Connecting TV News During a Pandemic

MIAMI BEACH, Fla.-The year 2020 has forced many changes on TV broadcasters-one of the most visible has been through electronic newsgathering. With more sources stuck at home, broadcasters have increased their use of Zoom, WebEx, Skype and other consumer-grade Wi-Fi video conferencing services to help deliver the news.

Although broadcasters have used these services in the past, their use was certainly not as ubiquitous as what is seen today. Six months ago, broadcasters had the luxury of considering these services sub-par quality for professional TV news (and still are), but the social distancing prompted by the coronavirus pandemic has forced the industry to improvise.

For many others though, the events of this year are only increasing their use of broadcast-quality IP technology from companies like TVU Networks, LiveU, VidOvation/AVIWEST, Dejero, among others. The difference is usually easy to spot since broadcasters recognize the pitfalls of home Wi-Fi setups and streaming technology from screen freezing and tiling to audio degradation or complete audio loss.

GOOD ENOUGH'To try to understand how ENG has been impacted, I reached out to some of the leaders in ENG technology for their feedback. As viewers, we certainly see a lot of non-broadcast video and audio hitting our TV screens (whether it's a local station or a national news network). Sometimes this is out of necessity of a last minute interview where the guest is using consumer/enterprise streaming technology.

It's also very interesting to see audio and video we'd never accept as good enough now being accepted. But technology is adapting to the times and finding new ways to use IP with bonded cellular technology (in addition to Wi-Fi) to create bandwidth that can even allow UHD video in HDR and 60ftp to go this route with as little as a half-second of latency.

Though some broadcasters adopt enterprise-level streaming technology-which can provide up to 1 Gbps connections-this can still only offer 15 fps and at bit rate that depends on how slammed the service is at that moment, causing pixilation, jerky video and lip sync for guest remotes. There are better broadcast-quality IP solutions, and they offer a variety of supportive technology including intercom, IFB and even return video teleprompting or confidence monitoring from the field.,and all done with under a half-second of latency in most cases.

IT'S NOT ALL IP'S FAULTTVU Networks in Mountain View, Calif.-which has been pushing the envelope with IP-based broadcast technology-has seen 500% growth over the past year, according to CEO Paul Shen. Unlike consumer options, TVU for IP runs a broadcast quality signal and locks all signals together, so the signal can be 60p and lip sync is treated as critical (unlike the streaming consumer options).

Shen calls TVU's connection to the cell system IS+.

IS+ stands for inverse stat-muxing, where we are monitoring the quality of signal and bandwidth of the carriers and adjusting encoding bandwidth as the service may increase or decrease, Shen said. If one carrier drops, we immediately adjust to compensate through the other carriers, or Wi-Fi or the wired connection if they are also in use. TVU's systems also easily allow users to use the cloud to produce multiple cameras as a switched experience or to provide a broadcast quality multiviewer image by keeping sync between all feeds.

The fault of poor quality production during the pandemic should not all be laid at the feet of IP technology, though. Where Shen sees a weakness is not with technology, but on the remote side where some may not fully understand what defines a quality shot.

Even people wearing the wrong shirt with a pattern that 1080i can't reproduce can be a problem, Shen said. Whether it's a shirt or tie, which doesn't reproduce well via encoding, poor audio quality based on the lack of a mic to a $15 mic/earphone combo, to simply terrible lighting for TV, all aspects must be considered. The technical quality must be there through the right gear, but shot composition and production values should also be maintained.

PLUG AND PLAYJim Jachetta, executive vice president and CTO of VidOvation in Lake Forest, Calif., also reports an increase in use of their systems. VidOvation is the U.S.-based distributor for the AVIWEST solution for IP-based broadcasting, plus numerous other equipment offerings.

According to Jachetta, one large broadcast client has built full IP-based broadcast kits that can be sent out for use by high-profile guests or regular contributors to programs, making them truly plug and play.

The system includes bonded cellular streaming systems that allow excellent bandwidth and high reliability, small PTZ HD robotic cameras that can be controlled remotely [from the control room side] of the broadcast, quality mics, IFB and everything the guest needs, Jachetta said. The idea was to make a system that the guest could sit in front of them, plug it in, then let the control room make the adjustment and put the guest on the air with minimal involvement by the guest.

ON CUEMatt Groeteke, news operations manager at KTLA has a large fleet of ENG, SNG and EFP vehicles, but the pandemic has increased their existing use of IP ENG technology. The Los Angeles CW affiliate uses Dejero's GateWay network aggregation technology to provide reliable IP connectivity and the station's own private network out to the field trucks.

The station added Dejero's CuePoint for remote teleprompting and live returns from the station to the field to allow studio talent working from home to have full prompter use for scripts to even return video of the chroma keyed weather map behind the talent. Groeteke says CuePoint is simple, reliable and easy to explain to the end-user.

CuePoint allows the broadcaster to s

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