AJA Corvid Drives Real-Time Graphics With RT Software

Catamaran racing is an elite sport that uniquely happens in open water. Vessels slice through marked courses at up to 50 knots (57.5 miles per hour), all while battling the outdoor elements, making it an inherently challenging event to film and broadcast to fans.

UK-based RT Software specialises in developing the tools to help professionals realise ambitious live event broadcasts for sports like catamaran racing and news, as well as branding for channel playout. The company develops advanced graphics technology that enables broadcasters like Sky Sports, Sky News, TNT Sports (UK), Eurosport (France), TRT (Turkey), Bell Media (Canada), SABC (South Africa), and TVNZ (New Zealand) to accelerate the creation and playout of high quality, dynamic graphics. Its robust Swift Engine underpins the company’s incredible graphics tools and leverages AJA Corvid cards for reliable I/O.

"Our broadcast customers only get one shot to get it right, so our technology must be reliable, which is why we’ve standardised on AJA SDI I/O gear," shared RT Software Marketing Manager Ian Young.

A rich history of R&D and innovation
The founders of RT Software worked together in research and development (R&D) at the BBC before they launched their own company. Today, RT Software offers solutions that support evolving graphics needs across news, sports, entertainment, and channel branding. The company offers a wide range of products to meet diverse client demands and prioritises flexibility alongside reliability, which is why, Young said, "AJA gear has been a key part of RT Software’s offerings for more than 20 years."

"The majority of broadcasters are still using SDI, and our AJA Corvid cards are important to ensuring our customers can manage those workflows. We are, however, seeing a slow shift towards IP, both for uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 and the lower bandwidth alternative of NDI," he continued.

Powering a high stakes workflow for catamaran racing
One of RT Software’s clients is a major sports brand responsible for producing live catamaran races held in glamorous locales all over the world, from San Francisco to Dubai. Helicopters are used for filming, and those signals are sent from wherever the race takes place back to London, where an internal team adds a wide range of graphics. Often, this entails overlaying augmented reality (AR) graphics onto the water since the race leaders aren’t always obvious, nor is each participant’s location. Graphics also help viewers understand where the start and finish lines are and how the race is unfolding. 
 
Raw video signals come into the London facility via a high bandwidth distribution network. From there, the signals are distributed into various PC-based graphics stations with RT Software’s Swift Engine, AJA Corvid 88 cards for video I/O, and an NVIDIA GPU for processing. After the video comes in, gallery operators overlay the graphics. Then, the signal goes out to various television channels and online streams.

"It sounds simple but there’s a lot of video coming in and out simultaneously, which requires quite a bit of hardware and processing power. Once we hand off our systems to customers, we endeavour to make them self-sufficient with them, but we continue to provide any support that might be required. It’s incredible to see how they use our technology and the integrated AJA equipment in live productions," concluded Young.

www.aja.com/products/corvid-88

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