Aftonbladet invests in IP-controlled remote cameras
- Multiplatform news specialist needed flexible camera solution to support daily program-making for online audiences
- Requirement to reduce personnel levels in studio and support social distancing
- Program production using BRC-H800 PTZ cameras, remotely controlled over IP via RCP-3500 remote panel
- Smaller ‘pod studio’ equipped with BRC-X400 PTZ cameras
- Video wall with eight BRAVIA 49‑in 4K professional displays
- Broadcast-quality pictures enhance Aftonbladet’s online video output
- Simple, intuitive remote camera operation
- Smaller crewing levels in main and secondary studios complement social distancing
Remote operation means we can minimize crewing requirements in both studios—a bonus for socially distanced production.
Vasilios Hatciliamis
Head of TV Operations
A leader in multiplatform news
Aftonbladet’s reputation as a print publisher stretches back almost 200 years. While not a broadcaster in the traditional sense, it is a significant player in today’s multiplatform news space, where online video represents an essential strand in many newspaper publishers’ offerings.
Remote cameras support production
As part of its ongoing digital transformation, Aftonbladet’s refurbished main studio in Stockholm features eight Sony BRC-H800 PTZ remote cameras that are used to support daily news program production. Capturing pristine-quality Full HD images, the cameras are networked via IP, allowing an operator in the control room to adjust exposure, picture settings, and other parameters. Camera management over IP is via Sony’s RCP-3500 remote control panel that offers intuitive operation via physical knobs, assignable switches, and a joystick controller.
The PTZ cameras are supplemented in the main studio by a Sony HDC-P1 compact system camera. Offering Full HD image quality with impressive sensitivity and extremely low noise, the P1 also affords Aftonbladet extra flexibility to use interchangeable bayonet-mount lenses.
Podcast shows with broadcast-quality pictures
The Stockholm production facility also houses a smaller secondary ‘pod studio’ that’s used for more intimate podcast-type shows, typically with a presenter chatting informally to a guest. Also controlled remotely over IP, five compact Sony BRC-X400 PTZ cameras in the pod studio capture professional-quality 4K images with superb detail, contrast, and natural color.
Video monitoring of camera images from both studios in the main control room is via a wall of eight 49‑in BRAVIA 4K professional displays. Slim, light, and featuring Sony’s latest picture-processing technologies, the BRAVIA screens allow Aftonbladet to critically evaluate images from multiple cameras with significantly lower hardware costs than investing in broadcast-quality reference monitors.
Exceptional images with reduced crewing requirements
“While upgrading our news production facilities, we looked at different remote studio camera solutions,” says Vasilios Hatciliamis, Head of TV Operations. “What we needed alongside the ease of remote operation over IP, was a good picture performance. What’s more, remote operation means we can minimize crewing requirements in both studios—a bonus for socially distanced production.”
