Remote Controlled Camera 

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... the production process three cameras are used to film the presentation at the audi- torium. Two of these cameras are remote controlled from within the classroom (Figure 1). The analog video signals travel from the camera to their remote control units and are then converted into valid digital signals with 270 Mbit/s each. Although the Gigabit Testbed South/Berlin offers three channels of 2.5 Gbit/s ATM bandwidth per channel the data vol- ume is reduced by compressing the signal into MPEG-2 (4:2:2) format. Once the signal has been transmitted over the network, the process is reversed and the signal decoded into a digital video stream again. Afterwards the video signal is synchronized and displayed on studio equipment for the director to see. The director then produces an online edition using the three different camera signals and the electronic version of the presentation material. Since the director also instructs the camera personnel on additional focusing, zooming or changes in camera positions, there is a constant interaction between camera crew and studio on an audio transmission line where the added delay must be kept to an absolute minimum if spontaneous reactions or surprising effects are to be captured and the live element of the event is to be preserved. Before the camera crews are able to follow the director's instructions, however, the digital audio signal must travel from the microphone of the studio to the encoder and over the network to the decoder, before it can finally be converted back to an analog signal and pass through an audio mixer onto the headsets of the camera crew at the auditorium. After the initial reaction of the cameras it takes another cycle of conversion, encoding and decoding of the signal, until the new camera angle can be displayed and the director can actually tell that the instruction has been carried out. Due to the large amounts of delay involved the process requires a lot of discipline and patience on both ...