Outside Broadcasting (OB) has become a vital part of the broadcasting industry with OB coverage accounting for almost 80 percent of sporting events.

The construction of a single state-of-the-art OB vehicle can cost millions of dollars.  Of course, piecing together and maintaining the latest technology is always a challenge, but it is not the only hurdle in running an OB operation. Logistics and finding the right personnel can also make OB operations challenging, especially when working in foreign countries. Experts agree that there are always new difficulties to overcome with each event and the specifics of its venue. So how do they do it?

Kevin Moorhouse
Technical Director
Gearhouse Broadcast

For Kevin Moorhouse, technical director at UK-based Gearhouse Broadcast, logistical problems are more likely to occur than technical problems, especially at non-European venues.  He also often finds language barriers a problem because they hamper the ability to communicate with event organizers. To try and circumvent this problem, Moorhouse recommends hiring local talent as camera operators, equipment operators, interpreters etc. “It takes care of many language problems and is a lot cheaper than flying in your own people from the UK or US,” he says. However, the same rule does not apply to equipment. The technical director insists on using his own equipment wherever he goes. He avoids using a lot of equipment from host countries because it often does not interface with his own.  As he explains, “our technology might not be the same as theirs and if it’s not, it will set us back.”
Problems that could affect OB operations are power and uplink failure.  In order to circumvent power issues, he insists that every OB truck have a backup generator. “We always rent dual generators so that if one fails, the other remains running.” As for the uplink, it is always necessary for the provider to have a backup path. Moorhouse recommends working with the same provider in order to become really familiar with their services and the problems you might encounter and how best to deal with them. In case the provider does not service the country from where you will be broadcasting, it is the technical director’s advice to “do your research! Check with people who have worked there before” and choose the provider before you are even in the country.
In Moorhouse’s opinion, shooting sports in HD can be technically problematic if the action gets too fast.  There have been cases where the picture quality becomes garbled and hazy and the reason, according to him, is HD compression. Consequently, he advises shooting the event in little or no compression and leaving the signal as raw as possible until just before the transmission. Speaking from experience he observes, “if we start compressing the feed right down from the camera, you might get some strange artifacts. You should start the compression as late as possible.”
Another technical snag that crews shooting in HD mode while acquiring 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound can encounter is a one-frame audio time delay. In an event such as the World Cup, an OB operation could have up to 50 microphones. While encoding to the Dolby E format, there could be a one-frame delay when transmitting back to the studio. To compensate for this delay, Moorhouse suggests delaying the video feed by one frame.

Dave Shields
Head of Engineering
TWI
 
Dave Shields’ main focus is on working with people who are knowledgeable with the sport they are covering. As UK-based TWI’s head of engineering and OB project manager for the Asian Games this year, Shields says hiring production and engineering teams working primarily in covering sports really helps improve the service’s quality. As for the graphics team, he says that it is expected of them to understand the game but not necessarily be an authority. “If there is a yellow card and the director asks the operator to put in a caption, it’s much, much, quicker if the operator recognizes the player on his own.” He recommends using a two-man graphics team to relieve the load: a graphics producer, who would definitely know everything about the sport in question and a graphics operator, who would ideally have worked with the producer before.  The latter may know a lot less about the game, but should know a lot more about the devices they are operating.  Shields also believes that if a camera operator knows about the sport, it is very useful because they can respond directly to the director’s requests. The same is true for replay operators “If you do not understand the game, you cannot do proper replays,” he says.
In developing the coverage plans for the upcoming Asian Games in Qatar, Shields said he is giving extra care to hide the cables and camera positions out of the VIPs’ sight. “We might do that for the English FA Cup final where some royals attend, but in Qatar the issue is given a little more attention.”  Shields said that although he is committed to accommodating those needs, this has created a small problem with the camera coverage. “We won’t put the cameras in a place where it would cause offense, but that has forced us to look for alternate camera positions.”
The project manager is not oblivious to the fact that with the new HD technology, the synchronicity between the video and audio has to be recalibrated. However, he believes that it is the video now that is delayed rather than the Dolby E encoded audio. The main reasons are the vision mixers, the digital video effects and the fiber optic cables. As he observes, “if we look at the OB chain, it’s more often than not that the video is delayed by two or three frames.” Before any live feed begins, Shields tests the synchronicity using Probel’s VALID8 device. He expresses a certain relief with the one-frame delay resulting from encoding to Dolby E because “if we get 5.1 Dolby encoding and decoding, it will mean that we won’t have to put in as much audio delay as we normally put in.”
 
Hamish Greig
Technical Director 
CTV-OB
 
Planning is an absolute must for Hamish Greig, technical director for CTV-OB. He describes it as being essential to successful OB operations.  Preparations for the Ryder Cup 2006, a major golfing event, have been going on since last year and a series of tests is planned to ensure proper functionality and execution.  With around 55 cameras to operate, 35 km of cables and 10 km of audio mounting, this OB operation could become quite cumbersome.  “It’s being aware of what you have to do, making sure you get the equipment and the right people,” Greig says. To make sure everything remains in order, he visits the venues frequently because people in charge there could make changes at any given moment. “If you don’t do that, you might as well base your whole OB operation on another planet,” he says.
Greig is also aware of the one frame delay in HD format when converting audio to 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound.  However, he puts his emphasis on the monitoring system. According to him, TFT monitors are different than CRTs when it comes to their latency period and therefore operators monitoring the feed should be technically knowledgeable about this matter and be aware of the time relationship between their monitors and the audio. He recommends working with TFT flat screen monitors with a full resolution of 1920x1080. “The latency period has gone down, the viewing angles have been corrected and the resolution is better. It’s expensive but it’s the way forward without a doubt.”