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Anything but Satellite?
Hello All,
I’m trying to find some answers that I’m not sure exist.
Is there a way to use an ISDN line to transmit a video signal? (aside from videoconferencing)
Do News stations have a video conferencing signal that they can tap into for a live interview? (they didn’t when I worked there)
Or is there another way, besides Satellite, to conduct interviews for a live broadcast from a remote location?
Bottom line is I’m trying to see what alternatives there are to live video transmission.
Thanks All!
Todd
Todd at UCSB
Television Production -
3 Replies
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Todd,
You can do point-to-point video with fiber optics.
Many TV stations and larger broadcast video houses like ours have VYVX (or a similar fiber provider’s) fiber lines installed. You can playout video at such a facility and it can be received at another facility that has a fiber line.
If you are looking to provide live video from a remote shoot though, you’ll need a KU-Band equipped truck (like the ones you see outside of sporting events, etc.) that will bounce the signal to a satellite and then back down to it’s end transmission point. Thus, it depends on what type of live video scenario you require. I know there are post houses here in Chicago with dedicated fiber lines so that you can shoot at their facility and feed it live via their fiber. There have to be places in California that have the same setup.
Hope that helps.Chad Brewer
Senior Tape Operator/Engineer
TeleVersions -
There is equipment that transports full-broadcast quality HD video over the internet. It requires a high-speed broadband connection at each end (of course). I know that there are TV stations that use this equipment from Streambox to feed point-to-point video around, and even for feeding the transmitter, etc.
https://www.streambox.com/ (I believe there are others as well.) -
We shlepp live SD video/audio back and forth over a dedicated fiber line 200 miles from Springfield to Chicago and back, daily, using V-Brick boxes. Once you have the data rates dialed-in for the bandwidth you have available, it is a fairly robust and reliable system.
If you don’t need to be techically “live”, then you can go asynchronous and use something like H.264 to ferry a pre-recorded feed over the net via ftp. Do your interview using a live phone connection, record locally at the source, transcode to h.264 using for example a mac laptop and Quicktime Pro, or maybe a Digital Rapids product, something like that, and send. Re-edit as needed on the other end after converting the h.264 to something that plays nice with your NLE. Poor man’s microwave hop, but with infinite range.
Look at AP Snapfeed laptop, if money is no object. That one is pretty awesome.
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