computer Posted May 23, 2004 Share Posted May 23, 2004 Hey ya'll, I saw the Monaco Grand Prix earlier today, and it got me thinking how they control all the cameras they must use there, I mean they seem to have several cameras on each car, cameras in the pit lanes/garages, walkabout wireless camera, heli cams, studio cameras and then cameras round the track...they must have 100's of cameras to 'vision mix' so I was wondering if anyone knew in a information knowledge point of view... computer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickb12345 Posted May 23, 2004 Share Posted May 23, 2004 No idea about the mixing but there are at least 4 cameras on each car but its up to the teams which ones are fed to the TV people. The usual places for the cameras are the front and back of the transmitter box on the top and there is one in the front of the cockpit pointing backwards and there is one on the left side of the nose pointing forward! The actual mixing/directing/equipment supply used to be the job of the broadcasting licensee for the country the race is in (eg the BGP is done by ITV). I'm not sure if this is still the case since the development of "Ecclestone Television" Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted May 23, 2004 Share Posted May 23, 2004 Formula One run their own broadcast operation which gets carted around the globe in a large transport aircraft. They will provide a master feed which other broadcasters can pickup and use and put their own pictures/graphics over the top of. As you said, each car has a number of cameras on it. There is a two way telemetry feed to and from the car for data. One of the cameras is selected and fed back from the car via a microwave link. The decision as to which picture is fed back is taken by an assistant producer who offers the main vision desk a selection of feeds usually just one from each car. Remote cameras are also used in the team garages. Another assistant will be dealing with all the slo-mo and reply side of things. All important cameras will have their own VTR to record their output and to play back any accidents/overtakings etc. This is called an ISO record (ISO=isolated). Note that the VTR is often a hard-disk. The VTRs are manned by experienced VTR operators, usually two VTRs to an operator. They will know when to stop recording and rewind ready to play in something interesting. They will 'offer' a feed to the main show director All the other feeds arrive at the main desk. A good director and vision mixer, working well together, will have little difficultly putting together a show from up to 60 or more sources. Having sat in the gallery on many occasions I am always impressed at how good a good director is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
computer Posted May 23, 2004 Author Share Posted May 23, 2004 hey how did you get to go in the gallery? I'd love to sit and watch something like that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted May 23, 2004 Share Posted May 23, 2004 It helps having worked in the broadcast industry for 20 years :huh: although things are now a lot stricter, I doubt I could do it these days, certainly not a grand prix anyways. More info...hereand here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the kid Posted May 23, 2004 Share Posted May 23, 2004 On the other side of F1 I have herd that, once upon a time could travel round the pits going from one team to another on a pit pass, but now because of security and team secrets you can only go as far as the pit lane wall. Unless you have a ticket from a worker from a team then you are allowed in that teams area and only that area, so watch the stats as they arive on each car. This is what I've heard so dont quote me on it. Oh and what I do know is that on a race day at Silverstone you can park like 10-20 miles away and you can be chopperd in for a mear sum on £50. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew C Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 It used to be the case that on race-day, Silverstone becomes the worlds busiest "airport" on the basis of number of movements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 Hey ya'll, I saw the Monaco Grand Prix earlier today, and it got me thinking how they control all the cameras they must use there, I mean they seem to have several cameras on each car, cameras in the pit lanes/garages, walkabout wireless camera, heli cams, studio cameras and then cameras round the track...they must have 100's of cameras to 'vision mix' so I was wondering if anyone knew in a information knowledge point of view... computerAs Brian says, There are a large number of cameras all mixed down. Re-broadcasters (ie ITV) can purchase a feed of the whole event and feeds of indervidual cameras from the course. The OB company hired by ITV will then take the race feed from Bernie's crew and mix it with the other feeds they have purchased to create a new show tailored to ITV's target audience, The OB company ITV uses provides an interesting vehicle as it has a 36ch vision mixer but only carries 6 of it's own cameras. It has it's own VT's and LSM's (Hard disk based recorder and slow motion machine) The 6 cameras will do ITV specific work with ITV's presenters and studio's Does this make sence? ITV's Formula 1 OB Unit What kit the Formula 1 OB truck carries. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellis Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 ITV use a BBC scanner (slang for TV OB vehicles) - what a strange world we live in! :huh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 ITV use a BBC scanner (slang for TV OB vehicles) - what a strange world we live in! :huh:not really. ITV don't own any large OB vehicles of their own. And even the little SNG news vans you see about the place with a big Anglia/Meridian/whatever sticker on are owned and run by BT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellis Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 Strange... I have always associated Carlton 021 with the broadcaster that has now merged with Granada to form ITV. I am very out of date though. I did 1 week work experience at Pebble Mill when I was at university - they still had 3 scanners including the behemoth that was CM1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 ITV use a BBC scanner (slang for TV OB vehicles) - what a strange world we live in! :huh: Since BBC Resources was set up as an independant company BBC OB's have been free to (and encouraged to) look for work anywhere. I could go on about how BBC OB's are being successful beccause they are some of the best in the industry at doing their job but that might be seen as advertising as I work for BBC Resources. ;) James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 Strange... I have always associated Carlton 021 with the broadcaster that has now merged with Granada to form ITV. Nope, you're right. I had in my my mind that 021 had been sold by Carlton at some point but then when I think about it, maybe is was that 021 was bought by Carlton. I'm getting too old for all this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Dave Posted May 28, 2004 Share Posted May 28, 2004 Having done a few jobs with 021 recently (oh what a joy they where), they are owned by Carlton but are run as a separate company just like BBC resources Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marc Posted May 29, 2004 Share Posted May 29, 2004 The BBC no longer have many big OB trucks, they don't have the money, but more importantly have the sense to know that the industry is changing so fast it is not worth buying new trucks at the moment. I went to a demo by OB companies at Kendall Avenue (BBC OB Base) none of the trucks there on demo were from the BBC, most were forigen, this is because HD (high Def) is coming in now, and people that fund tv programs wont spend the money unless it is filmed in HD as it is the new format so must be good. most of the HD trucks can take lots more stuff than the BBC one that is referred to earlier in the post, things like the sound is taken in to a 56 ch digital mixer, compressed into dolby and recorded, then for re-mixing decoded mixed and sent out, as dolby compression is really good and takes up very little tape space. As far as layout and vision goes it is much better than the BBC truck, more kit, due to new things like plasmas and TFT screens. most of the trucks are taking in 125a three phase for the running of kit and 63a single for the air con to keep the kit running. Matrix's are another big thing, you can have loads of inputs and say a 32ch vision mixer, then on the matrix's you chose the extra cameras you want to switch into a vision mixer channel, say maybe a camera on the lead car, so you don't look at all the cameras at the same time, you follow the race and look at cameras that fit that bit of the coverage as and when you need to. Hope that helps a bit mk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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