Day: May 15, 2019

WMU Goes with Second Envivo Replay for Social Media Branding/Playout and Slow-Mo Playback In-Stadium

Posted on by contentntek in Broadcast & Playout, News, OTT & Streaming media, Production & Post Production

Social media and sports go hand in hand. So much so that when it came time for the professional video production team at Western Michigan University (WMU) to add a second replay system, they wanted something easy to learn as well as a system that would provide social media branding and video playout – all in one system.

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WMU already had one Envivo Replay, a sports and live event replay solution from Variant Systems, which is used to capture slow motion footage of the school’s Division I football team for in-stadium replays and for streaming coverage to ESPN and ESPN+. As part of the school’s video production unit, Bronco Productions, students are responsible for the school’s sports programming feeds to ESPN and ESPN+. Based on its simple to learn user interface and the system’s built-in branding and social media playout integration, the school purchased its second Envivo Replay system. The goal in mind with the second Envivo Replay is the creation of more live content for WMU’s social media platforms and for scoreboard playout at the stadium.

“We want to get great looks in the arena and then get that content out to social media instantly,” said Thomas Delves, Director, Bronco Productions. “We envision this new unit being used very much for social media content creation and promotion and to get more video out in-game. Being able to brand and playout all in one system is a huge plus for us. It also gives us an opportunity to train our students before they start providing replay feeds to our ESPN shows. Another benefit is that we’re able to teach students on technology similar to what broadcasters use.”

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Delves credits the support he’s received from Variant Systems as another factor in the decision to go with a second Envivo Replay system:

“Having that support is one of the main reasons we want to continue to work with Envivo. Olaf Bahr [Vice President of Marketing, Variant Systems] has been an amazing resource. They’re always looking at making it better with updates and tweaks. Just all-around incredible service.”

Variant Systems’ Envivo Replay is sold all over the world, and exclusively by FOR-A® in North, Central and South America. Envivo Replay is a complete replay solution with an intuitive user interface that offers support for high-speed slow-motion cameras, as well as playlists for highlights playback, built-in branding capabilities, and direct publishing to social media platforms. It allows for multiple camera inputs and multiple controlled outputs.

Envivo Replay is part of a complete live event workflow with FOR-A’s HANABI series of video switchers, ClassX 3D graphics, and video writer telestrators.

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TV Azteca Deploys TVU Remote Production System for Annual Hollywood Awards Show Coverage

Posted on by contentntek in News, Production & Post Production

TVU Networks announced that TV Azteca produced its coverage of Hollywood’s most prestigious awards show held annually in February with the company’s innovative TVU Remote Production System (TVU RPS). TVU RPS was used to transmit video footage from TV Azteca’s mobile unit at the venue in Los Angeles to a remote studio set up in a nearby hotel. A small stage on the terrace of the hotel suite served as a makeshift talk show set for commentary from the hosts during the live broadcast.

With director Alfonso Cuarón taking home three statuettes that night for “Roma,” the critically acclaimed drama set in Mexico, this year’s award celebration was of considerable regional interest to TV Azteca viewers. It was the first Mexican film to win the “Best Foreign Language” category.

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“This was likely the most watched this presentation has ever been in Mexico,” said José Vera, Especial Events Technical Director, TV Azteca. “We needed to create a broadcast for our audience that looked great, included a lot of live interaction with our hosts, but didn’t add a ton of cost. TVU RPS maintained extremely high video quality video as it traveled from the hotel to the production unit and back. It allowed us to reliably transport video from one location to another, yielding professional-level results while still making economic sense.”

TVU RPS allows broadcasters to leverage an existing studio control room infrastructure and a public Internet connection from any venue to deliver frame accurate, genlocked and synchronized multi-camera remote production. The product consists of one rack-mount transmitter (encoder) and one rack-mount receiver (decoder).

TV Azteca installed the RPS encoder at the hotel and the RPS decoder at the mobile unit as a backup solution. The networks successfully sent three high-quality streams from the hotel terrace to the parked mobile unit at the theatre, as well as a return feed from the mobile unit back to the hotel.

“They were looking for something with rock-solid reliability and no degradation during transmission that was also cost-effective,” said Rafael Castillo, General Manager of Latin America, TVU Networks. “RPS was an ideal solution for them. With RPS, there is zero video degradation, no matter the transmission distance. I’m thrilled we were able to help TV Azteca produce such dynamic coverage of a very important live event.”

RPS performed so well during the event, that TV Azteca plans to extend its use to coverage of sporting events, including football matches.

TVU RPS provides a lower cost alternative for live remote synchronized multi-camera coverage for news and sports. With RPS, broadcasters no longer need to rely on production trucks and large production crews. It features an easy-to-use web interface for monitoring and controlling all aspects of the transmission, including real-time previews of all-six channels, current bit-rate and latency. The TVU RPS transmitter can encode up to six synchronized SDI sources and transmit high quality and low latency IP video to the TVU receiver, which in turn outputs six synchronized SDI outputs.

TVU Networks has over 2,500 customers in more than 85 countries. The TVU Networks family of IP transmission and live production solutions gives broadcasters and organizations a powerful and reliable workflow to distribute live video content to broadcast, online and mobile platforms. TVU has become a critical part of the operations of many major media companies. The TVU Networks suite of solutions has been used to acquire, transmit, produce, manage and distribute professional-quality live IP HD footage as an integral part of news, sports and major global events.

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VITEC’s EZ TV IPTV & Digital Signage Solution Captivates Fans at Northwestern University’s New Arena

Posted on by contentntek in Multimedia, News

VITEC announced that its multi-award-winning EZ TV IPTV & Digital Signage Solution for Sports Venues was successfully installed in the Welsh-Ryan Arena at Northwestern University (NU). As part of the $110-million renovation, EZ TV distributes ultra-low-latency, high-quality live game day feeds, digital signage and video wall content, and IPTV streams from multiple service providers to more than 75 screens in the facility. NU can easily and affordably create eye-catching digital signage campaigns or point-of-sale menu boards and centrally manage every content feed and IPTV streams from the same intuitive user interface, setting a new benchmark in fan engagement, facility management, and revenue.

“The Chicago area is home to many professional sports teams and spectacular entertainment venues. This environment has driven our fans to expect a similar memorable and captivating experience at our games,” said Brian Baptiste, NU’s deputy director of athletics for capital projects and operations. “VITEC’s EZ TV puts NU’s Welsh-Ryan Arena in the same class as the top sports facilities in the world. Now — whether fans are attending a basketball game, volleyball game, or wrestling match — screens throughout the venue are delivering all the action happening on the court, with striking digital signage and video wall content, to every corner of the arena.”

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VITEC’s EZ TV Solution Installed at Welsh-Ryan Arena at Northwestern University
Photo Credit: Denise Reisen Photography.

As the premier platform for some of the nation’s most advanced sports and entertainment venues, including the Sacramento Kings’ Golden 1 Center and the Green Bay Packers’ Lambeau Field, VITEC’s EZ TV IPTV & Digital Signage Solutions for Sports Venues was an easy choice for NU and Mortensen, the general contractor for the renovation. EZ TV’s high-performance, hardware-based endpoints carry the on-court action to more than 75 displays installed around the concourse, at the concessions, and within the Wilson Club over the facility’s existing network infrastructure, engaging fans while reducing the capital and operational expenses associated with legacy solutions. Within the same centralized platform, the school’s small broadcast operations staff and sponsorship team is able to quickly create and manage video wall content, campaigns, and point-of-sale menu boards while generating new revenue opportunities. VITEC’s 100-percent hardware-based video processors feature ultra-low-latency native playback of IPTV streams up to 4K and support interactive content, video, and imagery transformations. More than 50 displays can be managed from a single processor, including nonstandard layouts and resolutions of TVs. The high-performance solution also supports scalability into the future with VITEC’s mobile app, Media Library, and a suite of modular tools that further streamline media processes from live streaming to recording, archiving, and collaboration — easily allowing users to manage a full digital video experience across an entire venue.

“NU’s Welsh-Ryan Arena is a great example of the IPTV, digital signage, and video content demands facing collegiate athletics today,” said Joe Walsh, VP of Sales, Sports & Entertainment Venues, at VITEC. “With the superior quality, proven reliability, and versality of EZ TV, NU has created an exciting fan experience while being able to meet any future video and streaming requirements down the road. We are proud to be a part of revving up the fan energy and entertainment that will keep fans coming back for years to come.”

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Magewell Named to Inaugural Streaming Media Producer 25 List of Online Video Production Innovators

Posted on by contentntek in Event, News, OTT & Streaming media

Magewell is honored to be selected as one of the inaugural Streaming Media Producer 25 list of hardware, software and cloud service innovators that are “moving and shaking live production and delivery today.”

The Streaming Media Producer 25 highlights companies who develop and manufacture gear that not only demonstrates promise or prowess in one or more stages of the live production and streaming process, but also fits well as part of a multi-vendor kit that makes the overall workflow successful. An expert panel of Streaming Media Producer contributing editors identified the 25 companies who, more than their competitors, are driving innovation and shaping successful workflows among professional online video producers today.

Magewell was historically best known for the exceptional quality, reliability and price/performance value of its capture devices, but recently has expanded its product lines to bring the same benefits to other critical production workflow functions including conversion, streaming and playout — a fact not lost on the judging panel.

“Magewell’s Pro Capture and USB Capture Plus lines are go-to-devices for a vast range of video producers to get video out of their cameras and ready to stream and record,” said Steve Nathans-Kelly, editor of Streaming Media Producer. “Magewell’s latest forays into stream encoding with the Ultra Stream HDMI and IP video with the Pro Convert NDI® encoder promise to keep Magewell in the thick of things for some time to come.”

Similar to how Magewell’s Pro Capture PCIe cards and USB Capture external devices enable users to easily bring professional video and audio sources into popular software, the Pro Convert family offers plug-and-play solutions for bringing such signals into and out of live, IP-based workflows using NewTek’s NDI technology. Ultra Stream standalone encoders make live streaming and recording simple even for non-professional users, providing intuitive control through on-unit buttons or an elegant smartphone app. Additionally, the Eco Capture family of M.2 cards delivers high-performance capture in an ultra-compact form factor with low power consumption, while the Flex I/O product line combines Magewell’s powerful capture benefits with high-quality playout capabilities.

“We are always looking for new ways to make professional content producers’ lives easier, whether through expanded capabilities, simpler operation, or seamless integrations that streamline the end-to-end workflow,” said Nick Ma, CEO and CTO at Magewell. “Our selection to the Streaming Media Producer 25 reflects our ongoing success in achieving these goals, and we look forward to bringing more innovations to the live, online production market in the future.”

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Mediaproxy highlights content matching and full OTT delivery monitoring at BroadcastAsia Show 2019

Posted on by contentntek in Distribution & Delivery, Event, News, OTT & Streaming media

Mediaproxy will show the latest updates to its LogServer compliance, monitoring and analysis package at BroadcastAsia on booth 6R1-06 in the Suntec exhibition centre, Singapore from 18 to 20 June.

The introduction and growth of OTT services has made broadcasting more complicated, particularly in terms of checking and analyzing delivery streams. A major challenge is that playout is no longer the final point for quality control (QC). Modern distribution ecosystems call for a greater degree of management because of more logging and compliance checks needed to cope with CDN edge points, targeted ad-insertion, multi-language support and event-based channels at different places along the chain.

During this year’s BroadcastAsia Mediaproxy will demonstrate the concept of exception-based monitoring, which uses IP penalty boxes that allow broadcasters and MSOs (multiple system operators) working at scale to deal with QC and compliance more efficiently.

Another important new outlet alongside OTT is social media. More broadcasters are now exploiting Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to extend their reach. These platforms have different, specific requirements for how material is prepared and Mediaproxy has incorporated dedicated tools for this into LogServer. These include features for cropping the image and altering the aspect ratio to make it better suited to mobile devices, in addition to the capability for inserting ad bumpers.

Among other new features for LogServer that address the needs of network operators running multiple stations and playout streams is a live source comparison tool. This identifies mismatched content in real-time and is able to compare one or more live sources using video material. An alert is sent to operators immediately if irregularities are detected.

LogServer also supports SMPTE ST 2110 media over IP formats and Newtek’s NDI (Network Device Interface) technology. By working with both these sources, the software’s compliance recording and monitoring options are enhanced, ensuring complete adherence to standards at all points along the IP chain.

Commenting on the latest version of LogServer, Erik Otto, CEO of Mediaproxy, says, “Controlling a large number of OTT streams can be daunting, which is why having a unified system for monitoring compliance and identifying issues across all traditional and OTT playouts is critical. To ensure that the right content is at the right place at the right time, Mediaproxy LogServer enables operators to log and monitor outgoing ABR streams as well as Transport Stream and OTT stream metadata including SCTE triggers, closed captions, and audio information, all from one place. It is the key to surviving the multiformat game of the future and we are delighted to demonstrate our latest advances in this area at BroadcastAsia 2019.”

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ATEME Supplies Hitachi Kokusai Linear with Ultra-Low Latency Encoders

Posted on by contentntek in Distribution & Delivery, News

The new partnership will see ATEME supply the firm with ultra-low latency Kyrion encoders.

ATEME’s Kyrion offers high video quality, multi-channel H.264 and HEVC encoding designed to address a broad range of digital television applications. Its state-of-the-art encoding core will allow HKL to save bandwidth and reach its audience with a revolutionized picture quality.

The encoders will be used alongside HKL broadcast transmitters to support the growing demand from the broadcast market in Brazil for high quality video encoding and broadcast transmissions.

Kyrion is a proven high quality, ultra-low latency encoder that fit with any distribution architecture. HKL will also benefit from ATEME’s continued commitment to evolve the Kyrion platform.

Fabio Pina, Systems Engineering General Manager, HKL, said: “We are always looking for ways to improve the quality of products and services we offer our clients and we believe that ATEME plays an important role in allowing us to do this. Our high-quality broadcast transmitters used in conjunction with ATEME’s high quality ISDB-T Kyrion video encoder represent an important differential in our product line.”

 

Luis Silva, Sales Director, ATEME, commented: “At ATEME Brazil, we are delighted to continue this long-standing partnership with HKL. We are confident that our Kyrion family of encoders and decoders will help HKL to continue to offer the best support to its broadcast customers, as well as its growing customer base.”

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ChyronHego’s Coach Paint Installed at Qatar’s Al Arabi SC

Posted on by contentntek in News, Production & Post Production

The coaching staff of Al-Arabi SC has adopted ChyronHego’s Coach Paint video telestration tool to boost player performance and better prepare the team for upcoming matches. Similar to those used on professional sports broadcasts, Coach Paint’s advanced telestration techniques give Al-Arabi coaches a boost when analyzing the strategy and players of competing teams, as well as for weekly post-match analysis of the team’s own matches.

“Time and efficiency are everything in our opposition and performance analysis work. We collect and have access to a large quantity of video and data after every match, and we need to turn around high-quality presentations in a short time and under pressure,” said Bjarki Már Ólafsson, first team analyst and coach, Al-Arabi SC. “Coach Paint is the most efficient and effective tool we’ve found for presenting every player from the opposition team to our players, and also for presenting concepts and high-value instruction in a clear and accurate way.”

Designed for coaches of all sports, Coach Paint is an out-of-the-box software solution with a rich set of tools for highlighting sports videos, including player cut-out, spotlight, zoom, player tracking, zone tracking, and many other powerful telestration capabilities. Coach Paint also includes an easy-to-use chroma-keyer for placing telestrator graphics on the playing surface without covering field lines, players, or the ball. Like its broadcast counterpart, the Paint telestration family, Coach Paint is designed to integrate seamlessly with the award-winning TRACAB optical player tracking system from ChyronHego to give sports teams a complete ecosystem for capturing, visualizing, and analyzing player and team performance data.

ChyronHego Coach Paint

“Working with Al-Arabi has been a great experience. The club has really embraced the Coach Paint technology and has looked to push its boundaries in order to achieve success,” said Craig Inness, sports performance and technology specialist, ChyronHego. “Al-Arabi is just the latest success story in our strategy to offer the world’s most comprehensive and powerful graphics solutions for sports tracking and analysis.”

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