THE SWITCH: THE NEW ‘CONTENT CONTINUUM’: A GROWING SPECTRUM OF CLOUD

WHITEPAPERS The New ‘Content Continuum’: A Growing Spectrum of Cloud Services Powers a Fast-Evolving Array of Sports Coverage

By Robert Szabo-Rowe,

SVP Engineering and Product Management, The Switch

From the first PC to the introduction of the smartphone, it has always been hard to grasp the precise point in time when the world we inhabit has been fundamentally changed from what it had been up until then. We appear to be experiencing one of these pivotal tipping points now in the world of content consumption — one where younger live sports consumers are shifting away from the traditional habit of watching full-length games to, instead, embracing short, snappy, on-demand highlights. Data from the analytical firm The Maru Group, which partnered with VIP for the “Sports’ New TV Formula” report, found that almost half of young NFL, NBA, and MLB fans prefer watching highlights over a complete game.

Many younger viewers want to experience the highlights and highs without the boredom or the lows of a long game. Many are consuming multiple games — or even multiple sports events — across several sources concurrently. As clips of sports highlights and critical moments revolutionize the way we consume live sports, a question mark arises over where the true value of media content lies today.

It is now unquestionable that there is enormous value in leveraging the cloud to produce a range of broadcast-quality content that appeals to many audiences — from the traditional watch-thewhole-big-game at home sports demographic, to modern anytime anywhere viewers, to fans whose consumption habits sit somewhere in between. Indeed, cloud-based production, clipping and editing, and transmission are already powering a new broader array of connected sports assets that feed all fans’ hunger for sports content. This expanded gamut of content can run from online pre- and post-game shows and the live broadcast itself, to data-driven betting feeds and near-real-time social media highlights, to streamed player-cam feeds and on-demand replays of the whole game.

> AN EMERGING ‘CONTENT CONTINUUM’

The consumer shift away from scheduled TV programming is creating a ‘content continuum’ that spans live, social, replay, shoulder, and on-demand elements of sports properties across a range of screens and devices. As a result, broadcasters, content owners, and other rightsholders are increasingly relying on cloud-based services to power unique and engaging live content.

Cloud capabilities have come to full fruition within live sports production, including clipping and editing for social media highlights and replays, low-latency comms, editing and graphics creation, and transmission. Employing cloud tools for all or any of these functions is simply a matter of having an internet connection and a laptop. It is now clear that a shift to a cloud-first approach can empower leagues, broadcasters, and other rightsholders to enhance the viewing experience across today’s sports viewing landscape.

It is a good time for sports media organizations to look to make this shift. The growth of cloud-based production and delivery in live sports over the past two years has been nothing short of spectacular. Before that, few in the industry would have predicted just how soon it would be that broadcasters and other rightsholders would commonly deploy cloud methods and technologies as a reliable means of capturing and distributing live sports content.

Accelerated by the pandemic, the adoption of cloud video techniques became widespread and proven. Fast forward to today, and the industry-wide acceptance and excitement around cloud production, transmission, and clipping and editing are beyond the most ambitious pre-pandemic predictions. The upshot is greater efficiency, flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness across more live sports and related content than ever.

> A NEW WAY TO DELIVER LIVE SPORTS

The transmission capabilities of the cloud bring added flexibility and opportunities for broadcasters and rightsholders, offering IP delivery of feeds from any location to multiple — up to hundreds — of destinations via the internet. They can also tap into cloud and private delivery networks spanning the globe, such as The Switch’s, and often combine these with public internet access.

One of the reasons broadcasters and rightsholders look to the cloud to deliver their feeds is that it enables cost-effective, high-quality trans-

mission of live feeds in excess of 20mbps, which can enable HD and UHD broadcasts. For events in remote locations with no or limited internet — such as the annual desert-crossing Dakar Rally — cloud-based transmission with bonded cellular services can accommodate either the primary feed or a backup, leveraging 5G connectivity where possible.

A recent cloud transmission project with the Confederation of North, Central America, and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) saw The Switch deliver global live coverage of its 2021 Gold Cup football tournament. For the project, CONCACAF tapped The Switch’s end-to-end Cloud Video Services platform, MIMiC, to deliver over 2,000 hours of uninterrupted live feeds from stadiums around the U.S.

In addition to utilizing The Switch’s first-mile connectivity expertise and fiber transport network to deliver live feeds from each of the 11 U.S. stadiums used in the tournament, CONCACAF relied on the cloud MIMiC Transmission service to ensure soccer fans worldwide had access to uninterrupted coverage via a broad range of international broadcast and streaming platforms.

Cloud capabilities can also act as the glue between elaborate distributed production workflows, enabling talent and production personnel in remote locations to communicate and produce content in real time. The Switch did just this for the 2021 NHL Playoffs and Stanley Cup Finals, launching a new type of pre-game programming for the league. The project enabled the NHL to tailor highly interactive and fun content for its fans on Twitter, airing 30 minutes before each game and including quizzes, re-caps from previous games, and player stats for the upcoming game.

The Switch curated and powered the entire schedule of NHL Twitter programming, deploying a comprehensive suite of live video production and delivery services through MIMiC to support a virtualized production for 21 pregame shows. MIMiC provided low-latency cloud-based communications to connect the remote talent, announcers, graphics operators, and show producers who were located in locations across the U.S., including Long Island, Burbank, New York, Chicago, and Brooklyn. The Switch’s MIMIC platform was used by CONCACAF.

> INSTANTANEOUS SOCIAL MEDIA CLIPPING & EDITING

With a growing number of fans viewing and following sports and entertainment events via social media, the cloud offers the clipping and editing tools needed to create and post-event highlights as they happen. Whether it is for a major league game or a Division III college sports event, social media operators can clip and edit within the cloud all real-time live highpoints as they unfold, pre- and post-game interviews, half-time commentary, and clips from other games during and after. The result is a content continuum extending far beyond the linear broadcast, reaching a breadth of social media and streaming platforms.

We can see the full scope of cloud-based clipping and editing capabilities in the use of MIMiC to distribute real-time highlights across streaming and social media platforms for the American Flag Football League’s (AFFL) August 2021 Championships and by the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships (BKFC) for a series of major bouts. The use of cloud tools for these events also demonstrates how the viewing dynamic across all sports is changing.

AFFL utilized MIMiC’s cloud clipping and editing capabilities to instantly clip and post highlights of big plays during its most important games of the year. The AFFL generated a huge amount of social media engagement and activity instantly across its Twitter and LinkedIn channels using streams available in real time as the games were being played. Working via the cloud meant the editors were not restricted to just one social media destination but could reach any platform anytime simultaneously — and they could do that from anywhere. MIMiC supported a total of 14 games over two weekends, including the championships broadcast on CBS Sports Network.

Likewise, BKFC used MIMiC to capture real-time social media highlights within minutes for its Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube channels. In one instance, thanks to the instantaneousness of the cloud, BKFC achieved close to 300,000 views on one social media post before the fight was even over. The cloud is also capable of recording multiple feeds at once. BKFC was able to clip and edit the ‘dirty’ feed — which included broadcast-ready graphics — instantly for social content, while a separate editor used a clean feed from a ringside camera to curate bonus content and incorporate new angles to create and deliver higher-end packages for the broadcaster to use.

> NO TRADE-OFF IN QUALITY

Speed is the critical advantage of the cloud in delivering new and dynamic live sports experiences the next generation of sports fans demands with zero compromise on the quality of the broadcast. Once the audience knows the game’s results — either through social media updates, push notifications from a news app, or a text from their friend — they’re less interested in the content and are potentially lost to the rightsholder.

By leveraging live production in the cloud, with its efficient transmission capabilities and rapid clipping and editing functionalities, broadcasters and sports rightsholders can dramatically extend the lifespan of their content, open exciting new revenue streams, and most importantly, keep their content relevant to today’s on-the-go consumer. <