The capture of depth information in scenes is an increasingly rich field of development but it has so far remained on the fringes of TV production because of the need to either use physical markers on objects or to render the output in post. Start-up company Zinemath aims to change that with a technology called zLense it claims to be the first real-time 3D depth mapping tool for broadcast.
As broadcasters moved from analog to digital, new doors opened to automating processes—and important to the front office—the possibility of lowering staff costs. Above, Ross Overdrive can enable live production and playout to be managed with a minimal staff.
When most people think of broadcast video monitors, they think of a very expensive, precision television display used to view and judge the quality of broadcast images. Engineers — often nicknamed “Golden Eyes” — assess the TV signal based on years of skill, knowledge and human intuition.
Such video monitors still exist, especially in the network and cinema production environment. However, in a world with an exploding number of broadcast channels, single monitors are no longer adequate in many control rooms to check the quality of broadcast signals.
You are sitting there quietly watching your favorite show on TV when all of a sudden the commercial comes on – BAM, WAM, BUY, BUY… screams at you. The purpose of the commercial is to grab your attention in the few seconds of the spot. The recording engineers in the commercials production agency will turn up the sound levels into the red for maximum impact and effect to shake you out of your slumbers. However the effect can be to intensely annoy the viewer who reaches for the channel change, or worse calls the TV company to complain.
In many cities, radio stations have become the new TV stations. Radio stations gain visibility (literally), the station talent gains additional exposure and radio becomes more of a two-way experience for listeners/viewers. In addition, co-owned TV stations often do break-in interview segments with their partner radio stations as a form of cross promotion. The news casters and DJs banter for a couple of minutes resulting in good publicity for both stations.
Advances in processing power and high-performance graphics cards are affording broadcasters more possibilities than ever to devise stunning virtual sets and on-air graphics, but it is the power of data which is driving most innovation. Nowhere is this more evident than in live sports. Ratings sky rocket during major league finals or international sporting extravaganzas, increasing viewer loyalty. The graphic look of the production has become a major factor in the station’s identity and brand and sports graphics a vital component of the televised coverage.
Teleprompters go back to the earliest days of television. The idea came from an actor named Fred Barton Jr. who conceived the teleprompter as a means of helping television performers who had to memorize long dramatic scripts in a short amount of time.
With the FCC’s upcoming auctions of broadcast spectrum, wireless microphones not only face technology challenges, but political ones as well over the next few years.
