Colombia. From December 2017 until last September, the Caracol Channel executed a project to install three robotic pedestals in the news studio, for which it required making several physical and technological changes.
The engineer Augusto Cardona, who was in charge of this project, told TVyVideo+Radio details of this process, which took 4 months of physical adaptations, three of installation of the system and two of training and commissioning to have it running smoothly.
"In the news center we had 8 cameras, 3 of them were changed by robotic pedestals, with which control is transferred to an operating table where one of the cameramen is the one who is operating the system. Through a touch screen, the shots are recorded camera by camera, both in position of the pedestal and the zoom, as well as movements. What you gain with a system of this type is the accuracy in each of the movements," he said.
The system consists of a pedestal of the Vinten brand and a robotic head that also has a tracking system, with which they can be used to make virtual and augmented reality, a task to which three of the cameras that were in the studio were dedicated, with which different programs of the newscast or sections of it that have virtual or augmented reality were made.
Engineer Cardona stressed that "We no longer depend on the human factor, which is very important. The difference is that now the movement is coordinated to the millimeter and all the movements are always pre-recorded. But the operator can move it manually if required. We can have all three cameras moving in time."
Among the physical changes made in the news study are the decrease in the amount of wiring required in the study, in addition to the renewal of all wiring. The studio floor was also changed, which required that in December 2017 the news studio had to be moved for two weeks. A new box of network connections was installed for the system, new furniture for the audio part, and the change of all camera lenses to full servo.
The system is complemented by an IP pronter, a talent video return system that is under the telepronter with which there are no longer return monitors anywhere.
"This system has allowed us to respond much easier to production requirements and producers have begun to have new ideas of planes and movements that allow us to enrich production in the air. Also the order and cleanliness in the studio, you can no longer see all the wiring traffic, we went from having 8 cameras in the studio to the 3 robotics, a crane and an auxiliary one outside the studio, "concluded the engineer Cardona.
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