What gear would I put in my Broadcast Truck?
How Would Making My Latest Video Rig Mobile Change It?
For a long time now I’ve wanted to start my own business where I would turn up at an event, be it a concert, Play, Dance show, Conference or something else, and give the event organisers a way to reach a wider audience by recording and live streaming their events. One of those ideas that keep popping back into my head is to have a broadcast truck as a central hub and just have the cameras and other video feeds go to it rather than having to turn up the day before the event and spend a couple of hours setting up.
Whilst I did write somewhat of a business plan to this effect whilst I was at university the technology has changed since then and things have improved… I’ve also lost that business plan at some point river the intervening years. So I thought I’d take you all along with me for the journey whilst I design a new Broadcast truck, from the ground up so to speak.
The Truck
The first thing I’m going to need is a Truck to broadcast from and as we are getting closer and closer to the days of the Internal combustion engine coming to an end here in the UK I thought it best to go electric.
Surprisingly, there are not many electric vans in the UK that can give you a decent range. Most of them don’t tend to do more than 150ish miles on a charge which while great if you want to go to the next town over and back again isn’t going to be too good If I’m doing an event in the middle of nowhere.
Because of this, I’ve gone with VW ID Buzz Cargo edition. Whilst It’s not quite been released yet, it looks very promising and comes in a few configurations that allow it to be easily modified into a small broadcast truck.
Broadcasting
The next major part of having a broadcast truck is well… having the ability to broadcast from it and for that, we are going to need an internet connection.
I’m going to go with the more the better approach on this one and bond multiple internet connections together. So the plan is to have a hardline from the venue if at all possible either via fibre or ethernet, and a number of 4G/5G modems on different mobile networks to not only give me good coverage but also a backup if one network provider has rubbish coverage in a certain area and also Satelite in the form of Starlink because what is a Broadcast truck without a big dish on it. In all seriousness the coverage of Starlink it getting very mature and covers all of England and Wales and is rolling out in Scotland so I’ll have a form of the internet basically anywhere I’m likely to be holding an event.
To bond all of this together I’ll be using the Teradek Prism Flex. This little beauty has 2 ethernet ports, 2 USB-c for attaching the 5G modems and built-in wifi that can all be bonded together to provide a nice stable internet connection. Not only that it also supports streaming in 4K via HDMI & 12G SDI. Perfect for my needs and makes this side of things a bit more future proof.
Cameras
Of course, we are going to need something to film these events with for this I really have 2 options the Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2 or the £1825 more expensive URSA Mini Pro 12K. You may be asking why the 12K. It’s mainly for post-production. Having the ability to stream the vent live in 4K is amazing but recording it to the camera in 12K gives you a butt load of wiggle room when it comes to editing together the show, allowing you to crop in a ridiculous amount without losing the quality. You could probably get away with 2 static cameras facing the front of the stage and in post panning back and forth across the two would probably give me a lot to work with. Add a Jib Arm into the mix and maybe even a couple of dollies and the end result would be absolutely epic. Never mind the fact it would look like something meant for the cinema screenshot in HDR. The other advantage would be the 12K camera would be future proof for a very long time. The Downside is paying the extra upfront. But Overall I think it is probably best to go with the 12K model over the 6K there are just too many advantages.
I’m going to need something to get the video feed from the venue out to the broadcast truck and for that, I am thinking of having a stage box that has an armoured MTP optical cable. This will allow me to send 12 pairs of optical fibre to the truck this is enough for an internet feed from the venue, send our own network to the venue, the audio network and enough fibre left over to have up to 9 cameras send and receive video feeds.
So Let’s fill out this stage box. We’re going to need a network switch and for that, I’m going with Ubiquiti’s Unfi Switch 24 PoE that’ll handle all the networking on the venue side by utilizing the switches VLAN feature. Next, we are going to need a way to convert the video feeds to fibre and for this, I’ve chosen The Blackmagic Camera Fibre Converts. These not only convert the video to fibre but also supply power to the cameras through an SMTE cable. Lastly, I’m going to need a way to get audio from the venue to the truck for this I’ve gone with the Yamaha Tio 1608D giving me 16 audio feeds to the truck and 8 returns all sent over Dante protocol.
Kittin gout the Truck
Now comes the fun part kitting out the actual truck. If you’ve read my previous post You’ll probably have guessed pretty much everything I’d like to put in the van for the exact same reason so I’ll keep it short and sweet and just leave a list this time.
I’m sure I’ve missed a few things here but I think they are the most important parts.
I think that’s about everything covered and if the reasons aren’t explained here, check out the post I mentioned above where I cover most of the details. There’s no price list this time as unfortunately I just don’t have the time to put one together but if you really want one just let me know.
At some point, I plan to write up a full new business plan with a cost breakdown and everything which I will also post on here, probably as a full page rather than a post but only time will tell.
So what do you think you think of my ideas for my future broadcast truck? Could I improve something? Have any advice for the business plan? Let me know what you think in the comments below.
