Flexible workflows: Calrec on how IP, cloud and remote production are impacting live sports broadcasting

A Calrec Apollo inside EMG’s Nova 111 truck, which will be used at the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship that starts on 15 December 2023

By Dave Letson, Calrec VP of sales.

While as an industry it may appear on the surface that we’re in a quieter period, with new trends not as apparent as they were a couple of years ago, the reality is that this is an industry undergoing true transformation. While the specifics, of course, vary on a case-by-case basis, what we’re seeing is the growth in the ability – and desire – to add flexibility, scalability and the implementation of new workflows by broadcasters and facilities: we are witnessing the deployment of technologies to separate the talent from processing power, allowing growth in non-linear workflows.

Two years ago, in a previous trends article, we wrote: “The future of live sports broadcasting will not be on-site, or off-site, or hybrid, or edge processing. In fact, it will be determined entirely by production needs and budget, and it won’t be up to us to decide how it’s done.” This we absolutely stand by and it is what we’re seeing. These capabilities are afforded by opportunities already available or being explored, including IP workflows, remote production, distributed production and the cloud.

The future is IP

So, where are we at with broadcasters, and facilities more widely, taking advantage of the flexibility and long-term scalability that ST2110 brings? Well, while this isn’t the format to go into detail, one look at the order book for our flagship IP console emphatically shows how IP deployments are absolutely the future. Of course, there are still questions being asked, especially by smaller operations, and there remains a level of uncertainty from some, but deployments are growing. There’s still demand for SDI because of the level of understanding and the fact it’s pretty much plug and play, but IP is the future.

One of the key challenges the industry faces – and this is for manufacturers and broadcasters and facilities – is an IP video engineer skills shortage. This is a considerable hurdle. There are multiple factors at play, not least the huge complexity of IP rollouts in a real-time video environment and the difficulties associated with troubleshooting, which requires a very specialised skillset. Being able to support our customers through every stage, not least major one-off sporting events, using our decades of experience, is essential to what we do. Indeed, you can read an interesting article on SVG Europe by Elliot Roberts, a Calrec support engineer, about how we did exactly this last year. It also highlights the learning process we go through, especially in terms of real-world integration with IP solutions from other vendors, which significantly adds to our, and their, knowledge bank.

Hub of activity

With remote production, which, in reality, covers many different ways of working, we’re seeing further deployments and proofs-of-concept for specific audio workflows. Looking generally, we’ve seen an increase in the creation of remote production hubs, both big and small, and the evolution of existing ones. We know of many projects that will begin in the not-too-distant future. We’re also seeing a continued rise in the use of remote workflows for smaller scale events/lower tier sports, though this does pose the challenge of the right technology being available at the right price point.

While remote mixing has been a reality for a number of years, the way it’s done is constantly evolving with people now empowered by technologies that drive this freedom to think and work differently.

But there are still challenges. Looking at the US, many entities have built out regional ‘pod’-based production facilities to handle remote productions across the US and world, driven in part by the pandemic. The regional sports network market is a prime example where the sheer number of events – there are organisations with thousands of matches they need to cover annually – requires a new way of working.

The new workflows evolving with distributed production provides opportunities to generate more content at a higher and more consistent quality. The ability for audio engineers to work in a central, dedicated studio environment rather than consistently having to travel from venue to venue, will enable greater utilisation of both equipment and human resources.

What’s crucial is not introducing latency into the transmission chain as that’s completely unacceptable. The only audio that should come to an A1 is what hits their monitors, with these control signals not affecting transmission.

Indeed, the lines between remote production and distributed production blur. At the heart of distributed production is the separation of control surfaces, cores and I/Os, which are not co-located at the same facility but can be distributed across large distances to maximise their use. Taking an example of how this can work, you could have hardware or software control panels across a facility, with a main processing engine somewhere in that facility and an additional processing unit wherever a customer may want to put it. There’s even the possibility of some additional processing power in the cloud. Distributing the digital signal processing (DSP) provides a new level of flexibility as to how that DSP can be used across many mixing surfaces, maximising use. We are working with customers as to how this can be optimised from both sides.

Looking at the cloud more widely, our parent company issued a statement at NAB, with our involvement, which explains our position and a key development pathway. It’s clear current available technologies are quite limited in what they can do as they are not designed for the rigours of live, broadcast television. But that doesn’t mean the cloud isn’t an interesting addition to the broadcast audio world. It can currently be used to add in additional material to a live production or maybe some replay originating from the cloud. It’s undoubtedly a way of being able to add additional resources to a live production quickly and easily. The next year or two will be interesting in this regard. We are working with key broadcasters as we jointly expand our understanding of what’s possible and, more importantly, what’s desirable.

What’s great to see is the way the industry is adapting to these new workflows, taking advantage of what suits their business. At Calrec, we are constantly adapting, learning new ways to support customers as they embark on a new era of flexibility and the possibilities afforded.