Why Do Televised Sports Events Require a Truck for Production Personel?

With the advances in fiber optics, I would think this could all be done back at HQ? But the networks seem to send production trucks to big events? Why?

And some of the cameras, like the ones directly above the basket or on the goalposts, are remotely controlled. Other than a roaming handheld camera or two why are all the cameras not remote-controlled from HQ?

I would think it would be a lot cheaper to run production from a central point.

 

It would be a technical nightmare and lead to a vastly inferior production.

The current system has a bunch of hard-wired cameras and audio sources feeding into one central point that is then feeding a single signal back to the HQ. To do it remotely, all of those sources -- dozens of them -- would have to be fed back individually to HQ, routed and fed to the control room. It's simply not workable.

And the remote-control camera thing is a non-starter for sports. If the camera has to follow action with anything but a super-wide shot the remote control thing won't work.

 

Satellite delays would make remote production a nightmare. You need split-second control at the site.

Now you could ask, why does it have to be a truck? Why couldn't it be a train or a unicycle or a 1975 land yacht?

 

Not a TV guy, but with about a half-dozen games going on simultaneously, I'd think it would be even more chaotic with control away from the site.

 

Probably as a backup in case of fiberoptics network failure. That happened for a North Carolina-Wake Forest basketball game a few years ago and ESPN couldn't start showing the game until the second half.

 

All of the major sports networks have initiated what's known in the industry as at-home or REMI remote-production techniques in recent years. ESPN was early on this, right around the time they also started hiring the freelancers they were using for remote production as employees. (The vast majority at other networks still are freelancers.) REMI involves a scaled-down crew placing microphones and cams that can be remotely operated, such as the speed cams on NASCAR tracks. Signals are sent back to the plant in Stamford or Bristol or wherever, where graphics, audio mix, etc. can be done. REMI is flexible: you can do as much or as little on site remotely as a budget permits, and latency is no worse and usually way better than the profanity delay. The point behind REMI is to lower production costs using fewer personnel on site and utilizing production platforms, such as graphics engines or audio consoles, at the plant versus deploying numerous redundant iterations of them on site.

The new generation of remote-production trucks from Game Creek, NEP, et al. are using IP backbones. Less cabling and hardware, thus lighter (weight is critical for remote production) and cheaper to build, operate and rent. It's the difference between your desktop in 2002 and your phone today.

NBC Sports' production of the last Olympics in PyeongChang was an achievement for REMI. Many of the events were directed and mixed from Stamford.

Every stadium and arena today, from pro to high school, are built with coax, fiber and other cabling installed and integrated between the field/announce booth/venue control room and the truck docks. It's complicated but remarkably efficient. And it's certainly keeping me busy editorially during Covid-19.