In Broadcast - August 2013 - 52

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 22 - AUGUST 2013

N E W S

InTECH

Off-The-Grid Shoot For ‘Mountain Men’
T

he crew at Warm Springs
Productions, based out of
Missoula, Montana, might be laid
back and friendly, but when it
comes to producing their outdoor
reality television and hunting shows,
it’s all professional.
“We use only the best equipment,
and only the best tripods to keep the
cameras stable,” says Equipment
Manager Mike Schweizer. “That’s
why we use Sachtler tripods and
heads on all our shoots. They’ve
been to the deepest swamps and
the snowiest peaks. We trust our
tripods to keep a steady shot in
minus 50 degrees, in waist-high
water and in torrential downpours.”
For the second season of
‘Mountain Men’ which follows men
who live in extreme environments,
off the grid – the team will go to
Northwestern Montana, the Alaskan
Wilderness north of Fairbanks and
the Appalachian Mountains of North
Carolina. What gear do they trust
to work in the middle of nowhere?
Two Panasonic HD P2 cameras with
Fujinon lenses, a Canon EOS 7D for
52

The Speed Lock 75 CF tripod with the FSB 8 T ﬂuid head from Sachtler
(Picture: Warm Springs Productions)

specialty shots, and the FSB 8 ﬂuid
head with Speed Lock 75 CF tripod.
“We use Sachtler because their
products are lightweight, durable,
and sturdy enough to safely support
our production cameras,” says

Schweizer. “We spend a lot of time
outdoors in extreme environments
where we need our equipment to
work properly in conditions that can
be hazardous to most equipment.
With Sachtler’s versatility and

Augmented Reality In An OB Environment
Shotoku Virtual Reality technology has helped enhance BBC Sport
coverage of the 2013 Wimbledon Tennis Championships…

T

owards the end of 2012 Shotoku
Broadcast systems, a leading
manufacturer of Virtual Reality
tracking systems was asked if their
VR tracking technology could be
applied to the often very challenging
live outside broadcast environment.
If achievable, it would enable
BBC Sport to extend their unique
and highly successful Augmented
Reality (AR) graphics style into
many high-proﬁle OB productions
around the world and throughout
the sporting calendar.
AR tracking systems often require
time-consuming studio set up and
calibration to ensure convincing realtime graphics play out. One of the key
challenges in transferring AR from
permanent studio installations to
temporary locations at international
sports venues, is to balance the need
for this critical set-up process with
the restricted physical environment,
and highly pressurised time
constraints, of any OB production.
Detailed consultations were
undertaken with BBC Sport, SIS Live
(OB services provider), VIZRT (AR
Graphics partner), camera operators,
and set designers discussing every
aspect of the production requirement.
The discussions, drawing on
decades of combined experience

of major OB productions, concluded
that with careful planning and the
right technology it was certainly
possible to introduce AR into the
OB environment.
Shotoku tracking systems utilise
highly sensitive encoders directly
monitoring all moving axes, so no
environment-sensitive external
tracking equipment is required,
greatly reducing complexity and
therefore installation time. Shotoku’s
simple ﬂoor-tile referencing system
would also make fast studio reconﬁguration possible. These factors,
in conjunction with high precision,
ease of use and high reliability,
made Shotoku’s manual pedestal
VR tracking systems an ideal choice
for the project.
The 2013 tennis tournament in
Wimbledon was quickly identiﬁed
as the ideal OB event to launch
the AR production. Wimbledon is
one of the world’s leading sporting
events, and a ﬂagship event in BBC
Sport’s calendar. Viewed by millions
throughout the UK, BBC Sport’s
Wimbledon coverage is always
closely followed, including live daily
highlight shows with regular studio
guests and leading players joining
the discussions.
Shotoku supplied two TP-90/

SX-300VR fully encoded tracking
studio pedestal and head systems.
These would provide precise realtime, camera and lens position
data in three dimensions allowing
full freedom of movement with or
without AR graphics inserted.
Based on Shotoku Broadcast
Systems’ standard studio pedestals
and heads, the tracked systems
operate in exactly the same way as
traditional camera support systems.
This ensures camera operators,
with no previous experience of
AR, are able to work within the
AR environment without difﬁculty.
After only minimal initial training,
the camera operators were able
to perform a complete system
start-up and reference procedure
with the entire process taking only
moments to complete.
During the short installation period,
working around the many other
broadcast infrastructure contractors
and important rehearsal schedules,
the build-up and ﬁne-tuning of the
tracking and AR graphics systems
was completed. If necessary the
prepared AR graphics were ‘tweaked’
to suit the ﬁnal studio environment
and required camera angles.
The ﬁrst AR broadcast was on
day one of the tournament (June

durability we are able to get the
shots we need to make good TV.”
Recently, the camera team paired
the Canon EOS 7D with the FSB
8 ﬂuid head/tripod with a slider to
capture a shot of their subjects right
above the water line. “It is so nice to
use a tripod that we can place in the
water and not have to worry about
it failing and soaking our camera
equipment,” says Schweizer. “Not
to mention that we can just pull it
out of the water and keep shooting.”
The FSB 8 T ﬂuid head is designed
for a range of payloads from 2.2 to
13.2 pounds (1,2 kg – 12,4 kg) so it
deftly handles whichever camera/
lens configuration Schweizer
chooses. Its Touch & Go side load
mechanism with a sliding range of
4.7” and 10-step counterbalance
offers even more versatility. The
lightweight, two-stage carbon ﬁbre
Speed Lock 75 CF tripod is speedy
to set up – a simple release of three
clamps and it is ready for action.
The second season of ‘Mountain
Men’, is slated to begin airing on
The History Channel later this year.

24) during the live daytime broadcast.
Several AR scenes were used to
enhance the set and help explain
the day’s events. As the tournament
progressed, AR increased while
always remaining as it should be,
augmenting, not intrusive.
BBC Sport has been at the
forefront of AR graphics in their
permanent studios and has now
shown that the process, with the
right technology, can be transferred
successfully to the OB environment.
Based on the experience at
Wimbledon 2013, they expect to
take the system further aﬁeld to the
many other forthcoming major sports
events around the world.

Shotoku’s TP-90/SX300VR Tracking
Pedestal in the Wimbledon Studio
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