SANTIAGO, Chile—As Chile’s exclusive free-to-air rights holder for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Chilevisión was responsible for delivering reliable, high-quality coverage of one of the world’s most demanding live sporting events. We also wanted to give viewers access to an enhanced 4K Ultra HD experience while continuing to use the production infrastructure supporting our core HD service.

To achieve this, we worked with Appear, pay-TV operator ClaroVTR and cloud-video enhancement specialist Pixop to create a hybrid ground-to-cloud architecture. The deployment combined Chilevisión’s broadcast environment with Pixop’s cloud-based video enhancement platform hosted in AWS cloud infrastructure, enabling ClaroVTR to offer a dedicated 4K channel to subscribers throughout the tournament.

Premium Service Without the Heavy Lift
Our starting point was Chile­visión’s live 1080i HD-SDI program feed. Replacing the complete production chain with a native UHD system would have added significant cost and complexity. Instead, we used our existing feed as the source for cloud-based enhancement, allowing us to introduce a premium service while retaining our existing infrastructure and operational practices.

An Appear X20 sat at the heart of the contribution chain, encoding the 1080i signal using High Efficiency Video Coding and securely transporting it from our facilities to AWS cloud infrastructure using Secure Reliable Transport.

For live sports, this connection needed to deliver consistent performance with low latency. Appear’s hardware-accelerated SRT technology provided a robust link between our on-prem operation and the cloud, helping us maintain the quality and resilience required for continuous live coverage.

Once the feed reached AWS, Pixop’s AI-powered platform enhanced it in real time. The processing included deinterlacing, restoration, super-resolution upscaling and image optimization, transforming the interlaced HD source into a high-quality 4K UHD signal.

The enhanced output was then transported back from the cloud. A second Appear X20 received and decoded the signal, preparing it for downstream delivery by ClaroVTR.

Each partner had a clearly defined role: Chilevisión originated the live program feed; Appear connected the broadcast and cloud environments; Pixop performed the video enhancement; and ClaroVTR delivered the finished channel to its subscribers.

This open ecosystem was essential, allowing us to bring specialist technologies together within one end-to-end chain, rather than depending on a closed architecture or replacing systems that were already performing effectively.

An event on the scale of the World Cup places considerable demands on live production and distribution infrastructure. We needed the solutions we deployed to be technically robust, operationally flexible and capable of moving high-quality video between SDI and cloud environments without introducing unnecessary delay.

The X Platform brought these requirements together through high-density HEVC encoding, low-latency SRT transport and straightforward cloud integration. It provided the bridge between our facilities and the processing resources in AWS, while fitting into the wider architecture developed with ClaroVTR and Pixop.

The signal path remained clear throughout the project. Our HD-SDI feed was encoded and carried into AWS as an HEVC SRT stream, enhanced in real time and returned as a decoded 4K output for distribution. This made the system easier to manage and operate during the high-profile live event.

Crucially, it allowed us to adopt cloud processing where it provided a specific benefit without moving every part of the production chain off-premises. We could preserve the reliability of our ground-based infrastructure while accessing the flexibility and specialist capabilities available in the cloud.

Scalable Path to HD
This project demonstrated that broadcasters can introduce new cloud-based services without undertaking a wholesale infrastructure replacement. By using the Appear X Platform to connect established broadcast technology with AWS processing, we added a dedicated 4K service practically and efficiently.

The deployment transformed our live 1080i feed into an enhanced UHD channel for ClaroVTR subscribers, giving Chilean audiences a new way to experience the World Cup. It also established a flexible model for future projects that need to combine the reliability of broadcast infrastructure with the processing capabilities of the cloud.

More information is available on Appear’s website .

DENVER, Colo.—Sports entertainment platform DAZN relied on the MediaKind MK.IO elastic, cloud-native streaming platform to support high-quality streaming of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025, which concluded last month.

DAZN held the exclusive global broadcast rights to the inaugural tournament, which featured 32 of the world’s top soccer clubs competing in 63 matches across 12 stadiums in the U.S. and was streamed live to hundreds of millions of viewers in more than 200 markets.

The tournament was the first major live sporting event DAZN streamed with its newly deployed, multiregion MK.IO service from MediaKind.

MediaKind was DAZN’s exclusive cloud-based live event delivery partner on Azure. With its API-first design, real-time adaptability and cloud elasticity, MK.IO enabled DAZN to deliver consistently low-latency, broadcast-quality video at scale, regardless of geography, platform or device, the company said.

“Broadcasting the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 to soccer fans around the world requires reliability and agility,” James Pearce, senior vice president of broadcast and streaming at DAZN, said. “MK.IO supported DAZN in scaling effortlessly, adapting in real time and delivering a seamless streaming experience. The service simplified our operations and helped us make world-class soccer more accessible than ever across all devices to fans worldwide with complete confidence.”

MK.IO allowed DAZN to orchestrate end-to-end video workflows from ingest to playback while dynamically scaling in response to match schedules and peak global demand. The upgrade to MK.IO has assisted DAZN’s growth and unified operations and delivery on a scalable, resilient and cloud-agnostic service.

In addition to supporting the tournament, DAZN has also selected MediaKind’s cloud-connected technology as the sole solution for its 24/7 linear channel processing. The initial deployment supports 40 channels and runs on-prem on DAZN’s own infrastructure, with additional scaling planned, it said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

LONDON—Encompass Digital Media said it will support live and on-demand viewing of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup across multiple global regions for sports entertainment platform DAZN with playout, live channel origination, cloud-based streaming, IP distribution and satellite-based resilience services.

Available via linear broadcast and over-the-top, the Club World Cup concludes on Sunday, July 13, with the championship match between English Premier League side Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain of France’s Ligue 1, at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The tournament brought together 32 of the most successful clubs from every continent to compete in 63 matches. DAZN is the exclusive global broadcast partner, delivering every match live and free to fans worldwide—a first for a men’s international club soccer tournament.

Throughout the event, live playout is being managed from Encompass’s Stamford, Conn., facility, where its team handles workflows across three channels, integrating late-breaking content, graphics, advertising and event-specific requirements.

Reactive playout services are being delivered continuously across the live window on each matchday and then transition to thematic operations overnight. AI-generated captions, provided in partnership with AI Media, are also integrated into all feeds, Encompass said.

Encompass’ Stream TV product is architected to deliver 100% availability and provides OTT direct-to-consumer distribution for three linear channels (North America, Rest of World and Latin America) via its Altitude Media Cloud. The channels are encoded, packaged and delivered directly to DAZN’s audience.

Encompass also handles IP distribution to seven international affiliates, using a resilient setup monitored 24/7 from its custom-built London facility. The service, which replaces traditional satellite-based delivery with a fully internet-native approach, ensures high-quality broadcast output to licensees in regions including Australia, Europe and the United States.

As an additional layer of resilience, Encompass provides satellite downlink capabilities from the U.K. and the U.S. to enable DAZN to maintain access to live content in the event of fiber or IP disruption. Encompass’s integration of traditional master control and broadcast engineering with modern cloud, IP and OTT services is backed by its operational teams and technical resources, enabling it to meet the real-time demands of live Tier-1 sports.

More information is available on the company’s website.