Reverse Remote Production: A New Approach to the OB Truck

Original article written by Niklas Eckstein for mebucom.

A new production concept from DMC Production and Broadcast Solutions Group challenges traditional ideas of what an outside broadcast truck needs to be. Built around the Grass Valley AMPP platform, the vehicle rethinks how live productions can be processed and controlled.

Rethinking the Remote Production Model

Anyone familiar with remote production knows the classic REMI model. Camera signals travel from the venue to a broadcast center, the show is produced there, and the finished signal is distributed from there. The model works well, but it requires large amounts of bandwidth and often dedicated connectivity.

DMC Production approaches the problem differently.

Instead of sending all camera feeds to a central facility, the processing happens directly at the venue inside the truck. Video switching, replay, audio mixing, and multiviewer generation run on Grass Valley AMPP servers installed in the vehicle racks. Remote production teams then connect to the system from control rooms in Helsinki and Hilversum.

Those remote galleries do not receive individual camera feeds. Instead, they receive a low latency multiviewer stream and send control commands back to the system.

As Jens Envall, Chief Innovation Officer at DMC Production, puts it: Processing happens where the event takes place, and we control it remotely.

Inside the Reverse Remote Production Truck

Technically, the vehicle is built around the cloud native Grass Valley AMPP production platform.

Inside the truck are two main equipment racks plus part of a third rack. Most of the space is taken up by the AMPP servers that run the production environment. Compared with a traditional OB truck, the amount of dedicated hardware is relatively small.

The system supports up to 16 Grass Valley cameras via XCUs, along with 32 additional external SDI signals through stage boxes. Core production functions including video switching, replay, audio mixing, and multiviewer generation run entirely on the AMPP infrastructure.

The interior layout reflects the streamlined architecture. Instead of a large gallery area, the vehicle contains three workstations in a clean, compact space. These can be used for smaller productions where a director or a small team may still want to operate on site.

The rear of the vehicle houses the technical racks and storage.

LINK:	https://www.grassvalley.com/reverse-remote-production-a-new-approach-t...
	See more stories from grassvalley

Most recent headlines