TV on Wheels

First Edition

First, what is a remote truck... 1
Some Definitions... 1
Remotes come in all sizes... 4
S3s and up... 4
EFP/ENG Shoots... 4
Lots of Monitors... 7
What’s in a name?... 8
The Insider’s view... 8
Isn’t Everybody a Cameraman?... 8
On the Road... 10
Working as a System and a Team.. 10

Chapter 2 – From concept to air.. 13

Planning.. 13
An Idea into Action: Planning and Communications Are the Keys to Success... 13
The Producer and Director: Communicating a Vision.. 14
Steps Required for a Remote Production.. 14
The Survey..17
Gathering Onsite Information.. 17
Placing Talent and Equipment.. 17
Incidentals..19
Power..20
Planning and Power Philosophies.. 20
Generators..20

The Backhaul..22

Selecting the Path.. 22
Microwave..23
Satellite..24
Landlines..25
ATM Video Transmission.. 25
Don’t Do This at Home!.. 25
Logistics.. 26
Firming up the Plan.. 26
The Crew.. 29
The Budget.. 29
The Production Book.. 30
Finalizing Plans.. 30
Starting with Spreadsheets.. 30

Park and Power.. 33

You Have to Get There First.. 33
Power 33

Crew Call.. 37

A Diversity of Skills.. 37
Early Production.. 38

Cables Everywhere.. 40

Truck I/O.. 40
Fiber Transmission.. 41

Wireless.. 44

Diverse Sources.. 44
Wireless Mics.. 45

Engineering Setup.. 48

Serving the Client.. 48
Configuring the Truck.. 49
The Matrix.. 49
Routers.. 50
The Fax.. 51

Ancillary Activity.. 53

Lights.. 53
Cameras (and sound).. 55
Action.. 56

Ready or Not.. 57

Final Production Preparations.. 57
Battling the Elements.. 59
Steady as She Goes.. 60

Chapter 3 – Trucks and trailers.. 63

Your Grandparents’ Remote Truck.. 63
Television Hits the Road.. 63
Equipment Double Duty.. 66

Your Parents Truck.. 68

Trucks Grow Up.. 68

Todays Truck.. 72

One Size Does not Fit All.. 72
Close Relatives.. 77

Building the Truck. 81

New Truck Considerations.. 81
Why a Truck.. 82
What do we need to put in the truck.. 82
How big?.. 83
How much?.. 83
Repeat steps 1 through 4.. 83
Determining the truck-building food chain.. 84
Turnkey Approach.. 84
Non-Turnkey Approach.. 84
Building the box or trailer.. 85
Turning that box or trailer into a production facility.. 85
Cable Size and Weight.. 86
Many Layers of Signals.. 87
Chapter 4 – Cameras.. 89

Early Television Cameras.. 89

Coaxing Television Out of the Studio.. 89
Nothing About These was Portable.. 92

Cameras Grow Up.. 93

Cameras get Reasonable.. 93
The Prism.. 94
Smaller – Both the Camera and its Tether.. 95
Triax.. 96

Cameras Become Sophisticated. 100

Cameras and Computers. 100
Camera Setup Files. 100
Going Digital. 101
The CCD Imager. 102
Digital Signal Processing. 103
Optics. 105
Basic Camera Optics. 105

Cameras Everywhere.. 106

Lots of Platforms . 106
Giving the Camera Legs. 109

Chapter 5 – Storage.113

The First VTRs. 113
BT (Before Tape). 113
Engineering Video Recording. 113
The First Generation. 114
Servo Systems and VTRs. 114
The Solid-state Second Generation. 115
Black-and-white vs. Color Recording. 115
Assemble and Insert Editing. 116

The Instant Replay Arrives.. 117

The First Disk Recorder . 117
Helical VTRs Take Back the Replay and Dominate. 118
Engineering the “One-Inch” VTR. 118
The Time Base Corrector. 118
Quads Leave the Scene. 119

It’s Called Storage Today. 122

Tape’s Going Away, Just Not Yet. 122
Super “Slo-Mo”. 124
The Video Server. 124
Video Server Operation. 124

Chapter 6 – The audio and video mosaic. 129

The Evolution of Audio. 129
It Used to be a Poor Stepchild. 129
My Life in Television Audio. 130

Audio Engineering. 135

The Effort and Scope. 135
The Mix. 139
Dolby Mixing and Encoding. 139

Life in the Production Compartment. 142

A Conversation with Steve Beim. 142

Switching the Video. 149

Humble Beginnings. 149
It’s Not so Simple Anymore. 150
Switcher Re-entry. 150
Random Re-entry Mischief. 151

Graphics. 154

The Winds of Change. 154
Sockets. 156

Virtual Graphics. 160

Infrared Hockey Pucks. 160
The First-and-ten Line and Other Things Not Really There. 163

Interactive Graphics. 166

Labeling the Contestants. 166

Chapter 7 – The big and the small. 171

Other Ways of Doing Remote Production. 171
Divorcing the Camera From the Truck. 171

The Super Bowl. 176

Large Event – Large Effort. 176

The Indianapolis 500. 181

An Extremely Large Spectacle. 181

The Winter Olympics. 186

Fifteen Sports, 10 Venues. 186

Chapter 8 – It’s A Wrap. 199

The Business and the Future. 199
“The Whole World’s A Stage”. 199
The Game Changes. 201
A Separate HD Format for Everyone. 205

Appendix A – HD/SD . 207

Maintaining the integrity of the standard-definition
broadcast through dual-path mobile production. 207

Appendix B – ENG Safety. 209

ENG Safety…A Long and Winding, but More Positive Road. 209
First, Some History.. 209
Light at the End of the Tunnel?.211
Coincidence, Irony, or Destiny?.211
End of the Road or Good Rest Area?. 214

Appendix C – General safety issues. 215

Falls, Hernias, and Sparks. 215