What is Remote Production?
Want to know the remote production definition? Also known as Remote Integration Model or REMI broadcast, remote production is a production workflow that enables live content to be captured from a remote location and managed from a central control room. A remote or REMI production keeps all of the production elements you might find in a traditional broadcast, but your on-camera talent is in a remote location.
A REMI production workflow makes sense in the modern world, especially during the pandemic when many people are unwilling or able to leave their own homes. Remote production is being used more and more by production companies and content creators around the world.
Benefits of Remote Production
There are many benefits to using remote production, including:
- Cost savings. Production costs are typically a massive concern for broadcasters and right holders, and remote production is a flexible solution that allows you to cut costs for equipment and staff travel. Since production equipment can be in one centralized location and control remote on-site cameras, your organization can save money on travel and shipping costs.
When you use remote production, you don’t need to bring a huge team of producers, managers, editors, and engineers to a site. Fewer people are actually needed in the field, which reduces travel costs and expenses like hotel and transportation. You also don’t need to spend money on transporting fragile equipment to the remote site. In addition, equipment setup is much faster, saving time.
- Centralized resources. REMI remote production enables you to centralize your production resources by bringing audio and video streams back to one centralized production studio. This allows for improved quality and control during the editing process. Human and technical resources are all in one central facility, working within a familiar environment, where they can easily control factors like power, lighting, and sound.
Your producers, editors, managers, and engineers are also not dependent on weather patterns or limitations at the remote site. They have everything they need set up at the centralized studio.
- Increased productivity. A REMI streaming solution also helps improve your production workflow. While your production costs are reduced, your productivity is actually increased, maximizing your production workflow. You would send most of your resources to the actual worksite with traditional production, meaning that your staff members can only focus on covering one live production at a time. Then, your staff needs to return before they can begin working on the next production.
This process is much more straightforward with a live remote broadcast. Since remote production works over the public internet, there is much less set-up time, and video producers can optimize their resources. Remote production lets you handle multiple production events at the same time. Your production staff can actually manage two different productions during the same day since the production system will be re-used at the next event. Increased productivity means more money coming into your organization while you are saving money on travel costs, moving equipment, and more.
- Monetized content. Remote production is an excellent way for content creators to monetize their content and is a solution to the evolving nature of content consumption. Viewers want content to be available on a wide range of different platforms. Moreover, audiences enjoy a complete viewing experience, whether they are watching on a tablet, television, smartphone, or computer.
The remote production model gives organizations and content creators the opportunity to have dedicated camera feeds for delivery to mobile devices and tablets and provides an opportunity for these feeds to be monetized. Remote production offers an economic benefit for rights holders.
- Low latency. Remote production also shows the benefits of IP technology to offer high speed and high-quality media transport. Multiple audio and camera feeds can be transported to a centralized production facility with low latency over relatively long distances. Plus, with the technology for low latency available, directors can ask the crew at the stadium to zoom or make any necessary adjustments, just as they would in a traditional live production environment. This capability will only be pushed further as the remote production technology grows and evolves.
- Flexibility. A remote broadcast solution can be set up anywhere and controlled over a network by anyone on your team. This allows your organization and team members to increase their flexibility and efficiency. This solution allows for improved flexibility for staff members and better distribution of production tasks to others across multiple locations. A graphics operator can assist production in real-time with a second control device.
Remote film production allows for increased flexibility and efficiency. SmartWorks has highly professional AV production specialists that can work in tandem from a centralized studio and remote location. As we are experts in remote productions, we can facilitate fast communication and react quickly to production changes or challenges. For example, when a producer asks his camera people to do something at the remote site, they will follow those directions immediately.
- Cloud power. Cloud capabilities allow your organization to customize or change your production workflow at any time. These cloud capabilities provide better scalability and expand with your individual production needs while enabling the safe control, distribution, and storage of your most important media assets in the cloud. Remote production is on the rise, and cloud power gives video producers huge benefits in embracing new network technologies.
Remote Production Solutions
Organizations and broadcasters turn to remote production solutions from companies like SmartWorks to help improve efficiency, generate more content and allow their staff members to work productively from nearly anywhere, especially during the pandemic. Remote production allows broadcasters to do much more with their resources and gives them the opportunity to generate more content and more revenue to meet demand. Broadcasters can focus on using their resources to produce more high-quality content for their viewers while reducing or even eliminating expensive and complicated logistics associated with traditional production.
Remote production helps organizations reduce costs and complexities by reducing the burden of deploying costly resources, the equipment needed to produce everything at a remote location, and the field crew required to manage it all. Remote production also helps you maximize your resources by creating multiple events more efficiently with better attention to quality and consistency. You can focus on accelerating production with IP technology that lets you transport video and audio feeds to a centralized production facility with relatively low latency. You can also create more content by freeing up valuable resources, in turn expanding your live event coverage and generating more revenue.
Live Remote Broadcast Equipment
Wondering what equipment you actually need for a live remote broadcast? Here is a breakdown of some of the best live streaming equipment for remote broadcasting:
- Video cameras. One of the most important pieces of equipment for a professional live remote broadcast is a video camera. Thousands of different live streaming cameras are out there, including entry-level, prosumer, and professional cameras. The entry-level cameras are typically cheap and lightweight and range from $300 to $700. Prosumer video cameras have decent connectivity and a few manual controls and range in price from $800 to $3,000. Professional cameras are durable with higher build quality and high-resolution sensors for excellent image quality. These cameras usually range from $1,500 to $25,000.
- Audio equipment. Audio quality is often more important to viewers than video streaming quality. There is low to medium quality audio live event streaming equipment in a virtual event company, such as built-in microphones on entry-level and prosumer cameras, medium to high-quality audio equipment like built-in microphones on professional cameras, and professional quality audio equipment like XLR microphones.
- Mixing equipment. Mixing equipment enables you to capture multiple video or audio sources and switch between them during a live remote broadcast. We recommend considering factors like user interface, physical size, inputs and outputs, automation, connectivity, and onboard processing when looking for the right video mixing equipment. Consider the number of input and output channels, digital inputs, auxiliary and monitor buses and outputs, control through a network app, and on/off or mute buttons.
- Encoders. Organizations often choose to use video encoding to compress files without compromising the quality. You can use video encoders to reduce file size, reduce buffering for streaming video, change the resolution or aspect ratio, change the audio format or quality, or meet a particular target bit rate. Video coders can also convert obsolete files to modern formats, make a video compatible with a specific device, or make a video compatible with a particular software or service.
- Mobile live streaming equipment. You need a different setup for mobile live streaming than you might need for streaming from a studio. We recommend purchasing a handheld smartphone gimbal, a multifunctional octopus tripod with a ball head, a compact on-camera microphone, and portable lighting gear for mobile live streaming.
- Video streaming accessories. You also need a few miscellaneous video streaming accessories for live streaming. These include cables, tripods, batteries, and light stands.
SmartWorks Knows Remote Production
If you need remote production, look no further than SmartWorks for all of your remote production needs. We have over 15 years of event planning experience. As a result, you can trust us to handle all of your event planning needs. We’ll ensure every detail of your event is handled with precision and care from start to finish.
