It doesn’t take an engineer to tell you that the current pandemic presents some interesting challenges to filmmaking. Setups we took for granted, like craft services, or in this case, video village, have to be approached in a way that allows the same number of people to see the screen while reducing the amount of bodies gathered around a single monitor or a group of monitors on set. So how can we make sure everyone who needs to see the action has access, without creating a crowd?
In the ever-growing world of remote production, there are largely 2 scenarios. In the first, near remote, the crew and those watching are on-set, practicing distancing as best as possible, and typically waiting in another room or rooms when not directly needed. They may be controlling remote pan/tilt heads, or adjusting lighting settings over WIFI, but largely they are not in the actual room where filming is happening while the camera is rolling. In the second remote production scenario, far remote, you have various members of production watching and even potentially controlling equipment from a home or office. In both examples, crew members need to be able to see what the camera sees so they can make adjustments on the fly or communicate notes and changes.
For the near-remote scenario, the obvious solution is to either run a longer SDI cable to a monitor in the room or rooms the crew members are working, or relying on a wireless video system like a Teradek Bolt. Unfortunately, even though this removes the personnel directly from the set where the unprotected actors are performing, it can still encourage a gathering around a screen. An alternative would be to use the Teradek Serv Pro – this device takes an HDMI or SDI signal and distributes it to mobile devices over a WIFI network it creates. Up to 10 Android, iOS and MacOS devices can all connect to this WIFI network and monitor the video feed live, with a latency of only 2 frames. Teradek’s free VUER app allows the user to monitor up to 4x live video feeds in quad-split screen mode, as long as each camera has a Serv Pro sending the signal. If you combine this with the Teradek Link, you can create a much more powerful WIFI network on set, combining multiple Link routers to cover an entire stadium or campus – this allows users to monitor the same signal without dropout no matter where the camera or user moves during filming.
For far-remote situations, the goal is to get the signal to the internet as efficiently as possible, while making it simple for the end users to access it. The simplest approach is to use a USB capture device, like the AJA UTap, or Epiphan AV.IO boxes, which take an SDI or HDMI signal, and convert it to USB. With this conversion, any laptop or computer should see the camera’s signal as a webcam, which can then be selected as the video input for programs like Zoom, Skype, Teams, and more. While this is not the highest quality solution, it does give far-remote viewers access to live video, in an environment they will largely be familiar with.
In situations where frame-accurate, color-accurate, high-resolution video is needed (up to 4K), you will need to use an encoder to convert to HAVC (H.264) or HEVC (H.265). The Teradek Serv Pro can do the former, and when paired with a Teradek Core Account, a link can be sent to anyone in the world, allowing them to pull up a live video stream wherever they’re at, from the Serv Pro on set. The Teradek Cube 755 can encode at an even higher quality, into HEVC, which uses only half the data rate of HAVC. This is especially beneficial when on-site internet is limited by very slow upload speeds or has to rely on a throttled service such as LTE. HEVC can stream 4K at upload speeds as low as 3Mbps, an incredible feat. Similar to the Serv Pro, the Cube also requires a subscription to Teradek’s Core service, from which you can generate and issue links to viewers. The Core service also allows a user to send the encoded video stream to places like Facebook & YouTube, should viewing with those services be required. The Teradek Cube 755 Encoder can also be paired with the Cube 775 decoder – the benefit of this combo is the decoder can be anywhere in the world apart from the Encoder, and as long as it’s also plugged into an active internet connection, it will find the encoder’s signal on the internet, decode it live, and output it via SDI. This would allow a DIT, or another detail-specific position like script supervisor, art director, and more, to watch the video feed live with a standard production monitor, and not over a browser.
As mentioned before, one of the challenges of streaming over the web is the quality, speed, and consistency of one’s upload speed. Having intermittent or unreliable speeds can severely limit the ability to seamlessly send a signal to the web for others to watch, and laggy video makes it difficult to give frame-accurate notes. If slow upload speeds or a bad internet connection are preventing a stable video stream from being uploaded, you would need to use a connection outside of the location’s on-site internet, such as a MiFi device from Verizon or Sprint – the MiFi gives the user a single LTE connection, that you can then connect to via WIFI or Ethernet. If that connection isn’t fast or stable enough, you can rely on something called bonding. Bonding can take internet connections from multiple sources, such as ethernet and multiple sim cards, and create one single, stable, and fast connection. Teradek makes a device called the Teradek Bond designed to work specifically with the Teradek Cube to provide this. Beyond that, there are companies such as TVU who make devices specifically designed to stream video over a bonded connection, all-in-one. For example, the TVU One combines up to 6x sim cards into one rock-solid connection that can stream 4K video in 10-bit color space completely wirelessly. This option is necessary when a solid, stable connection in the middle of nowhere is needed, without much setup time, such as for a 2nd unit, or remote news shooters.
There are many different options available for productions to get the camera’s signal to as many screens as possible, without inviting an overcrowding of a video village setup. Whether you’re needing to stream to multiple distanced monitors on set, various cell phones and smart devices, or whether you need to get your signal to the internet as smoothly as possible, there are products that can assist you with these setups. From the simplest build to a complex network, you can make sure everyone who needs to see the image is covered.
---
Written by Matthew Giblin, AbelCine's Rental Operations Manager in Los Angeles. AbelCine offers a full spectrum of high-end offerings to the filmmaking world, with sales, training, rental, repair finance, and integration services for the professional production community. In the new and ever-changing world of remote requirements, they offer everything from preconfigured remote packages, including live engineering and remote control solutions, to customizable packages based around your specific project and company needs. Contact AbelCine today with your needs, they’d love to work with you!
