SPORTSCASTING NEP Snaps Up NZ’s OSB

Sport coverage worldwide SPORTSCASTING SPORTSCASTING

Optus Sport Launches Home Fitness Content on App

AS FITNESS PROVIDERS have moved to online delivery of their classes and workouts while people continue to work from home, Optus Sport has seen an opportunity to expand its content beyond competitive football with the launch of OS Fitness on its platform. Optus Sport is the home of premium football content in Australia, including exclusively live coverage of every Premier League, UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League match. OS Fitness corrals at home workouts from leading online fitness providers to deliver a variety of fun and effective video workouts that cater to a wide range of interests and fitness levels. According to Optus’ Head of TV and Content Corin Dimopoulos, “So far, we’ve partnered with Flow Athletic and Fitness Playground, creators of Virtual Playground, which means Optus Sport customers can try yoga, dance, cardio, and fast fat-burners, plus core strength sessions and pilates routines. This content is free to all existing Optus Sport users with more partners coming on board.” “We know that some people may have fallen out of their fitness routines in recent months so we want to help people keep both physically and mentally fit at home with a bundle of workouts based on their fitness level.” The launch of OS Fitness creates new connections with the broader Optus Sport community, providing greater value to customers who have an Optus Sport subscription but don’t access its exclusive football content. “We want to provide customers with a range of options to connect with us, so sports lovers outside of our core football audience can jump on board OS Fitness,” Mr Dimopoulos said. “Our goal is to create a streaming service that can be utilised by the whole family, so our customers are getting even more value from their Optus Sport subscription. “It can be accessed via Optus Sport on any compatible device with an internet connection at home or on the go, which means you can head down to the local park for a workout or stream to it to your TV from the comfort of your own home.” Visit https://www.optus.com.au

Ross Enhances Stats Perform SGL Integration with XPression Graphics

CONTENT CREATORS WORKING in live sports production know that data is king, and sports fan are always hungry for stats on the performance of their favourite teams and players. Relevant statistics, no matter how obscure, can really help keep viewers engaged, and Ross Video is responding to this need by tightening the integration between its XPression real-time graphics platform and Stats Perform – a leading provider of data and research in the world of sports. For sports production professionals, a Stats Perform SGL subscription is like adding a whole team of researchers and graphics producers to your production with the click of a button, providing hundreds of data points for each player in a structured method. An updated Stats Perform SGL interface with a new dedicated connection option for XPression provides access to Stats Perform data which can be downloaded directly in to the XPression engine. This means that automation can create thousands of compelling graphics in a matter of seconds. This enables your graphics team to focus on more creative tasks while guaranteeing that critical data-driven graphics are available at their fingertips. “Stats Perform is the premier provider of sports data, and XPression is all about real-time motion graphics,” says Patrick Twomey, Ross Video’s Director of Product Management for XPression. “Having a dedicated XPression interface to Stats Perform’s SGL tools is like adding a virtual graphics producer to the production team.” Visit www.rossvideo.com www.content-technology.com/sportscasting

Sky NZ Sells Outside Broadcast Assets to NEP

SKY NZ HAS ANNOUNCED the sale of its Outside Broadcast (OSB) subsidiary to NEP New Zealand, in a transaction that Sky CEO Martin Stewart says will ensure Sky continues to deliver high-quality sport production to its customers. Upon completion, NEP will own OSB’s assets including six HD OB units and all ancillary equipment, and NEP has secured two OSB warehouse facilities. The majority of OSB team members and some Sky broadcast specialists will transition to NEP New Zealand, and Sky will retain its world-class sports production team who will be working closely with NEP New Zealand to keep the sports action coming. As part of the transaction, NEP will be Sky’s technical production partner in New Zealand for the next ten years. “Sky Sport’s focus continues to be delivering quality sport that New Zealanders love, from grassroots to high performance and professional competitions. It’s what Sky Sport lives and breathes – that won’t change. We’ll be focused on developing creative content and great storytelling, with NEP New Zealand as our outsourced technical production partner,” says Sky Chief Executive Martin Stewart. Stewart says the sale will enable Sky to reduce its future capital investment in multi-million dollar OB equipment, drawing instead on NEP’s ability to leverage its global network of technology developments so that Sky’s broadcast offering stays at the forefront. “The rate of technological change in the OB space is significant, and the advantage of this transaction is Sky Sport will continue to have access to the best advancements in the OB world without Sky having to make substantial investments to own equipment. “We’ve always been extremely proud of what our Outside Broadcasting team members do – travelling up and down the country 52 weeks of the year to produce hundreds of events. We look forward to continuing to work with the team and NEP New Zealand through our partnership and delivering the best possible experiences to our customers.” President of NEP Australia, New Zealand and Japan, Soames Treffry commented, “NEP New Zealand is absolutely thrilled to begin this partnership supporting Martin Stewart’s vision for content creation at Sky. Sport is in our DNA and we’ll bring the world’s best practices and technology to Sky. NEP New Zealand General Manager Oliver Pitkin is looking forward to welcoming the team from OSB into the NEP family. In the end, people make pictures, so it’s important to us this is Kiwi from top to tail. The addition of OSB’s experienced, professional team further bolsters that position. The expansion will enable us to train, develop and create more jobs in the industry as a whole in New Zealand.” The transaction is subject to approval from the Overseas Investment Office and the New Zealand Commerce Commission, and relevant applications have been lodged. The terms of the transaction, including purchase price and services agreement, are confidential between the parties. Visit www.sky.co.nz and www.nepgroup.co.nz

Sky Racing Deploys TVU for Horse Racing Coverage During COVID-19 SKY RACING (previously Sky Channel) is an Australian broadcaster that operates a number of television channels and radio service showcasing the best in wagering, primarily across thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing through top quality live streaming and advance-deposit wagering on races taking place in Australia, as well as selected international races across 15 countries. The broadcaster telecasts more than 140,000 live races per year to 5000 retail outlets, pay TV and digital platforms as well as into 51 countries. Before COVID-19, Sky Racing had three TVU One transmitters in the field, three TVU Transceivers in their studio and a TVU RPS kit. TVU Anywhere was primarily used as an application to integrate regional talent and analysts across Australia on the daily afternoon preview show along with providing betting market updates on site at sporting events like the Cricket and NRL. When Covid19 struck, Sky Racing had to realign its staff and equipment in order to cover stories, keeping in mind restrictions and safety of their staff and crew. TVU Anywhere was a natural choice as Sky Racing had transceivers installed and operational in the studio facility. Sky Racing expanded TVU Anywhere usage to 60 active registered devices to integrate the rest of the talent, industry participants like horse trainers, jockeys, owners, officials and more, who were not able to come into the studio due to stay at home policies. Sky Racing team also deployed TVU Anywhere for its anchors. To comply with social distancing, Sky Racing separated their three anchor Sunday show between the anchor’s home and studio. One anchor would host the show Thoroughbred Weekly from their home while the other two hosts came into the studio. The collaboration was completely seamless between the anchor using TVU Anywhere at home and anchors at the studios. “The advantage of TVU Anywhere over other products was the amount of control over the quality instead of solutions like Skype and Zoom. CBR/VBR options, delay and bandwidth control are very handy when dealing with varying mobile and Wi-Fi networks in Australia,” said Ryan Gray, Broadcast Operations, Sky Racing AU. “It also allowed us to seamlessly send back IFB straight to the presenter’s device. We could also remotely adjust exposure and framing. “I would recommend TVU Anywhere to those that obviously need to contribute live or recorded content that don’t have a resource like a camera or the resources to transmit live. The TVU Anywhere app allows you to do this anywhere, anytime. All you need is a phone and a mobile or WIFI network. Additionally, the app allows you to secure high amounts of bandwidth by aggregating across both cellular and home internet connections. This is a big tick when trying to secure high quality video transmission.” Visit www.tvunetworks.com

Dalet Brings Broadcast Graphics Workflows to the Cloud DALET, A LEADING PROVIDER of solutions and services for broadcasters and content professionals, has announced the availability of a cloud-enabled version of its premium broadcast graphics solution, Dalet CubeNG, powered by the Brainstorm real-time graphics engine. The end-to-end graphics solution includes tools to create and manage the playout of superior 2D and 3D dynamic graphics and branding for news content across traditional, digital and social channels. Tightly integrated within the Dalet Galaxy five environment, Dalet CubeNG can now run on public cloud infrastructure as well as onpremises, supporting real-time graphics creation with must-have features including CGs on the timeline with animated preview and burn-in. “With this version of Dalet CubeNG, we not only optimise mobility with cloud infrastructure, but the connection to the Dalet ecosystem as well,” states Jérémy Krein, Dalet CubeNG Product Manager. “Natively integrated, Dalet CubeNG’s broadcast graphics workflows provide a first-class user experience that we continually improve upon. Journalists can browse their video and image titles through Dalet Galaxy five and retrieve assets to build image-rich stories and engaging visuals from anywhere, using the Dalet CubeNG plugin. The familiar interface and simple-to-use tools make the entire experience seamless, allowing users to focus on creating graphics that up-level the visual news narrative across traditional, digital and social channels.” New resource optimisations enable organisations to scale both projects and concurrent users with maximum efficiency. As Jeremy Krein explains, “Dalet CubeNG distributes time-intensive processing jobs such as burn-in and animated preview across multiple file-based engines in parallel. This is a significant time-saving whether you are working in the cloud or on-premises.” Visit https://www.dalet.com/platforms/dalet-cube

ChyronHego Training for PAINT Sports Telestration CHYRONHEGO HAS EXPANDED its ChyronHego believe that with fundamental training on this Academy training program with a new software, anybody can look great.” certification course focused on the company’s PAINT sports production analysis solution, which enables sports pundits, commentators, or producers to visually analyse game play using augmented data-driven graphics and immersive video highlights. Offered free of charge, the new PAINT course supports industry professionals in acquiring and updating essential skills in working with the popular ChyronHego software. Intuitive to use by on-air presenters, PAINT’s feature-rich tool set allows users to create powerful graphical illustrated replays without the need for additional infrastructure or specialist operators. Optimised for remote access and control, PAINT’s customisable HTML5-based interface can be used anywhere (via laptop, web browser, or touch screen). “Telestration traditionally has been considered a The ChyronHego Academy’s self-paced online specialised and complex tool that only a limited curriculum for PAINT was developed by product pool of specialists can use successfully,” said experts with professional field experience. Carol Bettencourt, director of product marketing Using a trial version of the software to work at ChyronHego. “Easy to learn and use, PAINT their way through practical exercises and takes the mystery out of telestration. And now, quizzes, operators not only gain experience with this new ChyronHego Academy course, using the PAINT tool set but also build out a we’re taking any mystery out of PAINT. We truly portfolio of professional-grade content. Upon successful completion of the course, operators can earn ChyronHego Academy certification by submitting a professional recommendation confirming that they have successfully demonstrated their skills with PAINT in a realworld environment, either as a professional or a volunteer. ChyronHego Academy makes skills training accessible and convenient to all types of participants, from freelance designers and operators looking to boost their own knowledge base to teams working within larger media organisations. Learning from the best — and on the latest technology — participants can complete basic, intermediate, and advanced course modules to earn certification. Visit https://chyronhego.com/services/ chyronhego-academy

Comms and Talkback for eSports

THE MODEL 207 ESPORTS CONSOLE from Studio Technologies helps to open the lines of communication in eSports by allowing production personnel, team coaches and fans to hear what the players are discussing during game play. The solution also provides the added benefit of preventing teams from hearing their competitors or the event commentators. The Model 207 is optimised to address the microphone, headphone monitoring, and personal computer audio interfacing needs of eSports players. Housed in a compact, tabletop enclosure, the unit incorporates both analogue and Dante audio-over-Ethernet technology to allow direct integration with a player’s headset, gaming computer, and Ethernet-based audio network. In just minutes, an eSports player’s location or “position” can be integrated into a sophisticated live event application. The Model 207 operates on the Dante network and the intercommunication audio feed can be tied into the game play with the audio following the video while switching between the game play feeds. One of the main benefits of the Model 207 is its remote-control capabilities, as operators can control the Model 207 from a workstation on the network. The Model 207’s talkback feature also helps with player-support personnel intercommunications during an event. From a workflow perspective, there are usually several administrators on the event stage that are responsible for making sure that the players have everything they need. Using the talkback feature, if a player is having an issue, such as with their mouse or keyboard, they can easily contact the administrators. Using Model 207 units, or other Studio Technologies’ products, the administrators can communicate with each other and then back to the requesting player. Studio Technologies’ Model 207 also supports a “masking” noise headphone feed. This feature allows an audio source, typically pink noise, to be “fed” to players at a fixed level with no ability to adjust the volume. Included for game integrity, this audio signal helps to prevent the players from hearing real-time commentary that may be present on a “house” sound system. The masking audio helps to keep play fair, shielding the players from being able to hear game strategy or related topics as might be discussed by the commentators. Visit www.studio-tech.com

KVM for Esports

AS A MANUFACTURER of KVM systems for extending and switching keyboard, video and mouse signals, Guntermann & Drunck GmbH (G&D) offers gamers a professional Esports experience including crystal-clear full HD resolutions with 240 Hz frame rates and without any noticeable latency. With KVM systems from G&D, powerful and noisy computer technology can be moved from gaming areas or arenas into separate equipment rooms. Computers can be kept in a secure and temperature-controlled room to prevent overheating Nonetheless, gamers can still operate their computers in real time and at full power – without any loss of quality and over distances up to 10,000m. With G&D DP1.2 devices, gamers can run full HD resolutions with high frame rates up to 240 Hz. Crystal clear 1080p resolutions with virtually no delay will support them in their gaming exploits. G&D DP1.2 products are also able to transmit 2K resolutions of 2560×1440 with 144Hz. An entire range of KVM systems such as the extenders DP1.2-Vision, DP1.2- VisionXG, DP1.2-Vision-IP, or the KVM switches DP1.2-MUX, DP1.2-MUXNT, DP1.2-MUX3-ATC as well as the DP1.2-Splitter are the first line of defence against lagging displays and suboptimal resolution. Since the products support transparent USB 2.0, it is possible to even extend the latest gaming keyboards and mice that are not HID-compliant – because of the additional keys and mini-displays – via KVM matrix. Visit https://www.gdsys.de

Tuning Into the 5G Future for Broadcast By Karen Clark, Telstra Broadcast Services Head of Sales

FOR MANY, THE FUTURE OF 5G is still the great unknown. But what is widely known is the fact that it will fundamentally change everything we know about technology and how we interact with it. Each mobile generation, from 1G to 5G, has brought with it a brighter future and no other industry appears more poised to reap the rewards of the latest digital transformation than the broadcast sector. 5G will make good on the promise of a truly connected entertainment experience, delivering speeds and network capacity we’d only previously dreamed of. Among the many 5G demonstrations at Telstra Vantage in 2019, I was particularly blown away by Australia’s first live 5G broadcast. In partnership with Igloovision, Summit Tech Multimedia Communications, and Magna Systems & Engineering, we streamed 360° video, live over 5G for the very first time, showcasing Kurrawa beach, Queensland onto the Vantage show floor in a breathtaking 8k resolution. For many, it was an awesome demonstration of 5G’s future power, but for me it was a captivating glimpse into its potential to redefine the broadcast and entertainment industry. Endless possibility To understand what broadcasters are expecting with 5G, we went straight to the source. We carried out internal research to understand what media professionals are anticipating and how they want emerging mobile technologies, such as 5G, to power their broadcasting workflows. Having spoken with television and radio broadcasters, sports broadcasters, e-sports bodies, production teams and freelancers, the sentiment is both fascinating and unanimous. Our customers believe 5G will initially be highly complementary to existing technology, but its increased capacity offers the capability to deliver more immersive, higher resolution experiences. 5G is more than just making Ultra High Definition content the new standard in this country. It’s about empowering 360° filmmaking, virtual reality and augmented reality applications and the promise of new tools for broadcasters and content creators to work with. It’s likely 5G’s first impact in the broadcast industry will be felt mostly in the live sport sector. We’ve already seen a number of highprofile international trials by our industry peers across the US, Europe and Asia and the results have been eye-popping. NBC Sports successfully trialled the use of 5G during a live broadcast for the National Football League (NFL) in December. Beyond the visual quality, the technology deployed by the NFL seeks to improve audience interactivity and opens the door to VR and AR home broadcasts in real time. The need for this type of content has only grown in the face of COVID-19. In 2020,

almost all sports experiences are virtual and 5G technology is positioned to disrupt and democratise the way we consume sports and other broadcasts. 5G will have the capability to place anyone, from pretty much anywhere in the middle of the game, with the addition of rich immersive content and without the expensive first row tickets. When looking at a successful deployment like this, it’s easy to envisage a world where the NRL and AFL follow suit - offering users unprecedented ways to enjoy the game they like, being closer to the action than ever before. A bigger bandwidth slice Cellular solutions for live broadcasting have been around for some time, but haven’t been embraced in live sport due to network congestion at stadiums, where tens of thousands of people all compete for the available bandwidth. The difference with 5G and its superior capacity is that we’ll be able to offer network slices. For those unfamiliar with the term, 5G network slicing allows a network provider, such as Telstra, to create specific broadcast-grade networks for customers with the guaranteed latency, bandwidth and quality required for live broadcast without competing against other network use. 5G network slices can be turned on and off

when needed, so they “It’s likely 5G’s aren’t permanently consuming bandwidth first impact in on the network. Broadcasters could soon the broadcast be offered ‘slices-asa-service’, which can industry will be be booked on a per hour/per minute basis felt mostly in the the same way fibre and satellite network live sport sector. resources currently are. 5G network slicing We’ve already will make wireless seen a number contribution a viable option for live sport. of high-profile It’s Showtime It’s exciting to think international what this will mean trials by our not just for the modern fan experience and industry peers engagement but also for their own contribution across the US, – harnessing live user-generated content. Europe and Asia With 5G equipped fans sitting in the stadium and the results or at an off-site fan zone, our customers have been eyecan incorporate their unique experiences into popping. their production on any platform in near real time. Telstra has the largest, fastest, smartest and most reliable next generation network, and is continuing to roll out 5G coverage to more parts of Australia The potential for 5G to expand into the broadcasting space is exponential. If we can inspire the next generation of content creators, who knows what the future of entertainment can be – a new world where a VR headset can transport you to the Masterchef kitchen? Or maybe the AFL Grand Final broadcast in 360 from the centre circle? Visit http://www.telstra.com/broadcastservices