In Broadcast - December 2014 - 32

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 38 - DECEMBER 2014

N E W S

InMEDIA

The IP Evolution Of Live Sports Production
Increasing demand for high quality multi-camera content...
By Rado Toth
CEO, STREAMSTAR

W

32

e are living in exciting times
for sports broadcasting, with
new technology able to reach a
wider fan base and offer coverage
of a greater variety of sports than
ever before.
There's increasing demand for
multi-camera live productions of
the highest quality from both club
owners and fans alike, while support
for lesser known sporting events
is experiencing unprecedented
attention. At the same time, TV
as we know it is becoming more
computer-based, offering more
user interaction via touchscreen
tablets and mobile phones, either
as a replacement for, or alongside
traditional TV viewing.
With such second screens
growing in both size and demand,
there has never been a better
opportunity for sports broadcasters
and rights holders to produce
compelling live streaming content for
multi-screens. Therefore, keeping
in mind ever tightening production
budgets, it is vital for broadcasters
to implement recording and
streaming systems that are both
cost effective and proficient to
deliver a seamless workﬂow, while
still retaining quality across every
level of sports programming.

Driving Demand

Much of the upscaling of demand in
the sports market has been driven
by an increase in the use of IPbased broadcast contribution and
distribution systems, which offer
end-to-end ﬁle-based workﬂows
that make it easy to provide
streaming coverage to a variety
of Web devices. Content can be
accessed anywhere and at any
time there is an internet connection.
Systems like these offer a disruptive
change for sports broadcasting,
yet also an opportunity to new
media companies.
The standard for multi-camera
live sport productions remains the
OB truck route to transmission,
with the signal pushed to an
encoder and Web streams for
online delivery. However the use
of such infrastructure raises many
issues, not the least being that the
substantial levels of technicallyskilled personnel to support it can
only be commanded with access

to larger budgets. In contrast,
STREAMSTAR's WEBCAST family
of live production solutions, ranging
from affordable hardware that runs
on an ordinary PC to dedicated
workstations with touchscreens,
enable anyone to easily produce and
stream professional multi-camera
video productions.
Just the act of sending a SNG truck
or ﬂypacks to multiple locations
across the globe - to cover a home
team on an international tournament
for example - requires substantial
investment. As well as the cost of
organising satellite uplinks, there
are extra considerations to take into
account, such as permits, security,
parking and crew accommodation.
These considerations, as well as
local engineering issues, can put
unsustainable pressures on a tightlybudgeted production.
If broadcasters instead choose
to go down a purely IP-based route,
video streams from IP-connected
cameras based anywhere in the
world can be sent via the internet
back to the MCR at broadcaster
HQ, which allows for a far more
ﬂexible and cost-effective localised
setup. Integrated communications
systems over IP also ensures that
onsite camera control remains in the
hands of the offsite production team.
Our systems, for example, can
accept four unique simultaneous
IP video stream inputs, as well

as additional HD-SDI cameras
and HDMI/DVI inputs for stills,
graphics and external feeds such
as score generators. The system
itself switches the camera inputs
as required; it also offers automated
preset modes such as crossfades
and transitions, as well as applying
downstream key graphics such as
lower thirds overlays and logos.
With systems like this, you have
production control in a box, able
to be sited anywhere with an
internet connection.
Similarly, expensive onsite instant
replay and slow-motion systems are
no longer the preserve of the major
sports broadcasters; IP-based
systems like ours can automatically
create such functionality using the
streams from each camera, quickly
and easily applied to the WEBCAST
by one operator. Content providers
should be able to further monetise
such content by adding unobtrusive
commercial overlays and logos to
generate additional revenue through
onscreen advertising.
When it comes to output for
streaming, a system based on
Video over IP is already ahead of
the game. Our systems go one
step further, offering on-board
H.264 encoding and a multitude of
streaming proﬁles for popular CDNs,
so that broadcasters are able to use
the highest quality HD streaming
content instantly in a live programme,
at up to 1080p @ 50/60fps and data
rate of up to 10 Mbps.

Scheduled Streaming

Another key issue facing today's
global coverage of sports is the
time difference. Advertisers want
broadcasts to take place at prime

Increasing demand for high quality multi-camera content

time with maximum viewer capture,
which is not always possible when
the sporting contest is taking place
halfway across the world. With
stream recording and integrated
media management, today's IPbased systems are able to schedule
playlists of edited material for
broadcast at any time; it's also
very easy to stream highlights
from recorded replays during
a sports event break and prerecorded interviews to enhance a
live webcast.
All of this can be done at a
fraction of the cost of traditional
OB broadcasting, allowing for any
size of sports ﬁxture, in almost any
location, to be broadcast online.

Sports Portal

One of STREAMSTAR's high proﬁle
customers, Huste.tv, is the biggest
online sports portal in Slovakia,
which is owned by one of the
country's largest TV stations. It has
12 production teams with a high-end
logistics process covering several
major leagues in central Eastern
Europe. We collaborated with the
team and designed, equipped
and built the entire infrastructure
system, which has helped produce
over 5,000 live events for the portal
over the last three years.
I'm not saying live streaming will
totally replace traditional sports
broadcasting; rather I foresee
there will be greater segregation
of the broadcast market. We are
conﬁdent of an increasing demand
for streaming technology, changing
the way productions are transferred
and offering endless possibilities for
multi-camera productions broadcast
to an IP network.
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