live news and sport feature
Media, league, and team applications
For the media, a flexible, easy-to- navigate system containing all camera feeds, angles, and external feeds is extremely important for providing top coverage of major sporting events. There is also the need to monitor multiple feeds simultaneously and accurately record events in progress. IP video enables these types of functionalities by making the same feeds that would satisfy the immersive fan experience in the private box available to the media within flexible multi-stream players. During the 2012 London Games, both NBC and CTV used Haivision’s Makito technology to bring feeds from the Olympic village to North American producers. This IP solution enabled producers to have a greater creative say in the mix downs of events that were happening in London. IP video is also being used to aggregate all press operations back to league broadcast centres where segments are assembled. In the case of interactive interviews between league spokespeople and reporters, IP video becomes very interesting since it provides a low cost, high performance way to have continuous feeds span across very large regions. For example, in the NFL, the historic approach to conducting long- distance interviews was via satellite. This is a very expensive and latency- inherent solution, especially for bidirectional communication with round-trip times over two seconds. But with IP video, cross-country latency is reduced to as low as 120 milliseconds, giving a more fluid feel to interviews. This is important since on-air talent is not always trained to use satellite communications
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slices enables the platform to handle the heavy computational processing algorithms for motion compensation of the decoded uncompressed bit map frames and subsequent encoding of those uncompressed bit maps into the new format. This major US-headquartered network is just one leading broadcaster currently employing the RadiantGrid platform to achieve dramatic efficiency improvements in file-based content production and transformation workflows. Media organisations ranging from professional hockey leagues to public television services are using RadiantGrid to achieve faster-than-real-time processing and the benefits of intelligent, automated media analysis and handling.
Looking forward
In a game-changing new approach to standards conversion, the RadiantGrid platform leverages its media transformation and parallel processing engine along with Cinnafilm motion compensation to deliver outputs boasting excellent image quality in record time. Because the platform eliminates many processing boxes and instead supports an array of processing services (including but not limited to complex audio conversions and channel mapping, Linear Acoustic-based loudness processing, conversion of closed caption content and other ancillary data, watermark management, and even editorial changes like concatenation and multi-composite video track editing for bug insertion and motion graphics), sports broadcasters can implement the high-speed parallel processing functions they need today and simply adapt those processes to suit changing operational requirements. By embracing this file-based approach to media transformation, broadcasters also gain the flexibility to accommodate future file formats cost-effectively and with ease.
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systems that contain delay, and low latency significantly enhances the interview experience.
Today, both the NFL and MLB use IP video to power their interactive broadcast systems. The solution delivers high-quality video with low latency between the leagues’ media centres and studios within practice fields, stadiums, and home studios across the US, enabling fluid, highly interactive interviews between all the leagues’ remote locations and contributors.
For the management of big-league sports teams, IP video deployments in stadiums are allowing coaching staff and management to analyse games like never before. By monitoring and recording different areas of the playing field, teams can better study opposing teams, review games more effectively, and improve individual player performance. Playback tools are also making game-time intermissions, post-game debriefs, and practice training sessions more efficient for both players and their coaches.
IP video is also allowing teams to better address their fan base, as broadcasters tend to stream more regional content over the Internet. Traditionally, only a very small percentage of live and pre-recorded press-type content reached local viewers since the prime broadcasting systems did not have enough airtime for each individual constituent. But as media is being placed over the IP video network, content can be provided on a more continual basis to regional viewers via the Internet, practically for free. Therefore, as infrastructure migrates to IP video systems, teams are given more exposure at the local level, through around-the-clock video via the Web.
As broadcasters, stadiums, and sports teams migrate toward IP video, high- quality
solutions with low latency will be key to leveraging the full potential of streaming technology. Second, as OTT streaming and high- performance video to mobile devices become more accepted means of entertainment, models for deployment and consumption will be completely redefined.
More content over-the-top
Player technologies on multiple devices are fueling an increasing demand for sports content over-the- top (OTT). During the 2012 London Games, iStreamPlanet, a leader in live Internet broadcasting, turned to Haivision to provide KulaByte encoding technology to deliver 16 simultaneous channels over multiplatform devices. This gave viewers customised control combined with high-quality, low- latency video to the device of their choice, enhancing both their quality of experience and engagement during the event. In another application, the Czech broadcaster Barrandov began delivering live feeds of soccer matches over-the-top to Internet and home viewers through IP video. Using Haivision’s Mako-HD H.264 encoders, the solution enables cost-effective streaming without relying on traditional broadcast techniques. Viewers across the country now have access to soccer matches live via the broadcaster’s website or through their home-based set-top boxes. Whether in sports or any other large-scale live event, a stutter in the action will damage the viewer’s quality of experience. As broadcasters, stadiums, and sports teams migrate toward IP video, high-quality solutions with low latency will be key to leveraging the full potential of streaming technology. Second, as OTT streaming and high-performance video to mobile devices become more accepted means of entertainment, models for deployment and consumption will be completely redefined. Sports stakeholders will need to pair up with innovative partners at the forefront of the action, because with big games on the line, the entire planet is watching.
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