Sports Video Group
The BBC’s move to ramp up coverage of sport online is part
of a comprehensive strategy to shift more – and eventually all – of its live
event production onto software and into the cloud.
“We at the point of transition from a place where IP is
being used for contribution but with conventional gallery production, to a
world where everything will in the cloud,” says Tim Sargeant, Head of
Production System and Services BBC North and Nations (whose remit includes BBC
Sport).
In what BBC Director General Tony Hall dubbed “a reinvention
of free-to-air sports broadcasting” the broadcaster has announced plans to
produce and distribute an additional 1000 a year of sports online.
These will be predominantly niche sports accessed via the
BBC Sport website and BBC iPlayer but more content from the BBC’s portfolio,
including of the Winter Olympics, will also be given an IP treatment.
This is in line with moves since 2012 to build out the
Corporation’s IP capacity. “It would simply not be possible to deliver 1000
hours of additional sport on budget without either the internet infrastructure
or the IP production techniques we are now able to use,” says Sargeant.
The core infrastructure of encoders and networking capacity
to points of presence and onward distribution with content delivery networks
(CDNs) was built to deliver 2500 hours of IP content during the 2012 Games.
“The long term plan was always to build on this,” explains
Henry Webster, Head of Media Services in the Corporation’s Design and
Engineering Platform group. “We’ve not had to hire in capacity.”
The area of focus since 2012 has been around distribution at
volume. “2012 was by far the biggest streaming effort we’ve ever done but since
then there’s been enormous and continuous growth,” notes Webster. “Our last biggest
peak to date was around the Euros (the England V Wales game last summer saw 2.3
million unique browsers watching online against 9.3m viewing the TV broadcast)
and we expect to be breaking those records again next year.”
Wimbledon is another highly popular piece of live streamed
content for the BBC but the World Cup from Russia is likely to smash streaming
records for the BBC and most other rights holders.
The hub of the BBC’s live stream infrastructure is dubbed
Video Factory. This is packed with Elemental encoders for transcoding
contributed live streams into a single Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) set. Separately,
the streams are packaged into varying formats for different devices mostly
using HLS and MPEG DASH with some Flash to service platforms still using it.
The BBC is also working on an internal delivery network project again to
increase capacity and to manage cost.
The packaging process is performed in the Amazon Web
Services (AWS) cloud with the encoding operation split between AWS and
on-premise. “A lot of capacity which we built for the London Olympics was
on-premise kit but increasingly we’re doing live events entirely in the cloud,”
adds Webster. “A lot of work is being made to ensure our origin servers can
cope with spikes in load back from the CDN.”
Streamlining costs
A key part of the equation is rollout of
remote production to further streamline costs. “There are a variety of
routes for this,” explains Sargeant. “We’ve already covered some early rounds
of rugby league with just a single camera which is then IP contributed back to
base where we add BBC commentary. It’s a very light touch production and the
production standard and technical requirement is lower than you might find on
BBC One. It won’t have 14-camera switching, the graphics will be fairly modest
and, because it’s an online offer, we feel viewers don’t mind if there’s a
holding card at half time rather than lots of rich analysis.
“We are at the
point of transition from a place where IP production is contributed back to
base and passed through a relatively traditional gallery with comms and
graphics and switching towards a scenario where all of that takes place in the
cloud. We are gradually increasing the amount of workflows and processes we
operate in the cloud to allow us to do those very basic production activities,
then to perhaps switch a couple of cameras and mix an additional audio signal
and on to a world where all conventional production tools are software running
in the cloud controlled by web browser.”
This technology is common to pretty much anything the BBC
streams over iPlayer, notably multicam live events Springwatch and Glastonbury.
There are two other production scenarios. One is use of 3-4
cameras with a very low cost on-site production capacity and local switching
before passing into the IP network. Another instance is where the BBC will
enhance the live stream already being captured by sports federations for social
media platforms or their own websites. The British Basketball League (BBL) is
an example where the BBC might take some existing production and overlay its
own commentary.
Currently, the BBC’s live stream sports efforts are destined
for its own platforms. Discussions are taking place about the merits of
distribution to non-BBC platforms – such as Facebook or YouTube.
“The goal is to advance technology that scales on demand and
to move away from a world of defined 24-48 channels,” says Webster. “It’s a
world where we flex capacity up and down in an ad hoc way.”
Does that mean scope to deliver a 4K stream? “At the moment
there’s not a massive demand for that but it’s fair to say that most of our
technology is internet and software based and therefore agnostic to
resolution,” he responds. “It’s very straightforward for us to scale to deal
with higher bit rates and larger frame sizes. IP opens up the possibility of
delivering higher rez if that is an option.”
Since all that’s required for switching is a web browser and
internet connection there is less need for a dedicated physical sports
production centre. “We are in a hybrid world where some events will still come
through the gallery in Salford and others where production will be more
self-operating and not dependent on a particular centre,” says Sargeant.
Sports coverage produced and delivered over IP currently
includes rounds of the FA Cup, ATP World Tour Finals, Women’s Ashes from
Australia, Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships and Scottish International
Open Bowls and Women’s Soccer League.
Streaming challenges
It should be noted, of course, that live streaming is
notoriously bedevilled by a number of issues including buffering and latency.
“There are a bunch of things we don’t have good control over
such as people’s last mile connection,” admits Webster. “We do have control
over ensuring we have capacity to delivery against those large numbers and we
work with multiple CDNs to ensure that we have redundancy and that we scale to
meet the demand.”
In announcing the sports plan, BBC DG Hall admitted the BBC
has been forced to evolve as a result of the budget for live sport being
slashed. “As we have shown time and time again, we will not stand still…not if
we want to meet the changing demands of sports fans, not if we want to remain
relevant in the media’s most competitive marketplace.
“While we’re privileged to be funded by the licence fee,
it’s no secret we don’t have the same deep pockets as those we must now compete
against but we have unique qualities that are essential for those sports who
want to ensure their events are available to – and able to inspire – the widest
possible audience.”
In January Hall outlined a strategy to “totally reinvent the
iPlayer by 2020 to increase its reach and become a “must-visit destination”.
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