Freeing Up Production With Thomson Grass Valley’s Wireless Control, by Ronny van Geel

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Freeing Up Production With Thomson Grass Valley’s Wireless Control

by Ronny van Geel, June 19, 2007

Product Manager, Camcorders for Grass Valley

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The Thomson Grass Valley LCP400 local control panel, which runs on most PDAs and “smart” cell phones.

When Thomson Grass Valley introduced its Infinity Series Digital Media Camcorder (DMC), it described the standard- and high-definition camcorder as revolutionary in its design and adoption of IT technology that would significantly improve file-based workflows in a number of ways.

Not only could it record to a variety of removable media—REV PRO drives and solid-state professional CompactFlash memory—but it also had the potential to embrace technology used in the computer industry, such as compact storage drives and the freedom of wireless transmission and receiving protocols like Bluetooth and WiFi. All this for the benefit of increased productivity.

The promise of the latter has been realized in the form of industry-first wireless control software, the new Thomson Grass Valley LCP400 local control panel, which runs on most PDAs and “smart” cell phones using Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 5 (and Windows Mobile 6 when that becomes available). LCP400 software can remotely operate the Infinity Digital Media Camcorder’s functions from 65 feet (20 meters), using Bluetooth, and across the world via the Internet and a WiFi connection to the camcorder. It also makes the Infinity Digital Media Camcorder so much more than just an HD camcorder.

In addition to all of the camcorder’s normal controls, such as zoom, focus, gain and other functions, the new LCP400 control panel gives operators access to metadata associated with files captured with the Infinity, and other crew members new functionality they never had before. This valuable data can be used to streamline workflows and give reporters in the field more control over the editing and post-production process.

Grass Valley developed the new software menus and unprecedented access to the camcorder’s menu structure that go well beyond simple camera control. Five separate page screens can be accessed from a wireless device running LCP400 software at any time during camcorder operation – and even when the camcorder is turned off.

Multi-layered Interface and Control

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The LCP400 is part of the Thomson Grass Valley’s Infinity Series of ENG/EFP solutions.

The capability to remotely control a camera from anywhere is not new to Grass Valley and actually represents an extension of Grass Valley’s family of camera control systems—the Grass Valley OCP400 and Grass Valley MCP400 systems—that are being used by a variety of broadcasters and production professionals. For example, during its coverage of the Winter Olympics, in Turino, NBC used an OCP400 control panel located in New Jersey to fully and reliably control HD cameras mounted at a Curling event in Italy.

In general, the LCP400 is designed to replicate the side control panel on the camcorder, allowing access to all the menus and settings with the ability to change settings at any time, even while shooting. But the LCP400 takes this approach a step further, by providing different page screens for different ‘roles’. The low latency in the wireless connection makes it practical for critical adjustments such as audio levels.

The five LCP400 page screens provide:

• Camera control—which replicate the side panel display and graphical user interface of the physical camcorder and allows a journalist working with the camcorder operator to mark points of interest in the metadata stream, using either time code or individual descriptor notes.
• Operations—that accesses the camcorder’s user buttons like start and stop recording functions as well as gain and color temperature controls.
• Painting—that allows a user to remotely shade the camera and adjust color and black level parameters wirelessly.
• Audio—that graphically shows a user all of the volume levels and gain settings, which can be set to individual projects.

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The LCP400 can remotely operate the Infinity DMC’s functions from 65 feet (20 meters) away, using Bluetooth, and across the world via the Internet and a WiFi connection.

• Metadata—which can be used in every stage of a developing story from conception to finished story, even when the camcorder is switched off. All metadata fields can be viewed and edited.

Secure Wireless Connections

No matter what screen is being accessed, the LCP400 software alerts the user to whether they have a secure and reliable connection to the camcorder. When using a point-to-point Bluetooth connection, the display will show the recording status of the DMC (even if the tally light is not illuminated on the DMC itself) when a link has been secured and grey if the camcorder is turned off.

In addition, wireless Bluetooth connections are secured. Before operation the camcorder operator and LCP400-enabled device user “pair” the two before shooting as a one-time effort. This way there’s no chance for an unauthorized person to hack into the controls and take unwanted control of the camcorder.

This secure Bluetooth link is enabled by using a Bluetooth USB dongle in the Infinity camcorder’s USB port located behind the handle (alternatively, a WiFi USB dongle can be used). The system is designed to protect against loosing a data connection in areas that feature a lot of RF signals (due to wireless mics and related production gear). Basically, anywhere that a cell phone or wireless PDA works, the LCP400 can establish a secure connection to the Infinity Digital Media Camcorder.

If a camcorder operator does not want their camcorder to be controlled by the LCP software, they can disconnect the USB dongle from the camcorder. Alternatively, the operator can set up pre-determined levels of control, or access to only certain software screens, providing individual LCP400 users among a crew with a limited amount of access to the camcorder.

Embracing Metadata

Due to the fact that the Infinity digital media camcorder records video files on standard data storage media, these digital data files can include valuable information about each scene. The LCP400 gives the user a simple, intuitive, and fast way of entering and accessing metadata at any time, even when the camcorder itself is switched off. As soon as the camcorder is turned back on, the camcorder and LCP400 device automatically re-synchronize.

Camcorder operators can synchronize all of the metadata in the field before shooting, during shooting, and after shooting. Without touching the camcorder, an audio operator can be physically separately from the camcorder and access audio settings and routing that can be used to set parameters for audio coming into the camcorder.

For efficient electronic newsgathering, the LCP400 software can also be synchronized with the newsroom computer system and updated using cellular or WiFi connectivity. Assignments can be loaded in advance. Specific details regarding interviews and shot lists can be recorded on the LCP400 at any time, wrapped as metadata and transmitted to the newsroom so that editors and directors have full details on the content even before it arrives.

In this way, both on the LCP400 control panel and on the Infinity camcorder, they’ll have a list of people to be interviewed for that day (via a list of unique metadata IDs relating to a particular story). This could also benefit stations during late-breaking news events, where the station can send real time instructions on what footage is needed immediately. This updated footage can even be transmitted back to the station via a live feed if necessary.

With this unique synchronization, once an Infinity operator in the field inputs the name of someone being interviewed for a particular story, the station automatically receives this new information and can already plan broadcasting it accordingly, providing an extreme fast Time-To-Air workflow.

Grass Valley is looking to develop future versions of the Grass Valley LCP400 control software for use on desktop or laptop computers. This would greatly enhance the digital news production workflow to include tight integration with the Grass Valley Aurora Edit fast-turnaround nonlinear editing system. Stories would be shot, edited, and sent to air faster than ever before, simply by leveraging the metadata associated with all of the files captured with the Infinity camcorder.

The LCP400 software is currently designed to work with the Infinity camcorder, due to its IT-immersed architecture. But Grass Valley plans to develop new applications for the existing LDK family of standard- and high-definition camcorders in the future as well.