Studios in 2010

A review of studios sector UK 2010 - Broadcast 

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/production-feature/studios-in-2010-timeline/5021529.article

Elstree Studios

Elstree Studios managing director Roger Morris blames the dip in TV work on a “lack of decision-making and musical chairs” at the top of broadcasters including ITV and Channel 5.

Meanwhile, the studio also saw Big Brother bow out after its 11th series, although its dormant set remains in place at the Hertfordshire lot, and it had to turn away the sixth series of ITV1’s Dancing On Ice because of a lack of a capacity caused by film shoots for The King’s Speech and Sherlock Holmes 2.

“We’ve looked to keep an even balance of film and TV work alongside corporate and advertising shoots,” says Morris.

“While TV comprises 50% of our business, it’s important to keep that spread so that we’re not overly reliant on one sector.”

Morris is planning to double the studio space at Elstree to avoid having to turn away large-scale shows in future. “We want to build more stages and we’re discussing the optimum size of construction with a view to putting the plan into action in the next 12 months,” he says.

BBC Studios

2010 has been the best year at BBC Studios and Post Production (S&PP) for a decade, claims chief executive Mark Thomas.

He says the business has a 60:40 BBC to indie work ratio and is on target to achieve a 50:50 balance next year.

“We’ve raised our game,” he explains. “We’ve proved we’re willing to innovate and introduce new workflows to support productions through this diffi cult business climate, where historically we’ve operated more like a factory.”

He cites BBC S&PP’s deal with Endemol to take over the management of its Bristol studio and postproduction services for Deal Or No Deal, which was inked in October, as the first of a series of new initiatives.

“There will be a number of other projects like that, which have yet to be finalised,” says Thomas.

Despite a strike that threatened to disrupt shooting, Thomas is also pleased that the BBC’s Elstree Studios managed to secure EastEnders for another five years, transforming production with HD and tapeless resources in the process.

Pinewood Shepperton Studios

Pinewood Shepperton Studios, the UK’s largest complex, blames a reduction in spend from broadcasters for a 6% fall in its TV revenues over the first half of the year

But group director for corporate affairs Andrew Smith points out that the Buckinghamshire studio is increasingly attracting business from a wider range of industries.

“We have enormous flexibility with regard to our film sound stages and TV facilities, which few other studios can match,” he says.

“They can be used interchangeably according to demand and are not just for film and TV producers but for other creative industries.”

Video games developer Ubisoft Entertainment, for example, used Pinewood’s audio post-production facilities. “There’s a growing demand for the quality of sound for games to be the equivalent of film,” says Smith.

That said, Pinewood hosted large TV productions Ant And Dec’s Push The Button and The Whole 19 Yards, while Shepperton is preparing for Dancing On Ice, which is being refreshed as it moves to its new home.

The ITV production will shoot in high definition (HD) for the first time and is building two new ice rinks - a training rink and studio rink - and a set that ITV promises will be “bigger and bolder”.

With arena-style shows such as Dancing On Ice credited with reviving TV ratings, the studio that has arguably benefi ted the most from their recommission has been Wembley’s Fountain Studios, home to Britain’s Got Talent, Over The Rainbow, The Cube and, of course, The X Factor.

“We’ve had one of our best years ever,” says managing director Mariana Spater. “The shows are getting bigger but we are flexible to client needs and believe we have a reputation for delivering shows with impact.”

Fountain has completed the final stages of a three-year comprehensive HD revamp, with its second gallery now converted to the format.

The london Studios

The year got off to a slow start at The London Studios (TLS) but bookings have built up over 2010.

According Kathy Schulz, director of studio services and client liaison: “There’s been a steady stream of bookings, with revenues up year on year mainly because of an increase in volume.”

TLS can count on the regular support of BBC factual shows QI and Have I Got News For You but the studio has also seen Lorraine and Loose Women stripped live on weekdays and has entertained Piers Morgan’s Life Stories and PopStar To OperaStar.

“We have a pretty full order book for Q1 2011,” says Schulz.

Key events for studios in the UK throughout 2010.

March

• Peel Media appoints BBC S&PP’s Andy Waters as head of studios for MediaCityUK
• ITV’s plan to sell its Bristol studios to Verve Properties for £5m collapses

April

• Pinewood Studios appeals to South Buckinghamshire District Council after it rejects the studio’s planning permission for its live/work development, Project Pinewood

June

• IMG Sports Media builds a £5m studio in Chiswick to produce and distribute Premier League football content for international broadcasters

July

• ITV announces £5m overhaul of its Kirkstall Road studios in Leeds. The year-long ‘Project Farm’ will see the main ITV Yorkshire building become a file-based HD production centre, with six studios, and the new home of Emmerdale

August

• TLS upgrades two studios to HD (three out of a total of six) and adds six HD Symphony Nitris onlines for post
• Bectu calls off a second strike over payments for EastEnders staff

September

• BBC S&PP makes studio six at TVC the UK’s first 1080p50-capable studio
• Fremantle Media’s Merton Studios, home to The Bill since 1983, is sold to Panther Securities for £4.75m

October

• BBC S&PP strikes deal with Endemol to take over studio and post-production services for Deal Or No Deal and rental lease of its Bristol studio

November

• SIS signs 10-year contract to manage the studios and post-production resources at MediaCityUK
• Waterloo Film Studios’ four-stage white/green screen complex opens in central London

Hotcam: providing the HD factor

Broadcast

Three major shows took the leap into high-definition and tapeless production this year: EastEnders, Deal Or No Deal and The X Factor.
http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/production-feature/hotcam-providing-the-hd-factor/5021530.article

The current series of Talkback Thames blockbuster The X Factor is the first to make the move and transmit in HD. The project is built around a major new equipment package supplied by broadcast rental and crewing company HotCam, which facilitates the kit and crewing for all the UK auditions, boot camps and judges’ worldwide location shoots, all of which were previously shot on DigiBeta.

With ITV’s requirement that the show transition to HD, and given that these auditions take place in some of the largest venues in the country, HotCam devised a flyaway package centred on 10 Sony XDCam camcorders with additional EX3 kits, Evertz multiviewers and fibre cabling, which permits the transport of signals over longer distances than traditional copper.

“At certain venues in London you can’t park a truck or leave one overnight so you need to roll in and roll out the equipment,” says HotCam managing director Trevor Hotz.

“We can have a 10 camera shoot rigged in three hours.”

Economic burdens

CSI : The business case for FTA HD in Europe, where channel numbers lag significantly 

behind payTV platforms http://www.csimagazine.com/csi/Economic-burdens.php

Digital Studio

A look at the technical implications for broadcasters wanting to offer stereoscopic 3D content.

http://www.digitalproductionme.com/article-3169-how-to-deliver-3d-content/

What does AR mean to broadcast?

CSI 

Perceived mainly as a gimmick, augmented reality (AR) is slowly evolving in the minds of consumers and developers thanks to technological advances and the proliferation of smartphones and tablets. Second generation image recognition and the emergence of new apps should lead to new business models and broader deployments.

http://www.csimagazine.com/csi/search.php

What's the future of the TV Walled Garden?

CSI

As a number of new entities enter the TV business frame thanks to the internet, payTV operators and service providers face a delicate balancing act on the amount of open OTT content they allow into their portals. http://www.csimagazine.com/csi/TV-Walled-Garden.php

Live broadcast 3D safari

TVB Europe

Adrian Pennington reports on a unique attempt to broadcast a safari, live, in stereo 3D – and over the internet – from South Africa.
http://www.tvbeurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/TVBE-2010-09.pdf

http://www.tvbeurope.com/live-broadcast-3d-safari/

Daily live 3D broadcasts from on safari are underway featuring a unique set of production technologies. The content is being distributed via the internet and being offered as the WildEarth 3D channel to IPTV platforms.

Viewers are treated to live safaris from Djuma in the Sabi Sands game reserve, part of the Kruger National Park, in the company of a single presenter/expert ranger from the back of a Land Rover. 2D transmissions have been broadcast since 2007 but on August 15 the feed went live in stereo 3D.

“We are providing an immersive experience in nature,” explains Graham Wallington CEO and co-founder of WildEarth.TV. “Unlike National Geographic, Animal Planet or other wildlife related broadcasters who are in the business of creating documentaries, our focus is on faithfully recreating a real life experience in nature."

“We are creating a sense of telepresence by transmitting live and giving people the feeling of what it is like to be on safari. There is no scripted narrative, no staged events or cutaways to recorded footage of lion kills. This is safari as it happens.”

The introduction of 3D stereo promises to enhance the simulation of actual experience even further.

“There are several things about the way we film already which lends itself to 3D,” explains Wallington. “We always shoot with one camera POV, partly because there is no room for more than one camera-op. We shoot from the viewpoint of guests sitting on a game drive vehicle looking forward over the presenter’s shoulder with the front of the Land Rover then the road ahead in view with bush left and right.

“This gives a natural sense of perspective with foreground and background and the shot is always moving forward. Even if nothing is happening in terms of wildlife, the shot is always of interest.”

This straightforward immersive experience, which features limited cutting between camera angles, attracts more than half of viewers to the 2D transmissions to watch an entire three hour safari in one sitting, he claims.

“With this type of content there’s no need to follow a storyline, you can enter or leave at any point. No cutting allows for a more immersive experience and longer viewing sessions. Viewers don’t feel the urge to channel hop if they’re not getting excited, because they feel like they are here with us. It’s a very relaxing sensation.”

Wallington previously set up AfriCam in 1998 which deployed webcams on various wildlife spectacles around the world to transmit live internet feeds of wildlife.

He adds, “We are not in the business of TV production but the business of letting people escape their daily lives to other parts of the world.”

Viewers can interact by sending emails, chatting or Tweeting questions to the director who can choose to follow them up by asking the presenter to respond or by altering the direction of the camera.

For acquisition the challenge was to deliver a 3D image taking in a large focal range from the presenter in the foreground 1.2 metres away with animal subjects typically up to 25m further.

A second issue was trying to calculate stereo convergence automatically for an unbroken live POV shot lasting three hours. The equipment also needed to survive dust, cold, rain and the vibrations of a 4-wheel drive vehicle where there would be no time to stop and repair damage.

Wallington turned to Johannesburg-based 3D specialists 3D Rigs to devise a solution using miniature cameras that would better withstand the rigours of daily safari.

“For most 3D productions you would use an operator to pull the convergence while shooting but it is not feasible in this case because of the space on the vehicle and the unrehearsed nature of what we are filming,” explains Russ Bowden, 3D Rigs owner and chief designer. “As the camera’s focus or zoom is adjusted we needed software which would calculate the correct interaxial and convergence parameters of the lenses and then move them in real time.”

Two Sony HD block cameras have been fitted to a customised 3D Rigs’ Pro Ultra mirror rig which is described as a ‘working prototype’. The block cameras have a built in zoom lens ranging 5.1mm to 55mm, or up to 600mm with a digital zoom applied.

“These block cameras were the only ones we could find that our programmers could write new software for that would open control of the camera and lens,” says Bowden. “The biggest challenge was achieving control over lenses for close up work. We may want to shoot a dung beetle on a 600mm focal length from three metres away.”

“We believe this is the only rig on the market which is computer controlled in this way,” he claims.

Audio is taken from stereo mics positioned either side of the cameraman which, when a viewer wears headphones, is intended to replicate the directional sound you would hear from the vehicle. “This isn’t 5.1 surround which simulates 3D audio – this is 3D audio,” says Wallington.

Christmas party
Night shoots will also be tried using Infra-Red photography, something that he freely admits could be a disaster.

“We don’t know what it will look like, and we’re not going to schedule it, but drop it into the broadcast as an experiment,” he says. “We’ll use two LED Infra Red panels on either side of the cameras in order to create as flat a light as possible, with no key light. It could be amazing or shockingly bad. But imagine in complete darkness the viewer could enter into a herd of grazing elephant with all the sounds of the African night. It could be a startling experience.”

Distribution is equally innovative. The dual feeds are separately encoded left and right eye into H.264 1080i, multiplexed together and sent by microwave link from the vehicle to a reception tower in the centre of the park then by fibreoptic cable to WildEarth’s final control gallery in Djuma. There the signal is decoded back to two 1080i feeds and routed side by side into a single 1920 x 1080 HD frame at 25fps.

This signal is ingested into a Content Delivery Network (CDN) and sent as H.264 video over IP to the WildEarth cloud-based Master Control where the feed is archived and played out at 6Mbps to IPTV operators around the world.
“The idea is to feature six hours of live content every day with reruns of those safari’s throughout the rest of the schedule. The goal is to have 24 hours a day of live content,” he says.

“The cost of delivery via an IP network is far cheaper than delivery by satellite,” he continues. “It permits small companies like ourselves to gain a global coverage whereas previously this would have been prohibitively expensive. It’s just as cost-effective for us to deliver to Buenos Aires as Paris. That gives us a strong competitive advantage and a substantial flexibility over distribution. We see ourselves as an internet production company coming into traditional TV rather than traditional TV trying to enter the internet.

“We are tiny compared to the traditional behemoth production companies but we are able to bring a live channel to market for the amount they would spend on a Christmas party.”

The WildEarth 3D feed will also be streamed live to its own website (www.wildearth.tv). Achieving that meant building a bespoke 3D video player. Although YouTube has a thriving 3D area, with content including WildEarth’s available to view in up to sixteen formats (green/magenta, parallel, row interleave, mirror split etc), Google’s player is not commercially available.

WildEarth’s 3D player will allow viewers to choose how they wish to view including analgyph red/cyan and amber/blue. Internet channel LiveStation.com will also stream a 1Mbps version of the 3D channel.

There’s even an iPhone app launching next month which, with the aid of Zeiss Cinemizer specs, will allow the user to watch a side by side (frame compliant) stereo version.

“Viewers can put the glasses on when on a train riding to work and be plugged straight into a safari … live,” suggests Wallington.