While Mike Strein, Director of Engineering and Technology for ABC TV Network/ABC News, admits that while he has had multiple disaster preparedness plans in place, “We’ve never planned for any scenario where everyone had to run out of every building we had.” (“That was completely unique,” he recalls, “and quite frightening.”)
Helen Tonge, Managing Director and Executive Producer of Title Role Productions, was in preproduction for a documentary on cruise ships in March and, she recalls, “a few days before we were due to film, the whole world shut down.” (Equipment was already on board one ship, where it would remain for the next four months.)
For its Facebook Watch’s live, interactive broadcasts, Mediapro Digital Chief Technology Officer Natxo Imaz Erdoiza says his team had to “act very, very fast” during the pandemic, devising a “plan A, plan B and plan C.”
“Our world was turned upside down in March,” admits Mobile TV Group COO Nick Garvin, “but we’re back to work.”
Since July, the company’s been producing multiple live sporting events daily, but as Garvin says, “It’s a new world for us.” MTVG has been implementing changes and workflows, to make sure, Garvin continues, “we keep everyone safe.” Although this has meant the mandatory adoption of masks, upgraded filters, frequently sterilization, individual headsets, dividers (designed and manufactured in house), redesigned areas of the mobile units to allow for protection between team members and social distancing, MTVG has also employed new approaches for a safe return to work.
What new technologies can be developed — and what existing technologies can be utilized — to create a safer production environment?
With the show-and-tell session “In Harm’s Way: Using Safetyviz to Mitigate Onset Liability,” the team behind the short film “Ripple Effect” demonstrated how it’s possible to use a combination of processes and products for the safest possible production.
