Day: Feb 21, 2019

The Big East Conference to expand reach and engage fans through social-first programming

Posted on by contentntek in Event, News, Production & Post Production

The BIG EAST Conference has partnered with Grabyo to enhance engagement in live video production.

The conference has begun using Grabyo’s cloud-based video producer platform to broadcast live and interactive shoulder programming for BIG EAST Shootaround, the conference’s weekly men’s basketball show.

The digital-first content brings together stories from across both the men’s and women’s conference basketball teams and offers engaging insight from interactive #BIGEASThoops Q&A broadcasts.

Grabyo’s Producer platform enables custom graphics and fan engagement tools, such as native polls and real-time data visualization from audience comments to be utilized across the conference’s live streams.

The BIG EAST leverages these community features during live Q&A shows which give the viewers the chance to pose questions to the show’s host and guests. Live commenting and participation drives longer watch times and increased engagement on social media, creating rich experiences and taking advantage of the viral nature of these platforms to grow new audiences.

Rick Gentile, Sr. Associate Commissioner, Broadcasting at BIG EAST Conference, commented: “We’re always looking to increase fan engagement through our live video production. Grabyo’s interactive capabilities, specifically regarding BIG EAST Shootaround and our other live shows, has helped grow overall engagement.”

 

Mike Kelley, President of Americas at Grabyo, added: “We’re excited about this partnership. The Big East is already creating some fantastic live content that unites communities of fans during the basketball season. Engaging sports fans in real-time across social channels is paramount to any college’s marketing and distribution strategy. As these fans look to access video across a variety of platforms and devices, this partnership will ensure the Big East’s content will be top of mind for them.”

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Renewed Vision Scoreboard and PVP3 Media Server Software Amplify the Fan Experience at University of Kentucky

Posted on by contentntek in Event, Multimedia, News

A new dynamic, dual-LED display solution powered by Renewed Vision software is now driving all scores, player statistics, live video, and instant replays for women’s sports at Memorial Coliseum, home of the Kentucky Wildcats NCAA women’s basketball team. Formetco Sports, the systems integration division of LED display maker Formetco, Inc, managed the custom design and integration of the end-to-end systems inside the gymnasium on the campus of University of Kentucky in Lexington.

UnivKentucky_RVScoreboard_GameAction

Formetco Sports installed Renewed Vision’s ProPresenter Scoreboard and PVP3 multi-screen media server software to drive game-day displays on two new Formetco displays: A 60 x 30-foot Formetco LED video scoreboard, and a 3.5 x 100-foot ribbon board. The integrated Renewed Vision workflow interoperates with existing control hardware and software, including Stat Crew, a scoring and statistics application from CBS. The Renewed Vision workflow also utilizes NDI IP video networking to deliver multiple video and data signals from a single network interface, and eliminate multiple SDI components and cabling from the infrastructure.

“As replacements to older scoreboards and monitors that had reached end of life, our major, turnkey scoreboard upgrade dramatically enhances the fan experience for those attending these University of Kentucky women’s games,” said Todd Heller, Formetco’s Vice President of Digital Products. “What’s remarkable is how seamlessly and cost-effectively the Renewed Vision product suite works within the university’s existing video infrastructure to drive content to our displays.”

The main LED video scoreboard—a massive video wall filling one side of the gym—primarily receives live video feeds and instant replays from a production switcher and instant replay systems in the existing control room. PVP3 arranges each display into zones earmarked for certain content, such as advertising, game stats, and crowd prompts like “Great Play,” “Match Point,” or “Ace.” With strict rules prohibiting the display of moving video during game play, the PVP3 user interface adds value by allowing operators to switch from moving to still imagery with a single click.

The ribbon board, which runs 100 feet along a wall opposed of the main LED video scoreboard, primarily displays statistics and scores for women’s basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics.

UnivKentucky_RibbonBoard_WildcatsWin

Renewed Vision Workflow

The workflow utilizes ProPresenter® Scoreboard to ingest scoring, game clock, and in-progress game data in real-time from a Daktronics scoreboard console/controller, as well as XML-formatted player data, live and recorded video, and other sources for big-screen LED display. ProPresenter Scoreboard expands the video playout, graphics and CG text, and other live presentation capabilities inherent in the ProPresenter media presentation software on which it’s based.

The PVP3 media server ingests the data from ProPresenter Scoreboard and combines it with live and/or recorded video, backgrounds/stills, and other visual content. PVP3 operators can also harness its more sophisticated video toolset, including digital video effects and graphical transitions, and manage control functions. This includes adjusting brightness, and switching displays on and off.

Furthermore, PVP3 enables composition of dynamic, multi-layered High-definition presentations that can be custom-tailored for playout to each Formetco screen with enormous, creative latitude. According to Heller, the integrated Formetco and Renewed Vision solution is UHD and HDR-capable, allowing operators to present higher resolution content at any time.

UnivKentucky_FormetcoBoard_RenewedVision_FanOfTheGame

Scoreboard and PVP3 reside on the same Mac to further streamline the infrastructure, and all video, text, data and other media content move in and out of the two Renewed Vision systems via an NDI IP-based video network. NDI’s cost-effective networking requires only a standard gigabit Ethernet connection, eliminating the need for costly and cumbersome SDI routers, switchers and cabling.

“Scoreboard and PVP3 deliver the dynamic presentation capabilities needed while remaining intuitive for non-technical operators,” said David Porter, Multimedia Producer with Formetco Sports. Porter added. “Their approach and support for leading pro video standards enables seamless interoperability with the University of Kentucky’s existing video control room infrastructure, while leveraging off-the-shelf Mac computers to cost-effectively host and operate the Scoreboard and PVP3 software. These benefits, along with NDI integration, streamlined the installation process while saving the University of Kentucky a considerable amount of money.”

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Interra Systems BVE 2019 Exhibitor Preview

Posted on by contentntek in Event, News, Products

What’s become clear: To succeed in the streaming environment, service providers must offer high-quality video and audio.

At BVE 2019, Interra Systems will demonstrate its cloud and on-premises solutions for service assurance in file-based workflows, showing how OTT service providers can deliver exceptional audio-video quality on every device. Beyond offering unified QC and monitoring solutions, Interra Systems plays a larger role in the digital media solutions space through innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning (ML) techniques, which will also be highlighted at the show.

Interra Systems continues its innovation with WINNOW, an AI- and ML-based technology for video compliance, classification, and categorization. WINNOW can detect and tag specific scenes and images such as violence and strong language based on user-defined rules. Based on Interra Systems’ widely recognized computer vision and ML technologies, WINNOW helps video service providers streamline their content for target markets across different geographies. WINNOW can be used with Interra Systems’ BATON, an automated QC product, and supports deployment on both cloud and on-premises environments.

The latest version of BATON supports integration with WINNOW, the company’s new system for content compliance, classification, and identification. Additional new features include REST API support for test plans, tasks, and reports; video compression scores; HDR quality checks; auto-scaling of BATON setup in Amazon cloud/on-premises; support for DRM techniques and enhanced audio language detection capabilities; along with new format support for VAST, P2 package, encrypted DCP content, AVC-Intra, WebM, Vorbis, and more.

At the BVE 2019 show, Interra Systems will spotlight its BATON ABR and ORION-OTT solutions, which set the industry benchmark for delivering high-quality streamed video. BATON ABR and ORION-OTT perform deep QC and monitoring of VOD content from ingest to distribution points. Through demos, visitors will be able to see how BATON ABR’s exhaustive checks at pre- and post-transcode stages, along with ORION-OTT’s comprehensive, delivery-specific checks and features, assure exceptional QoE for every stream on every device. For live event streaming, ORION-OTT offers a high-performance platform that can monitor a large number of streams for ABR compliance along with audio-video quality checks in real time. The solution suite also supports closed captions, ad verification/compliance, and DRMs.

ORION-OTT is now available for both Windows and Linux operating systems.

Interra Systems’ OTT solutions can be deployed in the cloud or on-premises, providing enhanced efficiency and flexibility for any workflow. When complemented by the company’s ORION 24/7, real-time monitoring system for IP-based infrastructures, BATON ABR and ORION-OTT product suites provide broadcasters with a total solution for streaming superior-quality services.

InterraSystems-VegaMediaAnalyzers

Assure Standards Compliance, Debugging With VEGA Media Analyzers
Interra Systems’ VEGA™ media analysis solution is the premier tool for standards compliance, debug, and interoperability of encoded streams. Recent updates to the VEGA family include in-depth analysis of AV1 format, support for Windows 10, the latest HEVC HM reference code, HEVC-interlaced streams, VP9 streams (4:2:2, 4:4:4), PCAP streams, WebM, ALS Audio, Dolby AC-4 audio, and AVS Plus video. VEGA ABR software provides in-depth analysis, debug, and troubleshooting of complex ABR streams, making the solution an indispensable tool for checking the quality and integrity of manifest files and variants.

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