Delivering Live Sports Coverage

Year on year, we've all been witness to the ever-increasing rise in demand for live video content that has fueled across-the-board innovation in the way that content is produced, transported, and delivered to audiences and their many devices.

2018 will see this peak with the promise of not one but two global sporting extravaganzas in the form of the upcoming Winter Games in PyeongChang, and the world football tournament in Russia. With such high-profile events, one clear point of change is the rise in IP-based capture, control and contribution transport. The benefits for functionality, workflow, and ultimately Broadcaster bottom-line are simply too great to ignore.

So, what does it take to deliver live and uninterrupted coverage from multiple remote destinations to both local and remote production teams and thereafter their audiences? Audiences… who increasingly demand richer and differentiated omni-channel experiences, and at a cost that is low or less!

For us, the most successful Live Sports solutions begin with recognition of individual network challenges and a requirement for scalability, agility and robustness. As Broadcasters seek to cover a growing number of sporting events, in higher fidelity, and to widening audience and channel numbers, the challenge of maintaining consistent, protected, and high-quality video experiences whilst managing limited talent and facility resource logistics are paramount.

At Media Links we have been supplying our IP-based Media Defined Networking® solutions for the world's most watched global sports events for more than 15 years. Our technologies enable a dependable bridge between the source venues and/or stadia where the action takes place, the home production or broadcast facility, and network partner locations that support the exchange and contribution of event coverage. Today, these networks are routinely required to go beyond a traditional contribution function. Now, they must also meet 'as standard' an expanding set of requirements including an ultra-low latency capture and control connection for remote teams, complex real-time graphics, data backhaul, and more. All this, and over the existing IP networks that connect the customer’s media chain. Critical then is robustness. No single points of failure, lossless compressed or uncompressed transport, and a confidence that no single packet of data will be lost.

How is it achieved? In a typical example, our MD8000 Media over IP transport platforms are specified at each remote sports venue. The platform is specifically designed to support interoperable standards, custom network requirement sets, and to provide a bridge to legacy SDI based equipment and infrastructure. Multiple MD8000 multi-service units send camera signals from each sports event, including all the associated audio, video, data, as well as 4K/UHD signals to local OB vans. With this workflow, streams are produced in the local OB vans. Produced content is then transported over an IP network to the main broadcast facility, where additional MD8000 units are housed. This workflow offers broadcasters a secure, cost-effective alternative to traditional video transport services.

So what does this look like in reality? Last year, this way of working helped ARD and ZDF gain new viewers for Winter Sports in Germany. Our official Germany-based partner, provided OB services using the Media Links' MD8000, to supply coverage of ski jumping, alpine skiing and biathlon. Using a fiber infrastructure, content was transported from the various remote locations to the studios of German public broadcasters for live transmission. As with most of our specified solutions, the MD8000 also provided a critical return path for signals including data and file transfer.

The conversion to IP-centric facilities and transport systems is just one of the major changes sports broadcasters will need to facilitate over coming years. Some until recently have voiced concerns about interoperability. There's been a pervasive '…if it isn't broken don't fix it' mentality toward legacy SDI based systems, and the industry has in some cases wisely held back from capital investment whilst the various standards bodies 'leveled the field'. There is a sense now though that the argument is reaching critical-mass, successful vendors are offering a soft-step from SDI to IP transport, and the issues that ultimately held organizations back are gradually being eliminated.

Going forward, the features of IP transport and switching solutions, which create both seamless network infrastructure for broadcast IP content delivery and connect studios with remote venues and spaces, will be a defacto standard for all live sporting moments. Using this model means broadcasters will offer increasingly diverse Tier-one, two and three franchises alongside emerging and niche sports … and over time, they will dispense with the prohibitive logistical, talent and associated costs that have always dogged the production of live sports and other moments. Plus, as fans from around the world flock to enjoy live sports events on multiple platforms, and in real-time; broadcasters, advertisers, and franchise owners alike will continue to enhance these experiences with rewarding revenue streams and channel loyalty that only a timely, connected and 'always-on' audience can provide.

For further information please see: www.medialinks.com

This article also features in the February edition of Broadcast Film & Video.