Free TV Engineering Info

I was looking through the different technical documents that Free TV Australia have on their website and i saw something that I found very interesting. They have drawn up documents that specify the OB requirements of various sporting events. From swimming to football, just about every detail of the camera layouts and cable requirements have been spelt out.
Free Tv Engineering Page .


It was interesting to see that Free TV has taken this step. I thought about why such a move was made and came to the conclusion that these documents must have been produced by the people who actually broadcast and organize these events. For example in the cricket plan there are 24 cameras that are specified that should be used. However these include the third umpires cameras and the cameras used by the Hawk Eye technology.

After reading the brief on the technical documents the reasons why they need these documents at all. Free TV tell us it is to create common operating practices, match the international expectations and to make sure the required safety measures are in place.

Such documents would also be very helpful to those people who are in charge of or building venues that may be broadcast from. It would be much more attractive to broadcast from a venue which has taken into account the possibility of a major outside broadcast at the venue. As a student I found the engineering information very interesting as i am very interested in pursuing Outside Broadcasts as a career option. It also made me aware of the immense amount of planning and technology that goes into seeing the sport we love put onto TV. It also shows the extent of the need for very consideration to be taken into account regarding the particular needs of each sport.

Producer - DIrector Relationship

For my last blog i thought i would make a personal reflection on the nature of the relationship between producer and director during the children's show Mish Mash. As series producer I have had the opportunity to see the different relationships between the different producers and directors. Through this experience I have come to the conclusion that every one of these relationships were different. I am not sure whether this is the case in professional industry situations but I expect that it would be but to a much lesser extent.

I thought that the first show showed that a there needs to be a great amount of communication during the whole preproduction process. It became evident that there was more communication needed when both the director and producer had their own script revisions. It is clear that the script is an area for the producer but due to a lack of communication this was not made clear and there was much confusion because of this.

I thought the second episode showed that communication was vital. Throughout the preproduction phase there was much communication between the producer and director. This meant the director was very aware of he shows requirements and was on the same page as the producer. During the show the producer was able to communicate with the director to make changes to the show.

The third show showed much the same as show two. It however was an interesting situation as there was much confusion during the first run through. This was able to be resolved mainly through the director being more in tune to what the show required but the producer also helped to fix the problems from the floor.

The last show was very interesting for me as I had to act both as a director and series producer. I made the decision to ask James to take on the roles I had in the studio so i would be free to stay in the control room. It was also difficult because of the conflict that may have arisen with my producer. Only once I had to override the producer and it was received well. I found that the most helpful thing as a director was being able to understand the where the producer is coming from. Meeting and discussing the show with my producer made it possible to just concentrate on directing the show rather than worrying about where the show was going.

In the end each relationship had both advantages and disadvantages. Clearer definitions of roles would have been very helpful as this was this was the first time our class had been placed in a position. That said if given the chance to repeat the whole exercise there would be many things that would be done differently and the end product would have been proportionally better.

Use of Computer Generated Imagery

I was watching television the other day and I realised a startling fact, that most of the commercial content and an increasing quantity of program content is generated on a computer somewhere. In the past any titles were basic. Just a plain clear font maybe with a background. But now the title whirl in from the side with a dynamic background that looks like it took some multimedia person the better part of a week to generate.

It is pretty obvious that the massive increase in computer power coupled with the drop in price for high end computer hardware and software is the catalyst for the shift into computer generated imagery. I think one of the best examples of computer generated imagery use in television today would have to be the cricket. It was only a few years ago that the use of cricket in graphics consisted of the running score in the corner in white Arial font, basic layouts for team stats and slow motion replays. Now with computer help there is a virtual myriad of different generated imagery that can be used.

This imagery includes a generated 3D view of the ball bowled and its intended course, the ability to perform a very slow motion replay, a 3D view of where each ball has been hit and the many 3D effects with motion textures used on the titling. The titling itself is a marvel of technology as any number of statistics relating to anything can be displayed in seconds of it being requested. The use of computers to create imagery has also allowed the use of countless hours of archive footage to be used at the touch of a button, cross referenced and played back off digital storage.

A byproduct of the use of computer imagery is the demand for people with the necessary computer and broadcast skills. This has created jobs that are not able to be filled by many of the people with the traditional broadcast skills. The average viewer demands that as the technology advances so too must the television experience. With rising competition from the internet, television must offer a better viewing experience and the use of computer generated imagery plays a large part in this.

I have come to the conclusion that the use of digital imagery will not lessen over time but become more integrated into the processes that put television to air. People with strong computer skills and the ability the create multimedia content will be in more demand as this happens. Personally I believe the young people entering the broadcast market are placed well in this regard as most are very computer literate and are use to rapid changes in technology.

Tape and New Video Storage

Television has always had some capacity to record images and sound for later playback. Very early on film was the best available method to achieve recording and playback of material. However it was quickly identified that there needs to be some other sort of recording medium more suited to a television environment. In the 1950's magnetic tapes began to be used to record and playback program material, Ampex demonstrated the first viable VTR in 1956. Video tape technology continued to develop and in 1986 Sony introduced the first commercial digital tape machine using. In 1995 the KOLD 13 became the first television station to use a networked digital server to broadcast program content. Since then digital technology used to send images and sound to the consumer has become prevalent in all parts of television production.
www.tvhandbook.com History

Tape technologies are linear. They have to be seen in sequence and only the images at one point if the tape at a time can be seen. In the past this technology was adequate as editing was linear and playback was linear. For each playback and recording line there had to be a separate machine. This meant the operation of these machine could become very complex and for large productions many VTR's were needed to meet the playback, slow motion and recording needs.

With the advent of digital technologies the encoding of the tapes changed but apart from advances to the accuracy of the time-code the operation of these machines was virtually the same. This can be seen when using a DVCam machine and a VHS machine.

With the advent of Non-lenear video editing in the 70's people began to see the benefits of this new idea in editing. It also lead to a revolution in the way video could be stored that today is leading to developments in the broadcast market like the P2 technology from Panasonic. This revolution has also effected consumers with the explosion of TiVo in America meaning the viewer can record and playback program material as they wish and record and playback at the same time. However I don't think that such developments had the major effect that so many people have expected on the television market.
Non-Linear Editing History
www.tivo.com

I think that advances relating to the internet will be the things that radically change the television market from the idea of watching what you are given that had been prevalent from the advent of television. Apple who revolutionized the sale of music has announced the iTunes music store will now sell television shows that can be downloaded and watched on the new iPod. Television stations will need to become internet content providers with the playback not coming from VTR machines but hard drives through the internet. In the next few years people will stop buying VCR's and DVD players but instead the home computer will become the television access point with a watch what you want attitude.
ITunes Video Store

Multicam Sound

The program I have selected to research the sound set-up on is Seven's 'Dancing with the Stars'. This program encompasses many interesting and complex problems that the audio team must overcome each week. The show has a large live band, four judges, VT playback a live audience, a dance floor, a green room and two mobile hosts. Each of these factors must be taken into account with each having special requirements and difficulties.

The shows hosts make use of radio hand held microphones. These are used to speak to the audience and interview the contestants after each dance. These microphones must be monitored continuously during use as the level of sound varies dramatically between people. The hosts are often saying things in the moment and so these microphones would have to be on the top of the sound mixers mind.

The band that plays each week is a major complication to the multi-camera setup as each week the band would be playing a different mix of music with the band being expanded for special nights where extra instruments are required. The hardest part of the band setup would be the drums as they can easily overwhelm the other instruments. The band would be mixed separately on a bus or on another console as a mixing a large band for broadcast is very hard as the sound operators on Live8 demonstrated with their terrible broadcast mixes.

The other microphones for the judges would be fairly straight forward and wouldn't be wireless. There is no boom used and the VT playback and pre-break music would be very easy to accommodate.

Another part of the sound setup that is often overlooked is the fold-back or monitoring that is necessary in all parts of the studio. The dance floor, greenroom and live audience all require sound to be sent to them so that they know what is going on and dance to it. This would be accommodated by using auxiliary buses from the main sound mixer. Each area would receive a different mix depending on it's requirements. The band would require many such mini-mixes so all the band can play in sync and in tune.

I saw an interesting thing on Seven news a few weeks ago. Nula the weather person gave her report from an acrobats tower however the audio kept dropping out as she was using a radio mic and I must have been on the edge of its range. I thought it was pretty sloppy.

TV Talk

Here is a list of 30 or so phrases and Words

"Fade up sound and vision"
The director is instructing the VM and Audio to dissolve into the first image and sound.

"Roll VT"
The assistant director tells the tapes operator to roll the tape to be used next

"Soft Focus"
The TD or director may use this to ask a camera person to fix their focus

"On 4 Ready 2"
The director assistant telling everyone that we are on shot 4 with camera 2 up next.

"Give me an MCU of the centre host"
The director is asking the a camera person for a medium close up of the host.

"Hold the floor"
The director may wish to have a retake or need to check something quickly but want the floor crew to remain on alert

"Patch the Mic into 21"
The sound supervisor may be asking a stage hand to plug a microphone into socket 21

"Check recording"
The director may ask the tapes operator to check that the record has done so properly.

"Permission to come onto the floor"
the director asks for permission for the the floor manager to come onto the studio floor

"Strike the studio"
the floor manager asks all crew to reset the studio to its original state

"VT rolling. 10 seconds. Standby!"
The floor manager informing the floor crew they are about to come back from a tape segment

"Break camera 1"
the directors assistant telling camera 1 to move to its next position

"Take cam 1"
The directors asking the vm for camera 1 to be put to line

"Dissolve cam 1"
the director asking the vm to cross-dissolve to camera 1

"It's in the can."
the director telling everyone the shoot is finished

-Fast camera movement sideways back and fourth-
The camera man says no

-Fast camera movement up and down-
The camera man says yes

Ped
the pedestal the camera is mounted on

Crabbing
where the cameras pedestal moves with all three wheels

Boom
the long arm contraption holding the condenser microphone

Basher
a person whose job it is to make sure the cables don't get in the way and are arranged properly

"Can we have a line monitor on the floor"
the floor manager is asking probable the TD if they could have a monitor on the floor with the signal going to air or being recored

"The level is peaking"
an input on the sound console is too high and so is distorting

"Trim the gain"
the audio supervisor asking the audio assistant to turn the input gain down a little

"Take cam 3 with super"
The vm must put camera 3 to line with the title or graphic superimposed over it.

"Watch the head room 3"
The director asking camera 3 to keep an eye on the space between the top of the subjects head the top of the frame

Stagger Through
The crew will try to go through a script of a show and stop if they have problems

"Set that shot camera 1"
The director has asked camera 1 to remember that particular shot and recall it when the situation arises

"Can we focus all camera forward for a white balance"
The TD wants to make sure all camera are focused on the white sheet to a proper white balance can be performed

"Cue Talent"
The director is telling the FM to gesture to the talent to start their speaking or movement.

"Silence on the floor!"
The FM is telling floor crew to shut up

"Pull focus to the girl"
Asks the camera person to refocus live onto a girl in the frame

"30 second wind up"
The directors assistant is asking the FM to give the wind up signal to the talent.

"Fade sound and vision"
The directors call when the show has finished

Band Lighting

There are many differences and similarities between lighting a band for a purely live performance and for a mutlicam production. I personally have created lighting for band concerts for a purely live performance. I have also been involved with trying to make to most out of filming these sorts of events. Lighting by its very nature can be extremely different even if the exact same rig is used, it can often be made or broken by it's operation and different operators may get two very different but equally good shows.

I was able to have a talk with Daniel Potter the lighting designer and operator of the last Choirboys tour who went with the band to Mornings With Bert Newton where he was able to see how the same band he had lit on stage was lit in the studio. The first comment he made was there was a lot less front lighting as he anticipated but lots of rear white was. This was in contrast to lighting the band live where there was little white wash during the performance and very directional front on spots used instead. He also noted the extensive use of ray cans from the rear. He also told me about the use of gobo-rotators attached to the end of Pacific spots. He commented it would be much more common to use a full blown intelligent light for a concert than a gobo-rotator.

I think that in lighting for cameras it would be much more important to get the angles of the white lights right as the camera can often harshly depict a face. It is also of importance to keep the white light to a higher level to assist in focusing and picture clarity.

Just as important as the design the actual operation of the lights would also be different. There would be less strobing of lights, any light chases would be slower and additionally there would be fewer changes in the colour states compared to a concert. If smoke was used it would be much thicker if for a concert.

Directing-Rove Live

I will discuss the area of directing. The show I chose to talk about is Rove Live, this is because I like the show and it encompasses a broad range of differing directing techniques and requirements. Peter Ots is the director for Rove Live. The show is a live 1.5-hour variety show. There are often guests from all walks of life, live feeds from locations, skits and live bands. However with this variety the show remains largely the same in terms of shot selection and camera movements.

The show setting is in a large open studio set. The show utilises four studio cameras with three being on peds while one is on a boom. Shoulder mounted camera are also utilised depending on the show as there is often segments staged in the car park and in adjacent studios. It would be difficult to be able to keep ahead of the show with these segments and the director must be able to communicate with the crew quickly and concisely. The director would also let the cameras offer their own shots.

The show is very challenging because of the often-random nature of the segments. Many times a segment will go in a strange direction and as a director you must be able to follow these. For example many time an interview with a guest can lead into Rove and the guest moving around the studio and this must be shown. Also Rove has a habit of changing the shows running order and calling for a segment to keep going or to go back to it. He also regularly asks the camera staff to focus on a particular item or event so the director must be able to adapt to this and provide the professional results that a home viewer would expect from a show of its popularity.

In my view the show is quite unique in the fact that Rove often does take the reigns and ‘wing’ it. The shows director must have a lot of experience in live switching but also must have a fair idea about the where Rove usually takes the show.