14 TVBEurope London 2012 News & Analysis Cloudy outlook for sports
NBC Olympics edits in the cloud for website delivery. By David Fox
LONDON 2012 was the first Olympics to be edited in the cloud, after NBC partnered with YouTube to deliver the Games to viewers of the NBC Olympics website, and used Forbidden Technologies’ cloud video platform FORscene for encoding, logging and editing. FORscene is widely used in
broadcasting, but mainly by traditional post production users. The Olympics was the first time it has been used for fast turnaround sports production. “Having a few thousand hours
of the Olympics is nothing out of the ordinary. We currently do about 20,000 hours a week,” says Forbidden CEO, Stephen Streater. “What is different is that people edit as content is coming in. That facility has always been there in FORscene, but it is not usually needed for traditional post production. NBC is essentially
finishing almost all of its web output, including highlights, in FORscene, occasionally using Avid for trailers or special effects.” YouTube licensed FORscene
Gold standard: The NBC Olympics used a huge number of video reports edited in the cloud LiveU backs London 2012 By Melanie Dayasena-Lowe
DURING THE Olympics, distributor Garland Partners supplied 46 global media outlets with more than 100 LiveU units. The units — that can be carried around in a backpack — allow reporters in the field to send video by cellular signals back to their studio so that they can be transmitted out live to viewers. Media outlets no longer need
satellite trucks stationed near their camera operators. Instead,
they are free to follow the crowds and events as they happen and where they happen. Media organisations used the LiveU units to obtain exclusive interviews and provide crowd reactions from famous London sites such as Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace. Camera operators with their
LiveU backpacks secure on their backs have been able to send live signals as they cycled along the path next to rowers at Eton Dorney, followed marathon and
triathlon runners through Hyde Park and the streets of London, interviewed tennis players at Wimbledon, charted the progress of sailing in Weymouth and Portland, monitored the equestrian events at Greenwich, and caught the excitement around the Olympic Park in Stratford Sports Journalist Michael Buehler with Swiss TV said the unit had worked brilliantly for them. Having a device at the ready even allowed Swiss TV to get an exclusive interview with Roger Federer as he
walked off the practice court ahead of the tennis final with Andy Murray. “We have been everywhere with the unit,” Buehler said. NBC camera operator Bill Angelucci had used the unit
late last year, and other sports broadcasters are also using YouTube for hosting and advertising, with FORscene editing. “The web output that’s edited in FORscene is seen on three continents and over 60 countries,” he says. The video it sends to YouTube is 20Mbps, but YouTube’s output to the viewer is at many different data rates and resolutions. One of the reasons the internet video giant is eager to forge closer links with broadcasters is that, as Streather says: “YouTube can’t advertise next to out of focus mobile shots of someone’s cat. They need professional content for their website, good enough quality for advertisers to advertise against.” YouTube can provide viewers and monetisation, and is looking to sports rights holders and broadcasters to provide material. YouTube will do the hosting, including cloud editing, although
in the case of NBC, the broadcaster wanted it as a way of getting the video on its own websites in a timely manner. It also meant it didn’t have to send as many people to London to edit and prepare clips, but could leave them in New York using this service. “It’s just more cost effective to do things in the cloud,” claims Streater. Typically, where FORscene is
used for broadcast it has been for logging and rough-cut edits, for finishing on Avid or Final Cut Pro. However, it can produce finished HD output, which can be transcoded for web, mobile or other uses and delivered direct. “We take the original HD input and convert it to proxy quality. You do a frame-accurate edit and either export the EDL and AIF file to Avid or do the conform inside FORscene, and output an H.264 HD file,” explains Streater. “About half our turnover comes
from people making broadcast programmes on FORscene, including top rating programmes,” he says. “Our first sports trial was with the world’s biggest sports event, the world’s largest sports rights holder, and the world’s biggest internet video provider.”
www.forbidden.co.uk
Camera operators could send live
signals as they interviewed athletes during London 2012
www.tvbeurope.com September 2012
around Tower Bridge. “It works so quick,” he explained, “and we’ve had no problems using it outside.”
www.gpl-uk.co.uk www.liveu.tv
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84