R&D visit T in the Park

A team from BBC R&D have spent the last few days braving the rain and mud at T in The Park. The aim of the experiment was to try out our Nearly Live production tool Primer in the type of environment where it might be used, to help us develop and understand the associated workflows and user experience.

Primer has moved on since our last full production trial in Edinburgh last year and is now built on our IP Studio architecture, which means we are starting to build a set of production tools on a unified flexible system. In the future this will enable much more lightweight production, suitable for output to a variety of platforms on TV and the web.

Our system for T in the Park consisted of three small locked-off cameras delivering video into three small, general purpose computers. These capture machines record what we would traditionally call ‘ISOs’ (just isolated uninterrupted single camera feeds) all of the time.

The Primer interface then allows a user, either locally based or in a remote location, to vision mix these feeds and reframe the cameras to create an output. The kit is based in a small flight case rather than a large truck so is portable and will enable us to cover stages or events in the future that are simply not feasible at the moment.

As always with broadcast OBs, and especially with the experimental work that we do in BBC R&D not all went to plan, but our engineers on-site swapped their usual labs and offices for a portakabin, and were able to identify and fix a number of issues with the system.  We learnt a lot, and that means that when we return to Scotland next month for the Edinburgh Festivals, we will have an improved capability.

This was a collaboration with our colleagues in BBC Scotland, who have been very curious and supportive of our work. It also gave a great opportunity for their music TV directors to pop in and have a go at using a laptop to create some (nearly) live output. Their feedback is both positive and hugely valuable in developing systems like this.

Braving rain @BBCtinthepark@wagger@bethcorri +team with Nearly Live Production in action: https://t.co/xZFES6uK52pic.twitter.com/s115w8rAgS

— BBC R&D (@BBCRD) July 10, 2016