Hands-free talent tracking and so much more

Telemetrics continues to advance its highly accurate automatic shot framing and tracking system into one of its most popular camera control systems—one used by thousands of broadcasters, corporate and house of worship clients’ productions worldwide. 

reFrame Automatic Shot Framing and Tracking technology, available with the company’s RCCP-2A control panel, is ready to integrate with compatible hardware out of the box.

The reFrame tracking is powered by an AI layer that fuses facial recognition, object tracking and other data sources for highly accurate, smooth and reliable tracking, noted Telemetrics’ Michael Cuomo in an interview with NewscastStudio.

Because those multiple layers are combined via data fusion technology, the system can handle a wide variety of duties that production teams of all sizes will find useful.

Telemetrics’ reFrame handles adjusting camera framing when talent shifts or moves on camera or isn’t quite on their mark, but it can also take other objects such as desks, video walls or other scenic elements into consideration when framing the shot thanks to its intelligent object tracking.

This also allows productions to track and account for non-human objects, such as scenic pieces, video screens and more. 

reFrame is also designed to be flexible and can be used on all or only select cameras, and the human operator can take over or hand off control at any time. Each camera can be set to track and frame different types of shots.

“We can trigger based off of any camera that goes into either preview or program. We can trigger based off of whatever cameras the robotic move was last called on,” explained Cuomo. 

The system also can help human operators through “camera assist” features that can fine-tune productions with more precise framing, tracking or camera moves. It also allows the operator to take over control of a camera — either completely or by any combination of pan, tilt or zoom.  

In an entirely or mostly robotic production, however, the ultimate goal of reFrame is to give the controller or technical director a wide variety of practical, well-framed shots of the action to pick from and then punch up. 

Ready for a variety of venues and use cases

Fixed format productions, such as news or panel shows, are ideally situated for reFrame, but the company has also invested heavily in stretching the technology to work across a wide variety of staging and environments. 

For example, the technology is also ideal for house of worship and auditorium applications that have multiple people moving around the same space who need to appear on camera. 

Under a traditional, facial-recognition-only model, for example, a camera system could run afoul if the person talking turns away from the camera to point at a video screen or wall. Because reFrame also includes object tracking of the entire body structure, it’s able to track presenters much more reliably without hindering their ability to act naturally and dynamically.

Its data fusion also incorporates the ability to use a camera’s zoom functionality to adjust shots — such as if two people are on screen and they move farther apart or closer together, reFrame will detect this and determine the optimal combination of pan, tilt and zoom to get the best view.

Tracking isn’t limited to standing or sitting humans either — Telemetrics also provides solutions that can track everything from racehorses to a player on a field to further enhance both venue video board productions and live or recorded broadcasting. 

Telemetrics also supports legislative, corporate board, education, surveillance and medical clients who need to capture and record video efficiently or remotely. 

Tracking in 3D for the perfect shot

reFrame is ideal for handling dynamic tracking when multiple presenters are speaking and even moving around the same space, including assisting the operator by automatically framing shots based on who is speaking. 

The system is compatible with Telemetrics’ own RoboEye series of 4K Pan/Tilt systems as well as its full range of robotic heads, track systems, elevation columns, OmniGlide roving ped system and manual pedestals. 

Podcasting, radio or other traditionally audio-only productions looking to expand into video can also easily deploy Telemetrics reFrame and camera units into an existing space and add a whole new dimension — and potential audiences — with an economical capital investment and only one additional staffer. 

Smaller to mid-size productions can take advantage of reFrame without requiring a separate server or hardware to power the tracking, including situations where multiple sources are being tracked at once.

“This isn’t just for high-end studios or venues. We have a lot of entry-level users,” said Cuomo, but notes it’s also deployed at local news stations and networks across the globe. 

Telemetrics has been developing reFrame since 2017, and it was first released at the NAB Show in 2018.

“​​We were definitely ahead of the curve; no one else had anything like this at the time,” notes Cuomo. “Now everyone is coming up with tracking solutions, but we had a nice head start.” 

Telemetrics is also examining even more advanced systems that bring another layer into the mix — “time of flight” technology that uses battery-powered sensors that presenters carry on their person to help give reFrame even more data to accurately track subjects using reFrame technology.

Learn more about reFrame on the Telemetrics website.

 

The above column is sponsor-generated content from Telemetrics. To learn more about sponsor-generated content, click here.