​VidOvation today announced that the company is now representing Simplylive, a leader in remote live production workflow solutions, instant replay, and official/coaching review replay. The addition of Simplylive to its portfolio will expand VidOvation’s turnkey solutions for cloud-based, remote integration production (REMI), particularly for live sports broadcasts.
 
The integration of VidOvation’s bonded cellular and wireless system with Simplylive’s modern, forward-thinking ViBox remote production architecture enables fully remote productions, increasing productivity and affordability by allowing operators to produce multiple shows or games without being on-site. This provides added health safety measures and allows adherence to pandemic restrictions, reducing travel, shipping, and venue costs – while maintaining the highest-quality production.
 
“Simplylive’s remote production expertise solves the challenge of effective, affordable cloud-based production for live events,” said Jim Jachetta, executive vice president and chief technology officer, VidOvation. “All of us – broadcasters, sports leagues, producers – rose to the challenge during the pandemic and were able to develop and deliver workable remote production solutions almost overnight. Now it’s a matter of refining and perfecting those solutions. Simplylive helps us take it to the next level with scaleable REMI technology that offers the production infrastructure to be onsite, remote or in the cloud, giving production teams the ultimate flexibility to work from anywhere.”     
 
Simplylive’s ViBox All-In-One is a flexible total production tool for multicamera programs of all sizes. The smart, touch-screen user interface is simple to learn and operate, even allowing a single operator to run a complete production on one touch screen. With ViBox, the servers are located with the cameras at the venue, while operaters run the touch-screen controls from any remote location, delivering huge savings in production costs. The ViBox is available in a number of configuration sizes, from the ViBox Micro A-I-O for single camera productions with integrated graphics and audio, to the ViBox 16 A-I-O with a 12-input switcher that integrates SloMo, graphics, and audio.
 
“VidOvation has been instrumental in creating the REMI-style at-home live production model,” said Simplylive VP of sales and operations Gregory Macchia. “With its experience in developing and deploying innovative live production solutions, VidOvation will provide our shared customers with valuable guidance and support in implementing more efficient, cost-saving, safe, and robust solutions for live production..” 

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.
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“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.”
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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.”

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

Simplylive has announced it will not be attending IBC this September.

"This was a very difficult decision for us as we always look forward to this very important industry event.  However, in light of the current uncertainty surrounding Covid-19, we felt that we must prioritize the health and well-being of our team, partners, and customers" said Luc Doneux, Managing Director of Simplylive.

"Instead, we have invested in our studio capabilities at our offices in the US and Belgium, allowing us to do live remote demonstrations of our complete ViBox production and replay solutions for customers anywhere around the world.  We are confident that the demo experience we can now deliver online is in many ways superior to what we can offer at a trade show."

​To schedule an online demo visit www.simplylive.tv.

The Simplylive Vibox platform is the world’s most intuitive and flexible multi-camera production system. With it’s easy to use touch-screen user interface, small footprint, and scalable workflow configurations, every Vibox system is natively remote production capable. By design, the ViBox I/O hardware, the cameras and the switcher or replay operator UIs can be located in entirely different locations provided they are connected to the same network. 

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+.

Simplylive is pleased to announce a new alliance partnership with Kairos, the revolutionary new IT/IP Platform from Panasonic. 

KAIROS utilizes variety of IT ecosystems based on COTS technology and easily expands functions and links external devices by adding application software. 
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ESPN’s St Pete Clearwater Elite Invitational returned to Clearwater, Florida in February 2020, providing more than 40 games of softball across ESPN’s networks. 

Each participating team played between four and six games over the course of four days, with the USA Softball Women’s National Team also competing in three exhibition games throughout the weekend. 

Gravity Media provided three Simply Live ViBox all-in-one production solutions, as well as engineering to integrate with the OB provider, to provide coverage of three of the pitches at the event. 

The setup included a single-user production with three cameras and one director/producer; a dual-user setup with five cameras, director/producer and dedicated replay operator; and one large three-user setup with 10 cameras, director/producer and two dedicated replay operators.

The whole ESPN team produced 40 games in four days from four fields split between two compounds a mile apart. On Friday 14th, we were live on ESPNU for over eight straight hours, which created a post-season-coverage type of atmosphere. 
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The streaming numbers for the tournament were impressive, and the Sunday night ESPN2 game delivered in dramatic fashion both on and off the field, with a solid rating for a softball game in February.

When The Jump returns to ESPN on Monday, the entire crew will be working from their homes – marking the first time ESPN is deploying a fully at-home workflow for one of its studio shows. The “Live at Home” remote-production workflow was developed in recent weeks by a committee that featured more than 30 ESPN staffers from the company’s Creative and Studio Direction, Production, Production Operations, Remote Production Operations and Technology departments.

“The goal of the committee was to review the best option for producing studio shows at a high-level, while allowing all of the associated staff to work from home,” Chris Calcinari, SVP, ESPN & ABC Sports Remote Production Operations, wrote on ESPN Front Row. “The ‘Live from Home’ committee reviewed several cloud-based solutions that work well to execute very basic productions, but did not allow for a large volume of video, graphics or animation. The committee quickly turned to several tools that have been deployed in the field and could be operated from afar.”

At the core of the “Live at Home” remote workflow is the Simplylive ViBox, which is based at ESPN’s Seaport Studios in Manhattan, but controlled from a staffer’s home in Los Angeles. The ViBox touchscreen production system provides us with the ability to cut/dissolve/wipe between cameras, video and animation sources. It also allows us to store and playback video and insert graphics.

​Remote home studios have been built out for The Jump on-air talent with audio/video signals from each home sent over the internet (using the TVU application) to the Seaport Studios for integration into the ViBox.

​A Vizrt graphics device is also based at our Seaport Studios and is controlled from Operators’ homes in Middlebury and Southington, CT.

All communications take place using a Unity Intercom app installed on the phones, tablets, or computers of everyone involved, including talent.

Production staff is also able to pull video from ESPN media servers and edit at home.

CLICK HERE to read Calcinari’s full post on ESPN Front Row and to see more behind-the-scenes photos.

Remote production trials are carried out regularly in France but for the Pro B clash between Paris Basketball and Aix Maurienne broadcast on Sunday 26 January on RMC Sport, AMP Visual TV delivered a real live remote production that went to air.

“At RMC Sport we like to implement new workflows. We had been thinking about producing a live remote production and not just a trial for quite some time, so with AMP Visual TV and our own "Letsee" team we chose a basketball game,” said Luc Pannier, director of broadcasting and production for the Altice Group, owner of RMC Sport.
This is the first time a Pro B (second division of the National Basketball Championship) regular-season match has ever been held at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris-Bercy – two days after the NBA Paris Game 2020 between Charlotte and Milwaukee.

Equipment used for coverage was identical to that of a traditional match produced with the help of the IXI Live mobile unit. Seven cameras were deployed around the basketball court with five camera operators manning the three cameras on the sidelines, plus one for wide shots and one for close-ups, with two minicams positioned behind the hoops.

“We placed a sensor at the base of the wide-angle camera that, depending on the shot, automatically enabled the minicam to follow the direction of the action. The interesting thing about our set-up is that we used traditional 300Mb fibre broadband instead of a costly dark fibre network to send seven video and audio signals as well as all the other data,” said François Valadoux, deputy CEO for technical resources at AMP Visual TV.

Simplylive ViBox for the production
On-site at the AccorHotel Arena in Bercy there was a pared-down production crew of five camera operators, some assistants and two sound engineers. At the AMP Visual TV media centre (which has moved from the 15th arrondissement of Paris to join the nerve centre of the group’s studio facilities situated at la Plaine Saint Denis, close to the future Olympics village), the crew members who usually work in the IXI Live mobile unit were calling the shots.

They included a director, LSM operator, digital imaging technician, sound engineer and, for the graphics, a dedicated broadcast designer from Tangodelta, services provider for the Professional Basketball League. Worth mentioning is the fact that the commentator and the sports analyst were also in a remote location and just the on-air announcer was present at the stadium to be on set and conduct interviews.

Match director Raphael Gaboriaeu calls the shots for Paris Basketball vs Aix Maurienne, with Simplylive ViBox. “As far as I am concerned, it makes no difference that we are not on site. Directions are given in real-time (as well as tally signals for the camera operators),” said match director Raphael Gaborieau.

“Before the match, I was told there would probably be a one-second delay between transmitting and receiving the signals back at the studio but the delay was barely a quarter of a second.

“For the remote production I used a ViBox, like I normally would in the production truck and I could even have single-handedly managed the slomo replays if needed,” said Gaborieau. “However I chose to go to the stadium to check the camera positions and for a briefing with the operators on site. Otherwise we could have simply used skype to visualise each position.”

Cost savings? Not just yet…
At present, a single one-off remote production does not cost less than normal on-site production. There will be a cut in costs when the professional league (or any federation) and the championship broadcaster agree to tweak the schedule.

In fact, the economy of scale can only be effective if production teams produce a series of two or even three matches a day or even more over a single weekend.
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This will surely happen in the short to medium term for a good number of championships as financial pressure is severe in the world of sports broadcasting production.