Tag Archives: broadcast

Cleaning & Facilities Management, News

Keysource To Support International Broadcast Company

Timeline TV, the leading provider of broadcast technology and services, has awarded Keysource, the data centre services specialist, a critical facilities management contract. Under the terms of the deal Keysource will provide maintenance and operational management support for the company’s data centre which is based at its Ealing Broadcast Centre (EBC), a 9,700 sq ft state-of-the-art broadcast facility which provides a wide range of services such as virtual studios, remote production, playout and post-production.

The data centre is central to Timeline TV’s ability to deliver HDR outside broadcasts, post-production, studios, RF and satellite, managed services and systems integration to the international TV market. With resilience a key driver, Keysource will deliver a fully comprehensive, self-delivered preventative maintenance solution across all M&E equipment. This will be backed up by 24/7 support from the field engineering team who will provide emergency response utilising back office technical analysis to reduce mean time to recovery.

Timeline TV will also have access to Keysource’s 24/7 helpdesk which is available 365 days a year based at its highly secure Data Centre Operations Centre at the Keysource HQ – just outside London where 24/7 remote monitoring of any BMS alerts will also be provided.

Luke Brimelow, Operations Manager at Keysource, said: “Due to the criticality of this facility where any unplanned downtime could result in TV programmes going off air, our aim is to achieve optimum performance. By identifying and managing issues that affect all aspects for the facility before they become critical, this joined-up approach to fault finding and resolution maximises critical availability, efficiency and resilience.
Bradley Woollett, Head of Engineering at Timeline TV, said: “We provide broadcast facilities for events ranging from the Football World Cup to political debates and corporate conferences. Reliable power and cooling infrastructure is vital to delivering these events successfully, with the technical power system supporting all data racks and control rooms. We have critical services and events 24 hours a day, in the broadcast industry less than a second of downtime is visible to the viewer so having the preventative maintenance and the 24/7 support from Keysource reassures us that we have minimised the risk from a critical facilities issue as far as possible.”

News, Sports Tech

Consumer experience takes centre stage as sports broadcasters’ investment budgets bounce back from pandemic lull

The new research, in partnership with IABM, found that while the number of companies making low level investments was still higher than pre-pandemic levels, mid-range and high levels of investment are on the rise

Tuesday 24th May, Oslo, Norway — Appear, the global leader in media processing and delivery technology, has launched its latest 360° report, The impact of COVID-19 on sports broadcasting technology investments.

The report, produced in partnership with IABM, investigated the monetary investments sports broadcasters made before and during the pandemic and found that in 2022, 73% of sports broadcasters stated that they expect their investment budget to increase compared to 2021, while none expect their budgets to decrease. Following healthy levels of investment in 2019, 2020 saw budgets frozen or reduced for over half (53%) of sports broadcasters. 2021 then saw significantly more broadcasters investing over $501K in new technology to make up for lost ground.

Surveying broadcasters across the US and UK, the report found that while 2019’s most significant investment for sports broadcasters was in production equipment, the most popular investment in 2020 was predictably in remote production equipment. 2021 saw investments in lightweight compression take the top spot, and for 2022 we see cameras being touted as the top technology broadcasters are looking to upgrade.

Given the complications in getting staff on the ground because of the pandemic, the research points to the fact that investment in 2020 and 2021 was about firming up sports broadcasters’ infrastructure. Ensuring consistent access to content was the first priority, hence the strong investment in remote production equipment and lightweight compression tools. With cameras taking the top spot in 2022, the trend now seems to be about improving the quality of services having invested in robust infrastructures.

When asked explicitly about the main drivers behind these investments sports broadcasters said that they were to support the delivery of content to more viewers, and to enable new capabilities that would maintain competitive edge. The increased investments in cameras and encoders certainly aligns with these drivers.

Speaking on the research Thomas B. Jørgensen, CEO of Appear, said, “This research highlights a consistent theme we see with our customers, while there was a rush to adopt new technologies to keep the ship afloat among the troubled waters of 2020, there is recognised need to not just deal with today’s problems but to invest in tackling tomorrow’s.

“Sports broadcasting is a fiercely competitive field. Maintaining a distinct competitive advantage is key to thriving in it. Consumers don’t just want variety, they demand quality. Deloitte found that the single most important factor for sports fans is the quality of the broadcast or stream. Investments in 2020 and 2021 were about getting that content to viewers, while 2022 looks to be all about improving the quality and experience for audiences.”

“The report on sports broadcasting technology investment, produced by Appear in partnership with IABM, shows an industry that is back to natural evolution after the exceptional innovation driven by pandemic-induced disruption,” said Lorenzo Zanni, Head of Knowledge at IABM. “Investment in technologies such as new image capture has returned, but the report also shows that the big shift to remote production necessitated by the pandemic has become permanent and fundamentally changed some technology investment priorities.”

The full 360° report, The impact of COVID-19 on sports broadcasting technology investments, is now available to download here: https://content.appear.net/appear360_lp-sport

Awards, News

TRIC announces Euronics as its first ever title partner for the TRIC Awards 2022

TRIC is delighted to announce that the TRIC Awards 2022 will be in partnership with leading electrical retail buying group, Euronics.

It’s the first time ever that TRIC has given a sponsor an in-partnership status for the Awards. This is a really exciting journey for both parties, as it offers wider brand awareness and an opportunity for both brands to tap into new audiences nationwide.

This is the second high-profile sponsorship agreement for Euronics this year, who is also an official Sponsor of the UEFA Women’s Football, and will be donating TRIC tickets for the Women’s Euros as part of the silent auction to raise money for this year’s chosen charities Save the Children and the Alzheimer’s Society.

TRIC Chair, Dan Todaro: “We are delighted to welcome Euronics to the TRIC Awards as title sponsors, our first in the awards history. This is a great partnership which compliments the Television & Radio Industries Clubs ethos, raising funds for good causes on behalf of talent across broadcast media On Line, On TV & On Radio and also those who produce the devices we watch and listen on”.

The TRIC Awards 53rd ceremony will be back at the lavish Grosvenor House, on Park Lane, the home of over 50 awards ceremonies. The day will see the best talent of TV, radio and online celebrating the most loved shows and talent, taking place in the height of British summer on Wednesday, 6th July.

Presenting the show will be TRIC President, Alex Jones. Amongst the UK’s best loved TV presenters, co-hosting The One Show for over 11 years.

The awards will be presented in front of a live in-person audience of over 1000 guests, and will again be streamed, for fans to tune in and to watch all the action on a livestream or on-demand, hosted across streaming platform, ScreenHits TV.

News

ST Engineering iDirect’s Mx-DMA® MRC return technology leveraged by X2nSat and Dejero for Cloud Media Production and IP Newsgathering

Satellite service and solution providers take advantage of most powerful return technology to deliver agile and resilient connectivity

Herndon, Va., April 24, 2022 – ST Engineering iDirect, a global leader in satellite communications, announced today that satellite service provider X2nSat is leveraging its breakthrough Mx-DMA® MRC return technology on the Newtec Dialog® platform to power their Smart Blending Technology developed by its partner Dejero. Featuring blended cellular and Ku-band satellite communications, the Smart Blending Technology is a resilient connectivity solution that allows the delivery of live broadcasts and enables transmission continuity and disaster recovery by broadcasters and public safety agencies.

Tapping on Mx-DMA MRC’s efficiency and bandwidth capabilities, Dejero’s Smart Blending Technology intelligently combines cellular connectivity from multiple mobile network providers with Ku-band satellite communications from X2nSat to reliably deliver the bandwidth needed for critical communications from the most remote locations and facilitates real-time tactical video and other data-intensive applications required by public safety agencies.

ST Engineering iDirect’s Mx-DMA MRC technology is an award-winning, patented multi-access waveform that incorporates the scalability of MF-TDMA with the efficiency of single channel per carrier (SCPC) into a single return technology. It enables service providers to cover a myriad of use cases in a single return link sharing capacity across multiple terminals and applications without making tradeoffs between speed, efficiency and scale, lowering their total cost of ownership.

The combination of the Dialog platform and Mx-DMA MRC allows Dejero to utilize a portable satellite terminal and dynamically amalgamate the available cellular networks with a satellite signal over a single return link, reducing operational complexity and enabling the benefits of statistical multiplexing to deliver high quality connectivity in rural locations. Dejero is able to cover all remote production scenarios over a single platform, maximizing bandwidth and operational efficiencies, including news gathering, sports and live event coverage and temporary remote connectivity.

“Demand for Cloud Media Production (CMP) is higher than ever, and crews are deployed to the most remote and hostile of places, so the ability to film in any location and collaborate in the cloud is critical,” said Darren Ludington, Regional Vice President, ST Engineering iDirect. “Furthermore, the use of IP Newsgathering is enabling remote news crews to cover breaking news from anywhere whilst utilizing IP connectivity to send large files and access the internet and email applications, streamlining the entire production process. Our Mx-DMA MRC technology is the power behind Dejero’s solution and enables those teams in the field to get on with the task in hand without worrying about where their connectivity is coming from whilst eliminating the need for service providers to choose between speed and efficiency and scale and cost.”

“We at Dejero are impressed by ST Engineering iDirect’s commitment to deliver powerful solutions that are cost-effective, reliable and leverage the power of Mx-DMA MRC technology,” said Yvonne Monterroso, Director of Product Management at Dejero. “Along with our partner, X2nSat, we see huge value in this latest solution which will enable the bandwidth efficiency and cost-effectiveness to better support our customers.”

“X2nSat has always kept the customer’s experience top of mind. This technology allows us to bond all available cellular communications with our Ku-band satellite to offer our users cost effectiveness and peak performance from anywhere at any time,” said Garrett Hill, CEO of X2nSat. “We are incredibly optimistic about what this means for our broadcast and public safety clients who understand the criticality of reliable connectivity.”

To find out more about the award-winning Mx-DMA MRC technology and the benefits it brings to a whole spectrum of use cases, visit ST Engineering iDirect at Stand #W5505, NAB Show, Las Vegas from April 23-27, 2022.