 |
|
|
Speaking on the "Total HD" panel at the League Technology Summit Ken Aagaard, CBS Sports SVP operations and production services, views today’s reality as managing a mix-and-match hodgepodge of HD and SD productions. “When you look at the number of HD sets out there, you see that HD is here. But as far as total HD, we always have one or two SD games to mix in with HD," he explained. "Also, we have to look at other issues, mostly in audio. 5.1 has created many issues that are difficult to troubleshoot." Aagaard predicts that “Total HD” isn’t likely until the mandated changeover in 2009. In the meantime, he expects to be working through much of the same issues tomorrow that he’s been working on these past months. On the Olympics front, “Total HD” will come sooner. Chip Adams, NBC Olympics’ Director of venue engineering, says that the upcoming Beijing Games marks the end of the switchover that began in 2002. “In Salt Lake City, we had just a single HD feed for the opening ceremonies. In China, everything will be in HD,” said Adams. But Adams pointed out that the nature of the Olympic HD production will be different than might be expected. It will not be produced like an amalgamation of marquee events with maximum-sized broadcast production trucks descending en mass. “To go forward with Olympic movement, we have to downsize. There’s no way to move such huge facility around. We have been living on flight packs since Sydney, taking the host feed and adding a couple of cameras,” Adams said. Rick Abbott, VP, Remote Operations for ESPN sees this Olympic trend coming stateside fast. “Our production staff is thinking that we’ve got to get out of the expando world and start thinking about straight trucks. That’s the only way the pricing can come down for one-day set shoots,” Abbott said. Abbott pointed to the past trend towards large productions. Some of ESPN’s most visible HD events have grown to use five or more trucks and require huge staffs. This is not where HD will continue to grow. “We’ve got to go small – much smaller. The flypack world is going to pick up steam,” said Abbott. For Jerry Steinberg, Fox Sports SVP, Operations, what lies ahead is building on the solid foundation now in place “We’re into enhancement devices. Next year, everything will be in HD. The mystery and drama are gone. What we’re doing now is television, television with better sound, more pixels,” Steinberg said. Two of those key “enhancements” are wireless HD field acquisition and 5.1 audio production. Aagaard detailed the trials and tribulations of getting wireless HD cameras out on the PGA tour. “It’s been a tough learning curve, and we’re not home yet,” he said. However, the effort’s been worth it because after getting it figured out “it made a difference to people watching, with 60% (of footage) cut from handhelds.” Bob Ayars, VP Technical Operations for Comcast SportsNet ,agreed that HD acquisition is key, with Sony’s XDCAM HD now the standard Comcast has adopted. Finally, panelists agreed that another key hurdle is bringing new engineers into the industry. “We’re bringing computer science students in from the local schools, trying to attract new blood into the business. Hopefully we’ll get some with fire in the belly,” Steinberg said. © Copyright 2006-2008 sportsvideogroup |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
