Videstream spoke with Kurt Heitmann, CEO of CP Comms. US-based CP Communications is a leading provider of live event broadcast production solutions, offering customized mission-critical audio, video and communications solutions to the premium sports, entertainment, corporate, news, and other live events production markets.
Can you explain the concept behind Red House Streaming Studios and how does it differ to conventional studios?
Our concept is part of a bigger vision that includes Red House Streaming. Red House Streaming is dedicated to providing custom glass-to-glass IP production and streaming solutions for every type of live event.
Our robust, secure and reliable cloud-based platform includes IP content acquisition, production, remote management and delivery for premium sports, entertainment, corporate, esports, healthcare, news or any virtual event. When you partner with RHS, you gain access to a global web of public and private communications networks, assuring a true end-to-end managed IP solution.
We differ from conventional studios because we stay in an IP protocol eco-system. RTSP, RTMP, SRT, WebRTC. We capture, produce, manage and deliver in IP. RHS Studios makes it convenient and quick for clients to launch new productions and immediately begin live streaming to the any URL, social media outlet, or OTT. We are a full service turnkey streaming and recording studio that can be remotely managed from your location if needed. You do not have to be in the control room to produce a show, you can have talent at the studio and we give you the tools to produce from your location, or you can produce from our studio and have talent remote. Either way we give the ultimate flexibility for producers of content.
We can also support clients with bigger production needs, including creation of a virtual set with a green screen studio. Red House Streaming Studios will support everything from corporate training and education videos, to news and talking head segments, to full broadcast-quality TV productions.
CP Communications is renowned for innovation: what led the company to produce the camSTREAM and what are the product’s advantages?
CamSTREAM was actually developed and launched at NAB 2019. We are the exclusive distributor of Mobile Viewpoint products in North America and the Caribbean and we wanted to develop the line into a REMI, AT-HOME style remote IP acquisition solution, so we did.
The system quickly changed from a rack in a case solution to the present unified solution because of COVID-19. We were approached by several production companies as they heard about our streaming solutions and they needed a more simple talent solution, because as you know, talent could not travel and they had shows that needed to be produced. So we came up with a new version of CamSTREAM and refined it to include a remote control audio and PTZ GUI, both of which were developed in house, to make it even easier to use and operate.
Talent can set the system up in less then 10 minutes, power the system up and it calls home to our NOC. You can be on the air in less than 1 hour. Broadcast quality audio, video, communications and control. Nobody else can do that!
What does 2021 look like for CP Comms? Will you be investing different technology, or changing your workflows due to the events of 2020?
2021? Well it certainly looks better then 2020, that’s for sure. We expect the sports industry to rebound in 2021 and for our core CP solutions that is welcome news. Regarding corporate and entertainment, we see a paradigm shift from traditional production systems to IP and remote production systems and that is where we will focus the vast majority of our biz-dev attention. CP Communications has been investing in IP acquisition technologies for the last three years and we will continue to invest in, develop around and build solutions around IP.
We are focused on helping production companies and content producers do their creative work and deliver their messages without having to travel, without production headaches, and at a cost-effective price point. We are also developing our own RHS Production Desktop tools, a virtual solution that will be customized and configured to each client’s needs.
I notice your company uses Mobile Viewpoint technology, what benefits does MVP technology bring to the company?
As I stated earlier we are the exclusive North American distributors for Mobile Viewpoint and we chose MVP for a reason, they offer the best adaptive bitrate encoding and multiplexing in the industry. They also offer a true bi-directional data solution thus allowing us, or any user, a virtual network. We leverage the data network in all of our bonded cellular solutions. MVP also give our client options with data plans. We are the only provider that offers users a choice between our data plans or using their own. We also offer e-sims and CBRS options for data. No other provider does that to my knowledge.
How much of your work at CP Comms is now dependent on the cloud? Is this an area you’re investing in?
All of our bonded cellular solutions leverage the cloud at some point. All of our core technologies; wireless audio, video and communications as well as audio control leverage the cloud in some way as well so I would say that 75% of our solutions are dependent on networks and the cloud. We are investing in and developing our own cloud based solutions at Red House Streaming. From virtual desktops to virtual instances of our production tools and streaming management of our eco-system – the cloud is the future.
ARTICLE RETRIEVED FROM THE INTERNET ARCHIVE.
