Outside broadcasting
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Outside broadcasting (OB) is the electronic field production (EFP) of
television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
or
radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3  hertz (Hz) and 300  gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...
programmes (typically to cover
television news News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or tel ...
and sports television events) from a mobile remote broadcast
television studio A television studio, also called a television production studio, is an installation room in which video productions take place, either for the production of live television and its recording onto video tape or other media such as SSDs, or for ...
. Professional video camera and
microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic (), or mike, is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and publi ...
signals come into the production truck for processing, recording and possibly transmission. Some outside broadcasts use a mobile production control room (PCR) inside a production truck.


History

Outside radio broadcasts have been taking place since the early 1920s and television ones since the late 1920s. The first outside broadcast by the British Broadcasting Company was of the British National Opera Company production of ''
The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (, ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. It is a ''Singspiel'', a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on ...
'' from the
Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...
, Covent Garden on 8 January, 1923. The first large-scale outside broadcast was the televising of the
Coronation of George VI and Elizabeth The coronation of the British monarch, coronation of George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Elizabeth, as King of the United Kingdom, king and List of British royal consorts, queen of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth realm, ...
in May 1937, done by the BBC's first Outside Broadcast truck, MCR 1 (short for Mobile Control Room). After the Second World War, the first notable outside broadcast was of the
1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and officially branded as London 1948, were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus cau ...
. The Coronation of Elizabeth II followed in 1953, with 21 cameras being used to cover the event. In December 1963 instant replays were used for the first time. Director Tony Verna used the technique on the Army-Navy game which aired on
CBS Sports CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...
on December 7, 1963. The
1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Mexico 1968 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 October 1968, in Mexico City, Mexico. These were the first Ol ...
was the first with competitions televised in colour. The 1972 Olympic Games were the first where all competitions were captured by outside broadcast cameras. During the 1970s, ITV franchise holder Southern Television was unique in having an outside broadcast boat, named ''Southener''. The wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in July 1981 was the biggest outside broadcast at the time, with an estimated 750 million viewers.


New technology

In 2008, the first 3D outside broadcast took place with the transmission of a Calcutta Cup rugby match, but only to an audience of industry professionals who had been invited by
BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...
. In March 2010, the first public 3D outside broadcast took place with an
NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
game between the
New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in New York City. The Rangers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The team plays ...
and
New York Islanders The New York Islanders (colloquially known as the Isles) are a professional ice hockey team based in Elmont, New York. The Islanders compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (N ...
. The first commercial ultra-high definition outside broadcast was a
Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...
game between Stoke City v West Ham, televised by
Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...
in August 2013. Tests in 8K resolution outside broadcasts began to take place during the 2010s, including tests by
NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...
and
BT Sport TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, they first launched as B ...
. The first public 8K outside broadcast in the UK took place in February 2020.


Modern applications

Modern outside broadcasts now use specially designed OB vehicles, many of which are now built based around IP technology rather than relying on
coaxial cable Coaxial cable, or coax (pronounced ), is a type of electrical cable consisting of an inner Electrical conductor, conductor surrounded by a concentric conducting Electromagnetic shielding, shield, with the two separated by a dielectric (Insulat ...
. There has been an increasing rise in the use of flyaway or flypack Portable Production Units, which allow for an increased level of customisation and can be rigged in a larger variety of venues. In the past many outside broadcasting applications have relied on using
satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...
uplinks to broadcast live audio and video back to the studio. While this has its advantages such as the ability to set up anywhere covered by the respective geostationary satellite, satellite uplinking is relatively expensive and the round trip latency is in the range of 240 to 280 milliseconds. As more venues install fiber optic cable, this is increasingly used. For news gathering, contribution over public internet is also now used. Modern applications such as hardware and software IP codecs have allowed the use of public 3G/4G networks to broadcast video and audio. The latency of 3G is around 100–500 ms, while 4G is less than 100 ms.


Gallery

File:Outside broadcast vehicles at Raymond James Stadium in advance of Super Bowl LV.jpg, Outside broadcast vehicles at Raymond James Stadium in advance of Super Bowl LV File:02292jfHoly Wednesday Good Friday processions Baliuag Bulacan Augustine Parish Churchfvf 11.JPG, An
ABS-CBN ABS-CBN is a leading Philippine media and content company. It serves as the flagship media brand of ABS-CBN Corporation, a subsidiary of Lopez Holdings Corporation. Once the country's largest free-to-air television network, ABS-CBN has since ...
OB van transmitting a satellite feed File:FOX news trucks Harvard Square 050429.jpg, WFXT's trucks in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
's
Harvard Square Harvard Square is a triangular plaza at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue (Boston), Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street (Cambridge, Massachusetts), Brattle Street and John F. Kennedy Street near the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, C ...
File:Camera 3 England v Czech Republic Wembley.jpg, Camera operator working on an outside broadcast of a football match at
Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...
File:Outside broadcast van.jpg, A
BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...
outside broadcasting van at
New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...
File:AUT U-21 vs. FIN U-21 2015-11-13 (269).jpg, An Ikegami camera with
Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...
DIGISUPER lens of ORF at a football match File:TVN24 van satellite Mercedes.jpg, A
TVN24 TVN24 is a Polish 24-hour commercial news channel, launched on 9 August 2001. Being a part of the TVN Network, TVN24 has been owned since 2018 by US-based media company Warner Bros. Discovery ( Discovery, Inc. before 2022). It gained broade ...
outside broadcasting van in
Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...
, Poland File:OB suite-tennis.JPG, OB for tennis tournament: Extendible-sided production van, satellite dishes, generator truck; see two OB cameras and three announcing booths at top of stadium beyond. Kooyong, Victoria,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
, 2008 File:Virginradioobstudio.jpg, Klotz Digital's Vadis DC II mixer for use at a Virgin Radio outside broadcast at the
V Festival V Festival, often referred to as V Fest or simply V, was an annual music festival held in the United Kingdom during the third weekend in August. The event was held at two parks simultaneously which shared the same bill; artists performed at one ...
2007


See also

* Production truck *
Satellite truck A satellite truck or SNG truck is a mobile communications satellite ground station mounted on a truck chassis as a platform. Employed in remote television broadcasts, satellite trucks transmit video signals back to studios or production facilities ...
* Electronic news-gathering (ENG)


References


External links


Recreation of a full 1970s BBC Outside Broadcast production

Technical planning stage of a 1970s Outside Broadcast production

Demonstration of the 'lining up' process for EMI 2001 OB camera from the 1970s

Discussion and demonstration of the microphone and communications set up for a sports OB

BBC Outside Broadcast crew reflect on their careers in OB production


{{Broadcasting, state=collapsed Broadcast engineering Television terminology fr:Régie (spectacle)#Télévision