Video content is everywhere. Whether in traditional television broadcasts or the rise of social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok, people consume video content daily. To keep up with demand, creators need versatile, high-quality tech to support their video production operations.
In this edition of The AV Take blog series, we talk to Mike Bergeron, Panasonic’s senior category manager of production systems, about how different industries utilize video production and how Panasonic AV tech supports their efforts.
Q: Video is now essential across industries. How are sectors like education, entertainment, and live broadcast using video production techniques today, and what unique benefits are they getting from it?
Bergeron: Video editing with a camcorder and non-linear editor has been part of technical literacy in education and business communication for at least a decade. Young people can cut a video package before they can compose a business email. Since 2020, this has expanded to include multi-camera, live-switched production.
Q: How are Panasonic solutions being adapted or customized to serve these different needs?
Bergeron: Employees and students expect a remote video option for any meeting or lecture, but viewing or reviewing multiple events a day with the same AI-generated PC camera production becomes tedious, and this content does not stand out. Broadcast-style live production, with multiple cameras following subjects and camera angles chosen to tell a story, is much more engaging and effective.
Panasonic PTZ cameras, switchers, and software seek to make this level of production quality attainable without a full broadcast crew (or budget). The same type of innovations can help broadcasters address the increases in volume for produced content.
Q: How does Panasonic AV tech support different forms of video content?
Bergeron: Panasonic is offering an “assisted live studio” tool kit that includes multiple levels of PTZ cameras, auto tracking and auto framing tools, and easy-to-use video mixers in our media production suite (MPS) platform as well as KAIROS. It leverages IP networks to simplify deployment. The goal here is to simplify the operations so a smaller crew can get big results every day.
For broadcasts, event, or venue applications, Panasonic has added media over IP (MoIP) including ST 2110, SRT and NDI to our industry workhorse studio cameras and high-end PTZ. We will be adding more MoIP tools and services this year, so the advantages of these networks will be available for smaller venues and studios. Centering a production like that around the KAIROS live production platform, a full system can be built with no analog sync or SDI — just network nodes.
Q: How does production space affect tech needs?
Bergeron: The size of the venue impacts whether I can fit a manned camera or if a robotic PTZ is required. In many cases, a combination of the two is desirable.
Many spaces are utilizing LED walls, which introduce issues that need to be managed, such as moiré artifacts and challenges with accurate color capture, due to the color spikes inherent to LED. The Panasonic UE160 PTZ camera and the new UCX100 studio camera are the first Panasonic cameras to introduce LED-optimized imagers. These cameras’ red, green, and blue color receptors are tuned to specific LED wavelengths to ensure accurate color. Moreover, both cameras feature additional optical filtering to manage potential moiré artifacts.
Q: Live streaming is a form of video production that is growing in prevalence. What are some advantages and challenges of live streaming vs. traditional video production?
Bergeron: There is a massive infrastructure built up to support ubiquitous live streams from mobile phones. By supporting the same streaming protocols in camera outputs, we enable multicamera productions to push a camera output to a live stream and any other production workflow. A production may set up a unique camera position for a live broadcast or a scoreboard show, and that raw feed may be interesting to a superfan or booster web page.
In a similar way, a camcorder may be gathering footage to cut a package for later release. Feeding that raw footage from that camera to a live stream creates another chance for fan engagement or even an alternate revenue stream.
Q: Do tech requirements change between traditional productions and live streams?
Bergeron: Tech requirements can vary greatly for live stream content. Raw camera footage, as mentioned above, needs only to provide an RTMP, NDI, or SRT stream to the livestream system; this would be an additional workflow on top of another main production. Most Panasonic PTZ, studio cameras, or camcorders can support this.
On the other extreme, a live stream can simply be an alternative delivery of content produced identically to something that has gone through the traditional linear broadcast pipe. This kind of production would be no different from a broadcast production feed; only the delivery channel changes.
Q: Is there anything else we should know about the current state of video production?
Bergeron: With the platforms we now offer (KAIROS and Media Production Suite), customers can expect new features for automation and connectivity to keep coming on a regular cadence. Chances are that wherever a production company wants to land in terms of automation level and production value, Panasonic will get there before long.
Check out our Professional Video page to learn more about how Panasonic supports video production.
