In Broadcast - July 2020 - 22

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 10 - Issue 7 | July 2020

InReply

Axim Stand-Alone Broadcast
Studio Solutions
Ian Hudson founder and CEO of Axim Studio Systems, discusses the vital
role that studios and in particular stand-alone studios play
in the current remote broadcast production scenarios...
InBroadcast: Can you give us
a brief overview of what we can
expect in the next 6-12 months
within your sector?
Ian Hudson: Broadcast revenues
have been under pressure for the
past few decades. Increased numbers
of channels, global satellite players
and Social Media are all diluting the
pot and competing for a larger slice
of a relatively static advertising pie.
The challenge for broadcasters is, as
always, to do more with less.
Broadcasters must look to drive
cost savings and employ creative
programming techniques to
excel in the current climate. For
example, while some may not
welcome the latest fly on the wall
programme, IP based production
has meant whole series can be filmed,
recorded and produced, at the highest
quality, with minimal resources.
There are two areas where Broadcast
still has an advantage and those are
News and Sport. Sport can still
generate large advertising
revenues and technology offers
huge cost savings to News services.
However, to separate broadcast News
from Social Media, broadcasters
must ensure it is of a distinctly higher
quality. A wobbly mobile phone or
badly framed PC camera with poor
audio is fine for breaking news, but not
for mainstream programming.
Axim supplies remote, stand-alone
studios that can be used within a home

Axim systems are
fully self-contained,
simple to install and
remotely managed and
controlled broadcast
studio systems

or office space and provide shots of
equal standard to a full newsroom
studio. The COVID-19 pandemic
has meant everything from expert
contributions through to complete
News programming has been done
from the homes of contributing
experts and News Anchors. Remote
studios not only match studio

performance and quality without a
crew present, but the crew working
off-site can manage multiple feeds
simultaneously. Over a single week
in May Axim streamed 150 live feeds
from over 10 locations with 1 person
controlling all Axims in all locations.
Traditionally that would have been
a minimum 10 teams of studio
engineers and crew for five days.
The potential savings are huge, and
the speed of response and increased
flexibility are unmatched.
Axim Studios are already being used
by Economists, Security consultants,
Doctors, Politicians and reporters.
The live sports market should be
next to adopt this technology and Sky
has shown the way with their venture
with Zwift. For those who haven't
seen it Sky broadcasted
celebrities racing professional
cyclists in a virtual bike race.
Each participant is in their own
home, being recorded by what
I assume are webcams, the
race takes place over a virtual
course hosted on the Zwift platform.
It's a great example
of what can be
done remotely. Now
imagine that type of
programme
across
a range of sports

but at broadcast quality. That's not
only achievable, but achievable at an
extremely low cost.
InB: Can you explain the benefits
in regard to the latest product
announcements?
IH: Axim is a fully featured, selfcontained studio. This statement can
be difficult for people to comprehend
as the technology has never broken
this quality barrier before.
We regularly set up Axim in the home
of a correspondent or expert with the
control room thousands of miles away.
The streams and the control data are
separate, the stream can be sent to a
gateway, point to point, via a CDN or
any other route, the control can be at
the broadcaster, local to the talent or
a third party. The real benefit is the
talent, whether they're a politician,
a journalist, an expert, corporate
executive or sports star, they do not
have to upskill and become a lighting
engineer, a camera operator or an
audio expert. They stand (or sit) on the
X, earpiece in, mic clipped on and go!

Paul Violis, CBS News
Crime and Security
correspondent regularly
appears from his Florida
home studio

Stand in front of an Axim Studio, clip on the mic, put in the IFB earpiece. Everything is managed remotely from stand height to aperture, from lighting to audio balance

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In Broadcast - July 2020

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