Riedel’s unified technology approach deployed for the 36th America’s Cup presented by PRADA included the latest innovative solutions in partnership with host broadcaster circle-O.  The live production operation was anchored by the Simplylive ViBox replay solution, which provided the core system for capturing all the live camera feeds for replays, streaming to post-production and more.

The ViBox system located in the broadcast center combined 7 networked replay servers that captured 42 sources being managed by several replay operators.  The ViBox network was crucial for all replays, quick turn-around of incidents, highlight packages and interviews but also provided streams of the iso recordings to facilitate the post-production needs. 

“There are great challenges in producing this event.  The technology required to bring the best live coverage is crucial to the success,” says Werner Eksler, Managing Director of circle-o.  “The Simplylive ViBox system was the backbone of the replay and post-production content that allowed us to successfully bring the best experience to our viewers.”

The ViBox replay system was in place 24/7 throughout the event allowing the full collection of content to be available until the final race.  The final tally of content included almost 20,000 clips and over 350 highlight packages.    
​
“This scale of production requires innovation and development of solutions with technology partners that understand the demands of live production,” says Luc Doneux, Managing Director of Simplylive.  “As a company, we are offering a fresh approach to live production with solutions like our ViBox Replay to bring a better toolset to operators and producers to tell their story.  We are always looking to enhance our technology, which relies on key partners like Riedel and circle-o.”   

​November 10, 2020  -  SimplyLive, the makers of the world’s most intuitive, flexible and scalable multi-camera production systems, today announced a new partnership with Bon Studio S.A. and Bon Studio Cyprus Ltd, as a value-added reseller and system integrator in Greece and Cyprus, respectively.
 
“I have had the pleasure of working with Bon Studio for many years, thus I am very happy to welcome them as our trusted Partner in Greece and Cyprus”, commented Harry Kapros (VP Business Development South & East Europe, Middle East). “Bon Studio Management appreciates the potential of our cutting-edge, highly reliable, flexible and future-proof, software driven, broadcast solutions. They are highly motivated to help us expand our reach into the markets of Greece & Cyprus.  I believe that the Company’s excellent reputation, leading market position, commitment to quality customer service, as well as the high level of technical expertise they possess, uniquely positions Bon Studio to help SimplyLive disrupt traditional production workflows in their markets of reach”.
 
The President and CEO of Bon Studio, Mrs. Aphrodite Bofiliakis stated that “Bon Studio emphasizes and invests in the latest technological advancements, in all the fields of our business activities. We always pursue successful professional partnerships, to ensure the efficient promotion of cutting-edge technologies in our markets of reach. Thus, we are very satisfied to be partnering with SimplyLive, which will help us significantly enrich and enhance our product portfolio and the range of solutions offered through our specialized Broadcast department”. Commenting on the short and long-term goals of this partnership, Mrs. Bofiliakis added “Bon Studio aims at increasing its market share both in Greece and in Cyprus, covering both markets’ requirements in the best possible way. After all, our rich product portfolio gives us the advantage of being able to provide turnkey solutions for any application, big or small, and of different budgets”.
 
 
 About Simplylive
 
With offices in US, EU and Asia, SimplyLive was founded by live production veterans who have made systems that have helped produce televised events like the World Cup, Super Bowl and the Olympics. SimplyLive’s ViBox platform takes a different approach from traditional hardware and software products. Instead, system designers focus on the way live programs are actually produced, the next generation of users needed to make those programs, and an approach based on system simplicity, flexibility, reliability and oncoming migration to a VoIP and Cloud future. The result is a platform used by ESPN, IMG, Canal+, and many more.
 
 
About Bon Studio
 
Bon Studio is a leading audio-visual integrator with 46 years of experience in the market. The Company consults, designs, leads and provides turnkey solutions for the largest Broadcasting, Audio-visual, Lighting & Enterprise projects in Greece & Cyprus. Bon Studio exclusively represents a large number of premium manufacturing companies from all over the globe. The Company’s activities are supported by specialized departments, excellent organizational structure and experienced staff.

October 13, 2020  -  SimplyLive, the makers of the world’s most intuitive, flexible and scalable multi-camera production systems, today announced a new partnership with RomTek Electronics S.R.L., as a value-added reseller and system integrator in Romania & Republic of Moldova.
 
“I am very excited to announce this new collaboration with RomTek, a market leader in Romania & the Republic of Moldova. RomTek’s experienced team and top leadership have an excellent track record in delivering the most significant regional projects to life. We feel confident that this partnership will bring growth and success for both our Companies, in today’s new production reality. In this reality SimplyLive is pioneering with its cutting-edge, highly reliable, flexible and future-proof traditional baseband, IP, Remote and even Cloud based broadcast solutions”, commented Harry Kapros, SimplyLive’s VP Business Development South & East Europe, Middle East.
 
The Managing Director of RomTek Electronics S.R.L., Mr. Florentin Gheorghiu stated that “SimplyLive has a really innovative approach to TV production, which we believe will set new trends and standards in this industry. Here are three obvious advantages of SimplyLive’s approach, which make it stand out of the clutter and support our evaluation: its solutions are cost-effective yet reliable, flexible and future-proof, their systems are designed for remote production and they use an intuitive & easy to learn interface, which results to further cost saving on personnel. The fact that SimplyLive’s ViBox is already a successful solution, for large television networks and small TV production organizations alike, makes us believe that the introduction of these solutions to our market, is a real support for the business of all our broadcast customers in Romania and Republic of Moldova. Pioneering this technology in our territory, we expect to become a business success for RomTek too".  
 
About Simplylive
 
With offices in US, EU and Asia, SimplyLive was founded by live production veterans who have made systems that have helped produce televised events like the World Cup, Super Bowl and the Olympics. SimplyLive’s ViBox platform takes a different approach from traditional hardware and software products. Instead, system designers focus on the way live programs are actually produced, the next generation of users needed to make those programs, and an approach based on system simplicity, flexibility, reliability and oncoming migration to a VoIP and Cloud future. The result is a platform used by ESPN, IMG, Canal+, and many more.
 
About RomTek
 
Established in 1998, RomTek Electronics SRL (RomTek) is a privately owned Romanian company specialized in providing equipment, solutions and engineering services for the areas of Audio|Video|TV|Film (A|V|TV|F), Telecommunications (Telecom), Test & Measurement and Educational Training Platforms (T&M – ETP). RomTek covers, directly and with the full product portfolio, Romania and Republic of Moldova. Additionally, the project business and some multi-country distributions are driving the Company’s growth to a regional expansion.

October 12, 2020  -  SimplyLive, the makers of the world’s most intuitive, flexible and scalable multi-camera production systems, today announced a new partnership with AVDigital s.r.o., as a value-added reseller and system integrator in Slovakia.
 
“AVDigital is an innovative, highly efficient system integrator, with high potential in the Slovakian market. Together we aim to further penetrate the market and make our cutting-edge, highly reliable, flexible and future-proof solutions the new standard in the local industry. Our Companies’ strategies and portfolios are an excellent fit, so we are looking forward to working hand-in-hand from today onwards”, commented Harry Kapros, SimplyLive’s VP Business Development South & East Europe, Middle East.
 
The Managing Director of AVDigital s.r.o., Mr. Milan Vaľko stated that “We are very pleased to become a partner of SimlyLive as we strongly believe in its products and portfolio. We believe that they will soon become a mainstream solution in the Broadcast industry and other related industries, where video production finds it new scopes”.
​
About Simplylive
 
With offices in US, EU and Asia, SimplyLive was founded by live production veterans who have made systems that have helped produce televised events like the World Cup, Super Bowl and the Olympics. SimplyLive’s ViBox platform takes a different approach from traditional hardware and software products. Instead, system designers focus on the way live programs are actually produced, the next generation of users needed to make those programs, and an approach based on system simplicity, flexibility, reliability and oncoming migration to a VoIP and Cloud future. The result is a platform used by ESPN, IMG, Canal+, and many more.
 
About AVDigital
 
AVDigital is a system integrator and distributor of TV broadcast products of many brands. It is already 20 years in the market and possesses rich knowledge of the broadcast industry since it is staffed by market professionals with a proven track record and deep expertise. With its customer-centric approach, AVDigital has achieved excellent levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty.  

​Hong Kong – September 23, 2020 – Simplylive, the makers of the world’s most intuitive, flexible, and scalable multi-camera production systems, has announced e-Slomo, a revolutionary software application that uses Artificial Intelligence to create super slow-motion sequences from standard camera footage.
 
Leveraging the latest generation of Nvidia GPUs, the e-Slomo application allows you to create super slow-motion sequences faster than play time when deployed on multi-GPU platforms. Users can create super slow-motion clips in a variety of formats, including 720p, 1080i, 1080p, and UHD, and play them instantly for live production.
 
“e-Slomo is absolutely groundbreaking technology” says Luc Doneux, Managing Director of Simplylive. “The ability to render high-quality super slow-motion clips from standard camera footage will allow producers to create eye-catching sequences at a fraction of the cost of dedicated high frame rate cameras.  It’s the perfect tool to craft emotion evoking promos, openers and closers - or to give a new life to archived content.  And, as it is completely software and AI driven, it’s functionality will continually improve as its sports specific algorithms learn and GPU power increases.” 
 
e-Slomo processing is very fast, requiring only a couple of seconds of buffering time. Simply cue the start of the replay, send it to e-Slomo, and moments later your super slow-motion sequence will be ready for broadcast. When combined with the Simplylive UI Gateway, users can create super slow-motion footage from any remote location – even from home – with a user adjustable bandwidth requirement of only 5 Mbps to 50 Mbps. 
 
e-Slomo integrates seamlessly into all replay, studio, and post-production environments, and is fully compatible with Simplylive’s complete range of Replay and All-In-One Production Solutions.  To learn more, visit www.simplylive.tv.
 
About Simplylive
With offices in US, EU and Asia, Simplylive was founded by live production veterans who have made systems that have helped produce televised events like the World Cup, Super Bowl and the Olympics. Simplylive’s ViBox platform takes a different approach from traditional hardware and software products. Instead, system designers focus on the way live programs are actually produced, the next generation of users needed to make those programs, and an approach based on system simplicity, flexibility, reliability and oncoming migration to a VoIP and Cloud future. The result is a platform used by ESPN, IMG, Canal+, and many more.

ESPN’s production calendar has plenty of huge events, but none is larger than the US Open. Even in a good year, the production takes months of planning at a scale that can impress anyone in the industry. Add in COVID-19, and the accomplishment the team pulled off to get to this point is even more impressive.
​
“It’s a huge, stressful event because we’re the host broadcaster for the world,” says Dennis Cleary, director, remote production operations, ESPN. “And now we add in the pandemic, and people are concerned about their health and safety while they’re doing their job. It’s a side we haven’t really dealt with before.”

Health and safety is job one, he notes, and, with the USTA as lead partner, a key goal is to make sure all protocols follow both USTA and ESPN guidelines.
“The biggest thing for us is we have 600 people onsite,” Cleary explains. “Where do they sit and work? How much more space could we acquire for them because the international broadcasters aren’t here?”

In the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the first big challenges was to make sure that everyone could get onsite. A key technology partner for ESPN is Gravity Media, which provides the equipment and integration support for the Open.

“The Gravity Media team is from the UK, and all of the equipment comes from the UK,” says Cleary. “There were a lot of unknowns about whether we would be able to get their engineers and personnel into the country when there was a travel ban.”

The USTA faced a similar situation and worked closely with various federal, state, and local government agencies to get the necessary clearances.

“Until we knew that we could get people in,” Cleary explains, “we needed a plan B where we would bring in mobile production units to cover Ashe, Armstrong, and Court 17 because we wouldn’t have enough engineers available to build the flypack.”

Gravity Media ultimately was able to get its crew in place, but August brought another challenge: preparation for the US Open had to occur while the Western & Southern Open was being held on the same courts.

“Gravity Media has been a great vendor for us as they were also the provider for ATP Media at the Western & Southern Open,” says Cleary. “The turnaround time from Western & Southern to the US Open was one day less, and we also have maximized the facilities that were being used at the Western & Southern, like the NCP VIII truck, which was used for our ITV coverage.”

ESPN worked closely with the USTA team to draw out the spacing needs to the inch so that every operator could work in a socially distanced way. International rightsholders are not at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center, and many personnel who would usually be onsite are working remotely. Those two factors allowed the ESPN and USTA teams to work more safely.

“Wherever there was a seat for an operator in the EVS area or the control room, we would draw a 6-ft. bubble around that position,” says Cleary. “And we did the same thing with those who were in the office space.”
​
One dramatic change is the expanded space needed for the ACES production team. Last year, for example, nine two-person ACES production teams produced all of the outer-court action from an expanded production area on the second floor of the ESPN administration building. Each two-person team comprised a director/operator of a Simply Live ViBox system and a camera operator controlling four cameras, two of which are automated via the Fletcher Trace player-tracking system. Those nine teams were co-located with two audio rooms crammed with audio operators handling audio needs for coverage of multiple courts.

“This year, we have 10 ACES courts and have socially distanced everyone.  Last year, we fit everyone working the ACES courts inside one large room; this year, we need to spread them all out over the entire second floor of the administration building. Each ACES court has a dedicated, socially distanced workspace with the robo operators and directors sitting 6 ft. apart. The video operators are in their own room, all socially distant, and the two audio operators are in their own dedicated rooms mixing the 10 courts.”

One great thing about ESPN having its own building for domestic- and world-feed production is that the control rooms are larger than the space typically afforded in a production truck.

“Most of those control rooms had only three people in them: the technical director, someone in the director/producer combo role, and a graphics person,” says Cleary. “So we basically spread the SMT graphics people into other areas. Everybody has a home.”
The long days at the Open also mean multiple shifts of production personnel, adding another layer of complexity to sanitizing workstations as well as having relief staff available.

“You unplug your headset and wipe down your equipment, and then the relief or next shift comes in,” says Cleary. “They plug their headset in and know that it is sanitary and clean.”

The biggest production change is that there are only three TV courts: Arthur Ashe, Armstrong Stadium, and Court 17. All the others are produced using the Simply Live ViBox because of the requirement to limit the production team to as few people as possible.

“We’ve also added eight more robotic cameras and a jib camera to Armstrong and changed some of the angles by moving cameras from being on the court to being in the stands,” adds Cleary. “This is a one-year opportunity to try something different that we can’t [do] when there are fans in the stands.”

A four-point camera system is also new in Armstrong and two-point system that has flown from Armstrong across the plaza has been repositioned to fly from the practice courts across the plaza. This helps the team capture a revamped plaza that now features entertainment areas for the players, given that fans are not present.

“We wanted to show that flavor,” says Cleary.

As for audio, two sweetening booths — one for Ashe, one for Armstrong — are taking audio files from IBM and adding crowd effects and coupling them with natural sounds.
With the tournament heading into its final weekend, everything has been going smoothly, both technically and from a health and safety perspective.

“Health and safety are definitely the X factor,” says Cleary. “At any time. something could change, and we have to be ready to deal with it. We’ve almost faced down every challenge and know what to do when you lose power or a machine goes down. But, when something happens on the health and safety side, it’s always a new situation and has be dealt with as an individual case.”

This week’s WTA Top Seed Open in Lexington, KY, represents the first WTA- or ATP-sanctioned event on U.S. soil since the pandemic shut down the sports world in mid March, and Tennis Channel is on hand to bring the action live to the masses. While the tournament marks the return for high-profile stateside tennis, it’s nothing new for Tennis Channel, which has kept busy over the past five months, producing five tournaments in the U.S. and carrying hundreds of hours of live coverage from the around the world.
“We took great pride in being one of the very first networks to come back with live sports,” says Bob Whyley, SVP/executive producer, Tennis Channel. “We never put the ‘gone fishing’ sign up. We have done five remotes since [the pandemic began], and we’re happy with that accomplishment. If we weren’t producing live tennis on our own, we took in live world feeds from Europe. And, if we weren’t doing that, then we had a live studio show where we incorporated some of our talent in studio and other talent via Skype.”

Safety Means Efficiency: ViBox, SMT Automated Production Tools Deployed
​
Tennis Channel, on behalf of WTA Media, is producing the world feed for the WTA event in Lexington this week, as well as delivering its own customized telecast to U.S. viewers. In an effort to ensure the health and safety of its team, the network has a smaller onsite crew and footprint than usual, deploying 22 people (which would typically be 50-60) and Gravity Media’s Polaris midsize mobile unit rather than a 53-footer.

“We have to be thoughtful and sensitive to the amount of people that we have onsite,” Whyley points out. “We can’t do business as usual with the big mobile units and big crews, but that doesn’t mean we can’t produce a great show.”
Polaris is built around a 16-channel SimplyLive ViBox all-in-one production system, which is handling the center-court coverage at Top Seed Tennis Club. Tennis Channel has deployed six cameras for center-court coverage, including a jib, a build-up slo-mo system, two hard cameras (courtesy of Ross Production Services), a handheld, and a beauty shot. Longtime CBS Sports Coordinating Producer Bob Mansbach is overseeing the production.

“The SimplyLive ViBox takes a little bit of getting used to because it’s relatively new technology,” says Whyley, “but it has worked out great so far. Our operators in there have been doing a great job, and it’s accomplishing exactly what we need to accomplish, which is a nice, clean world feed.”
To deliver live-streaming coverage from Courts 2 and 3 in Lexington, Tennis Channel is deploying SMT’s automated robotic-camera-tracking system to produce live feeds using just one or two operators per court. Each court has a three-camera setup: one lock-off wide shot and two robotic cameras controlled by SMT software that allows a single operator to produce the entire show. SMT is also providing data and scoring for the main control room inside Polaris (since SMT can integrate into the ViBox directly via NDI).
“I know SMT is more widely known for doing graphics and stats,” says Whyley, “but this camera-tracking system has been pretty impressive for our streaming courts. We knew we needed to have a limited [crew onsite] because of safety, and this has played a big role in allowing us to do that.”

Back in L.A.: Producing the Domestic Broadcast From Home
​
Another major reason Tennis Channel was able to limit the number of bodies onsite is that it’s leveraging its Los Angeles production facility to create its own domestic telecast. The world feed is being backhauled to L.A., where Tennis Channel’s production team (abiding by all safety and social-distancing guidelines) is using a dedicated control room to supplement the feed with graphics, studio inserts, match commentary, and other storytelling elements.
“[Our studio] has been dark only two weeks since the week of March 9,” says Whyley. “We are very comfortable there, and we have a good process in place by now. And [parent company] Sinclair has been very supportive and helpful to make sure we have all the right procedures to keep people as safe as possible. We don’t have too many folks in one location, and it has been very successful to date.”

Looking Ahead: Scaled-Down US Open Presence, Major Production at Roland Garros

Next week, the ATP Tour returns for the Western and Southern Open (usually held in Cincinnati) at Flushing Meadows in advance of the US Open, starting at the same venue a week later. With health and safety taking precedence at the Open this year, only host broadcaster ESPN will be permitted onsite. As a result, Tennis Channel will not have its usual lofted set at Arthur Ashe Stadium but will be taking in court feeds, providing first-ball-to-last-ball commentary, and producing its TC Live studio show from Los Angeles.However, the real Super Bowl for Tennis Channel each year is the French Open, which, for the first time, will take place after the US Open at the end of September. As the U.S. domestic rightsholder, the network will once again produce hundreds of hours of live first-ball-to-last-ball tennis from Roland Garros and have a sizable onsite presence with 70+ crew (compared with 150 in a typical year) and multiple booths and studio sets on the grounds.“Most of our focus right now is on the French Open,” notes Whyley. “I think I could speak for everyone in saying we’re really excited to be a part of it. We will fall underneath the [French Tennis Federation] protocols when it comes to safety, and we’ll be scaling back in terms of people. But we’re in a good place, and we’re ready for it. You don’t know what tomorrow brings, but, being in production, we’re used to having to be flexible. So we will be ready, no matter what.”

Simplylive, the makers of the world’s most intuitive and ultra-efficient multi-camera production systems, today announced its partnership with Matrix Video Communications Corp. as a value-added reseller and system integrator in Canada.  

“I am excited that Matrix has chosen to partner with Simplylive” said Chuck Silber, Simplylive’s Chief Revenue Officer.  “The MVCC team was quick to realize the potential of Simplylive’s remote-optimized live sports production solutions and are highly motivated to help us expand our reach into the Canadian market.  I believe their outstanding reputation and high level of technical expertise uniquely positions them to help provide their market with the ViBox solutions that are ideal for today’s new production reality.”  

Commenting on the partnership, MVCC’s President Glenn Burgess added “With our entire economy migrating to the cloud we have been looking for a production solution that incorporates remote location workflows as its core.  Now with COVID highlighting the benefits and flexibility of remote operators we are excited to represent Simplylive from our multiple Canadian offices.”

About Simplylive

With offices in US, EU and Asia, Simplylive was founded by live production veterans who have made systems that have helped produce televised events like the World Cup, Super Bowl and the Olympics. Simplylive’s ViBox platform takes a different approach from traditional hardware and software products. Instead, system designers focus on the way live programs are actually produced, the next generation of users needed to make those programs, and an approach based on system simplicity, flexibility, reliability and oncoming migration to a VoIP and Cloud future. The result is a platform used by ESPN, IMG and Canal+. To find out more, visit www.simplylive.tv.

About Matrix Video Communications

Matrix Video Communications Corp. is a specialized video communications company that has built their reputation on achieving the highest degree of customer satisfaction in consultation, design, integration and installation  of audio, video and multimedia solutions in the Broadcast, Post-Production, and Audio-Visual environments.  As one of Canada's leading suppliers of audio & video equipment and installation services, we combined the advanced expertise of our team alongside our collaborative approach to become a leader in the marketplace. 

Simplylive, the makers of the world’s most intuitive and flexible multi-camera production systems, ​ has announced that they have joined the SRT Alliance.  SRT is a free open source video transport protocol and technology stack that enables the delivery of high-quality and secure low latency video across the public internet.  Founded by Haivision  April 2017, the SRT Alliance already has more than 350 members. 
 
The Simplylive Vibox platform is natively remote production capable, and intrinsically migratable to the cloud. The ViBox I/O hardware can be located with the cameras at the event venue, while the switcher or replay operator UIs can be located in an entirely different location provided they are connected to the same network.
 
The mission of the SRT Alliance is to overcome the challenges of low-latency live streaming by supporting the collaborative development of SRT (Secure Reliable Transport) Open Source, the fastest growing open source streaming project. SRT is a free open source video transport protocol and technology stack originally developed and pioneered by Haivision that enables the delivery of high-quality and secure, low-latency video across the public internet.
 
“SRT’s ability to reliably to deliver the best quality video at all times on any network, including the public internet, is an outstanding addition to our overall remote production strategy”, says Pierre Mestrez, VP Pre-Sales of Simplylive SRL. “In addition, SRT’s inherent capabilities are further enabling the rapid development of our game-changing ViBox Cloud production platform.  Simplylive is proud to be part of the SRT Alliance, and looks forward to contributing to its mission.”

“As one of the leading innovators of remote live production, we’re delighted that Simplylive has joined the SRT Alliance. With the adoption of the SRT protocol, Simplylive can provide their customers with outstanding, low latency and secure streaming workflows to further enhance their remote production capabilities, and help them transition to cloud-based production,” said Jesus (Suso) Carrillo, Director SRT Alliance,Haivision.
 
About Simplylive
With offices in US, EU and Asia, Simplylive was founded by live production veterans who have made systems that have helped produce televised events like the World Cup, Super Bowl and the Olympics. Simplylive’s ViBox platform takes a different approach from traditional hardware and software products. Instead, system designers focus on the way live programs are actually produced, the next generation of users needed to make those programs, and an approach based on system simplicity, flexibility, reliability and oncoming migration to a VoIP and Cloud future. The result is a platform used by ESPN, IMG and Canal+. To find out more, visit www.simplylive.tv.
 
About the SRT Open Source Project & SRT Alliance
SRT is an open source video transport protocol and technology stack, developed and pioneered by Haivision, that optimizes streaming performance across unpredictable networks with secure streams and easy firewall traversal, bringing the best quality live video over the worst networks. The SRT Open Source Project, supported by the SRT Alliance, is a collaborative community of industry leaders and developers striving to achieve lower latency Internet video transport by continuously improving open-source SRT. For more information about the project and how to join the SRT Alliance, visit srtalliance.org

​When the coronavirus pandemic brought the sports world to an abrupt halt two months ago, ESPN quickly formed a “Live From Home” committee to evaluate options that would allow on-air talent and crew to produce live studio shows from the safety of their own homes. In the months since, efforts by the committee — led by the Remote Operations department and comprising 30+ staffers from several ESPN departments — have resulted in the launch of more than 60 at-home studios for talent, five remote-commentary kits for live KBO League (Korean Baseball Association) telecasts, and a full REMI production workflow for several ESPN studio shows.

​“Obviously, we all continue to plan for live sports to return,” says Chris Calcinari, SVP, remote operations, ESPN. “We’re on calls every day with our production partners and our league partners trying to work through scenarios and plans to come back once it’s safe to hold sporting events. But, in the meantime, we’ve been keeping busy coming up with homegrown, innovative solutions that allow our production teams to work from home. And we believe these innovations will prove to be extremely valuable once live sports return.”

‘Live From Home’ Studios: Keeping Commentators Active

ESPN’s Live From Home studios have become the backbone of the network’s studio operations since reduced staffing measures were put in place at ESPN’s Bristol, CT, campus. Although several shows are still being hosted out of the Bristol studios, nearly all analysts and reporters have been outfitted with robust studio facilities at their homes to enable them to contribute to ESPN programs.

​“We had a pretty strong network of home studios even before the pandemic happened,” says Shea Byram, senior remote operations manager, ESPN, “but we’ve taken it to the next level now. Thankfully, we had a good system in place, which allowed us to get things done as quickly as possible and get the [studio kits] out to our talent.

When the sports world suddenly shut down on March 12, Byram and her team anticipated an increased need for at-home studios and ordered gear for an additional 30 studio kits.

​A three-person team composed of Byram, Senior Remote Operations Coordinator Ryan Bastek, and Remote Ops Coordinator Leah Morgenstern constructed the kits and deployed them to talent throughout the country. In addition, Byram relied on the entire ESPN remote-operations team to perform the installations at commentators’ homes, walking them through the process via Facetime.

​“That has been a lifesaver,” says Byram. “Normally, we are out on the road every week installing home studios at different locations. But, as soon as we got our travel ban, we had to enlist the help of everyone else in remote operations. At this point, we have a nice network of installers that are able to help us. We’re still [installing at-home studios] in the Tri-State area ourselves, but we are getting as much help as we can around the country from the rest of the team.”

The sophistication of the kits varies from a simple system comprising an iPads, lighting lights, and a transmission app to higher-end systems that are equipped with an IP-based PTZ camera and a more advanced transmission device for hosts who are on-air for several hours at a time. The 60+ systems installed over the past two months are in addition to ESPN’s pre-existing installations, and the team will continue to deploy more in the coming weeks.

​“When we first started this review to create Live From Home workflows,” says Calcinari, “the main goal was to give our production teams the tools that they’re used to having. We evaluated a lot of cloud-based solutions and found a lot of limitations in terms of large volumes of video and graphics, as well as limitations in quality due to compression and processing. That’s why we turned to more of a hardware-based solution. With this solution, we can pull from all of the ESPN servers, and our production teams have everything they could possibly want at their fingertips without limitations — just like they would have in a normal production-control room.”

The crucial factor in enabling ESPN’s current REMI workflow was the recent release of SimplyLive’s UI Gateway, which significantly reduces the bandwidth requirements for remote operation, allowing at-home production using standard internet connections. Strong says that, with the UI Gateway, a ViBox operator requires an internet connection of only 5-50 Mbps, rather than the 100-150 Mbps previously required.

“It’s a real hardware solution that allows us to extend multiple remote-user interfaces without having a large bandwidth need,” says Strong.

ESPN’s studio shows are using Unity Intercom for all real-time comms between crew and talent and audio/video signals from commentator’s home are sent over the internet using TVU to the Seaport Studios for integration into the ViBox. The ViBox at Seaport Studios is controlled from the operators at their respective homes — Los Angeles in the case of The Jump and Washington for Around the Horn. ESPN graphics operators are also able to remotely access Vizrt graphics systems at Seaport to create and play out graphics from their homes. Editors and producers can access ESPN’s content library via high-speed file transfer to produce packages and bumps for the studio shows. The lone staffer onsite at Seaport Studios is an EIC to manage the equipment.
“We are truly able to let almost everybody work from home — graphics operators, editors, TDs, and directors — and support all of them with just one EIC at Seaport who actually touches any of the hardware,” says Strong. “Using Unity and the at-home studio kits, we bring in talent at a high quality in near real time. Now an entire production crew — which can be 15-20 people per show — can sit at home doing a linear taped show. I think you can see in the quality and the timing that it works really well and looks really good. And we’re still working to improve.”

​Remote-Commentary Kits: ESPN Brings Back Live Baseball

Last week, ESPN began live English-language broadcasts of the KBO League, one of the first professional sports leagues to return to play since the pandemic hit. The deal came together quickly, which meant that ESPN’s operations team had to come up with a remote-commentary solution for its announcers in less than a week.

“The main goal when we started to develop this was to make talent feel as comfortable with equipment as if they were right there at the ballpark,” says Henry Rousseau, associate director, remote operations. “We based this system on systems that we have used for international events like World Cup and EUROs, where you have a commentator system in the stadium and each talent is responsible for creating their own individual mixes. The only difference is, now they’re at their homes.”

Rousseau worked with Strong and Remote Operations Manager Ryan Zainc to develop the remote-commentary kits and obtain the necessary equipment to complete them — not an easy task with a slowed global supply chain.

The Live From Home remote-commentary kit is a Unity-based system featuring a Dante-based Glensound Inferno commentary box connected to a MacBook Pro via a Dante Virtual Sound (DVS) card. Using the Unity Connect app, the system has seven bidirectional channels plus comms for the two on-air talent to have real-time comms with each other, with the producer/director in the control room in Bristol and members of the ESPN Research team at their homes. ESPN is also using Zoom teleconferencing on the MacBook to connect the two talent so that they can see each other and the production team during the live broadcast.

“We’ve timed our audio to match [the live feed] so that the talent is able to communicate almost in real time,” says Rousseau. “On a lot of shows, there is a delay, and they end up stepping on each other. But we’re able to circumvent those issues with the Unity Connect app by having almost instantaneous communication between the two talent and the team back in Bristol.”

Kits have been deployed to ESPN commentators Karl Ravech, Jon Sciambi, Eduardo Perez, Jessica Mendoza, and Kyle Peterson.

“We were a little apprehensive at first,” says Rousseau, “when we sent out the equipment not knowing how talent was going to react to the new technology and new workflow. But they have really embraced it and even asked us to make some modifications so they can control more of their mix. Knock on wood,” he adds, “it has been pretty flawless, and I’m extremely happy with both the quality and the simplicity of the system. This can all fit into one simple little carrying case. and I see it as something that we can definitely use for future at-home broadcasts.”

Looking Ahead: How the New Tools Could Factor Into Future Productions
With live sports slowly returning in the coming weeks and months (albeit likely without fans in the stands), Calcinari says, ESPN is evaluating how all these newly developed Live From Home tools could be used in the future.

​In regard to the commentary system, he says, “As sports come back and we evaluate whether people can travel safely, we’ll determine whether we expand this remote-commentary model further.”

He also says ESPN is working with one of its mobile-facilities providers to evaluate whether a small REMI mobile unit outfitted with a ViBox could be controlled remotely from an operator’s home for live game coverage.

“All of that is being evaluated right now in terms of how we can apply this to remote events; we’re not ruling anything out,” says Calcinari. “We’re still working through the specific workflows, but that process is absolutely happening. We are definitely trying to leverage the learning and innovation that has come out of our efforts during the pandemic to make us better when we come out of this. There’s no question about that.”