This year’s show, which runs Jan. 9-12, should be bigger than the 2023 edition. That show drew 117,000 attendees and 3,200 exhibitors and represented a significant bounce-back from the 45,000 attendees and 2,300 exhibitors that came in 2022, the first show after a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which owns and produces CES and is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2024, is projecting attendance to be 130,000 with more than 3,500 exhibitors.

“We are seeing huge momentum for CES 2024,” says Kinsey Fabrizio, CTA senior vice president of CES and membership.

A Bigger Footprint

As of early December, CTA had already booked 2.4 million net square feet of exhibit space, Fabrizio says, which is over a 10% jump from CES 2023. The CES 2024 exhibition and conference will be spread across the North, Central and West Halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center as well as several Las Vegas hotels, including 1,000 startup companies exhibiting in “Eureka Park” at the Venetian. Over half of Fortune 500 companies will be in attendance, including Amazon, Google, Intel, Qualcomm, LG, Samsung and Sony.

AI’s Big Year

AI is the “hottest topic in the tech industry right now,” says John Kelley, VP and show director, CES. AI will be “pervasive” across the show floor and conference sessions, Kelley says, including a keynote from Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger discussing the critical role that chips and software play in making AI more accessible.

“What’s changed in the last year is generative AI has taken the world by storm, and every company is thinking about how to use it,” says CTA President-CEO Gary Shapiro. “And I know many, many, many companies are going to be talking about AI and introducing and showing products that take advantage of that.”

Another growth area for CES is automotive and mobility, Kelley says, with more than 300 companies exhibiting in an at-capacity West Hall including Honda, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai and Kia. The “C Space” Entertainment and Content conference at the Aria, which features brands like Amazon Ads, Netflix, NBC Universal, Roku and Snap, has also expanded with additional space in the Cosmopolitan hotel this year including new exhibitors Disney, NVIDIA, Paramount and Reddit.

Noteworthy “C Space” panels for broadcasters include “2024: The AI Inflection Point — Entertainment, Internet & Media” featuring Steve Canepa, GM, Global Industries, IBM and Richard Kerris, VP/GM, media and entertainment, NVIDIA; “Future of TV & Streaming: Cable, Internet TV & FAST Strategies,” with executives from Tubi, Disney, PBS and Nielsen; “Monetizing the TV/Streaming, Programming Platforms: The Strategies” with executives from Uber, Amazon Ads, Vizio, Disney and Estrella Media; and “Transforming An All-American Brand: Technology Inside The Weather Channel,” with Tom O’Brien, EVP, Allen Media Group; Nora Zimmett, president, news and original series, Allen Media Group; and Alexandra Wilson, meteorologist, The Weather Company.

‘A Good Way To Kick Off The Year’

With many top network and station group executives at CES, many media technology vendors will also be there, if not to exhibit but to simply meet with their customers and partners. One of them is IP transport provider Zixi, which has been experiencing big growth in its live event business due to the explosion in streaming sports coverage. Zixi won’t have a booth or suite at CES but is still sending a team of six, including members of its executive team as well as technical support personnel. That is double the number of people it sent in 2023.

“The number of companies that is going is starting to grow again,” says John Wastcoat, Zixi SVP business development and marketing. “We’re not going to be able to handle it with just a handful of people this year, so that’s why we’re doubling our team that’s going to go out and meet with everybody. And it’s an easy hop from L.A., so people can make a day trip if they need to … they’ll be in and have three or four meetings and be out, without a significant investment.”

Zixi has two motivations to attend CES that are interconnected.

“One is that our customers and our partners are looking for different ways to monetize their content,” Wastcoat says. “That could be sending it directly to a new smart TV, we do that with Bloomberg around the world. We have conversations with the automobile manufacturers about sending content directly to their screens as well. So, we’ve got that angle.

“And then our customers and partners are still looking at what’s going to be new and interesting for them over the next few years,” he adds. “So, we’re there to talk with them about what we need to do together in 2024, whether that aligns with anything that’s found at CES or not. But it’s a good way to kick off the year.”

While over time the overall focus at CES has shifted away from television sets and Blu-ray players to a range of different consumer technology products, Zixi is still very interested in how its IP transport technology integrates with TV sets to deliver programming to the living room.

“We are seeing a tremendous increase in our business because of the reallocation of sports rights to digital-first platforms that didn’t have infrastructure for it before,” Wastcoat says. “We’re forecasting a million live sports events in 2024 that will use Zixi, and two years ago we probably would have said we’re not very interested in occasional use business like that, we’re looking for the 24/7 constant traffic. But it has become such a volume pay that it has got our attention. So, companies like Amazon Prime [Video] are coming to us and asking us for new features and functionality, like scheduling tools to be able to manage these thousands of events that they’re doing.”

Another broadcast vendor making the trip is robotic camera specialist Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC), which will be exhibiting in the booth of its parent company Nikon. MRMC will once again collaborate with virtual production specialist Vu Studios to deliver the “Unreal Ride.” For CES 2024 the Unreal Ride environment will take place in a virtual jungle, where participants will get to experience the thrill of riding through it in a futuristic Jeep and once again be able to take away a video of themselves travelling through the virtual world.

MRMC’s technology can also be seen elsewhere on the show floor as several companies rent MRMC’s robotic arms just to draw attention to their booths.

“One of them has a light wand on it, and it attracts people because they see it doing funny patterns,” says Paddy Taylor, MRMC head of broadcast.

While MRMC does makes some products that it is actively marketing at CES, such as automatic tracking software and low-cost sliders for PTZ cameras, Taylor doesn’t expect to get many new customers for the company’s high-end specialized robotics at CES.

“It’s more of a positioning exercise,” Taylor says.

One of the messages that MRMC is looking to get across is that Nikon is serious about video, as more broadcasters and other professional videographers start to use DSLR-style cameras for content capture.

“With the Z 9 Nikon probably has the best DSLR-style mirrorless camera for video, and Nikon’s starting to make a really big thing about that,” Taylor says. “And we’re doing some things to move that camera and make it do interesting things.”

The other message that Taylor wants to emphasize is that MRMC expects full-frame cameras like the Sony HDC-F5500, which use the same type of large sensors as digital cinema cameras, will start to be used en masse in broadcast production in 2024 to provide a different look for live sports and news. And MRMC sees an opportunity there for its robotic systems.

“We have a few customers using Sony Venice [digital cinema cameras] with our robotics, but in live current affairs and sports studios,” Taylor says. “And I think with the Olympics and a few other events next year you’ve got more full-frame system cameras coming onto the market. You’re going to see a marry-up, where people are trying to mix different types of full-frame cameras in different workflows for sporting events, festivals, concerts — anything with a creative edge people are trying to strive for.”

New Services For NextGen TV

Broadcasters will also use CES 2024 to promote the continued rollout of the ATSC 3.0, or NextGen TV, digital television standard through demonstrations put on by ATSC and the Pearl TV coalition of station groups.

“There’s going to be a focus on the consumer, both on the services side and device side,” says ATSC President Madeleine Noland. “You’re going to see a proliferation of devices, more set-top boxes, more television models and a few extras.”

NextGen launched in 12 more markets in 2023, including top 10 markets Philadelphia and New York, and CTA says that 10 million NextGen TV sets have been sold in the U.S. to date. With planned launches in Chicago, San Diego and Tucson coming next month, 3.0 signals should be lit up in 75 markets covering 75% of U.S. TV households by the end of January, Noland says. She notes that 3.0 is also making significant progress internationally, with Brazil having chosen 3.0 technology for most of its new mandated digital TV standard and a final decision on the physical, or RF transmission, layer due next year.

Big Four networks ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC are all sponsors of the ATSC booth in Central Hall, which will have 13 different TV models, four different set-tops and one prototype mobile phone. The booth will also feature various demonstrations of high dynamic range (HDR) and enhanced audio content, including an “immersive entertainment room” sponsored by Dolby and major-league sports programming. There will also be a mosaic of various interactive applications enabled by 3.0’s broadband backchannel including “Start Over” capability developed by E.W. Scripps; an interactive music service from Sinclair; and sports statistics, gaming and news applications.

“What you’ll see at CES are almost fully-baked services that will hit the consumer this year, the gaming applications, the sports interactivity, the Start Over application,” says Mark Aitken, president, ONE Media and SVP of advanced technology for Sinclair. “There are a number of broadcasters, beyond us, who are now beyond the planning phase of adding HDR to their programming. Some of these become more and more relevant in respect to sports coming back to local broadcasting.”

Another new capability that ATSC and Pearl TV will be demonstrating is “broadcast IP,” which is a way to deliver a local station’s enhanced 3.0 programming to a 3.0 TV set as a “virtual channel” over broadband. This is a capability that is particularly important given the current spectrum landscape for 3.0, where often there is not enough capacity for every station that wants to offer 3.0 to be supported in a market.

Pearl TV first tested broadcast IP in Phoenix several years ago, says Pearl TV Managing Director Anne Schelle, working with set makers LG, Sony and Samsung, and successfully deployed it last spring for South Florida PBS’s stations in Miami.

The way that broadcast IP works is that a host 3.0 station transmits tiny bits of metadata within its over-the-air stream that can be picked up by a NextGen TV set and point to an internet server carrying the “virtual channel” of another station in the market that isn’t actually broadcasting in 3.0 due to capacity constraints. The virtual channel is displayed like a 3.0 channel in the over-the-air electronic program guide (EPG) on the NextGen TV set. When a viewer clicks on it that station’s 3.0 programming is then streamed to the set via the broadband connection.

However, the broadcast IP “virtual channel” shouldn’t be thought of as simply another FAST or streaming channel because it’s only available through the OTA guide, Schelle says. And it does require an agreement between two stations to enable transmission of the “tiny bits” of data necessary for the guide info.

“Our first goal was to bring up the PBS stations in South Florida to ensure that TVs can see it,” Schelle says. “It’s geofenced, you’re transmitting the URL in your stream, and it goes out and grabs the content from a server and puts it up in the OTA EPG. But you can only get it if you have antenna, you can’t get it otherwise.”

In Las Vegas, Sinclair is working with Gray Television and Fox to enable the broadcast IP transmission of KVVU, Gray’s Fox affiliate in the market, which couldn’t find traditional RF capacity for 3.0 programming.

“They want to offer their Fox station in 3.0 so they can enhance it with the same capabilities as if they were on-air in 3.0, to do 1080p and HDR, or even do 4K,” Schelle says. “They can also do [interactive] applications, the RUN3TV app works in the IP channel as well. They can basically do everything they can do in 3.0.”

The post For Broadcasters And Their Vendors, AI And IP Delivery Are Top Of Mind At CES appeared first on TV News Check.

While most vendors view it as a regional show, they still consider NAB Show New York a valuable opportunity to meet with some of their biggest customers given the concentration of major networks and media companies in the NYC metropolitan area. Some even say the show has taken on increased importance as many large media companies have tightened travel budgets, resulting in only senior-level executives making the trip to Vegas in the spring.

Show organizers expect this year’s NAB Show New York to feel much bigger than last year’s edition, which came after a two-year lapse due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Registrations are currently pacing some 40% over 2022, which drew 9,576 attendees and 245 exhibitors. NAB already had 6,000 registrants and 250 exhibitors signed up by early October, says NAB EVP of Business Operations Chris Brown. At the current pace the show is projecting to be similar to 2019 in size, with 12,000 to 13,000 attendees and 275 to 300 exhibitors.

“The attendance number right now looks insanely good, and we seem to be picking up each week on that same pace,” Brown says.

There are about 50 companies that are first-time exhibitors, and some big brands that are returning to the show after a long hiatus including Canon and Avid. Expanding its floor space dramatically is Fujifilm/Fujinon, which had a small presence in previous years but now has a booth almost as big as it does at NAB Las Vegas, showing its entire product line.

That’s because Fujifilm is the anchor exhibitor in the “Photo+Video Lab,” says Brown, a new initiative that brings a heightened focus on photography and ties “to all those folks who work in a hybrid environment these days, working their way up- and downstream and using all forms of image creation.”

Another specialized exhibit area, Cine+Live, highlights the latest digital cinema cameras and explores how they are being used in television production. Introduced last year in partnership with AbelCine, Cine+Live has sessions and demos with SONY VENICE 2, ARRI Alexa 35 and Panasonic AK-PLV 100 cameras along with additional gear from Mark Roberts Motion Control and Vinten and supporting sponsors Fujinon, LUX, Multidyne and Seagate. There is also an Oct. 26 session on “The Making of the HBO Camera Assessment Test (CAS),” with HBO SVP of Production Operations Stephen Beres and DP Suny Behar discussing the history of their sophisticated camera testing.

Conference highlights include a keynote address Oct. 25 on “What’s Next?” in the media industry from producer/actor Evan Shapiro, who will be joined onstage by NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt, and a new “Broadcast Content Summit” on Oct. 26 with sessions aimed at content creators, programmers, talent and station managers. There are also two days of companion programming from TVNewsCheck, with the “TV2025: Monetizing the Future” conference on Oct. 25 and the “Cybersecurity for Broadcasters Retreat” on Oct. 26.

Brown says that NAB Show New York is able to use its location to touch upon areas like advertising and the financial community in ways that NAB Las Vegas can’t. As for broadcast technology, the show is less focused on product introductions and more on implementation, particularly given the “breadth and depth” of the local audience.

“For the big companies, who know the market and are connected with these customers, the opportunity really in New York is to deepen the conversation, to drill down and meet with parts of the team that they may not see in Las Vegas for certain,” Brown says. “Las Vegas is going to draw up to a certain type of person that the budget will allow. So, New York gives the folks that didn’t have the opportunity to get out there a chance to get in and really dig in.”

New York also historically gives travelers a chance to experience some eye-opening hotel prices, an issue that NAB has been working to address by steadily growing its hotel block. Given broad demand for NYC hotels from business and leisure travelers, NAB doesn’t have that much negotiating leverage, Brown says, and “there are still some rates at some of the hotels that can drive you a little bit crazy.” But the block has moderated prices somewhat.

Most vendors are traveling to NAB Show New York with a relatively small team, which helps to mitigate the high hotel costs. Some even stay in New Jersey and commute in to try to manage their expenses.

Van Duke, director of operations for master control vendor Playbox Neo, had previously stayed in New Jersey but this year is staying in Manhattan at a hotel near the Javits Center. He didn’t find the hotel prices to be too onerous compared to the much bigger overall spend for the spring NAB show.

“Versus Vegas, it’s cheap,” says Duke, who notes that he recently closed a deal with local cable network News 12 for the company’s Playbox NEO suite.

Duke was happy with his experience at the 2022 show and considers it worthwhile to make the return trip, a sentiment echoed by other vendors.

“We have newer things to show, and I have people who are already interested in coming by,” he says. “I also have some big project updates in New York, so I’m really looking forward to getting up there.”

Video transport specialist Net Insight had been a longtime NAB Show NY exhibitor but wasn’t sure what to expect at the 2022 edition given the impacts of COVID-19. But the Swedish company was pleasantly surprised, says Per Johansson, head of sales Americas, media networks for Net Insight, and is returning with a seven-person team this year.

“It was tremendous traction,” Johannson says. “I think everyone was happy to see a full-blown trade show again, especially as some of them didn’t make it to NAB at that time as things were still a little restricted, at least from the larger companies. NAB [Show] New York last year was fantastic.”

Appear, a competitor to Net Insight in the video transport space, only attended last year and didn’t exhibit, which it regretted somewhat. The company, which counts Major League Baseball and NBCUniversal among its customers, has a 10×10 booth and is bringing a team of nine including some senior executives from Norway.

“It was a phenomenal show, we had 20-something meetings, and had a really positive experience,” says Ed McGivern, president and GM, Appear U.S. “We were actually quite upset we didn’t have a booth presence.”

Both Johansson and McGivern say NYC hotels are expensive, but not much more so than other big cities where they visit customers like Los Angeles and Miami. And they note that Vegas isn’t as cheap as it once was. Appear was able to secure sub-$400 rooms, compared to perhaps $250 to $275 for Las Vegas.

“We take that as the cost of doing business, and I don’t think it’s preventive,” McGivern says.

News production, playout and streaming vendor Bitcentral was a first-time exhibitor in 2022. Bitcentral COO Sam Peterson was impressed enough with the traffic, particularly from traditional broadcasters interested in the company’s streaming products, that he immediately signed up for 2023 while he was still on the show floor. The company will have six to seven staffers working a 10-foot by 20-foot booth.

“It makes sense to be there,” Peterson says. “Sure, there are people who come in and travel for the show, but for the most part it is a very localized show. It’s not different from Las Vegas, it’s just a much smaller customer set. But it gives us focused time with some customers we might not be able to get in front of otherwise.”

Satoshi Kanemura, president of For-A Americas, agrees that NAB Show New York draws some attendees who don’t make the trip to NAB in Las Vegas. That includes house of worship/church production customers who, along with local stations, are a key target for the high-resolution LED monitors that For-A is selling in partnership with Spanish firm Alfalite.

“I used to think NAB New York is pretty much just broadcasters in the New Jersey, New York area, but a wide variety of people came over to NAB New York [last year],” Kanemura says. “So, it’s very effective for us.”

IP transmission vendor TVU Networks has been a longtime NAB Show New York exhibitor, but this will be the first year that CEO Paul Shen will be attending the show himself. Shen was impressed by the strong turnout at IBC last month, where he says TVU scanned “significantly more” visitors at its IBC booth than it did at NAB 2023 in April (about 30% more, as well as more than it did at IBC 2019).

TVU had a relatively small booth for IBC, because it wasn’t expecting so much traffic, and “was jammed for three days continuously,” Shen says. While it was probably too late to enlarge TVU’s NAB NY booth, he says the company is “revisiting what we are supposed to do moving forward” for both NAB 2024 and IBC 2024 as customers obviously still place a lot of value on in-person meetings.

“We were surprised,” Shen says, noting that NAB is usually “much bigger.”

Shen has always skipped NAB Show New York because of its close timing with IBC. But even though he was already making the long trip to Broadcast India this week, he still thought it was worth hitting New York just two weeks later based on the volume of customer meetings. He expects AI and cloud services will continue to be hot topics.

“I think people are coming back in full speed, and things are getting interesting,” Shen says. “A lot of people have been thinking about a cloud-based media supply chain, and they say, ‘OK, that’s good, but we’re not ready for that yet.’ This time, people are saying, ‘This is what we need, and we want to deploy it as soon as possible.’ They are very open to new approaches, and there are no longer any questions about whether cloud services work.”

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MRMC’s motion control robotics and Flair software solution will be on display on stand D11 in Hall 12. Visitors to MRMC’s motion control stand will be able to see the high-speed Bolt Jr+ Cinebot in action, showcasing choreographed automated camera movement created with MRMC’s Flair software. The booth will also have an LED Volume featuring a visual display of content captured by the Bolt Cinebot range.

Visitors will also be able to see a visual showcase of the Flair software, with its intuitive UI and key features in operation. Flair is the culmination of more than 50 years of industry experience and has recently been updated with a new Focus Assist tool, which automatically measures the distance to the operator’s target, simplifying and speeding up moves.

Meanwhile, at stand C30 in Hall 11, MRMC will be showcasing its offerings for broadcasters, including its full range of studio heads and arms and remote production solutions such as the automated subject tracking software Polymotion Chat, which helps streamline production costs.

Broadcasters and media creators will learn how to take content capture to new levels with tech that features exceptional speed and precise repeatable moves with smooth motion.

Visitors can also find out how to enhance their PTZ production with the new ARC-360 PTZ camera and the QRS-1 quiet rail system, a cost-effective, modular track designed for studio, event, and mixed production environments.

MRMC is also demonstrating its StudioBot XL robotic arm, which provides high-end automated motion for news and studio settings. “The TRH-1 track system produces smooth movement on a rail-mounted tilt column, while the PTA-2 and AFC-180 illustrate the versatility of MRMC’s robotic head range, offering speed and high payload options,” the company says

All MRMC’s robotics are camera agnostic and can fit seamlessly into existing workflows as well as new technologies including virtual production sets.

Solutions for sports will also be on display, highlighting MRMC’s ability to remotely control the camera through a variety of interfaces including Pan Bars, a Joystick Control Panel or software, or how to use automation to help capture hard-to-reach action for track and field-based sports.

The post IBC: MRMC To Showcase Gold Standard Motion Control Robotics And Broadcast Solutions appeared first on TV News Check.

The popular Mandalorian series on the Disney+ streaming service is perhaps the best-known example of this production technique, but it has been taking off across cinematic, commercial and live production. Several vendors at NAB were showing new LED displays aimed at virtual production, including Sony and Planar, along with associated cameras and robotic control systems.

And the NAB party on Monday night was hosted at the 40,000-square foot virtual production facility just opened in Las Vegas by Vu Studios, a startup that already owns large virtual studios in Tampa and Nashville and is currently building another in Orlando.

Attendees [including this reporter] could get firsthand experience with Vu’s virtual production through the “Unreal Ride” outside Central Hall, where they could sit on a prop motorcycle and simulate riding through a futuristic city. The demonstration included a background rendered in Unreal Engine and displayed on a Vu LED wall from Vu, with a Bolt X Robot camera system from Mark Roberts Motion Control capturing the (simulated) action.

A panel discussion at Devoncroft was also dedicated to the topic, including creatives from Warner Bros. Discovery and Industrial Light & Magic and two virtual studio owners, NEP’s Prysm Stages and Vancouver-based Versatile.

Rob Bredow, SVP and chief creative officer of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), said ILM has done 100 productions that made some use of virtual volumes, often in combination with traditional sets. ILM found that script pages shot in the volumes were produced 30% to 50% faster than those shot in traditional sets. And in the case of The Mandalorian, going all-in on virtual production meant that the time between seasons of the show could be cut by two to three months.

“There are a couple things you can do with that 50% faster, or 30% faster,” Bredow said. “You can use more days or get more high-quality creative, or you can do things that are more spectacular than you could ever do if you had to build it all for real. Or you can do it for less days, and just go faster with it.”

Sony has created a dedicated group that brings together expertise and resources from its camera and display businesses to help facilitate virtual production. In addition to its Venice digital cinema cameras, the company was also demonstrating at NAB its new Crystal LED B-series display that is custom designed for virtual production. The display comes in two pixel pitch sizes and allows virtual studios to build LED “volumes” — the industry term for the three-sided virtual space that often includes a ceiling — to their desired size and resolution. Each panel features an anti-reflection coating, a 170-degree wide viewing angle and a wide color gamut.

Jason Metcalfe, sales support engineer for Sony Imagining Products and Solutions, said virtual production isn’t just for tier-one Hollywood productions. He said Sony has drawn interest from children’s TV shows where the premise is visiting fantastic environments like the moon or the bottom of the ocean.

“High quality at scale, in a rapid production timeline, is really beneficial to some smaller productions,” Metcalfe said.

Find more NAB Show floor coverage here and here.

The post Virtual Production Generates Buzz At NAB Show appeared first on TV News Check.

In over a decade at Grass Valley, Graeme has been at the cutting edge of the industry-wide transition from SDI to IP. He joined in 2011 as principal engineer in the routing group, contributing architecture, hardware and FPGA designs to GV’s Sirius Routing range.  He led the team within GV working on both SDI and IP interfaced multiviewers helping the MV-8 Series become a cornerstone of GV’s live production business and as senior manager he also assumed responsibility for the software-defined Kaleido IP multiviewing platform.

Armed with a master’s degree in electronics and physics from the University of Glasgow, Kelly started his career at Snell & Wilcox as a design engineer and held various design and technical positions with a number of broadcast companies including Gennum, Sigma Designs and Vutrix before arriving at Grass Valley.

He will now be working alongside Paddy Taylor, head of broadcast at MRMC and the broadcast team that develops and markets a range of remote camera solutions designed from studios to live sports productions. These include, but are not limited to, PTZs and robotic pods, real-time pan bar controls and automated player tracking software to the Polymotion Chat automated camera tracking solution.

The post MRMC Recruits Graeme Kelly As Head Of Broadcast Products appeared first on TV News Check.

4K lenses deliver sharpness. Internet protocol-based cameras helped prove the bandwidth exists for broadcasters to transmit video over IP. Control of camera movement has both quieted and improved to provide smoother starts and stops.

And the robotics that move the cameras have become increasingly sophisticated, allowing better face and object tracking as well as features like new movement patterns and repeatability. Vendors say future products will feature improved automation.

“COVID-19 changed our lives. Regardless of the industry, it changed the way we work,” says Eisuke “Ace” Sakai, B2B business manager for Sony Electronics.

Shotoku Managing Director James Eddershaw says people have found methods such as software panels to overcome the “real headache” of operating systems remotely from home offices.

Grass Valley’s LDX 100 camera series offers native IP connectivity, allowing the camera to be integrated directly into IP infrastructures for both local and remote workflows.

And sports are one area where the use of camera robotics have really expanded, says Bruce Takasaki, product manager for Camera Motion Systems at Ross Video. Traditionally, he says, robotics in sports have been largely limited to remote cameras where a person wouldn’t be stationed, such as by a goal post or a net in hockey. COVID social distancing requirements, however, have meant fewer people in sporting facilities.

“We started seeing interest in robotics for the main cameras, not just the extra cameras,” Takasaki says.

Thomas Fletcher, director of marketing for Fujifilm, says the pandemic has led to the company delivering bigger lenses for pan and tilt cameras.

He also says broadcasters looking to futureproof their lens purchases are often opting for 4K lenses over HD lenses. The 4K lenses use “better pieces of glass” and improved coatings to achieve higher resolution and provide the ability to “make a nice HDR image,” he says.

“Some people are not buying the lenses first and foremost because of the 4K resolution, the sharper lens. They’re buying it because it’s making a more dynamic picture as HDR is on the horizon,” Fletcher says.

Looking to the future, he says, broadcasters want their lenses to be able to focus in real time, avoiding the lag of the lens sending a signal to the camera operator.

“Autofocus is the next thing they’re looking for,” Fletcher says. And that technology, he says, is “just getting faster, more reliable and more functional.”

IP-Based Cameras Gain Currency

COVID has “changed the whole discussion” around IP-based cameras, says Ronny van Geel, director of product management at Grass Valley. “At first, it was: ‘It will never happen.’ Then it was: ‘There will never be enough bandwidth to enable this.’ What the pandemic has done is it has proven to everybody who was a skeptic that the bandwidth is there, and this can work.”

In short, he says, the conversation has shifted from why a broadcaster might want an IP-based camera to how the broadcaster can use the technology and what lessons have been learned in the field to date.

“Now there are many more unmanned camera positions … that are now controlled remotely by pan-tilt robotics,” van Geel says.

The Associated Press covered the first 2020 Presidential debate in Ohio from above with a remotely-controlled Telemetrics DSLR camera rig.

Grass Valley’s LDX 100 camera platform can send a “mind-blowing” amount of signals to the field and pick up the streams it needs, van Geel says. That camera was introduced last year, and later this year, says Bart Van Dijk, product manager at Grass Valley, a compact version of the LDX 100 will go on the market.

Drew Buttress, B2B senior product manager for Sony Electronics, says one of Sony’s recent firmware releases for its high-end PTZ cameras can slow the motor down to a fraction of a degree per second.

“You as viewer wouldn’t see the start of the zoom, but you’d noticed we’re creeping in or out from person’s face,” Buttress says.

In addition to smooth and controlled movements, broadcasters also want the ability to repeat a shot, he says. Sony offers a pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) trace capability that can save up to three minutes of a live move, and a few broadcasters are using that solution, he says.

Select Sony PTZ cameras support the Free-D protocol allowing productions to easily incorporate VR/AR into their live content, such as expanded sets or scenery, live animations, e-sports and graphic overlays.

Jim Jensen, senior business development manager for Panasonic System Communications Company of North America, says the PTZ cameras now on the market are far more advanced than those of years past. New models are capable of streaming and making remote production operations easier, he says.

Last year, Panasonic introduced its AW-UE100 PTZ camera. Its direct drive motor makes it “extremely quiet and quick,” Jensen says. “Because of the PTZ success, there’s been a higher demand for more production value, and that’s where the robotics come in.”

Robotic Precision

Paddy Taylor, head of broadcast for Mark Roberts Motion Control, says one of the draws for robotics is their precision. “Robotics will always go back to the exact same position, reliably. Humans will get it pretty close, but not exactly,” Taylor says.

ABC Arizona uses one of MRMC’s robotic arms systems to create reliable signature moves for its broadcasts, he says.

MRMC’s Polymotion Chat is an automated subject tracking solution that can control up to six camera positions. Here it’s seen in a studio with a broadcast camera and a PTZ camera.

Another solution, Polymotion Chat, is an automated tracking system that tracks 18 pivot points of the talent, Taylor says. As such, it takes facial tracking to the next level, he says.

“Polymotion Chat found an audience due to COVID,” he says. “Suddenly, engineering managers that wouldn’t consider it are now embracing it.” It is “providing the heavy lifting” to help broadcasters do more with less, he says.

Minimizing In-Studio Personnel

Robotics can help minimize the number of people needed in the studio.

One major sports broadcaster is using equipment like panbar systems to keep camera operators out of the studio, Takasaki says.

“They just wanted to have the natural feel their operators were used to,” he says. “It’s a situation where they weren’t using robotics before.”

And software is what drives the robotics. “We are focused on adding more smarts to our robots so they can do things more effectively with less interaction,” Takasaki says.

Ross Video’s MotionDirector software, introduced for the Furio dolly in 2019, can now control CamBot XY pedestal movements, Takasaki says. Now, the CamBots can do key-framed moves on the floor along curved paths around the studio, and movements can be replayed.

One of the fundamental needs of a robotic system is the ability to have freedom of movement, Shotoku’s Eddershaw says, and the easier that is, the better. Once, it was enough just to move from point a to point b in a straight line. Now, it’s possible to send a robotic pedestal “in a more interesting pattern” with smoothed-out motion, he says.

Shotoku’s Sequence allows operators to complete complex curve motions by seamlessly moving through a series of key frames.

“Broadcasters want to be able to produce more interesting shots, and that almost always involves movement,” Eddershaw says.

During the second quarter, Shotoku plans to release Orbit Mode, which will allow a robotic pedestal to move in an arc, either clockwise or counterclockwise, he says.

Shotoku has already launched its AutoFrame product, which can identify faces, lock onto the face and smoothly pan to keep framing the presenter as the talent moves, he says. “Face tracking is a big thing,” he says. “It will just get bigger and bigger with AutoFrame,” which integrates into the TR-XT Control System.

Part of what Telemetrics is working on is visual and object tracking, says Michael Cuomo, the company’s vice president. In short, he says, the company is working to bring more AI into the robotics’ control system. The company is also working to bring robotic cameras into types of programs where they haven’t historically been used, such as non-scripted shows, Cuomo says.

“The goal is to have multiple cameras be operated by one person in a non-scripted environment,” Cuomo says. “We need to convince customers that it’s possible. We’re starting to get to that point.”

In the last six months, he says, customers have begun to accept the technology and indicate a willingness to try it. Even if all cameras on a program can’t be operated by a single person, it’s possible to see a reduction in operating costs by moving to robotics, he says.

IP equipment has been a key part of making the shift to remote operations possible, says Neil Gardner, Vinten product manager.

This set from Better Together on TBN uses two Panasonic AW-UE150 4K 60p integrated pan/tilt/zoom cameras.

The last decade has seen a lot of progress toward IP equipment, Gardner says, and the last year has seen a major change in specifications that allow full remote access into studio equipment like cameras and the robotics that move them.

Challenges include latency concerns, video feed back into the home environment and providing remote equipment interfaces that still have the same feel that people are used to from the control room, he says.

Machine Learning, Voice Control

The future for cameras and robotics, Gardner says, is “all about further automation through an understanding of the video that’s being played by the system.”

One area that could see some technological advances is voice control of robotics, which would make it possible for a non-specialist to make adjustments, he says. Current challenges are the need to understand different phrasings for commands and colloquialisms, he says.

Machine learning with regard to studio robotics is also a hot R&D topic, he says. Currently, it’s not possible to fully automate certain systems because manual operators pick up many cues that robotics aren’t programmed for, he says.

“A camera operator tracking someone walking will from their body language get a cue as to when they’re going to change direction or stop walking,” Gardner says. “The control system needs to be able to do that.”

The challenge? Making it feel natural, he says. “Until those problems are solved, you can’t expect to see an automated control system start to replace what a manual operator does.”

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The robotic pedestals that move cameras around studios are delivering ever smoother movements and creative shots. They’re interacting with augmented and virtual reality elements. And they’re making it possible to remotely operate the cameras from the next room — or even across the continent.

These robotic bases for cameras, whether on pedestals, floor tracks or ceiling tracks, have become must-haves not just because they offer a way to get different types of shots, but also for operational efficiency in broadcast studios. The units are increasingly integrating into studio systems, while evolving improvements in the technology that the units use for activities like navigation and collision avoidance mean the systems are becoming easier to operate.

A single person can control multiple cameras simultaneously. Sky News Australia, for example, is directing the robotic bases for cameras for multiple studios around the continent from its main control room in Sydney. At the same time, vendors say software improvements and autonomy for these systems are in the works.

Using robotics to maneuver cameras in a newsroom frees up talented camera people to work in the field “where their skills are really needed,” says James Eddershaw, CEO Shotoku USA.

Adding Dynamism

At their most basic, the robotic systems can pan and tilt, zoom and focus. The next stage is moving the camera up and down, while a fully robotic pedestal moves around the floor on X- and Y-axes. Cameras can also be mounted on floor or ceiling rails to provide a different style of camera movement in the studio.

SmartPed is Shotoku’s fully robotic, three-wheel smooth-steer XY pedestal. (Source: Shotoku)

Bruce Takasaki, marketing product manager for camera motion systems at Ross Video, says different motions “create a more dynamic look” that can be appealing to viewers. The quicker movements can supply an up-tempo feel, while a slower movement may be almost unnoticeable, he adds. Camera movement is, he says, a great way to get away from talking head segments that might be otherwise visually boring.

“Moving the camera around while people are talking provides an element of dynamism that’s not there with fixed cameras,” Takasaki says.

And broadcasters seeking to present fresh content to viewers are increasingly adding augmented reality and virtual reality elements to their segments.

“Those kinds of systems require very precise information fed to them about where the real camera is,” Eddershaw says. “If you don’t get those two things lined up, it’s not convincing.”

And when it comes to robotic pedestals moving around a studio, any number of factors can make a shot look less than stellar.

According to Michael Cuomo, VP and head of the engineering group at Telemetrics, sometimes studio floors are not smooth, or are soft.

“That’s kind of our biggest headache,” he says. A recent trend has been the use of luxury vinyl tile with foam backing, Cuomo says. “It’s nice for people to walk on, but not so good for the robotics.”

Robotics are heavy because they are typically moving multiple pieces of equipment, including the pedestal, camera head, lens, prompter and viewfinder, among other elements. “If the floor is soft, the pedestals sink into the floor. It’s kind of like driving out of a ditch,” Cuomo says

The result can be shaky video footage.

On the other hand, Cuomo says, a smooth and level concrete floor is “perfect” for moving robotic pedestals.

And as the pedestal moves around the studio, it needs to know where it is and where it’s going.

Smart Navigation

At this year’s NAB Show, Shotoku plans to show the smart absolute navigation interface (ANI). A small camera is placed on the pedestal and is aimed at the ceiling to navigate by a constellation of dots on the ceiling in the studio. Eddershaw calls it a modern-day version of navigating by the stars.

“It knows the patterns. It is able to say, ‘I see these stars, I must be in this position,’” Eddershaw says.

Shotoku’s TR-XT control system. (Source: Shotoku)

But to get to that position safely, the robotic pedestals need to rely on collision avoidance technologies.

Shotoku’s SmartPed has built in “detectives” that sense the objects in the environment two to three feet away. “It will detect things you didn’t know were there,” Eddershaw says. “Real-time proximity detection prevents it from rolling into that.”

How the rovers maneuver around the studio is a consideration. Telemetrics, for example, offers omnidirectional rovers. “They can turn from a stop without moving or shifting,” Cuomo says.

Floor and ceiling rail setups pose slightly different safety and operations concerns than rovers do.

As Takasaki puts it, concerns about rails on the floor tend to be about how the rails break up the space, make it difficult to walk across safely and reduce flexibility of the cameras as they can’t be reconfigured on a daily basis. Rails can be integrated into the floor as a means of addressing the safety factor, he says. Ceiling rails also eliminate some of the safety worry but open up a completely different one: ensuring the system is securely installed and that no equipment will crash to the floor.

Clients who are willing to commit to rails and design their studio around a circular rail configuration can achieve beautiful shots “without any effort at all,” Takasaki says. If multiple cameras are needed, concentric rails can be installed to accommodate the extra cameras.

Takasaki singled out BBC as a pioneer for purchasing Furio systems from Ross to “create a whole new look” back in 2012.

Panasonic’s PRO PTZ cameras allow for a variety of placements. Upright or hanging upside-down. Placed on a table, or mounted to a tripod, hung from the ceiling or a truss, mounted to a pole, or installed on a wall, the low-profile design of the cameras keeps installation options versatile. The cameras have a 1/4-20 tripod thread mount, come with an easy release ceiling mount bracket, and a drop protection wire harness for added installation safety and security.

Remote Operation

Over the years, the technologies behind robotic camera pedestals have evolved so they are increasingly easier to operate remotely. One such advance is around IP technology.

“Everything we do is IP-based,” says Assaff Rawner, managing director of Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC), a Nikon company. “The control room could be next door or several miles away.”

For Sky News Australia, that control room is actually many miles away — across the continent, in some cases.

In 4Q 2019, Vinten announced that its IP-based FH-145 robotic camera heads, combined with other equipment like Vinten Quattro pedestals, was going to help Sky News reduce its operational costs through the use of centralized IP-based control for remote broadcasts.

Ginny Grove, Vinten’s marketing manager for prompting and robotics, says Sky News Australia wanted to be able to operate different studios from different galleries for resource reasons.

“They wanted to be able to have a control room in Sydney and be able to operate those robotic heads from there. In terms of resourcing, that makes their lives easier, to source one control room and not five or six or seven around the country,” Grove says.

With Panasonic’s PRO PTZ cameras, a station can use an IP browser, such as Chrome or Safari, to fully control the PTZ operations from the control room or even from a remote location. IP control with image monitoring via PC, Mac and mobile terminals simplifies the management of cameras around a station, or across a worldwide enterprise network. IP video monitoring and remote camera control can also be performed from mobile devices such as an iPhone, iPad or an Android device.

In the end, Grove says, many companies are seeking a way to “best use technology” to remove the need to shuffle people around different locations. “From a cost perspective it makes sense. From an employee perspective, it makes sense.”

At the same time, she says, broadcasters are often interested in such equipment for redundancy purposes.

“They want to control that operation in the next city if they have an issue, as a backup,” Grove says. “If there’s a resource issue, they can provide support.”

As to the future of robotic pedestals for cameras, Takasaki believes that “mechanically there are only so many things you need to do and solve.” The future value, he says, will come from the ability to address efficiency, quality and reliability. “That is more about the software layer,” he says.

MRMC’s Rawner believes the robotics will become fully autonomous. “It’s happening already,” he says, noting it’s likely they will reach full autonomy in the next couple of years.

“It isn’t just a case of being autonomous, but it’s also got to look good on screen,” Rawner says. “It’s not good having something that just follows a presenter around. It’s got to look natural and look like you’ve added a cameraman to the studio, rather than something that looks like a robot. That’s the key.”

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