Outside Broadcasting

Outside Broadcasting is the term and method use to produce television programems such as news and sport events which are broadcasted from a mobile television studio. The room is known as an Outside Broadcasting Unit/Van, OB Van or "Scanner".

Data signals from the cameras and microhpones go to the OB Van to be processed, and then made to be ready for transmission. In the United States, the term "OB" is mostly unheard of, as it is more reffered to as a mobile unit, or a remote truck.

The Interior of a Unit
An OB Van is usually split up into five different sections on the inside.


 * 1) The first part, and usually the largest is the production area of the van, where the director, assistant director, technical director, character generator operator, and producers usually sit in front of a video wall. This area is similar to a production control room, or a gallery. The technical director sits infront of the video switcher, whilst the video feeds from the various sources, including computer graphics, cameras, tapes or slow motion replay machines, all feed to the OB Van. The wall of the monitors also contain a preview of the monitor showing what the next feed on air could be and a programme monitor that shows the feed currently going to air or being recorded. The feed with graphics is the actual feed being transmitted to the main studio that is controlling the outside broadcast. The clean feed, without graphics, could be sent to other trucks for their on use of production.
 * 2) The second part is for the audio engineer. This section has a sound mixer, being ded with all the many audio feeds, such as reporters, commentary, on pitch microphones etc. The audio engineer can control which of the audio channels are added to the output, as well as following the intsructions of the director.
 * 3) The third part of the van is the video tape. The area has a collection of video tape machines and possibly house electrical supply for other equipment.
 * 4) The fourth part is he video control area who often check the cameras to make sure they are in a good condition and picture quality is good, looking for different parts such as hue and exposure.
 * 5) The fifth and final part is the transmission where the signal is monitored and engineered for quality control reasons. It is then transmitted or sent to other trucks.