Past, present, and a greener future: How EMG is reengineering sports broadcasting for sustainability
EMG’s new Nova 52 OB van was launched in June 2023. EMG’s fleet of Nova 50 Series of vehicles are capable of working in traditional, remote surface, full remote, and cloud workflows. They can be used as standalone units or linked together
The closing remarks at last month’s UN Climate Ambition Summit in New York were an open plea to encourage companies to step up their environmental game. Showcasing organisations who have already implemented policies to accelerate sustainability, UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated that, “if these first-doers and first-movers can do it, everybody can do it”.
EMG is one of these first-movers. Earlier this year it became the first OB specialist to achieve the DPP Committed to Sustainability mark, which recognises good practice in environmental sustainability across the media industry, and it is proving that the UN Climate Ambition Summit is right; everybody can do it.
Legacy of the past
Over the last few years the broadcast industry has started adopting more sustainable practices across the entire production chain, from manufacturing through to distribution; and thanks to the example of these first-doers, more companies are getting on board.
“It won’t be long before we’ve all got 10Gb fibre at home and at that point we might not even need a remote operation centre”
You would be forgiven if it feels like it has been a long time coming. The stakes have always been high in live broadcast, and confidence is a heavy needle to move. When it comes to breaking the cycle of traditional broadcast models and embracing concepts like remote production, broadcasters have always had healthy levels of scepticism.
“Production teams have always wanted to be within the shadow of the stadiums that they are attending,” says EMG UK’s CTO Sean Mulhern. “The move to remote working changed something that we had been doing for decades, and there was always going to be resistance to it.”
EMG was an early adopter of remote production, and in June the company doubled down on its commitment with the introduction of a fleet of smaller, lighter and considerably more versatile production vehicles.
Its Nova 51, 52, 53 and 54 production vehicles are specifically designed to facilitate remote production and represent a step change for outside broadcast, as well as a real commitment to make long term changes to the way live events are covered. And as confidence in remote working has grown, so too has the number of companies pursuing similar models, creating more sustainable productions across the board.
But to work out how EMG got here, and how audio fits into the equation, it is important to understand the background.
Remote control for audio
With over 25 years’ experience of working in outside broadcast, Mulhern knows what he is talking about and he was instrumental in developing remote production workflows at EMG long before world events forced everybody’s hand. In fact, by the time pandemic restrictions were put in place, plans for EMG’s first Remote Operations Centre (ROC) had already been signed off.
At this point EMG was already producing live coverage of Canadian rugby league for Sky as a proof of concept, which enabled EMG to identify many of the pitfalls before it became a necessity to do so. The company was remotely producing live football from its freshly completed ROC as early as July 2020.
“It was a quick fix because all the equipment was still in the truck; we just couldn’t put people in it,” explains Mulhern. “It was a really efficient way to get back on air. All of the actual manipulation of the signals was still done on location and it was really just surface remote control we needed to put in place.
“We embedded audio for monitoring, got multiviewers back to the ROC, the EVS controllers were sent over IP, and the vision mixer was running in parallel. The main transmission would still leave from site and the audio mixing was still being done in the truck.”
EMG’s head of audio technology, Simon (Foz) Foster, adds that the model also gave stakeholders confidence: “It provided robust disaster recovery because if there was a problem in our remote centres, we were still able to take control from the console on site. The remote surface model allowed us to deliver the highest quality with minimal impact.”
Blueprint for the present
The history is important because these early implementations provided a blueprint for how EMG has developed the concept. EMG’s first ROC was what Mulhern calls a, “full fat remote production gallery,” built within BT Sports’ facility.
“It enabled us to look at producing events as full remote, backhauling all of the cameras and the microphones to be manipulated at the remote centre,” he says. “It opened the door to having smaller vehicles on site that would potentially have less kit.”
Nova 50 Series
Fast forward to 2023 and EMG’s fleet of Nova 50 Series of vehicles are exactly that. Capable of working in traditional, remote surface, full remote, and cloud workflows, the fleet was introduced in June and can be used as standalone units or linked together.
“We’ve streamlined everything with the Nova 50 units,” says Foz. “Each unit gives us all the facilities that we require. They use a full Calrec Artemis console for audio, which acts as a toolbox for faders and still gives us full disaster recovery should we need it. We also installed Ross Ultrix FR12 hybrid routers, which enables every input and every output to be hybrid; each input and output can be UHD 12G capable, it synchronises on inputs, it embeds and de-embeds, all in a 12U box.”
In a bid to maximise power efficiency and minimise weight and size, each vehicle draws just 2.5kw and boast 1700w solar mats fitted to the roof. Each truck features two 10kw inverters, and is capable of providing standalone power for around three hours.
Meanwhile, external panels are made from recycled polypropylene and the internal acoustic wall coverings are made from recycled PET felt. Additional thermal insulation maintains better cabin temperature to minimise the need for air conditioning, and although they all run on biodiesel, the chassis has been designed to lift and drop on a new chassis when more sustainable vehicles are available.
Promise of the future
“Each unit can deal with 16 cameras, which is equivalent to a medium sized OB truck; they just don’t have a production gallery or a VTR replay area because they are located somewhere else,” says Mulhern. “We’re migrating from what we’ve been doing for decades to something completely different, and it is the connectivity makes all this possible.”
Due to the bandwidth required to transport all the audio signals in native UHD HDR, EMG is still producing match audio coverage through the Artemis in the truck and using the remote-control model, but that doesn’t mean that ground hasn’t been made on the rest of the presentation, including EMG’s ability to create immersive mixes.
“We’re backhauling much more data and we are now producing a full remote of the presentation element of the production,” says Foz. “There are around 18 feeds coming back to us, all in UHD HDR 50P, and all with embedded audio which keeps the video and the audio in time. When it gets back to the remote centre, we’re able to de-embed the audio and remix it for live in a proper Dolby Atmos suite; OB trucks have never been the best monitoring environments and so it allows us to concentrate on that a lot better.”
Big truck impact
While Mulhern believes there is still a requirement for big trucks, it seems like there is a growing appreciation for much smaller vehicles, especially if they can access the same firepower as a much bigger unit.
“Over the years connectivity has got much quicker,” he says. “We have more throughput, prices aren’t changing a great deal, and connectivity is more widespread due to COVID and people working from home. All this makes our lives easier.
“It won’t be long before we’ve all got 10Gb fibre at home and at that point we might not even need a remote operation centre. At that point we could have people sitting at home operating an EVS, letting the fibre do the travelling and enabling people to work wherever they like.
“We can all do much better. We’re trying to do our bit, albeit small. But if everyone did the same thing, it becomes a critical mass and we might turn that corner.”