ITN to stream World Cup

TV Technology

The Outdoor Sport Channel will offer daily tournament news bulletins, interviews and live press conferences produced by ITN Productions. As well as streaming the content live, the channel will also offer video-on-demand packages immediately after the event. All programming will be available to view on Outdoor Sport Channel, which is accessible online and via satellite, cable and IPTV.

“We are delighted to be able to offer our customers this content through our partners at ITN Productions,” said Henk Van Meer, founder and CEO of Outdoor Sport Channel. “This is a huge event in the sporting calendar and has a massive following. Being able to offer this content as it happens will be a real differentiator for our customers.”

London-based ITN Productions produces content for major global brands in the broadcast, online, mobile and corporate sectors. It creates short- and long-form programming for customers spanning multiple genres including news, entertainment, informational and corporate.

- See more at: http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0086/itn-to-stream-world-cup/228611#sthash.ibVtYAjC.dpuf

Ready for kick-off

CSI : Preparations for this summer's football World Cup in South Africa, where the host broadcaster plans extensive new editorial, mobile and 3D production.

http://www.csimagazine.com/csi/Ready-for-kick-off.php

BBC builds post, studio facilities in South Africa

TV Technology

BBC Post Production (BBCS&PP) has partnered with BBC Sport to build a post-production and studio operation to augment host coverage of the 2010 World Cup. The system is configured around an EVS network with LSM servers and IPDirector servicing media acquisition and quick-replay workflows. An Avid Unity system with five edit clients supports fast-turnaround editing.
According to the BBCS&PP, “The ability to move files quickly between any systems will greatly aid BBC Sport in achieving their aspirations for rapid production of high-quality content. In addition, there is a compositing operation to service high-end graphic workflows, which will also interface with the post-production media systems.”
The BBC production team has access to a vast amount of coverage on the host server, which is all in HD, including a range of additional isolated match camera angles and footage from the host crews embedded with each of the 32 teams. BBC Sport is supplementing this material with its own coverage of the England team matches and local color material from a roving HD crew.
BBC Sport is using flyaway kits, rather than OB trucks, and is sharing some satellite uplinking facilities with ITV, both of which will save on costs. SD content is minimal with the HD/SD split being 90/10.
The BBC Sport studio is based in Cape Town, providing views of the newly built Green Point Stadium, the iconic Table Mountain and Robben Island.
The HD studio and BBC Johannesburg international broadcast center facilities were installed by Presteigne Charter and supported by BBCS&PP. Cape Town will also house an additional HD edit suite to support stories and features cut in Cape Town and a complex analysis and LSM TX operation.
The analysis setup uses Piero and LiberoVision DiscoverEye, a new 3-D fly-through tool that enables viewers to see the action from any angle in the replay, fading out goal posts and goal keepers where necessary to improve the view.
HD and SD circuits enable material to be moved quickly from any platform between Johannesburg and Cape Town. There is also a circuit from Johannesburg back to London for HD transmission supplemented by a number of SD circuits to provide material for Red Button and BBC News outlets. Both locations have been designed to have backup transmission capabilities.
Other technical partners include SIS Live, Siemens, Broadcast Media Communications and Telkom South Africa.
- See more at: http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0086/bbc-builds-post-studio-facilities-in-south-africa/228622#sthash.wjlQuYPY.dpuf

http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0086/bbc-builds-post-studio-facilities-in-south-africa/228622#sthash.wjlQuYPY.dpuf

Annova’s OpenMedia delivers World Cup news

TV Technology

German public broadcasting group ARD is supplying a mobile OpenMedia system to its journalists for use during the World Cup. OpenMedia is newsroom management software developed by Annova. ARD affiliate Südwestrundfunk (SWR) has implemented a mobile OpenMedia editorial system to support planning, scheduling and production.

Planned contributions include broadcasts from the German national team camp, press conferences, games broadcasts and the supply of background reports for the whole group of broadcasters. The journalists on-site receive their own agency information and access to all sports schedules of news agency DPA. Schedules can be directly imported and managed in the OpenMedia EventCalendar. The workflow includes weekly and daily planning as well as a broadcast planning system based on content containers.

The broadcaster’s editorial office and broadcast control room at SWR headquarters (Baden-Baden, Germany) are directly networked with the OpenMedia system in South Africa and are always linked to the current flow of the broadcast.

SWR previously deployed OpenMedia during the UEFA Euro 2008 championships in cooperation with Bavarian Rundfunk.

- See more at: http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0086/annovas-openmedia-delivers-world-cup-news/230245#sthash.IRfsv0jV.dpuf

HBS introduces new graphical analytics tools

TV Technology

Host Broadcast Services (HBS) will introduce virtual offside line graphics to the main international broadcast feed of the 2010 World Cup. This graphic overlay will be managed using Epsio, a new EVS software tool that allows LSM operators to manually trigger the offside line with the jog wheel of the LSM remote. There will be one EPSIO in the outside broadcast facility at each venue and two within the international broadcast center.

According to Luc Doneux, EVS Asia-Pacific general manager and head of event projects, “Epsio is able to instantly and automatically recognize the playing field during actions and virtually draw the offside line along the borders of the playing field. This one-second operation is selectable with just one button.”
In addition, the host feed will be integrated with Deltratre’s new statistical analytics software MAGMA Pro, powered by Piero. HBS production teams will be able to replay pictures integrated with Magma Pro data from the FIFA Max server to create analysis of key moments such as goals and the position of every player on the pitch.
MAGMA (Match Analysis Graphics Machine) identifies patterns and categorizes and grades them. Producers can search the database to find the key moments and preview relevant clips from their desktop. The data can be output as statistics on-screen or can be fused with the clips and pushed to Piero, which automatically adds the virtual graphics effects.
“Audiences are beginning to demand depth of information to enhance their TV experience,” said Davide Bricarelli, MAGMA product manager for Deltatre. “We have found the way to exploit the incredible amount of data we track with MAGMA in order to improve the audience’s understanding.”

- See more at: http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0086/hbs-introduces-new-graphical-analytics-tools/226005#sthash.syoXgUa4.dpuf