Camera stabilization systems: no turning back in broadcasting
Manuel Balseiro, technical trainer and camera operator specialized in hot head and PTZ in RTVE, analyzes the evolution of camera stabilization systems and their growing role in broadcast environments; all, in a context of convergence of technical solutions between film and television.
The stabilization It is an intrinsic part of our visual experience. Except in very specific contexts of intense physical activity in an irregular environment, people face reality from a malleable perspective. We do not face reality from irregularity, but from a adaptive perception and that, progressively, has been transferred to our visual education.
The evolution of visual language, accompanied by democratization of access to quality audiovisual recording through smartphones, has brought default stabilization to the content creation. Leaving cinematographic territories aside, social networks have brought with them millions of videos created by users taking advantage of the hardware and software stabilization solutions of their devices.
Progressively, the motion blur disappear. It is natural that a person can record themselves while running, keeping the entire scene in focus; that, when walking through a forest, uneven terrain matters little. What's more: it is demanded. The vast majority of content creators take advantage of these tools and even complement them with systems gimbal low budget. And, while the world of cinema has naturalized the use of these tools since they were progressively introduced in the 70s in films such as Rocky, the broadcast world travels a parallel path which, inevitably, will end up depending on the preferences of the viewers.
How did we get to this point? What types of camera stabilization systems does the broadcast industry have at its disposal? What differences exist with the deployments of the film industry? At what point will shoulder cameras and tripods be dispensed with in current formats to embrace stabilization in all its dimensions? Manuel Balseiro, a specialist in the subject and trainer, sheds light on an essential tool in audiovisual creation.
The origins of stabilization systems
Camera stabilization systems began to take their first steps ago fifty years from the hand of the Spanish inventor and engineer Juan de la Cierva y Hoces, who treasured more than 50 patents and actively collaborated in the first RTVE broadcasts. In the mid-60s, working for his own company in the United States Dynasciences Corporation, created the Dynalens, an optical stabilizer that allowed him to win the Oscar for Technical Merit in 1970 for the best technical contribution to the film industry.
This solution, used for the first time in the war film Tora! Tora! Tora! 1970, served as a basis for other technical developments such as the one promoted by Garrett Brown, known for having been the creator of the Steadicam, a solution that changed the cinematographic language and opened the door to new forms of expression for an entire generation of creators. Research continued under this objective with the popularization of gyroscopes at the beginning of the new millennium.
In Spain, apart from dozens of cinematographic adventures, the Steadicam began to be deployed regularly in television fiction around the year 2000 by companies such as Steadicam Factory. However, sometimes these “analog” solutions, which do not stop working through mass balance, were not enough. It was then that these solutions began to be combined with an electronic stabilization part, counteracting unwanted movement, with tools such as Perfect Horizon, defined by Balseiro as a tripod head that stabilized unwanted axes based on the same principle as gyroscopes.
Passive, active and hybrid stabilization
The technical evolution of camera stabilization systems has continued to this day, bringing with it a wide variety of solutions differentiated by their nature analog or electronic. In his research on stabilization systems, Balseiro decided to establish a classification that allows categorizing half a century of industrial innovations in three categories.
The stabilization passive It is one that does not require electronic elements: Ergo-rich, Easyrig or the steadicam variations themselves. Springs and counterweights favor mass balance, allowing the camera to absorb the operator's movement. On the other hand, active stabilization requires electrical power and includes tools such as gyroscopes, sensor systems or motion encoders, which start from a “zero” position of the camera that is corrected during the movement process.
Finally, Balseiro defends the hybrid modality as “the most developed and most effective supports”, uniting the original mechanical systems with technical solutions to achieve greater effectiveness. In this area, the professional RTVE identifies solutions such as ARRI Trinity, which opens the doors to completely new shots by tilting the camera, changing its height or putting it in different modes.
The standardization of hybrid systems in broadcast
Consolidated in the fields of television and film fiction, hybrid camera stabilization systems progressively occupy a most important role in all types of television productions. From large entertainment events such as Eurovision to large sporting events such as the Olympic Games or football matches, the small screen naturalizes the display in these contexts of gyro-stabilized heads, cablecams, vehicles with arms or cranes with stabilized heads.
“People want to see high quality products. And, although as a narrator you defend a type of narrative concrete with a unstabilized camera, the public wants a stable camera”.
For Balseiro, this development, driven largely by a lowering costs, is still a direct response to the requirements of viewers who are increasingly demanding in the visual quality of the content. "Ultimately, people want to see high-quality products. And, although as a narrator you defend a specific type of narrative with a non-stabilized camera, the public wants a stable camera," he explains, aware that the world of fiction and advertising has made its own the image stabilization codes.
In this context, television production “is being seen greatly influencedIn the words of Balseiro: “Before it was difficult to see a stabilized head in a broadcast production, and now I don't think there is advertising or internal promotion that does not feature a telescopic crane with a stabilized head. Television products are not conceived that are not of good quality.” This phenomenon even extends to PTZ cameras, which already include stabilization within their optics so that their robotic movement in the studios fits into a fluid production scheme.
Stabilization from the camera and software
Apart from external stabilization systems for cameras, the industry progressively offers internal systems more stabilization complexes. For Balseiro, these tools will not extend to the highest ranges of cinematography for a matter of costs. However, the industry is actively working to offer solutions intermediate to capture the attention of audiovisual creators who, on many occasions, seek the creativity in technological innovation.
“Before it was difficult to see a stabilized head in one broadcast production, and now I don't think there is any advertising or internal promotion that doesn't feature a telescopic crane with a stabilized head.”
"There are many manufacturers that are developing new tools with the aim of conveying the message that a medium is changing the way the narrative is told. But I think that what we have in our hands is still not exploited," says Balseiro, convinced that the industry needs "sharpen” plus the audiovisual narration that the technique. As he points out: "First you have to know what you want to tell. Maybe with a camera on a tripod you can make a spectacular film and you don't need to have three telescopic cranes or a vehicle stabilizer."
The convergence of television and film stabilization systems
The growing influence of stabilization systems is leading, explains Balseiro, to a standardization of the stabilization systems catalogs of cameras previously dedicated exclusively to cinema. The process of hybridization of both worlds, more than evidenced by the introduction of cinematographic optics in sports productions, the use of film flows for the creation of television fictions or the incorporation of the director of photography in entertainment formats, reinforces this reality, creating what the RTVE cameraman defines as a completely rolled over: "Within TV we already make film productions. You do a promotion for any channel, and you want cinema-quality optics and a camera, with a stabilized support"
“It is not the same as having an image of present, to control that image and want to give the news. When you produce the image, you must have some minimum quality parameters”.
Although radio and television networks identify opportunities in the deployment of cinematographic technique, two opposite realities coexist in the process of consolidating these tools. Balseiro considers that radio and television, under pressure from other alternatives audiovisual consumption, they must look for the highest image quality in each format, whether it is “an Mornings, current affairs or news", and this "includes camera stabilization". However, the quality of the image is frequently being poor. biased by current information.
Faced with this reality, Balseiro is self-critical. Televisions, in the process of fighting against the immediacy of social networks, have sacrificed the audiovisual neatness that previously defined them. “Many times we are partly to blame because any image is worth it,” he acknowledges. Given this, he advocates reaching a midpoint. Television needs quality. And image stabilization is a path that should not be underestimated: "Having a current image is not the same as controlling that image and wanting to break the news. When you produce the image, you must have minimum quality parameters."
An article by Sergio Julián Gómez
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