TECHNOLOGY
From remote production to distributed production By Olivier Suard VP Marketing Nevion
Transforming live production There is a growing appetite for content across all demographics, and the demand for live experiences is especially high, with viewers prepared to pay for the right content. However, with the growing competition for the viewers’ attention, the pressure on revenue and the escalating costs of broadcasting rights, broadcasters are looking at ways to manage production costs without compromising quality and creativity. This has led in recent years to the increase in popularity of remote production, whereby the bulk of the production is done from the broadcasters’ central facilities rather than on-site. This not only save costs by not having to send so many people and equipment on site, but also leads to a better utilizing the resources they have in their central facilities, including of course the production staff. Remote production has been making high-profile sports events more costeffective to produce. But it has also made it commercially viable to cover events 22
with smaller audiences (e.g. lower leagues or less common sports). For example, HDR (now NEP Denmark), a service provider to the broadcast industry, used a remote production solution based on Nevion equipment and software to enable the professional coverage of Danish horse racing – not a sport that attracts a large audience, but one which can be profitably broadcast with the right production cost structure. In fact, remote production is part of a much more fundamental movement,