A Remote Production Primer

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The recent dramatic acceleration in the use of remote production workflows shows no signs of subsiding, even for the biggest live events. The BBC and ITV, for example, are making use of a remote production workflow to switch feeds captured live in Qatar back to the UK. They are also sharing this technology to cut costs and support sustainability policies.

As more venues have become equipped with broadband connections, more broadcasters have adopted remote production over IP — not only is it much less expensive, but it has shown to have lower latency than older methods.

Here’s a primer on the fundamentals of remote production, courtesy of Haivision.

Remote production, sometimes referred to as the Remote Integration Model (REMI) or at-home production, is a broadcast workflow where content is captured live at a remote location while production is performed at a central location, either on-premises or in the cloud. Remote production is typically used for sports or other events, where having a full production suite on-location is not reasonable.

Cost savings are the principal reasons for moving to remote. “Deploying OB trucks and on-site production equipment is an expensive proposition requiring significant investment in logistical planning, video hardware, and support personnel,” Haivision explains. “In addition, set up times are long, and there are many moving parts to contend with, allocating, transporting, and setting up equipment, securing and provisioning satellite links, as well as coordinating staff schedules, travel, and hotel arrangements.

“By eliminating the costly and complex coordination associated with deploying OB trucks full of expensive equipment and on-site production teams there are substantial time and cost-savings to be made,” Haivision says.

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In short, REMI allows broadcasters to do more with less. For example, a replay operator on-site at a sporting event might only be utilized for three hours during a four-day period. But if the replay operator is at home, they could be running replays around the world — all the time.

When it comes to live content, customers want more choice and they’re willing to pay for it. Haivision states that this demand is not limited to just high-profile, traditional sports leagues, but niche, minor, and second-tier sports such as college sports, volleyball and e-sports.

Remote production over the internet not only enables broadcasters to reach audiences with niche content, but it also allows them to increase coverage of a major event by permitting more feed from multiple cameras around a venue.

Options ranging from fan-cams in the bleachers and player or bench cams to streams overlaid with real-time stats and video with bespoke commentary give viewers more personalized viewing options while affording video service providers greater potential for targeted advertising. With no cost restrictions around broadcasting time, providers have greater flexibility in building programming around an event.

The workflow doesn’t have to be based on a central hub. It can be decentralized into multiple production locations while also using home-based staff, all thanks to sending video streams over low-latency internet connections.

This can also include bi-directional streams for live interviews with remote subjects and talent. Executives and other staff can also access low-latency streams to monitor live production from a laptop or mobile device using an encrypted connection to a cloud or on-premises stream gateway.

As in-house broadcast facilities deploy the SMPTE ST 2110 suite of video streaming standards, Haivision predicts that entire broadcast workflows will be IP-enabled over both public and private networks. Furthermore, remote production workflows encompass a mix of on-premises, at-home, and cloud-based elements for encoding, decoding, and video processing, all accessible via IP networks. Combined with the rollout of 5G, it seems the potential for remote production over IP is limitless.