Guide Remote production vs an OB truck:
which suits your live event?

What’s the difference between remote production and an OB truck?

Both approaches can produce a multi-camera live programme with graphics, replays and commentary. The difference is where the production happens.

With an outside broadcast (OB) truck, the production comes to the venue. Vision mixing, replay, graphics, sound and engineering are built into a truck parked at the ground, and the cameras are cabled straight to it.

With remote production, the cameras are at the venue and the production stays at base. Each camera feed travels over a network to a permanent control room, where the programme is directed and cut. This is also called REMI, short for remote integration model, or at-home production. For us, that’s our North London production control room, with commentary, edit and our 24/7 monitoring team under the same roof.

At a glance

	OB truck	Remote production
Where the programme is made	In a truck parked at the venue	In a permanent control room at base
What goes to the venue	The truck, cameras and cabling	Cameras, cabling and encoders
What leaves the venue	Mainly the finished programme	Every camera, plus audio and talkback. Return feeds come back the other way
Who works at the venue	Camera operators, plus the director, vision mixer, replay, graphics, sound and engineering in the truck	Camera operators and an engineer. The production team works from base
Connection out of the venue	Enough for the finished programme	Enough for every camera: typically 30 to 60 Mbit/s per HD camera with low-delay HEVC
On the day	The truck arrives, parks, powers up and lines up	Cameras and connectivity, with the whole chain tested before air
Tours and several venues	The truck travels, or a local truck at each stop	The same control room, graphics and replay each time
Often suits	Shows that need the whole production on site	Single events, tours and recurring fixtures, with connectivity assessed and arranged around the production

What goes to the venue

An OB truck needs somewhere to park, a power supply and cable runs to each camera position.

For remote production, the cameras still go to the venue and still need rigging and cabling. What changes is the other end of the cable. The cameras feed encoders, which send the pictures and sound back to the control room. Our touring kit, with main and backup encoders and a spare, fits in one flight case.

How much bandwidth does remote production need?

Connectivity is where the two approaches differ most. A truck makes the programme on site, so only the finished programme, and perhaps a few extra feeds, has to leave the venue.

Remote production brings every camera and its audio home. That asks more of the venue’s connection, and it has to be reliable, because the control room can only cut what reaches it.

Stadiums and training grounds can have permanent fibre. One-off events can use bonded 5G, Starlink or the venue’s own internet. We put backup paths in place, with automatic failover between them. How much capacity a production needs depends on the number of cameras and the quality required, so it’s the first thing to check for any venue.

As a guide, an uncompressed HD camera runs at about 1.5 Gbit/s, which is why each feed is compressed before it leaves the venue. With low-delay HEVC, a broadcast-quality HD camera typically needs 30 to 60 Mbit/s. JPEG XS adds almost no delay but needs more, typically 125 to 400 Mbit/s per HD camera. On top of that, allow for return feeds, talkback and the transport’s own error recovery: SRT guidance is to keep a stream below about 75% of the link.

How long does set-up take?

Cameras take the same care to rig either way. An OB truck also has to arrive, park, power up and line up at every venue, then pack away.

In remote production, the control room is permanent and stays built. The work on site comes down to the cameras and the connectivity, and the whole chain, from camera to control room, has to be tested before going to air. Whether that saves time on site depends on the venue and the production. For comparison, a traditional match-day OB crew typically starts around six and a half hours before kick-off, with the truck already parked.

We plan and prepare every fixture with you in our own production planning tool. Set-up and checks happen before the day, and every check is logged.

How many people need to be on site?

Fewer than with a truck, because the director, vision mixer, replay, graphics and sound stay at base. When ESPN moved to at-home production, it reported an average of 15 fewer people on site per event. For ITV’s coverage of Euro 2024, remote operations took the on-site team from 300 to 400 people down to around 90.

For a typical club or tour production, the people at the venue are the camera operators and an engineer to look after the cameras, encoders and connectivity.

How much delay does remote production add, and do comms still work?

In a truck, the production sits together at the venue, and talkback to camera positions runs over cable at the ground.

Remote production stretches that conversation across the network. Talkback has to reach the camera positions and the floor, and people at the venue usually need a return feed of the programme. Signals take time to travel, so there is some delay between the venue and the control room, and cues need to allow for it.

In practice the delay is a fraction of a second. Multi-camera remote productions usually run their links at around 100 to 200 milliseconds, which crews work with comfortably once cues allow for it. Viewers don’t notice, because every camera arrives with the same delay.

Comms need the same protection as the pictures, with backup paths and monitoring. Commentary can come from the venue, from a commentary position at base, or from commentators working at home, depending on the production.

Which works better for a tour or several venues?

For a tour or a run of events at different venues, remote production keeps the control room, graphics and replay in one place, so the look and the workflow stay consistent from event to event. Only the venue end moves: the cameras and the connectivity kit.

A truck can travel with a tour, which keeps things consistent but means moving it between venues, sometimes across borders. Using a local truck at each stop avoids the travel, but the set-up can change from one venue to the next.

When is an OB truck the better choice?

An OB truck may be the better choice when the venue’s connectivity, even with bonded 5G or satellite internet brought in, can’t carry every camera the production needs.

A truck may also suit when the production needs everything on site. Some shows rely on people working side by side at the venue, or need to keep making and recording the programme locally even if the link out drops.

The broadcaster’s or rights holder’s technical requirements may also call for production on site.

Cost can point either way. Remote production can reduce travel and remove the need to accommodate a truck at the venue, but bringing connectivity into a difficult venue can outweigh that. Compare the whole job for your event rather than assuming either option is cheaper.

If a truck is the right answer, we can still carry the programme. OverExposed TV build and run their own outside broadcasts, and we provide contribution from the venue and distribution to broadcasters on our own broadcast network.

How to decide

Start with the venue: what connectivity it has, what can be brought in, and whether there’s room and power for a truck. When you enquire, we assess the venue for you.

Then look at the production: how many cameras, where commentary sits, and whether anything has to happen on site if the link drops.

Then look at the calendar. Remote production works for single events, tours and recurring fixtures, with connectivity assessed and arranged around the production. A season at grounds with permanent fibre and a one-off event at a remote location need different connectivity.

Talk to us about your event

You don’t need to have chosen between the two before you talk to us. We can look at the venue and the production with you and advise which approach suits it. We already produce remotely for Premier League clubs, with every camera brought back from their grounds over our own broadcast network and the programme cut in our North London production control room. Read how it works on our remote sports production page, or see what you can commission.

If you’re planning an outside broadcast, tell us about it: the date, the venue and where it needs to go. We’ll look at the venue and tell you how we’d produce it.

Published October 2026, updated with industry figures. Sources: intoPIX on JPEG XS, FEED on compression, SRT Alliance deployment guide, Appear on SRT latency, SVG on ESPN, TVBEurope on Euro 2024, Sennheiser on match-day OB.