David Carr

 

Freelance consultant David Carr, who was part of the HD rollout at BSkyB talks to Richard Brooking about his experiences, as well as the dos and don’ts that people must keep in mind when migrating to HD.

How would you describe the HDTV experience?

David Carr: To me, it’s the audio element that makes the difference with HD. Unless you’ve got a 50 or 60-inch HD screen, you won’t really notice a difference in the viewing experience.

At the same time, the depth and the range of colour and contrast that you get with HD is remarkable. The ability to see the finest details like the contact lens in the actor’s eye, or a wrinkle on their face is remarkable. When watching major events like sport especially, you become conscious of every single detail in the game.

How long have you been working with HD and what infrastructural changes did you have to make? 

Carr: My first involvement with HD was in 1986 using the Sony analogue HD system to achieve large screen images. It was very expensive in those days but I bought into HD right then and also got incredibly excited with the move to wide screen which I saw as really significant. Once you had the image quality to back it up, it was just perfect. I suppose the real HD experience, however, has happened in the last three to five years.

BSkyB made a major investment and that was the first HD studio that was commissioned and I was involved in. Meticulous thinking went into that because the obvious thing about HD is that it has so much more quality to quite an incredible degree. There are things that we had previously taken for granted, like the ability to move a camera over a traditional studio floor. Suddenly traditional floors weren’t good enough because the camera bounced. The lighting wasn’t good enough, the make-up and the sets weren’t good enough, so you actually had to change everything.

HD also isn’t just one standard so the biggest decision was deciding which standard to adopt? 

Clearly, one needed to talk to the main manufacturers but we were so early with HD adoption that most of the HD products didn’t really exist back then.

But we didn’t just talk to the manufacturers. What was important was to talk to the operational people so we talked to the lighting people, the vision engineers, the consultants that had gained experience in other countries, primarily in America and Japan and looked at what the options and pitfalls were, and we learnt from a lot of people.

How smooth was your migration to HD?

Carr: I think it was exceptionally smooth because it was well planned and we had some very good in-house engineers and project engineers that came from a variety of backgrounds. By working very closely as a team, and with meticulous planning, the whole process was seamless.

The studio floor was difficult. Getting the right quality of floor, a floor that couldn’t be damaged was a real challenge because there was no point in having a glass-like floor. The criterion was that you had to roll a coin on its edge diagonally across the entire width of the studio floor without it spinning and falling over. When that was achieved, we accepted the studio floor.

One of the other things about HD is that it needs a lot of light. So if you don’t have incredible environmental issues like air conditioning, you’ve got to try to use soft lighting and LEDs. At the time of BSkyB’s build, they were just coming into their own. I think you could now build an HD studio exclusively with soft lights and LEDs — three years ago, you couldn’t.

The sets were also an incredible challenge as was make-up. We found that traditional make-up did not work so we had to move over to airbrushing.

What was the easy bit? Ironically, engineering, which we thought might be the toughest turned out to be the easiest. Manufacturers were getting used to adapting to change and they had made the change to wide screen. They knew they had to up the quality, and I think that was probably the easiest bit.

Was training important?

Carr: Training was crucial to the whole process because we were faced with a whole variety of new challenges. We initiated a comprehensive series of training schemes that were put in place to cover everyone, and, of course, it went across a whole range of engineering and craft skills. Without that, we wouldn’t have gone on air with the deadline that we were given. The whole process from start to finish took less than a year.

BSkyB were pioneers in digital; they were pioneers in HD, and we’re now seeing them as pioneers of 3D technology as well. 

It was exciting to work for them. But there were budget restrictions so it’s not as if money was thrown at them. Actually, it was all done on a very tight budget, with incredible skills and that made it easier.

Because we had to keep the main studio running, we pulled in an OB truck and left the actual studio alone whilst we did the gallery. Once the gallery was done, we were able to use other studios whilst we quickly did the studio floor. Actually, the main change to the studio was only the wall boxes; the floor was the biggest challenge, and obviously, lighting.

What’s your opinion about moving to file-based production with HD?

Carr: When we started our move to HD, file-based in terms of high-end HD, wasn’t really an option because you still needed to go to HDCAM SR, if you wanted the ultimate quality. That has now been revolutionised and you have many choices if you now want file-based at that level. Certainly, all the location cameras have now moved to file-based, and if you were designing a studio today, it would be completely file-based – which brings challenges.

BSkyB took an interesting approach. They decided to go completely file-based as part of their HD programme and the build of their new broadcast centre. Whether that is right or wrong, you could argue for ever, but it meant that you had a dedicated team looking at those issues. That was an interesting approach.

What advice would you give to broadcasters moving to HD?

Carr: Talk to the people that had experience in HD and have done it in the past. If you are a green field site, the importance of getting experts in all areas involved in that design as early as possible is important. There are so many things that get forgotten, silly things like the studio doors, the height of the studio, which is completely different in its requirements for HD compared with SD, especially if you have been working in 4:3.

Talk to systems integrators, who are experienced; talk to individuals, but also don’t forget to talk to the operational people. So often, people talk to the engineers, the designers and the architects but forget to talk to the people that make it happen.

What advice would you give to SIs and suppliers from a customer’s perspective?

Carr: One of my recent experiences is the danger of an architect creating a design and giving the specification to the systems integrator, who will then follow it to the letter. If, in fact, the SI feels there is something wrong, they must raise it at the earliest stage. It is too expensive to put something right that you’ve got wrong once it’s been completed. And also future proof; think about putting in infrastructure and cabling ahead of your current requirements because that’s expensive to pull out and do again. Seriously consider 3G and beyond, if you can afford it.

What’s the next “big thing”?

Carr: The next concept beyond 3D is actually 3D in which the audience can participate, whether that’s laser-based technology or whatever, ensuring that it is completely interactive, and incredibly flexible.

I see a lot more social networking involved in it, far more platforms that will be involved in and platforms that we haven’t even considered yet.

I predicted at BSkyB that 3D was going to happen, and it happened two years earlier than we had anticipated, so the change is coming very fast. So build a space that is going to be very flexible. I can see a situation that you can even go back to glass roof revolving studios as they built originally in Hollywood at the turn of the last century, utilising the environmental needs. Create clever kinds of airflows. I think there are lots of clever ways forward and I hope to be a part of it.

This excerpt is part of a larger interview conducted by Richard Brooking, marketing manager EMEA of Tektronix, and shared exclusively with BroadcastPro ME.

David Carr

David Carr is a consultant working in media with an emphasis on studios, HDTV, digital workflow design, 3D/3G technology and production innovation. Formerly director of Operations for Peel Media, David was responsible for operations across the MediaCityUK site. This includes the MediaCityUK studio complex – the largest HD facility being built in the UK. Carr has also managed some of the UK’s other leading TV and film facilities, including BSkyB’s production facilities, Teddington Studios, Capital Studios and Kadek Vision at Shepperton Studios.