With the advent of the pandemic in 2020, Broadcast Management Group (BMG), which provides live production, consulting, and integration to events as well as staffing and creative, implemented “REMI” remote production utilizing a range of RTS technologies to enable decentralized crew and talent deployment.
REMI – also known as “at-home” or “virtual” production – stands for REMote Integration, an approach that enables a support crew to function remotely, and also helping to reduce costs without sacrificing quality. “Originally, REMI was viewed primarily as an innovative cost-cutting technique for major networks,” notes BMG Chief Executive Officer Todd Mason, who also works as a director. “The idea was to leverage the power of high-speed data transmission and networking to reduce the enormous costs of large-scale live events. But COVID forced the entire broadcast world to adopt REMI-style techniques just to stay on the air.”
For BMG, having an RTS ODIN infrastructure for intercoms is a key element to REMI. With both talent and production crew remotely located, ODIN’s RVON (VoIP) capability keeps the team connected in real time. It also means that physical production facilities can be redesigned and streamlined while expanding their capabilities.
BMG has two dedicated REMI production facilities. One is a client-owned, BMG-managed facility in Chicago and the other is a new REMI Broadcast Hub in Las Vegas. The Chicago site, designed for an on-site staff of 35 to 40, is now fully functional with as few as six staffers in the building, the rest working remotely.
The Las Vegas facility is the first broadcast center designed from the ground up for REMI production. It opened in March 2021 and has been constantly producing REMI entertainment, sports, news and events. Recently, BMG produced the 48th Daytime Emmy Awards there. It was the first major awards show produced in a 100 percent virtual environment with REMI workflow.
BMG Senior Audio Engineer John Steigerwald, who designs audio communications systems, notes, “Really, REMI production was already a working concept. COVID just forced everyone to embrace it a little earlier. Using RTS ODIN as the core of our communications systems played a key role in helping us make that pivot.”
Steigerwald highlights ODIN’s 128 channels in a single rackspace, and ability to interface multiple facilities as needed. “With its OMNEO ability, I can use ODIN on any Dante network without having to add cards or build adapters. RTS has always been reliable – sort of the MIL-SPEC of pro intercom systems. But now it’s all software based, so all I have to do is tell the system what I want to redefine it. And it’s still all done with AZedit software, so there’s almost no learning curve for our people. It’s amazing.”
For Mason, the REMI environment hit home in a very literal sense. “I have a nice director’s setup in my home in Washington DC. It has my rundown system, my remote feeds, my Multiview from the switcher, program return and redundancy. Critically, I have an RVON keypanel, so everyone can hear my calls.”
