Broadcasting from home during Coronavirus

[jredmond108]

Hi, These days a lot of the networks are having their hosts broadcast from home. How are they doing that in the hosts home? Are they using a crew? If not what equipment? I have several clients that would like to start broadcasting from home with a professional look.

Thanks for any insights! James

[Run&Gun]

Most that I have seen appear to be “FaceTime” level. At least for “news”. I haven’t seen Conan or Ellen, who both are supposed to be doing the same, now.

[Liam Hall]

Facetime, Skype, Zoom etc. A long way from professional-looking or sounding.

[mothmachine]

I saw Bill Maher’s show the other night, shot by an iPhone. It looked even worse than you think.

[Jim Arthurs]

Facetime, Skype, Zoom etc. A long way from professional-looking or sounding.

So a quick story; My wife is an LPC and is now forced to do tele-medicine using one of the HIPPA certified streaming services. I went to great effort last week to put together a "set" for her to "broadcast" from, with a good camera, nice professional lighting, a boom mike and all the trimmings for her to use. As I went to get her, I discovered she had locked away in a back bedroom and had already started a session using NOTHING I had arranged. After the session finished, I rushed in to see what she had done... of course, worse case! Laptop on the bed, the camera looking up her nose into a corner of the room, blinding bright window filling half the frame and reducing her face to a dark smear. "Why didn't you use my stuff?" I asked. "Too hard to use, and what I did looks okay... good as the Tonight Show."

I'm somewhat concerned that this webcam "look" will survive long after the current crisis passes and be yet another tool to reduce crew and lower the general skill set on a production. Now who knows how many sacrificial techs are standing behind Jimmy on the Tonight Show to make the "casual webcam" look happen, but I see it as a way for future producers to cut all sorts of corners. How quickly the rules are changing... a month ago the 15fps standard def webcam was reserved for a battlefield remote, or extreme conditions, now every talking head is from their home, the major shows are using it either for real or faking the look to drive home that they care and are trying to be socially responsible.

[Imamacuser]

My local news people use earbuds with an integrated mic for audio, and a laptop webcam angled up at their nose hair for video. I'm not sure what service they're using, but I would assume Skype or Zoom.

Networks should be issuing home studio kits to improve home broadcasts. It doesn't need to be any super fancy or expensive, just a few key pieces of gear and instruction would make a world of difference.

[OldCorpse]

I saw Bill Maher’s show the other night, shot by an iPhone. It looked even worse than you think.

I saw the same thing. But what I don't get is why it was as bad as it was - I've seen similar stuff done on the iPhone that was leagues better (heck, Soderbergh shot full on features on iPhones years ago!). I can only conclude that somehow it was Bill Maher himself that operated the iPhone and he's just abysmal at it - either there was nobody to help him, or if someone technical was helping him remotely, it didn't work out too well. I don't get it.

[mothmachine]

When he was outdoors, someone was holding the phone, which was clear when at one point that person started walking away from him for a wider shot. But even more so when he was using the teleconferencing software indoors, it was about as bad as it gets, with half his face blown out and the light changing -- everyone he interviewed was shot in a much better fashion. You would have thought someone at HBO could've given him some basics beforehand. And yet the audio was fine, that's one place where poor quality would have been unacceptable. Whoever shot it was probably also a (relatively qualified) sound person.

[Jim Arthurs]

I saw the same thing. But what I don't get is why it was as bad as it was

It's now a cultural "thing" that a big budget studio production should like like the worse case consumer webcam shooting under the worse case conditions and techniques... whether it needs to be or not... Whether there's a dozen floor/booth techs or not... It's signaling to the audience that the production/star/celeb is being as socially responsive as their audience.

In this new, twisted, upside down world, the only "high quality" 4K content you will see for months to come is from lone wolf low budget YouTube bloggers.

[mcgeedigital]

Erik Naso is doing this from his home with his wife, who is a broadcaster:
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