NBC are using our tech. And the cameras are not tethered to a single box. The field encoder mounts on the camera.
Jim Jachetta (07:33):
And we're able to maintain frame-accurate genlock on mobile, portable cameras similar to an RF workflow that BSI would employ. Or some of our customers are using a hybrid approach. They might use BSI for the RF to the truck, switch the show in the truck and then use bonded cellular out of the truck. But we've been promoting for more than five years even before COVID the idea of fully portable, fully autonomous portable cameras. We're able to do frame accurate gen lock. So, the PGA will deploy on some events up to 12 cameras and we can keep them all in perfect gen lock. They could have 30 microphones open at the same time. And if they were out of sync with each other, the show would be horrible. In a live event, as we all know, you can't fix timing issues in post production because there is no post-production. So, VidOvation and our partner, Haivision, it's the safe streams transport protocol that we do a form of precision timing protocol over an unmanaged network to keep all the field encoders in sync, to keep all that camera's in sync.
Eliminate or reduce the need for Multiple Production Trucks
Jim Jachetta (08:53):
And, Peter said 40 cameras, we have one customer that deploys 50 cameras. Now, they're not all in the same location. So, frame accuracy becomes less important if you're in different venues, different cities. But within a given venue, there could be dozens of cameras all shooting the same scene and dozens of 30 or 40, 60, 100 microphones all on the same event. And they all have to be imperfect genlock. And we help our customers achieve that.
Ken Kerschbaumer (09:26):
That's so great. Peter, Janel,...
