Live without compromise: A broadcast studio as checked luggage

A summer in Silicon Valley presented a studio build challenge which transformed the way I think about portability, quality, and more broadly, the future of remote contribution.

Since 2020, I’ve regularly contributed as a panelist to a volunteer group of AV & tech professionals who answer questions together from all over the world.

The panelist’s feeds are remotely switched by a fully remote crew and the finished show streams live via YouTube as Office Hours Global (OHG).

While my trip began to take shape, so too did the challenges I’d have to overcome if I wanted to broadcast throughout the summer.

Over the years, I have built many remote broadcast studios, but none with such an elaborate cocktail of prerequisites, portability hurdles, and output quality standards.

I narrowed everything down to three constraints.

First, to travel as checked airline luggage, everything must fit in two Pelican Air 1615 cases, each under 50 lbs.

Second, the sound & video must be as good as my permanent studio or this project would be over before it had begun.

Third, my MacBook Pro couldn’t be a part of the build.

I was in Silicon Valley to take meetings, attend conferences, and generally do things which required it to be uncoupled from the studio.

Equipment Any claim about production has to be backed by the equipment that made it.

Computing : Apple Mac mini M4.

Video: Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro with a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II, routed through an ATEM Mini Extreme ISO.

Audio: Heil PR 40 into a Sound Devices MixPre-6 II, with NoiseAssist handling room noise in real time.