EnGo passes with ‘Flying’ colours
In filming "This is Life Live" show, Fly on the Wall Entertainment (FOTW), a US unscripted production company, utilised Dejero’s EnGo mobile transmission technology, thus enabling the crew to gain greater flexibility as well as saving time, resources and production costs.
The Season 2 of This is Life Live unfolds human-interest stories live, over four consecutive nights from two different US cities simultaneously.
Jeff Anderson, executive in charge of production at FOTW, explained: “Approaching Season 2, we wanted to find a solution that didn’t rely on the deployment of satellite trucks in both locations each night.
“Previously, this required the deployment and briefing of two sets of production crews, troubleshooting for each, and basically reliving ‘Groundhog Day’ every time we hit the ground in a new city.”
For Season 2, FOTW deployed Dejero’s HEVC/H.265-capable EnGo mobile transmitter to deliver video over multiple IP networks, simplifying the show’s production cycle by removing the need to hire satellite trucks and broadcast crews at each location — and this, according to Dejero, has saved FOTW significant amounts of time, resources and production costs.
“With any live unscripted production, the only way you can make it efficient is to keep it constant and remove the element of surprise and as many variables as possible.
“Dejero enabled us to do just that, and it translated directly into more efficiency and cost savings,” said Anderson.
Prior to this HEVC/H.265-capable EnGo deployment, FOTW was already employing Dejero’s EnGo at Katy Perry’s 96-hour live unscripted Witness World Wide! show in collaboration with YouTube last year. The successful deployment using IP network connectivity then gave Anderson the idea to park a satellite truck in Los Angeles during the production of Season 2 of This is Life Live, and use the Dejero units to send signals back to the truck from any location across the country.
“You can’t ship a satellite truck, but you can ship an EnGo,” he smiled. “The EnGo is solid, versatile, and quite an amazing piece of mobile technology. The decision was made for us when we tried it the first time … and it’s a domino effect where the benefits add up.”
The EnGo mobile transmitter is designed to encode video and transmit over multiple IP networks to deliver picture quality with low latency. The transmitter can be camera- or vehicle-mounted, or wearable; and can be deployed for applications like newsgathering, sports coverage, and live event broadcasting from remote locations, and while in motion.
