SD Endurance

Dick Garrett rides backwardson a motorcycle to capture the 2008 Boston Marathon with a
Panasonic AJ-SDX900 equipped with a Fujinon A10X4.8BEVM-28 lens.

The year is 490 B.C. Television is several millenniums away, and little does the populace know, but the first-ever marathon is about to begin. The objective is simple: a lone runner sprints 26 miles, starting in Marathon, Greece, to deliver news to the awaiting throngs in Athens. Pheidippides runs, tells the story of the Greek victory over the Persians, and dies.

Today's modern marathon is run for speed, endurance, and sport — but there's still the challenge of getting information from point A to point B across a 26-mile span without killing the messenger. Bridging those miles with unabated digital audio and video signals is what keeps television director Bruce Treut awake at nights. His company, Green Line Group, provides live television coverage for major sporting events including the Boston Marathon. He has been directing the Boston event since 1989 — and each year, it presents new hurdles.

Receiving units designed and manufactured by Total RF Productions sit atop 120ft. snorkel lifts—some on municipal lots and some on private driveways—to transmit signals from the trucks and motorcycles on the ground to the production truck at the finish line.

First held in 1897 with 15 runners, the Boston Marathon has grown into one of America's most acclaimed and prestigious road races. And year by year, as the Boston Marathon grows, so does the television coverage. This year, nearly 25,000 runners covered the course on April 21. The television show, which is broadcast worldwide and domestically on Versus, is produced by BEST (Blue Entertainment Sports Television) for the Boston Athletic Association. The logistics of putting on and directing the television show is handled by Treut and his troops. Presently, the television coverage is in standard definition. Treut says he hopes the show will be switching to HD in the coming years. “It's all a matter of budget,” he says. “It's a very expensive production to mount as is.”

So how do you cover a 26-mile course? Other sports — hockey, football, basketball — happen with-in a contained arena. Even golf has limited territory. At the start line of the marathon in Hopkinton, Mass., the signal can be sent to the production truck at the finish line over fiber-optic lines. And the finish line is fairly self-contained. It's those miles in between that cause sleepless nights for the production crew. In years past, helicopters were used as relay points for microwave signals beamed up from mobile television RF units. At first, a technician would sit in the back of a truck with a microwave dish, literally pointing the dish at the helicopter. Then as technology progressed, omnidirectional antennae were employed to send signals from the trucks and motorcycles to the helicopter for relay. That worked well until a few years ago, when fog shrouded the route and the FAA grounded the 'copters.

“After the start of the race, there were no pictures,” Treut says with a smile and a sigh. “We were in nowhere land, showing reruns of previous years. It was terrible. About halfway through the race, two brave pilots — daring guys, Vietnam vets — they took off and started flying. The ceiling was about 200ft. The FAA is telling them they have to land. Local housewives are calling police because the 'copters are flying under the clouds right over their homes. But these pilots said there's a show going on and they had to fly. So about halfway through the race, we started getting live pictures again. Two pilots had licenses suspended for six months, but the show must go on.”

Panasonic AJ-SDX900 DVCPRO 50 cameras were chosen because the signal can be output directly from the camera using a serial digital-interface terminal.

Today, helicopters are out as relay points. So what to do? The New York City Marathon is easy because it's run in Manhattan with skyscrapers all around. Antennae are mounted on tall buildings to relay the signals. But outside of downtown Boston, there are no tall buildings all the way to Hopkinton, an outer suburb where the race starts. So show producers turned to a Pennsylvania company called Total RF, which had been involved in the Boston Marathon since the early 1990s.

“We provide complete digital coverage utilizing six terrestrial receive sites, with a complement of four vehicles [two trucks and two motorcycles] all tracked by GPS. All sites and vehicles employ proprietary systems designed and manufactured by Total RF Productions,” says Tom Sharkoski of Total RF. “The weather conditions of the past no longer haunt us. Now no matter how low the ceiling, the signal gets through.” The receiving units sit atop 120ft. snorkel lifts that weigh 55,000lbs. Some are on municipal lots or on public ways; others have to be put on private driveways. One accommodating citizen, when rebuilding his house, installed a special hot-topped pad just for the heavy lifts.

The lead runners of both the women's and men's divisions are covered by cameras on the back of pickup trucks and special motorcycles. The flatbeds of the pickup trucks are configured with custom air-shock camera-mount systems designed by Total RF, which hold stabilized FLIR camera systems. According to FLIR, “The UltraMedia product line features five-axis, microprocessor-controlled gyro-stabilization, which removes all the vibration and jitter from the image even when hard-mounted to a helicopter. Each unit is hermetically sealed for weatherization and can zoom to more than 1000mm. The system can be outfitted with standard-definition or high-definition cameras with aspect ratios of 4:3 or 16:9.”

For the Boston Marathon, Sony DSR-570 SD cameras with Fujinon 36X10.5BERD zoom lenses (10.5mm-378mm) are used. The trucks, like the bikes, have custom wiring to accommodate the microwave outbound camera signals, audio feeds from the announcers, and the two-way communications systems. The producer and director need to be able to speak directly with the camera operators and drivers.

As the four vehicles traverse the course, they are tracked via GPS in order to determine their location. This tracking allows each receive site to optimize RF signal strength.

The processed signals are then combined and passed back to the Prudential tower, a high-rise near the production trucks at the finish line in Boston, where the signal continues its journey along a single-mode fiber-optic cable.

On the back of the pickup trucks, camera operators control pan, tilt, and zoom on Sony RMP-9 portable control units. The resulting pictures are extremely smooth, hiding the bumps, ruts, and potholes leftover from an extreme Boston winter.

Complementary coverage comes from two motorcycle units, affectionately referred to by the technical crew as “motocams.” This is not for the faint of heart. It takes courage and fortitude to qualify for this job. Camera operators sit backward on the buddy seat of the cycle, handholding Panasonic AJ-SDX900 cameras (DVCPRO 50) equipped with Fujinon A10X4.8BEVM-28 (4.8mm-to-48mm) lenses. The SDX900s are chosen for this utility because the signal can be outputted from the camera via a serial digital interface (SDI) terminal. This interfaces with the RF uplink units without the need for further conversion. The cameramen roll tape along the way, just in case. It's a cooperative effort between the cameramen, Tim Deroin and Dick Garrett, and the motorcycle drivers, Jim Faria and Mark Olson — all veterans of many years of covering marathons around the world.

The capture vehicles are equipped with GPS devices so the show's producers can keep track of their locations along the route and optimize RF signal strength.

“It's a dance all along the route,” Garrett says. “We have to be in sync. I don't use my zoom because pictures are smoother if I use the wide-angle end of the lens. So to maneuver around the runners, to zoom in and out, so to speak, I ask my driver to slow down or speed up.” It's a physical effort. At times, the cameras dangle close to the ground; other times, the operator is standing up and holding the 20lb. camera over his head as the moving motorcycle bumps along, to get “that impossible shot.” It's a stressful job, especially for the motorcycle drivers.

“You have to keep a distance from the runners, yet keep close enough to get the shot, avoid road hazards and enthusiastic fans who become more numerous as the route approaches the downtown area,” Faria says. “And there are no ‘pit stops'' along the way.”

“It's hard enough when the weather's cooperative,” says “TV” Tim Deroin. “But in a pouring rainstorm, like the one last year, the job becomes 10 times more hazardous.” A dent in his helmet highlights the point.

“These are special guys, real veterans,” Treut says. “They make the show really exceptional. Not any cameraman can do the job. I have been working with them for a number of years, and I've come to rely on them to get exceptional pictures.” Overhead, because the weather this day is crystal-clear, a helicopter provided by WBZ-TV sends back aerial views of the race.

The lead runners are captured by Sony DSR-570 cameras with Fujinon 36X10.5BERD zoom lenses inside stabilized FLIR UltraMedia systems.

The production is also unusual in the sense that there are really two production centers. At the start line is a television truck provided by CSP Mobile Productions, where there are six camera positions — three fixed, one on a jib, and two handheld. Two hours before the race, signals are put online for anyone on the network who wants a live feed — including the one local Boston station, WBZ-TV, that still covers the race live. Green Line director Shawn Jensen handles the start of the race — including the wheelchair, men's, and women's divisions. Signals are sent to production headquarters at the finish line in Boston via single-mode fiber-optic cable provided by Verizon.

Once the race is underway, the directorial duties are picked up by the show's main director, Treut, who is at the finish line in a truck provided by New Century Productions (NCP). Treut has 10 cameras to work with at the finish line — seven at fixed positions to capture the dramatic finish, one handheld, and two in the booth covering race announcers Al Trautwig and Larry Rawson. There are two other announcers: Lewis Johnson in the men's lead truck and Ed Eyestone riding on the women's lead truck.

Nick Marchetta is the technical director in the big truck at the finish line. At his fingertips is a Grass Valley Kalypso digital video production switcher, which offers mix/effects capabilities with keying and compositing and an open, networked architecture for robust operational integration. The switcher features 80 inputs, three mix/effects busses, 24 aux busses, chroma key, borderline key edge, color corrector, and a Sony digital-video router. What more could a TD want?

Sony RMP-9 portable control units provide pan, tilt, and zoom for the lead-runner cameras on the trucks.

All of the audio is also mixed by Phil Adler at the finish line on a Yamaha PM1D digital audio console. The audio engineer controls 96 inputs, two 360 Systems Digicart/E Ethernet audio recorders, and a Sony MiniDisc player.

It's a grueling day for the athletes and the TV crew. Crowded at the start, the thousands of runners soon spread apart across the 26-mile course. To track the runners, one technical advance in recent years has been the advent of chips in the running shoes. As they pass strategic mile markers, electronic chip readers send the information back to race officials and the television truck where they are displayed on the lower third of the screen.

The elite runners cover the course in just more than two hours — and normally, the television coverage ends shortly thereafter. This year, however, champion bicycle racer Lance Armstrong is running for charity. Given the high human-interest value, Treut sends the motocams back onto the course to pick up this special participant. Armstrong finishes the race in just less than three hours, and it makes for great television.

In the truck, there's a sigh of relief: another race in the can. It was a great day for television and digital broadcasting. All of the RF signals made it through the maze, and there were no crashes on the course. After a few days' rest, Treut and Amy Scheller, the production manager who keeps this well-oiled machine running smoothly, will begin anew, preparing for Boston Marathon 2009.

Bill Miller, owner of Bill Miller Video Productions, has been producing films and video for more than four decades. Reach him at bill@billmillerfilm.com.

I covered my first Boston Marathon as an intern in the news department at WBZ radio in 1963 — and I literally covered the event. My job was to drive the remote news vehicle with a radio personality giving live reports along the way. It was a much smaller event in those days, with much less crowd control and no live television coverage. It was extremely nerve-wracking back then maneuvering the news wagon through the cheering crowds. I can still feel my heart racing as I drove through the narrowing roads careful to avoid runners, baby strollers, or drunks who might stumble in front of my vehicle. So I tip my hat to the modern-day drivers and the hearty cameramen getting those exceptional pictures. Next time you watch an event like this, you will be able to appreciate to a greater extent the dedication and courage needed to capture these moments in time.

On a lighter note, during the 1950s, some high-school student friends of mine were covering the Boston Marathon for local radio stations. They had no remote equipment then, so the day before the race, they would visit phone booths along the route and put “out of order” signs on the payphones. Then they would hopscotch along the with the runners, phoning in their reports as the lead races passed their telephone vantage points. Coverage has come a long way since then. Hooray for RF.
— B.M.

To comment on this article, email the Digital Content Producer staff at feedback@digitalcontentproducer.com.