April 2013 www.tvbeurope.com


TVBEurope 41 The Workflow Feeding the second screen


New techniques and technologies are emerging to enable broadcasters to not only cover more events but generate more content per event, writes Adrian Pennington


LIVE SPORTS command the premiums that drive broadcasting worldwide and its production is changing. “Consumers are consuming more content online and consuming it differently to linear TV so there’s a big risk for sports broadcasters who might lose viewers if they don’t adapt,” warns EVS senior vice president of Marketing Nicolas Bourdon. “The big problem is that broadcasters are scared of investing in this area.” He claims broadcasters typically use just 10% or even less of the content recorded onto servers during a live production. “They can do so much more with the material they are already creating. All of the different camera angles, slow-motion clips and player cams, for example, can be made available in less than a minute to viewers across different platforms.” EVS is offering C-Cast as a solution. It is an automated hardware and software platform designed to process and transfer live multicam media recorded on EVS servers, along with metadata, graphics and statistics, over a content delivery network. First applied by Canal+ to


provide subscribers with live coverage of French Ligue 1 matches via a C-Cast powered mobile app, at NAB EVS is promoting a professional version. This enables further production processes such as logging to be remoted, as well as more content to be augmented with greater editorial oversight from venues.


Remote access “The professional evolution of C-Cast allows production operators to review all the


EVS C-Cast: “There’s a big risk for sports broadcasters who might lose viewers if they don’t adapt,” warns senior VP of Marketing Nicolas Bourdon


people,” he says. “In my view it transpired that NLE never really saved people money. Instead they became more creative. They still took a day to do the edit, but they did more versions of it and ended up with a better product. “Thesamewillhappenin live


content instantly from the server, add logs, and import selected playlists,” explains Bourdon. “All of this can be done remotely. So while this will enable costs to be saved in terms of staffing operational teams locally rather than sending them to a venue, one big advantage is that producers can increase the number of editorial teams and journalists at play. So they reduce the cost of the production and increase the quality of presentation.” And if an expanded team of journalists is not enough, how about crowd sourcing for statistics? “You could have spectators comment on the action over Wi-Fi, generating metadata to feed player-specific websites or related online apps,” suggests Grass Valley consultant Graham Sharp. “It’s all about creating more output, then it’s up to rights holders to monetise it.” The driver for broadcasters


like NBC during the London Olympics, which logged, clipped and distributed vast volumes of action for online distribution from its New York hub, was to reduce the cost of having teams


on the ground. Cost-saving aside, the benefits of remote production tech are being explored to deliver new business models around editorialised video feeds from an event.


Bit bucket “The linear process of producing live leaves a lot on the cutting room floor,” affirms Sharp, who offers a cogent analysis of the live production trends. “What will happen in an OB scenario is that multiple cameras will feed a giant ‘bit bucket’ of storage with multiple operators or producers able to access it, editorialise or direct it and deliver feeds in-stadia, to mobile platforms or specialist feeds tailored for different countries. It already happened in editing and in news production and now this nonlinear live production is being taken into sports.” In trials Grass Valley has conducted of remote production, the process reminds Sharp — a veteran of Avid and Discreet — of the early days of NLE. “When we tried to sell NLE on its return on investment, the pitch was that you could do the same work in less time with fewer


sportswherethetechnologylayer isbeingabstracted fromthe productionenvironment.Currently, youneedashaderandagraphics op, loggersandserveropsand switcheropsandother technicians in thevan,but those rolescanbe abstractedtoanengineroomwhich canbelocatedanywhere. “This may reduce the cost of not housing these staff on-site, but in many cases I think their roles will be replaced by more creative ones — journalists and producers — to maximise much more of the content already being recorded in order to distribute multiple, new enriched feeds.” Grass Valley dubs this live editing process ‘segmenting’ in which metadata is the key to determining which clip is played out to particular feeds. GV performs this function with its editor Edius into which it is merging its workflow management software Stratus to deliver live logging, editing and playout tools into the hands of creative personnel.


Enriched output “We’ve got to shift from having technicians operating all the equipment to having creative persons operating the equipment,” said Sharp. The concept of giving creatives access to all the video content from one ‘bit bucket’ of camera


feeds could apply to any sport from Champions League matches to the Tour de France to motor racing.


Explains Sharp: “In a Formula


One Grand Prix you typically only get a single international feed out onto which rights holding broadcasters add their own graphics and commentary. However, if the host broadcaster enabled individual producers from rights holders to select content, such as action from a particular driver’s point of view, they could sell an enriched output to their audience. The richer the content, the more you can charge for.” Second screen production is


likely to form a key part of Sunset and Vine’s plans for BT Vision’s coverage of English Premiership soccer matches from July when the telco’s new channels are launched to coincide with the 2013-14 season. We can also expect the techniques, most likely with C-Cast, to be deployed by host broadcaster HBS for the 2014 FIFA World Cup where second screen is a core part of its production plan. “The World Cup Brazil will be a global multimedia event and the Second Screen user will not be bound by the constraints of a TV schedule,” states HBS. “Such an event, where so much content is produced already and can be made available to MRLs [rights holders] instantly through the FIFA MAX Server, is the ideal platform for FIFA and HBS to deliver an increased package of multimedia content to their rights holders.” The number of cameras per game in Brazil will be increased from 32 to 34, with coverage augmented with a cable system and a helicopter camera for all matches, and including two new reverse- angle cameras for replays — so there will be even more content to repurpose than the 3,000 hours captured in South Africa.


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