Global TV Redefines Newscast Production With Telemetrics Camera
Robotics Systems.
It’s never been done before. Not in America. Not in Canada. Not in Europe or anywhere else. But that didn’t stop
John O’Connor, the now retired Vice President of National Broadcast Engineering for Canada’s Global TV, from going
forward with an idea he was sure would work and which might even revolutionize the production of local
news broadcasts.
Mr. O’Connor (now on board with Global TV as a consultant) and his team spearheaded the move to change the manner
in which local newscasts were produced and controlled. His vision was to create a system of four regional production
centers to produce and control the various newscasts across the country. Previously the 14 Global stations, located
throughout Canada in markets ranging from major to mid-sized, ran autonomously and all produced essentially the same
format – news, weather and sports. Under the redesign, the local stations have maintained their anchors, reporters
and editors but production functions (cameras, switcher/vision mixer, audio, graphics, lights, etc.) are controlled remotely
using industry leading camera robotics systems from Telemetrics.
“The on-camera talent clip on their mic and then the Vancouver production center takes over, controlling the studio lights,
camera and robotic control, mic level control, local station router access and teleprompter feeds,” said Mr. O’Connor.
“Basically the local station is a green box chromakey environment, making the control room’s physical location irrelevant.
For instance, our newscasts for Nova Scotia and the Maritime provinces are done from a green box studio in Halifax
while production control and VR generation are in Vancouver which is on the opposite side of the country – over 6000
kilometers (about 3900 miles) away. It’s all transparent to the viewer, making even our small market stations look like
large, American-style news broadcast facilities.”
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Global TV’s remote production of virtual studios, like the one in Nova Scotia, is accomplished with the help of Orad’s
ProSet SD/HD virtual studio application, which as O’Connor explains, allowed Global TV to centralize its production
facilities and control its cameras from 3900 miles away. Relying on Orad’s HDVG video graphics rendering platform,
ProSet is equipped with unmatched rendering power that allows Global TV’s most complex virtual sets to run in
real-time. Both applications are located in the network’s main production center.
The Telemetrics robotics system in place allows Orad’s Proset to gather the exact position and view of each of the
cameras in real-time. A key success factor in this project was Orad’s unique ability to marry between the camera
tracking data and the video signal at a frame accuracy; transferring it via a separate MPLS network from the remote
studio to the main center where the incoming feeds are decompressed to SDI and coupled with the virtual
background rendered by the HDVG. The ProSet software translates the data and seamlessly moves the virtual
background with the real camera movements.
According to Mr. O’Connor, the Telemetrics products were the only systems on the market capable of meeting their
unique requirements. In particular, the company’s H-frame elevating belt track camera positioning system with
X and Y axis and virtual set capability was ideal for their application. “Using the Telemetrics H-frame positioning system,
we can start off with a high shot on the anchor desk and then move down. The broadcast looks as if we have a full
camera crew on the floor but in fact everything is done remotely and with minimum production staff,” he said. “We looked
at other competitive products to do the job and also at alternative ideas such as a jib, but none of those plans appealed
to us the way the Telemetrics solution did.”
Global TV is a wholly owned subsidiary of CanWest Global Communication (CanWest) and is Canada’s largest
communication company. The newly centralized production facilities will be brought on line in a three-phase operation
with the first phase having been launched in the spring of 2008 at CHAN in Vancouver and at the national newscast
center in Ottawa. Phase two will launch in the fall (September 2008) when CITV in Edmonton and CICT in Calgary are
scheduled to come on line and the third and final phase will be the Toronto production center (CIII).
Mr. O’Connor explained that in order to achieve coast-to-coast control and to prepare for the eventual HD environment,
a VPN (virtual private network) was established as the backbone to support the operation. The network build was started
about three years ago for point to point usage and was later expanded to include a hub and spoke architecture to allow
virtual studio remote productions from one, central production center. From this main location, one person can operate
any camera, in any city, allowing for continuity between shows and across the Global brand.
Once the network backbone was in place, next on the agenda was a proof of concept. As Mr. O’Connor reiterates, to
their knowledge, this new workflow concept of centralizing production equipment and crews while using remotely
controlled cameras with virtual backgrounds over long distances had never been formalized anywhere, by any
broadcaster. Also as proof of concept, Global TV needed to test the integrity of the VR tracking data and to evaluate
the quality of the MPEG compression required to transfer video from place to place over long distances.
"We set-up a test virtual reality set in a production center in Toronto to make sure the concept would work," said
Mr. O’Connor. "Telemetrics and two of our other key vendors provided the equipment for the test and, aside from
a few apprehensive moments, the tests went as expected and we had our proof of concept. All along, Telemetrics
has been integral to this project and was always very responsive to our needs. They even made modifications to
the software per our requirements and have been quick to provide custom tailoring."
While the studio components may vary slightly from station to station, each of the 14 studio locations (will be)
equipped with the Telemetrics H-frame Elevating Belt Track System, in either the floor to ceiling version, model
BT-TRK-010, or the wall mounted version, model BT-TRK-008. Those that are deployed in the virtual studio
locations will additionally include built-in X-Z position encoders which will send the camera positional information
back to Orad’s ProSet in the main production center.
The HDVGs supply virtual studio backgrounds for the newscasts. ProSet gives the network’s production team the
ability to integrate multiple live video streams and video clips into each telecast, laying them seamlessly over the
3D virtual studio background. Global TV deploys ENPS software to produce its telecasts. ProSet has an interface
that allows the news producers to easily add or change virtual set elements in the show in ENPS. This allows the
producers to control the show and make decisions quickly and “on the fly.”
The Ikegami HD cameras used with the Elevating Belt Track System are mounted on the Telemetrics LP Pan/Tilt
device, model PT-LP-S4, which is also configured with the virtual studio option. The encoders are incorporated
on the pan/tilt axis of the PT-LP-S4 and the outputs are combined with the lens zoom and focus encoders. The
positional data is processed into serial data format and sent to ProSet. The resulting background generated by
the HDVG is keyed over the green set making the newscast appear to be in another separate environment.
Camera moves are synchronized with the virtual background making the set appear to change perspective when
the camera angle changes.
Mr. O’Connor notes that the camera movement, zoom and focus is exceptionally smooth and steady which also
helps make the technology transparent to the viewer. The Telemetrics Pan/Tilt unit features programmable timed
presets for the Elevating Belt Track System as well as for P/T/Z/F (pan/tilt/zoom/focus), dolly, iris and master
pedestal. He adds, “The functionality of being able to control the cameras and the peripherals (lighting, audio,
tallys, etc.) has allowed us to keep the remote control under control and easier and simpler to operate.”
In addition to the various power supplies and cables, each studio location is also equipped with a Telemetrics
DS-4 Device Server. This unit allows any of the Telemetrics serial control panels and robotic devices to
communicate with each other through Ethernet networks. Some locations are additionally equipped with an
outdoor weatherproof camera, housed in and controlled by Telemetrics systems.
At the production centers, Global TV has installed the Telemetrics CP-D-3A Desktop Robotic Camera Control
Panel featuring an ergonomically and efficiently designed control board. In addition to the simultaneous control
of pan, tilt, zoom and focus, the CP-D-3A has been optimized with iris/pedestal control, a proportional control
rocker for Trolley/Televator and microphone level controls. The accompanying Studio Control System Software
(CPS-ST-S) from Telemetrics offers a specially designed control screen that emulates the Ikegami camera’s
remote operating panel as well as a GUI (graphical user interface) for creating a story board of camera shots.
During the switchover, Mr. O’Connor said that the stations continued to broadcast as usual and that the change
was done overnight. “There was a dramatic difference in the broadcasts from one day to the next and it was
visually striking versus the previous broadcasts,” he added. “The on-camera talent was stunned when they first
saw the actual set on their programme return monitors .This in turn made them much more at ease with the
transition and the technology.”
When asked about the overall impact of the redesign, Mr. O’Connor replied that the Telemetrics robotic camera
control systems have helped to make Global TV significantly more efficient in its operation and that management
is pleased with the cost savings results and the potential for an increase in market share.
He adds, “In addition to the smaller markets now having the best news broadcasts compared to the local
competition, the system is high definition ready which means we will have the capability of launching high
definition newscasts at each station without the inherent capital outlay should each station operate autonomously.
And, by post keying in the production centers, the VR equipment can be shared by multiple stations which further
reduces the capital outlay.”
The systems integration, service and technical support is being provided by Applied Electronics Ltd., with offices
throughout Canada.
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