“EVS” XTRA’

XTRA’

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EVS get the debate started in its ConnectedPlus Lounge at IBC2013

These days a second screen offering – where content is available via both large and small screens – is seen as all but mandatory if broadcasters want to attract and retain viewers.  With a seemingly endless number of web and IPTV solution providers all catering to the multi-screen content delivery market, it’s easy to see how broadcasters feel there’s no option but to make expensive infrastructure investments. However, broadcasters are forgetting one very important factor:  live and relevant content is the main driver for consumer en-gagement. EVS is focused on bring-ing these criteria to the heart of the multi-screen debate; its connectivity solution, C-Cast, is central to this.

EVS’ connected plus technology, C-Cast, allows existing live produc-tion infrastructure to be used more effectively, opening up new revenue streams from content that’s pro-duced every day.  Built around  three main applications – multimedia, dis-tribution and contribution  –  C-Cast is a transformative solution, aggre-gating content from the ingest stage along with associated information (metadata, social media, stats, etc.), then distributing the enriched content to target groups (press, consumers, highlights production teams) for instant consumption via smart devices.

CONNECTED-PLUS – GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND SECOND SCREEN

EVS NEWS POWERS THE EBU’S  GLOBAL NEWS PLATFORM

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The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the world’s larg-est association of national broadcasters, has enlisted EVS News as one of the key systems providers for its round-the-clock Eurovision News Exchange – the leading news gathering and distribution platform for EBU member broadcasters.

The Eurovision News Exchange needed a fast and reliable news

solution to meet the demands of a fast-paced, global, 24/7 news world, and chose EVS News to deliver a centralised ingest platform.

EVS deployed four of its XS media servers for instant playout and multiple feed ingest, allowing up to 12 feeds to be simultaneously re-corded. It also installed its IPDirec-tor production asset management suite and IPLogger module.

TOMORROWLAND MAKES MORE NOISE WITH EVSWorld-famous Belgian electron-ic-dance festival, Tomorrow-land, had an even bigger impact this year via Tomorrowland TV, its dedicated live YouTube chan-nel. The live production setup was built around EVS technolo-gy, including XT3 servers and the IPDirector content management suite. A total of fifteen hours

of live video content including coverage from the three main fes-tival stages was produced this year.

Tomorrowland TV’s broadcast centre gallery, built around EVS technology, was the central hub for gathering and transmitting feeds, playing out video highlights, high-end edits and exclusive DJ interviews.

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THIS LOOKS LIKE A JOB FOR UNIREADER!

TO BE CONTINUED ON PAGE 7…

2“EVS” XTRA’

EVS IPLINK ADOBE PLUGIN SPEEDS UP CREATIVE TASKS

The IPLink feature in EVS’ IP-Director production asset man-agement suite provides greater integration between EVS work-flows and Adobe Premiere Pro. Premiere Pro users are able to search through and preview media on EVS live produc-tion servers and import files, plus any associated metadata, instantly into their timeline  for

editing. The IPLink plugin in Premiere Pro drastically simplifies editors’ tasks, allowing for more of a creative focus and eliminates the need for an additional IPDirector workstation and saves time during the editing process.

A QUICK CHAT WITH... JOOP JANSSEN, CEO • What do you think the key

industry trends are for IBC2013 and beyond?

File-based workflow efficien-cy and connectivity should absolutely be one of the key industry hot topics this year. There needs to be a bigger focus on perfecting the de-livery of content recorded on one side to the audience on the other. Total integra-tion between broadcasting and technology will bring key solutions to the indus-try, like successful remote production and providing instant access to content throughout the IP network, which we used to refer to as the cloud, but at EVS we believe refers to connectivity in every sense of the word.

4K will also obviously be a big topic for discussion as well.

• This is now your second IBC with EVS, how’ve you settled in and what do you have your sights set on for the next 12 months?

It feels like I’ve been at EVS for much longer, which is always a good sign. We’ve undergone some pretty monumental changes, so it’s been very exciting indeed. As for the next twelve months, we already have numerous projects lined up for each of our market segments, but especially in our Enter-tainment segment which is continuously growing. We’d already built a strong cus-

tomer portfolio here which has propelled us forward and means we’ll be focussing a lot of our strengths in contin-uing to showcase our exper-tise in TV entertainment.

• Favourite thing about IBC?

Meeting up with existing and potential customers is one of the great opportunities that IBC brings. It’s nice to get extended face time and for companies to see each oth-er as a whole entity. It’s also a great opportunity for us to get together with our dealers and journalists for the same reasons. Face-to-face com-munication is something that we value very highly at EVS.

TOMORROWLAND MAKES MORE NOISE WITH EVS

EVS IPBrowse was used for ad-vanced tapeless distribution for accredited press at the press centre, while EVS XT3 servers enabled integration with a NAC Hypermotion camera on the main stage, allowing the produc-tion team to manage high quality HyperSlowMo replays.

Two XT3 servers in the pro-duction gallery handled all the playout for the live YouTube channel as well as ingest of all incoming streams. Both these servers were controlled by EVS’ IPDirector production asset management suite. Assistant directors in each of the OB vans around the festival venue used the IPLogger application to en-rich content with descriptive metadata based on what was happening on stage and in the

crowd. EVS’ IPLink plugin for the Final Cut Pro allowed the editors to have instant access to IPLog-ger metadata when searching and reviewing content. Final ed-its were simultaneously sent to the playout server and nearline using EVS Final CutPro export-er. Three XTAccess stations with Xsquare handled the media or-chestration of the workflow and instant media conforming.

IPDirector was used to publish clips from the nearline storage so they could be accessed by IP-Browse users in the press cen-tre, while performance sessions were cued up by the IPDirector so the artist could control the playout using a dedicated LSM remote in the artist’s viewing lounge.

EVS NEWS POWERS THE EBU’S GLOBAL NEWS PLATFORM

Its Xedio CleanEdit news edi-tor solution makes  real-time non-linear editing of news footage and voice-over record-ings  for news bulletins a reality for the EBU.

‘We chose EVS as they lead the market in server solutions for

live news production,’ explained Benoît Sergent, project man-ager at the EBU.  ‘EVS’ news systems are scalable and open, which  means they provide the flexibility and ROI we need in to-day’s demanding news environ-ment.’

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C-Cast Xplore, the new web-based browsing in-terface for EVS’ C-Cast, provides production staff at remote sports centres access to live multi-camera recording feeds and clips on an XT server. Xplore al-lows clip creation, selection and review using previ-ously inaccessible content. It integrates fully with EVS’ C-Cast infrastruc-ture to provide remote ac-cess to content recorded from the live venue on the XT servers, providing signif-icant cost and resource sav-ings by reducing the num-ber of people necessary on location – without compro-mising on quality.

BT SPORT GETS ON AIR WITH EVS AT ITS CORE

EVS IBC2013 EVENTS SCHEDULE CATCH US IF YOU CAN!

The UK’s newest sports broadcaster BT Sports’ new channels are now on air, using EVS technolo-gy at the heart of its in-frastructure. BT Sport’s brand new iCITY facility, in the former Olympic Park in London, are now home to 12 EVS XT and XT3 production serv-ers, IPDirector produc-tion asset management along with 200 IPBrowse licences and EVS’ IP2Ar-chive system. The facility was commissioned from and is managed by Time-line Television, a long-standing EVS partner.All ingest and highlights play-out is being handled via the EVS XT3 and XS servers, while IPDi-rector controls BT Sports en-tire media workflow, including video ingest scheduling, logging, playout control and scheduling. IPDirector also controls media

exchange with  an Avid  Inter-play system and there is inte-gration with Harmonic nearline storage, with high res files and lo-res proxies made available for instant review and clip selection via EVS IPBrowse terminals. Editors and production staff using the IPBrowse tool can create reviews, rough cuts and quick highlights packages and transfer clips directly to their Avid timeline – enabling much faster production turnaround.

An IP2Archive digital archive management module is used to ensure content is stored, and easily retrieved for re-use during production, on LTO and integrates tightly with BT Sport’s HSM.

Commenting on the installa-tion, Dan McDonnell, managing director of Timeline Television said: “Throughout the course of the project we’ve had very close collaboration with EVS, and drawn on their expertise in sports production workflows to ensure that the system is fast, responsive, reliable and robust across the board.”

XPLORE LIVE SERVER CONTENT – REMOTELY

THURSDAY 12 SEPTEMBER 8 – 9.30AM BREAD & CIRCUSES: BROADCASTING SPORTS MEGA EVENTS Location: RAI E102 Speaker: Luc Doneux, EVP Sports division (other panel members include HBS, BSkyB and BBC Sport)

THURSDAY 12 SEPTEMBER: 11.30AM – 1PM MY OWN PRIVATE STADIUM: ENGAGING SPORTS FANS WITH THE SECOND SCREEN Location: RAI E102 Speaker: Johann Schreurs, solution market manager (other panel members include Sky Sports Digital, Opta Sports and IBM)

THURSDAY 12 SEPTEMBER: 4 – 4.30PM SVG SPORTS PRODUCTION SUMMIT: SOCHI PREVIEW THE WINTER GAMES Location: Beurs Van Berlange Speaker: Luc Doneux, EVP Sports division (other panel member is BBC Sport)

THURSDAY 12 SEPTEMBER: 4.30 – 5PM SVG SPORTS PRODUCTION SUMMIT: IBC PREVIEW SERVING THE SECOND SCREEN Location: RAI E102 Speaker: Johann Schreurs, Market Solution Manager, Remote Interactivity (other panel members include HBS, BSkyB and BBC Sport)

FRIDAY 13 SEPTEMBER: 5.15PM – 6PM ADOBE AND EVS INTEGRATED WORKFLOW Location: Adobe - hall 7, booth G27

SUNDAY 15 SEPTEMBER: 2 – 3PM WORKFLOW SOLUTIONS VILLAGE - HOW T O EFFICIENTLY ADDRESS SUBTITLES/CLOSED CAPTION MANAGEMENT IN FILE-BASED WORKFLOWS FOR PRODUCTION AND ARCHIVE Location: Workflow solutions village, hall 9 Speaker: Benoit Fevrier, SVP Media division and Chris Johannesen, Viacom Media Networks

MONDAY 16 SEPTEMBER: 3.30 – 5PM PRODUCING MORE WITH LESS: THE RISE OF REMOTE PRODUCTION Location: Emerald room Speaker: Joop Janssen, CEO (other panel members include Tata Communications, SVT, Infostrada and Deltatre)

4“EVS” XTRA’

CONNECTEDPLUS – GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND SECOND SCREEN

For multimedia applications, C-Cast enables multi-angle, exclusive content and associ-ated information (stats, tweets, scores, etc) to be packaged for immediate consumption in a stadium or on the go. Broad-casters benefit from: engage-ment (providing additional content around a shared expe-rience); enrichment (enhanc-ing video with compelling and relevant content such as tweets from personalities, sports people or stats); and an extend-ed content experience (provid-ing additional exclusive con-tent, and unseen angles).

C-Cast also provides an effec-tive way of distributing con-tent to various stakeholders. Broadcasters and content own-ers can use C-Cast to distrib-ute content, enabling instant access to sequences, angles and highlights by identified groups (sponsors, teams, press and third-parties) for profes-sional purposes – again open-ing up new revenue streams from existing assets.

On the contribution side, C-Cast enables access to live produc-tion infrastructure at the venue via the web from remote loca-

tions. As a result, broadcasters can reduce resource require-ments on-location and speed up the production process.

C-Cast provides broadcasters with an effective and versa-tile ConnectedPlus experience that delivers greater efficiency internally as well as new revenue streams.

EVS will be presenting its latest ConnectedPlus technologies via the all new ConnectedPlus Lounge at IBC2013. Visit booth B90 in hall 8 to take a look.

EVS has made strides in the development of stadium entertainment this year in-cluding equipping Sweden’s state-of-the-art Friends Arena with its enriched live production workflow and de-livering in-stadium replays via second screen at Sporting Park in Kansas City.

In July this year EVS was cho-sen to deliver a reliable and flexible workflow for live mul-ticam production and content management at one of the world’s most modern indoor stadiums – Friends Arena in Stockholm. An extensive range of EVS equipment has been deployed, including its eight-channel  XT3  server with the  LSM  remote control pan-el for multicam ingest, live slow motion and highlights editing.  EVS’ IPDirector 

content production and man-agement suite provides mul-ticam and multi-feed ingest control, logging, instant re-view, editing and playlist man-agement. It also handles SDI and file-based contribution in multiple formats as well as playout control and online and nearline storage control. Other EVS solutions installed at the stadium include the IPDirector IPBrowse and IPClipLogger modules, the Xedio  CleanEdit non-linear editor, IPLink FCP plug-ins and a six-channel XS server. Third-party integration plays a critical role in this pro-ject. EVS’ solutions talk fluently with Cisco’s StadiumVision for the 647 LED screens that are in-stalled throughout the Friends Arena to engage fans and en-hance the match-day experi-ence. Integration between EVS

systems and ChyronHego and Apple Final Cut Pro 7 makes for a seamless and quick digital production workflow.

Following a trial earlier in the year, EVS has also teamed up with Sporting Innovations to de-liver in-stadia replays directly to smartphones, providing fans with better views of the action from anywhere in the venue via its C-Cast technology. The col-laboration was first unveiled at Sporting Park in Kansas City on July 13, 2013 and gives visitors the opportunity to view replays from multiple angles on their mobile devices immediately fol-lowing key moments in a game. Sporting Kansas City fans are able to access the feature, branded playback by Sporting Innovations, through the new Sporting Club Uphoria mobile experience.

EVS TAKES ON THE WORLD’S STADIUMS

The latest version of EVS’ XT3 production server supports 4K live replays in a one-in/out-out configuration. Extended zooming options allow users to select and extract clips in HD format. Based on EVS’ unique loop recording technology the 4K XT3 provides a greater degree of flexibility to production facilities and is equally at home in a live event production environment and or an OB. The new 4K version has the same interface as the previous XT3, meaning no additional training is required. By the end of the year, EVS will further increase the capabilities of the XT3 with additional configurations of up to three 4K channels, configured as either one-in/one-out, one-in/two-out or two-in/one-out, allowing a single XT3 server to continuously record two 4K cameras while providing 4K instant replays and highlights.

EVS XT3 GIVEN THE 4K TREATMENT

A QUICK CHAT WITH... LUC DONEUX, EVP, SPORTS DIVISION• What’s been the most

significant technology improvement you’ve seen over the past 12 months that will be showcased at the show?

I’d say there have been three and all of them will be central themes at IBC: 4K, multi-platform content de-livery, or second screen, and remote production. At EVS Sports, we certainly believe these trends are key to our long-term strategy, but at the moment the real focus for our customers is still to improve and optimise their file-based production work-flow. So we expect to see significant developments here too.

 

• What makes EVS Sports better prepared to tackle new market changes?

Our EVS Sports customers come at file-based work-flows from various angles – a move from tape to tape-less, an upgrade to HD, an archive requirement or even integration across various production sites. We’re able to draw on our experience to respond to every possible angle and we can efficient-ly fix their production and infrastructure problems, which forms the foundation of any workflow. 

•   What are the main tech developments you’ll be presenting at IBC?

 We’ll of course be showcas-ing our new and innovative solutions, mainly in the are-as of 4K and remote content access. However, we believe that most of our clients will be looking for immediate solutions for problems that exist in the here and now – so we’ll be delivering solutions for both new and existing requirements. Sure, they’ll want to see our response to new trends, but it takes time before new trends are adopt-ed and invested in. While 4K has undeniable benefits, at the moment we feel 1080p offers very good quality and meets the requirements of most end users, so there’s not an immediate need to improve picture quality be-yond HD.

 

• What’s your favourite thing about IBC?

 The fact that the show lasts for five days means people have more time to engage and talk through specific details about their market vision and direction and we have time to exchange our own market insight with them.

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NANO AIR TAKES CONTROL OF MULTICHAN-NEL PLAYOUTDesigned for TV studios and on-stage entertainment, EVS’ Nano Air playout controller manages both on-stage and multi-chan-nel playout, as well as the simultaneous playback of HD or SD clips and playlists to multi-ple destinations (editors, pro-ducers etc). The system saves both time and money, enabling production teams to enrich their

content with studio playout ma-terial delivered to background screens - without using multiple products to do so. The integrated hardware and software control-ler can handle studio branding, supports studio playlist rollout and controls all the EVS servers in use at any time through a sim-ple, user-friendly interface.

XSQUARE - GETS NEWS ON AIR FIRSTThe new XSquare solution makes social media, web and smart device content gathering over IP and multi-platform con-tent delivery effortlessly .It also provides an engine for job man-agement and monitoring, which allows both EVS and non-EVS systems to talk to each other easily. XSquare automatically

load-balances tasks by finding the least busy machine, speed-ing up and reducing the overall workload. It enables on-the-fly conforming for instant con-tent availability for editing and playout, which gives news organisations the edge as they race to be first on air.

A QUICK CHAT WITH... HENRY ALEXANDER, SVP ENTERTAINMENT AND NEWS DIVISIONS • What do you think the

most significant tech-nological improvement has been over the last 12 months?

Improving content manage-ment on a global scale has certainly been a big focus for EVS Entertainment & News this year. Multi-platform delivery has become a vital element as broadcasters look to engage and retain a wider audience – in particu-lar the younger demograph-ic which is more active with social media. Solutions that address these requirements are becoming much more advanced. Also by focusing on delivering better image quality, an improved viewer experience can be achieved.

• What makes EVS Enter-tainment and News better prepared to tackle new market changes?

We understand our markets inside out at EVS, so we can

appreciate the strain on our customers at the moment in terms of budgets. We provide technology that can be heav-ily resourced and is com-pletely reliable, scalable and future-proof. Our expertise in forecasting market trends means you can invest in kit that won’t need replacing when the next trend comes around the corner.

• What are the main tech developments you’ll be presenting at IBC?

At EVS Entertainment our expertise in content man-agement and delivery solu-tions means we can help broadcasters improve the viewer experience. In light of reduced budgets, to help our customers we’ll be focus-ing on more cost-effective solutions that don’t compro-mise on quality. Improving third-party integration to speed up the post produc-tion is another area we’re concentrating on.

At EVS News you’ll notice our two-pronged focus at the show. Firstly, the transition from SD to HD, which means improving workflows and au-tomatically ingesting content in HD quality. As I mentioned earlier, we’re also helping customers efficiently stream content to multiple devic-es and manage it through metadata and indexing.

• Favourite thing about IBC?

There are two things and funnily enough, they both tie into my two vices – en-tertainment and news! I love waking up in the morning and putting on IBC TV News, especially as it’s powered by EVS news solutions! Then there’s the entertain-ment side of things – getting to catch up properly with our customers with a drink in hand!

We give programme makers the power to be truly creative, with production solutions that deliver speed and total reliability. From reality TV to staged events, we offer producers the freedom to push boundaries and engage new audiences.

Our entertainment solutions de-liver the smartest, most efficient and most creative workflow for TV production. Our intelligent XS pro-duction server provides the ulti-mate platform for studio applica-tions, while on-the-fly editing with IPEdit and integrated production control with IPDirector add new dimensions to the potential of en-tertainment broadcasting.

EVS Entertainment. Enabling creativity. www.evs.com

EVSENTERTAINMENTWE HAVE THE POWER TO ENGAGE

6“EVS” XTRA’

Fox Sports has invested in EVS Sports technology as the back-bone to its live sports produc-tion workflow. The broadcast-er is using a full range of EVS sports solutions to provide viewers with enriched and in-teractive live sports coverage. Via a centralised, all-HD pro-duction hub, connected via fibre to all venues, Fox Sports can make use of its content assets for multiple platform delivery - including to its own app. Sports programming is also enriched with exclusive footage and graphics insertion.

The end-to-end HD production infrastructure at Fox Sport’s facility includes EVS XS serv-ers for ingesting multiple feeds and studio playout, along with XT3 production servers with LSM remote control panels to create highlights and analysis packages for live shows. The servers also support XDCAM HD for all file transfers and playout. Sched-uling of incoming feeds, live logging and browsing and file

transfer is handled by EVS’ IPDi-rector production asset manage-ment suite, while the IPBrowse application allows producers, journalists and editors to easily search and view content stored on nearline storage (EVS XStore-SAN). Integration with Avid post-production tools brings in greater efficiencies and graphics insertion and overlays is done via EVS’ EpsioLive.

EVS C-Cast has also been de-ployed to deliver multicam foot-age recorded on EVS’ servers, along with descriptive meta-data direct to web-connected devices, providing users with a more interactive viewing experi-ence whether in the stadium or at home.

Jan De Vries, director operations & infrastructure at Fox Sports said: “With the growing desire of viewers to have access to live and personalised content and with the additional demands of dis-tributing to multiple platforms, we needed a solution to help us offer more and better content.”

FOX SPORTS ON THE BALL WITH EVS

In a UK first, sports TV produc-tion specialist Input Media has invested in EVS’ media archive management solution, Medi-Archive Director, to power its new digital archiving service. The EVS Media team installed an end-to-end ingest-to-deliv-ery system, featuring a mul-ti-tenant media archive man-agement option. The solution means Input Media will be able to offer centralised and secure archive services to multiple sports federations simultane-ously by the end of 2013 with their first client for the service being The FA.

MediArchive Director allows us-ers to deliver high quality and competitive archiving services to their clients, thanks to the way it vastly streamlines and improves the media asset management

and delivery process. In the case of Input Media, which caters to sports federations looking to pre-serve and monetise their valua-ble content, it will enable them to extend their current high-quality archive services, without hav-ing to make huge changes to its existing infrastructure.

“The key benefit of MediArchive Director is that we will be able to service multiple customers with a single archive system, allow-ing us to offer federations a cost effective asset management solution,” said David Wood, ex-ecutive chairman at Input Me-dia. The sports specialist will use its existing EVS IPDirector production asset management system to create all the content, and then import it directly into MediArchive Director along with all the associated metadata.

EVS MEDIARCHIVE DIRECTOR SCORES UK FIRST WITH INPUT MEDIA

A QUICK CHAT WITH... BENOÎT FEVRIER, SVP MEDIA DIVISION• What do you think the key

industry trends are for IBC 2013 and beyond?

NAB this year really brought 4K info focus and I expect this will continue at IBC. It has real disruptive poten-tial as it’ll bring new video interfaces, new workflows and new video codec choic-es into the mix. The prolif-eration of new formats with higher resolutions, like 4K, is a trend to which we all need to respond. New codecs, like XAVC and H265, play to EVS’ strengths as our MXF solutions support the full range of these new format standards.

• Can you share some in-sight into your EVS Me-dia’s business strategy and the key values for your customers?

We’re currently preparing a new value proposition for 2014, in order to stream-line the ingest of multiple content streams, which will help our customers to ef-fectively manage content and metadata in file-based workflows. This is particu-larly true for the TV pro-duction environment, where delivery to multiple screens means more income for our customers. However, it also means additional complexity which needs to be resolved as we find ourselves faced with ever more content, ever more content sourc-es (smart phones, GoPro, etc) and ever more delivery platforms (small screen, OTT, live streaming, etc). And all this has to be achieved with smaller and smaller budgets.

• What’s in the EVS Media roadmap for the next 12-18 months?

As I said above really, we’re working on our new val-ue proposition to stream-line and help our custom-ers manage their files and content in file-based work-flows. Our focus is really clear and straightforward – simplifying the process for our customers.

• Favourite thing about IBC?

IBC gives us the opportunity to meet up with colleagues from EVS teams all over the world, which is a really valuable exercise for get-ting every market’s require-ments. The show brings a real sense of excitement and innovation and a lot of great ideas are conceived at IBC!

EVS MEDIA STREAMLINES FILE-BASED, MULTI-FORMAT WORKFLOWS

EVS Media’s latest MXF solu-tions now support a range of new format standards includ-ing XAVC and full IMF applica-tion 2. The latest version of the OpenCubeHD/SD server has in-creased performance levels to handle the encoding of MXF 4K formats and transcoding from various formats including J2K, ProRes, AVC-I and DNxHD® fast-er than real time.

Subtitles and closed captions management have become an integral part of file-based workflows. The latest release of EVS Media’s OpenCube toolset responds to that and enables full subtitle support includ-ing S436M track or .scc/.mcc generation at ingest. It also acts as a conversion tool to bridge these formats, and han-dles closed caption decoding with overlay for previewing and checking content.

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SUBTITLING AND CLOSED CAPTION MANAGEMENT MADE EASYLegislation from the EU and FCC requiring television programs to include closed captions and subtitling, combined with multi-region distribution, means that closed captioning (CC) and subtitling are now a key element of the content de-livery process.

When the AV content is ingested, there are several options when it comes to the subtitling ele-ment of the file. Either the sub-titles remain a raw VANC that’s then wrapped in an MXF S436M track before it can progress fur-ther through the workflow, or they become a ‘sidecar’ text file (eg, *.SCC or *.MCC).

EVS’ OpenCubeHD/SD server can handle many of these differ-ent options at the ingest stage. Users can choose to keep ANC data – along with subtitles and closed caption - in the MXF file as a S436M track, or alternatively a *.SCC or *.MCC ‘sidecar’ file is generated alongside the MXF AV or MOV file and follows it through the production process.

Once a file has been ingested, at each step along the work-flow, users will need to check that the subtitle information is

synchronised with the video or burned into the correct frame. EVS’ XFReader provides a straightforward and efficient way to do this by showing which channel is active within the 608, 708 or OP-47 data steam. En-hanced with SDI capabilities, the closed caption data from *.SCC or *.MCC files is reinserted in the form of VANC data at the point when the MXF files is played back over baseband.

Files will also need to go through wrapping/un-wrapping process-es at various stages in their lifecycle, which can often be time-consuming. XFConverter enables users to bridge the gap between an MXF 436M VANC track and *.SCC files, reliably and automatically at each step of your workflow.

When it comes to outputting the finished content – whether that’s to a playout server, smart devices, or as online streaming, VoD or DTT services – the accu-rate management of your sub-titles and closed caption up to that point, along with your MXF production file, makes the whole production process a heck of a lot less complicated.

Do you feel the same about your MXF files?

Then just...

1. Drop your files on a USB stick

2. Zoom over to the EVS booth 8.B90 and plug in your USB

3. Crack your files with EVS’ MXF UniReader to unleash the hidden powers of your MXF files

4. Complete your quest and enjoy the chance to win an iPad mini!

THIS LOOKS LIKE A JOB FOR UNIREADER! (CONTINUED)

“DON’T FORGET TO VISIT OUR MXF UNIREADER

IN HALL 8, B90 TO CRACK YOUR MXF FILES

AND YOU MIGHT WIN AN IPAD MINI!”

8“EVS” XTRA’

THE FUTURE OF SPORTS BROADCASTINGIn recent years, the pro-liferation of smart de-vices (especially smart-phones and tablets) has been a driver for content consumption in real time via multiple devices. Consumers are increas-ingly taking control of their viewing sched-ules, seeking anywhere, anytime content access and there are a growing number of broadcasters, over-the-top providers vying for their attention.This highly competitive market creates pressure on broadcast-ers to deliver live, high-quality, enriched content as a means of grabbing – and more specifically keeping – viewers. Sports broad-casting in particular is fiercely competitive, with broadcasts of major events taking place on an ever larger scale, with large out-side broadcast (OB) production workflow, a raft of cameras and multiple live feeds involved.

However, while sports broad-casting has become more elab-orate from an end user perspec-tive, it still takes place within a single linear feed, with different segments appearing along a single timeline. Although the number of segments has in-creased, the production still only delivers a single broadcast signal per event, with delivery to different platforms derived from that one signal.

DIFFERENT PICTURE, SAME PROCESS:

There has been very little change in sports production techniques from the early days of live sports coverage; the actual produc-

tion process remains much the same – except now it’s HD and 4K cameras and everything is digital instead of tape-based. We still have multiple camer-as located around the stadium, with cameramen and colour technicians. Camera feeds still go to the OB van where a pro-duction team put together an edited version and then a single live stream is aired by the broad-caster. In recent years we’ve also seen this single live feed being edited and converted for online and mobile distribution. Never-theless, whichever way the con-sumer accesses the end result, it is still just a single viewpoint – one way of telling the story of what’s happening on the field, not to mention the impact on the quality and delay. Once this pro-cess is complete and the content has been aired, the final media file is archived.

There remains a degree of re-luctance among broadcasters to change a live sports production workflow that’s worked for them for many years. It’s a prime ex-ample of the old adage ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ in action.

Producers like to be on-loca-tion, as close to the live action as possible without actually be-ing on the field. With technology that is readily available today, this doesn’t have to be the case. Remote production is a far more efficient and cost-effective way to produce the same high qual-ity live sports broadcast that consumers expect, without having to deal with the cost and logistics of an unwieldy and complex OB set-up. As cost-sav-ings become increasingly important for broadcasters, they will need to look at chang-ing the way they do things – especially if they want to con-tinue to produce large scale live sports broadcasts such as the Olympic or the FIFA World Cup.

EASIER THAN IT SEEMS:

In practical terms, this is not as big a transition as it seems. Un-der the current outside broad-cast set-up, the director, the producer, editors and graphics team are all located in the OB van, which is linked to the stadi-um via a fibre connection – they are not actually pitch side. Re-mote production would, to all intents and purposes, simply be a case of connecting the produc-tion team to the stadium by a longer piece of cable.

Multiple cameras at the stadi-um would still link to a server and the uncompressed signals (or DNxHD IP Streams) would in turn be transferred over the telco network to centralised storage located at a single stu-dio centre (eg, the IBC). The me-dia files can then be accessed by different teams, edited into different versions for archive, on air transmission and distri-

bution to second screen (smart-phones, tablets, etc). One of the factors holding broadcasters back from this type of workflow is that sending multiple streams to a central server means having to compress/decompress the signal; which means a loss of signal quality along the way.

Admittedly, it’s not just broad-casters that will have to change their approach. At the moment, network connections (fibre, etc.) at sports stadiums tend to be low-bandwidth, which means multiple feeds from the stadi-um to the production studio is problematic. Unless broadcast-ers’ demand for additional high-speed capacity is there, there’s little incentive for telcos to invest and install new 100 Mbit/s fibre connections. That’s not to say that telcos are unable to do so; during major sporting events (the Olympics, FIFA/UEFA tourna-ments, etc.) 10 Gbit/s (support-ing 6xHD uncompressed signals

or 66x HD signals @ 120Mbps or 1x 4k signal uncompressed) is standard. Telcos are also invest-ing in fibre backbones, with roll-out to most major cities already complete, using 100Gbps Lam bdas as standard “pipes” for their own usage.

For remote production to be successful, broadcasters and telcos will need to work togeth-er to ensure that high-speed fibre connections at major sports stadiums become the norm.

Broadcasters have also tended to look ahead in five to ten year increments and construct their business plans accordingly. However, consumer habits are now changing at an ever faster rate – the way consumers access and watch content can under-go a complete transformation in the space of just two to three years. Broadcasters will have to learn to keep up or risk being left behind.

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