Posture analysis of a TV broadcast cameraman: a case study

The work of a cameraman has ergonomic challenges which require care. A long-standing posture, peculiar of the task, along with the used camera equipment may result in the development of muscle fatigue that may cause musculoskeletal disorders over time. Aim of the paper is a posture analysis assessment of the biomechanical overload risk of cameramen's work in live broadcast television and to suggest potential solutions to risk reduction. In our case study, during the activity, the cameraman monitors the filming through a screen not adjustable in the upper body of the camera. The live television broadcast lasted 150 minutes, with 6 advertising breaks of 5 minutes each. We made video recordings of the task highlighting as the posture adopted could be classified as static and, thus, evaluated according to ISO standard 11226. Alongside this, we have also analyzed the posture with the 3DSSPP software (v. 7.1.3), allowing us to calculate, the maximum static holding time in which the worker can adopt the reconstructed posture before muscular fatigue occurs.The postural analysis of both trunk and legs showed no critical issues. Different results, instead, for both upper limbs and the neck. Throughout the task, the worker has a neck extension of 37°. According to ISO 11226, the neck posture belongs to the ‘not recommended’ area. Both shoulders were abducted (29° the right limb; 23° the left limb). This posture, based on the software's mathematical model, could be adopted with no support by the 5th percentile workforce for up to 4 minutes.Our evaluation, in this case, highlighted a crucial issue concerning screen height, which is above the eye level forcing the worker to extend the head for up to 40 minutes continuously. This is well above the 435s exposure time that 3DSSPP software calculates that muscle fatigue in the neck can occur for the 50th percentile of the working population. Besides, the ISO 11226 standard does not recommend neck extension, which was 37° in our 3DSSPP reconstruction. A simultaneous abduction of both shoulders to move the camera, although worker partially releases weight on the camera dumbbells, also contributes to overloading the neck joint. Placing the display on the back of the machine body, and adjusting its height, should allow workers to have a more neutral posture during activity. Our paper only refers to the camera model we observed; different camera could result in other conclusions. In future, we plan to further investigate this task by means of the muscle fatigue analysis using surface electromyography to assess through the time-varying median frequency.