LONDON—The BBC has launched a dedicated stream of  Queen Elizabeth II lying in state, "for people who want to pay their respects virtually," the public broadcaster has announced. 

The BBC said the service is being offered "globally for those who want to pay their respects but cannot travel to London or are physically unable to queue."

The stream is available on the BBC home page, the BBC News website and app, the iPlayer, BBC Parliament and Red Button. The stream can be seen here until Monday, the morning of the funeral, the BBC said. 

People will be able to file past the coffin in Westminster Hall until 06:30 BST on Monday, the BBC reported.  

NEW YORK—CBS Sports has announced its streaming plans for Super Bowl LV, however one thing missing was any news on a 4K or HDR stream of the big game. According to The Verge, CBS Sports Digital has confirmed that there will be no 4K stream of the Super Bowl this year.

CBS Sports is citing production limitations due to the COVID-19 pandemic as reasons for not being able to offer a 4K stream. CBS has not offered a NFL game in 4K/HDR to date, and any possible plans for one were likely shifted because of the demands of remote production.

Fox Sports offered a 4K and HDR stream of last year’s Super Bowl LIV, however they had previous experience with 4K productions of live NFL games and were not dealing with a pandemic.

The full story is available on The Verge. 

SAN BRUNO, Calif.—YouTube live streams now have the potential to be viewed in high dynamic range (HDR), according to a YouTube blog post. At first, HDR capability will only be available to creators with a supported encoder and viewers with supported devices, but there are plans to expand.

YouTube began supporting HDR videos back in 2016. The addition of HDR quality to live streams brings “the most spectacular image quality for live content yet,” the company said in its blog.

To support HDR content for live streams, video creators need to use a compatible encoder—YouTube cites Mirillis Action, Cobalt and Telestream encoders—and a camera that supports HDR video with either PQ or HLG color standards.

Viewers will be able to watch HDR live streams on supported HDR devices, including the YouTube app on HDR TVs, casting to Chromecast Ultra devices connected to HDR TVs, Android-based mobile devices with an HDR display and Windows and Mac PCs with HDR graphics support and an HDR display.

YouTube says that it is working to expand options for creators to stream HDR from additional encoders and mobile devices.

ARLINGTON, Va.—PBS has announced that viewers are now able to live stream their local PBS stations for free over internet connected devices. As of now, 85 stations can be live streamed, with more expected to become available in the future.

Streaming will be available on major web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge) as well as through the PBS Video Channel on Roku devices. Viewers can not live stream PBS channels on Apple TV or Fire TV at this time, but PBS says it is exploring those options.

To live stream a local station, users go to pbs.org/livestream. It will detect to see if your local station is available, and if so will display a live stream.

PBS had previously expanded its access to YouTube TV, but this now gives it a more direct line to viewers and at no additional cost.

The full list of available stations can be found here. 

GRASS VALLEY, Calif.—Earlier this summer, AJA joined PT SportSuite’s team to help bring the Three Team Cricket (3TC) Solidarity Cup to fans live from South Africa. It did so by utilizing the Helo H.264 streamer/recorder from AJA.

PT SportSuite had three Helo units on hand to deliver live feeds of matches to a microsite the PT SportSuite team developed for the event. Two Helo units were connected to an on-site OB truck via SDI, and streamed footage over IP to the Amazon Web Service cloud-based media processing and content distribution infrastructure. Because of the mobile production, PT SportSuite configured the Helos for redundant inputs, assigning each to a different cellular broadband provider. 

The third Helo was positioned at the PT SportSuite Cape Town office for automatic failover in case of an emergency, AJA said.

Because of the demand for sport, and the current inability to have fans present at events, PT SportSuite believes that similar setups for what it had at the 3TC championship will be necessary.

For more information, visit www.aja.com.  

NEW YORK—New York Yankees fans will have the chance to live stream 21 games of the 2020 MLB season via Amazon Prime Video thanks to a new partnership the streaming service has established with the team and YES Network.

The live streams will be simulcasts of games produced by YES Network. However, Prime Video will provide Amazon exclusive technology for the live streams, including X-Ray technology that enables fans streaming on Android, iOS mobile and Fire TV to access live in-game stats, team and player details and real-time play-by-play information.

“We understand that fans are consuming content in a variety of different ways, and we believe our unique partnership with Amazon represents an exciting development in the realm of live sports,” said Hal Steinbrenner, CEO, Yankee Global Enterprises.

Prime members in New York state, Connecticut, northeast Pennsylvania and north and central New Jersey will have access to the games through Prime Video, at no additional cost. 

The first Yankee that will be livestreamed on Amazon Prime Video will be on April 17 against the Cincinnati Reds.

Here is the full schedule of games for 2020:

•  April 17 - Cincinnati, 7:05 p.m. 
•  April 21 - at Detroit, 6:40 p.m. 
•  April 25 - Cleveland, 1:05 p.m. 
•  May 8 - Boston, 7:05 p.m. 
•  May 15 - at Houston, 8:10 p.m. 
•  May 22 - Seattle, 7:05 p.m. 
•  May 23 - Seattle, 1:05 p.m. 
•  May 27 - Minnesota, 7:05 p.m. 
•  June 21 - at Minnesota, 2:10 p.m. 
•  June 24 - Baltimore, 7:05 p.m. 
•  June 30 - at Baltimore, 7:05 p.m. 
•  July 22 - Los Angeles (AL), 7:05 p.m. 
•  July 24 - Boston, 7:05 p.m. 
•  July 29 - at New York (NL), 7:10 p.m. 
•  Aug. 10 - at Kansas City, 8:05 p.m. 
•  Aug. 21 - Toronto, 7:05 p.m. 
•  Aug. 28 - at Cleveland, 7:10 p.m. 
•  Sept. 10 - Boston, 7:05 p.m. 
•  Sept. 20 - Toronto, 1:07 p.m. 
•  Sept. 23 - Houston, 7:05 p.m. 
•  Sept. 25 - Tampa Bay, 7:05 p.m. 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – July 9, 2019 – TVU Networks, the global technology and innovation leader in live IP solutions, has announced the purchase of its TVU Anywhere app for capturing and streaming live video with the TVU Server by the Vegas Stats & Information Network (VSiN.) VSiN uses the TVU set up to produce live remote coverage and updates for its growing audience.

Dedicated to delivering actionable sports betting news, information and analysis, VSiN broadcasts live from its studio at the South Point Hotel Casino and Spa in Las Vegas. VSiN’s first use of TVU Anywhere and TVU Server was a live report from Churchill Downs during this year’s Kentucky Derby when a Derby favorite sustained an injury and was unable to compete. That news shifted the gambling odds. Using TVU Anywhere and TVU Server, the VSiN on-site reporter delivered the news immediately on the VSiN network. The TVU solution was also used for the network’s live remote coverage of The 2019 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland.

“With TVU Anywhere and TVU Server we can set up live interviews and updates at a moment’s notice,” said Brian Rogers, Executive Producer at VSiN. “Due to the expansion of sports betting and the number of events in different markets, we must be able to set up quick and seamless live shots in many locations without full crews. Although we just started using our TVU gear in May, we already foresee expanding its use. It’s easy to operate and integrates smoothly into our workflow. We’re producing linear, broadcast-quality, live interviews and hits with iPhones and iPads. And our need for live and remote programming just continues to grow.”

Rogers believes the TVU Anywhere and TVU Server solution’s ability to quickly deliver late-breaking news and live interviews is of significant benefit to both the network and its audience. He said it will also enable VSiN to better cover sports betting markets across the country by allowing additional contributors to provide commentary and live updates prior to and during events.

“We’re thrilled to be part of this exciting venture of which live streaming is such a key component,” said Paul Shen, CEO, TVU Networks. “Their fan base relies upon timely video updates as well as the expert commentary provided by the VSiN anchors to make informed betting decisions. Broadcast-quality video will attract viewers beyond their core audience to the site. Reliable, live video is absolutely critical to their current and future success.”

TVU Anywhere

Designed to turn a smart device or laptop instantly into a transmitter, TVU Anywhere is an app for capturing and streaming live video from anywhere, delivering picture quality usually reserved for more expensive professional video equipment. TVU Anywhere uses your smart device’s 4G/LTE wireless connection and WiFi when available to stream live video to a TVU Server video decoder. It uses TVU’s proprietary Inverse StatMux Plus (IS+) technology when aggregating all available 4G/LTE and WiFi bandwidth for streaming to ensure a superior picture. Users can go live instantly and monitor and control the stream from an easy-to-use interface. TVU Anywhere also features remote pan-and-zoom allowing an operator in a studio to control the camera remotely without intervention from the user in the field. Pan-and-zoom control allows for professional camera framing and exposure without degrading the HD picture quality.

TVU Server

The TVU Server (dual-channel VS3500/VS3100 models) can receive video signals from any TVU Networks’ transmission device as well as process IP streams of standard transmission protocol, SDI video, and store files in any MAM system. They are professional video hardware decoders designed for the centralized viewing, control and distribution of live video content.

About TVU Networks®

TVU Networks has over 2,500 customers in more than 85 countries. The TVU Networks family of IP transmission and live production solutions gives broadcasters and organizations a powerful and reliable workflow to distribute live video content to broadcast, online and mobile platforms. TVU has become a critical part of the operations of many major media companies. The TVU Networks suite of solutions has been used to acquire, transmit, produce, manage and distribute professional-quality live IP HD footage as an integral part of news, sports and major global events. For more information about TVU Networks solutions, please visit www.tvunetworks.com.

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ATLANTA—It’s the most wonderful time of the year for college basketball fans, as March Madness is officially upon us and this year, fans will have more ways to watch all the games of the NCAA Tournament. NCAA March Madness Live—the live streaming suite of products from Turner Sports, in partnership with CBS and the NCAA—will cover all 67 games of this year’s tournament across 16 platforms, more than any previous year, per Turner’s press release.

March Madness Live will be available on fans’ iPhones, iPads, Apple TV, Apple Watch Android handset, Android tablet, Amazon Echo family of devices, Amazon Fire tablets, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream, mobile web, Roku players, Roku TV models, web and Xbox One.

In addition to the expanded availability, the March Madness Live suite also has a number of new features with the goal of improving the users viewing experience. The new “Fast Break” feature, presented by AT&T and Lowe’s, offers live streaming whip-around coverage of every tournament game during the first Thursday and Friday of tournament action. The feature will switch from game-to-game with live look-ins, highlights and commentary.

Apple TV users will be able to watch up to three live games at once through a new multi-game viewing experience available through the March Madness Live app for Apple TV. Also, select games will be offered in virtual reality via March Madness Live VR powered by Intel True VR and available in the Oculus Store and Google Play store; specific details about what games will be available in VR will be announced closer to the tournament.

Other features looking to boost fan experience include an enhanced Capitol One NCAA March Madness Bracket Challenge Game, which will provide push notifications for live games and keep them updated on their picks, as well as Bracket IQ, which will offer analysis for game picks. Additional “excitement alerts” will be delivered for big alerts and for access to live radio broadcaster from Westwood One.

Turner’s iStreamPlanet provides the live streaming infrastructure for all games on March Madness Live. Games this year will be available at up to 60fps on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Roku and Xbox.

The NCAA Tournament will be broadcast on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV, while also being offered on the companies’ digital platforms.

The 2018 NCAA Tournament will take place from March 13 to April 2.

BOZEMAN, MONT.--It starts with a total solar eclipse. But not just any eclipse: The Great American Eclipse.

Angela Des Jardins, director of the Montana Space Grant Consortium

When Angela Des Jardins decided to produce the world’s first live streamcast from near-space, a watch-worthy event was a must. And on August 21, the universe is giving her one. The United States has seen total solar eclipses before, but this is the first time in U.S. history that one will only be visible here. As for the rest of the world? They’re welcome to watch online.

In fact, eclipse2017.nasa.gov is hosting 10 different streamcasts eclipse-day. Of the 1 billion unique hits anticipated, NASA predicts half will be for Des Jardins’ livestream. The others are views of the eclipse from the ground, from a high-resolution airplane—angles that, while cool, aren’t broadcasting firsts.

MADE WITH RASPBERRY PI
Like all producers, the next two needs were a project name and money. The name was easy: The Eclipse Ballooning Project, since the cameras shoot from high-altitude balloons. As for money, she simply asked NASA the same question she’d asked herself when the idea came: If Felix Baumgartner can jump out of a balloon from the stratosphere and broadcast that, why can’t we live-broadcast an eclipse from near-space?

The problem, though, as Des Jardins points out is that “[Red Bull] had a $10 million satellite feed truck and system.” No way was NASA going to fund $10 million for an eclipse.

But that was 2012. This is now and a lot has changed. She breaks it down: Red Bull didn’t have the “new technology we have to be able to do this inexpensively and very lightweight.” (To meet FAA requirements, equipment must be under 12 pounds per balloon.)

Each balloon will be outfitted with a $30 Raspberry Pi camera board.

“There are really three main technologies that all kind of came together at the right time to even enable this to happen,” Des Jardins continues. “One is the miniaturization of computers like Raspberry Pi.” A Raspberry Pi camera board—with cable—costs $29.95 and weighs 3.4 grams.

Add Arduinos and a 5.8 gigahertz transistor communicating with a ground antenna, and each balloon payload comes to $3,700. Participating universities, like Austin Peay State University (APSU) in Clarksville, Tenn., buy the equipment then NASA reimburses.

Which brings us to Des Jardins’ next need: A camera crew.

GPS COORDINATES
The eclipse starts in Oregon and ends in South Carolina. Des Jardins is director of the Montana Space Grant Consortium, one of 52 members of NASA Space Grant Consortium. While teams don’t have to be based at a space grant college to participate, the consortium did give Des Jardins ready access to volunteers, some of whom had recorded b-roll from balloons before.

A trial balloon was deployed a year before the eclipse.

“We’ve done balloon flights for years,” APSU’s Dr. Justin Oelgoetz says. Last year, students launched a GoPro to grab footage for analyzing water quality. “[For] some things, the GoPro is easier and more appropriate,” he said. GoPros are sturdier, but “if you need to tie a picture to a particular GPS coordinate or if you need it taken through a particular filter, then you really want to do the Raspberry Pi because the Raspberry Pi can read the GPS; it can put that in the metadata for the pictures or in a supplementary file which relates the position to the time.”

Connecting position and time is integral for live-broadcast of a moving target, and points out the next need: A director. Because of the moon’s speed, the eclipse’s totality at greatest duration is just 2 minutes and 40.2 seconds. In broadcasting, two minutes can be a long time. But the balloons—expected to be more than 30 in total—aren’t evenly spaced geographically. Some parts of the path only have one. In Illinois and Kentucky—where the points of greatest duration and greatest eclipse are—15 balloons will launch within a tighter area. So some cameras may capture the best angle for seconds.

Celestial mechanics predict the exact path the eclipse will take, so it’s tempting to run down exact timecodes for switching from one camera to the next. But when you send cameras 100,000 feet in the air, plans change. “Sometimes you hit a violent crosswind,” Oelgoetz says, “so things can get wild for a few minutes.” That’s why APSU puts its camera inside the balloon payload instead of outside. Oelgoetz says NASA’s kits are also secured by “pieces of that foam board they put in house walls as insulation.” Still though, his team’s not taking any chances: “We’ve got duct tape on it.”

DIRECTED BY AN ALGORITHM
Even when the camera makes it up—and stays up—safely, Oelgoetz says something else can go wrong: “Ice. We get ice around the edges of the image sometimes. It depends on the weather [and] mounting.”

So, not that easy to direct after all.

That’s why there is no director. Instead, Des Jardins chose an algorithm. “The main web page will have a map of the U.S. and one main feed that it’s focused on. But you’ll see on the side of the screen little thumbnails of all the video feeds.”

This map shows the eclipse path across the North American continent.

Here we find the only problem Des Jardins has yet to resolve: How does the algorithm choose which camera goes live when? According to Des Jardins, “[T]hat’s based on where the totality is happening at the time... but it’ll also do a quick check of what the quality of the feed is and so it’ll pick who’s in totality or coming up to totality and has a good quality feed.” She then adds a person will supervise control room-style.

Ask Will Jaimeson, though, and you get a different answer. He’s CMO at Stream, the project’s online video platform (OVP). Stream hadn’t planned on a person checking the algorithm’s work; and quality doesn’t weigh into the math. “It’s going to be automatically showing what should be the most viewed or the best content at the time based on view counts as well as identifying exactly where the eclipse is actually over totality,” he said. In other words, Stream’s algorithm crowdsources the stream, “default[ing] to the ones with the highest view counts.”

Of course, Stream will say quality is in the eye of the beholder, as viewers hopefully won’t select poor shots. But this minor discrepancy does show that regardless of whether your production’s in near-space or here on earth, the problem hardest to solve is the same: communication. And Des Jardins has until August 21 to figure that one out.

CAMBRIDGE, MASS.—It turns out President Trump’s inauguration last Friday was a record setting event, as it pertains to live streaming. According to content delivery network services provider Akamai, the 2017 Presidential Inauguration was the most live video streamed news event that company has delivered.

Akamai live video streams for the inauguration reached a peak of 8.7 Tbps at 12:04 p.m. ET, during President Trump’s speech. This exceeded the previous record of 7.5 Tbps that occurred during the 2016 presidential election last November. Total number of concurrent viewers supported during peak time reached 4.6 million, per Akamai.

STAMFORD, CONN.—NBC Sports Regional Networks announced an agreement with Major League Baseball Advanced Media to stream local market MLB games, as well as pre- and postgame shows, beginning with the 2017 regular season. This new streaming offering will be available at no additional cost to authenticated pay TV subscribers of NBC Sports Group’s CSN regional sports networks. NBCU said this local initiative extends its “TV Everywhere,” ecosystem making content available to authenticated customers both in and out of the home, and on multiple platforms.

CSN’s local streaming allows authenticated viewers in their respective markets to live stream games and related programming that is carried by their pay TV provider of the Chicago Cubs (CSN Chicago), Chicago White Sox (CSN Chicago), Philadelphia Phillies (CSN Philadelphia), Oakland Athletics (CSN California) and San Francisco Giants (CSN Bay Area). Game broadcast schedules will be announced at a later date.

The addition of MLB authenticated in-market streaming completes the local streaming portfolio for the NBC Sports Regional Networks, which also includes local NBA and NHL live streaming. The RSNs first introduced NBA streaming in 2014 and last fall announced the addition of NHL in-market streaming, beginning with the 2016-17 season.

The NBC Sports Regional Networks now have partnerships for in-market streaming of the Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, San Jose Sharks, San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s (CSN Bay Area/CSN California); Chicago Bulls, Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox (CSN Chicago); Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals (CSN Mid-Atlantic); Philadelphia 76ers, Philadelphia Flyers and Philadelphia Phillies (CSN Philadelphia); and Boston Celtics (CSN New England).

Authenticated CSN subscribers can access live MLB, NBA and NHL games, as well as other sports programming, throughout the United States. During the 2017 MLB season, all in-market MLB games will be streamed on the respective local CSN regional network site on PCs as well as on the NBC Sports app—NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, tablets and connected TVs. The NBC Sports app is available on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Windows Store, Roku Channel Store, Apple TV and Amazon Fire.

SAN FRANCISCO—Twitter will be hob-knobbing it with some of Hollywood’s biggest celebrities at this year’s Golden Globes Awards, as the social media site has announced a partnership with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and Dick Clark Productions to provide a live stream of the Golden Globes official red carpet pre-show.

The broadcast will be available in the U.S. for Twitter’s logged-in and logged-out users on Twitter and connected devices. The pre-show will feature exclusive interviews and Twitter content, as well as questions sourced from Twitter users. Hosts for the pre-show are expected to be announced soon.

This is another step in Twitter’s goal to providing live streaming broadcasts of major events to its users. The social media site has already offered live streams of a handful of NFL “Thursday Night Football” games this season.

“The HFPA Presents: Golden Globes Red Carpet Live” will take place on Jan. 8 from 6-8 p.m. ET.

SAN BRUNO, CALIF.—YouTube has had the ability to showcase 4K videos since 2010, but now it will be able to offer 4K live streams as well. In a post on its official blog, YouTube announced that live 4K streams would now be available for both standard and 360-degree videos.

“Supporting this format will let creators and partners stream incredibly high-resolution video, and let viewers enjoy the clearest picture possible when watching a live stream on 4K-supported devices,” wrote Kurt Wilms, senior product manager for YouTube.

Users will be able to stream 4K/2160p content at either 30 frames per second or 60 frames per second.

One of the first opportunities for viewers to check out a live 4K stream will be on Dec. 1 for the Game Awards, which will be available at 9 p.m. EST on YouTube.

MONTREAL—The University of Dallas wants its fans to be able to stay up to date with all the action from its sports teams, so it has added a Matrox Monarch HD encoder and announced a partnership with College TV Ticket to provide a live stream of all its games.

Matrox’s Monarch HD system allows the university’s athletic department to streams games to College TV Ticket while also recording video files locally on SD cards for back-up. The unit is able to record H.264 video files in either MOV or MP4, which enables them to be used in Adobe, Apple or Avid applications without transcoding and can be played back in free media players. The recorded content can also be used as a back-up in the event of a stream interruption.

The school uses the Monarch HD system at five venues across campus and is controlled through a laptop. The Monarch and laptop are then connected to a router to stream the encoded video over the Internet to College TV Ticket’s media server using RTMP protocol.

Based in Montreal, Matrox is a provider of HD and SD digital video hardware and software technology.

NEVADA CITY, CALIF.—Digital media tools provider Telestream recently supplied its Wirecast software to Channel 18 of the Town of Chatham, Mass., to use as a town-wide system for recording municipal meetings and uploading them to the town’s website. The town reports that the videos received 10x more views after being posted online.

Ryan Darmon

Primarily used for live streaming, Wirecast features a production system that allows for recording. Channel 18 set up Wirecast in six conference rooms around town to capture and post footage from all municipal sessions. Each system includes a Dell Precision T1900 running Wirecast software, and a Sony Evi-D camera. Sennheiser goosenecks, crown ceiling microphones and table-installed Beyer Dynamic boundary mics are added depending on room requirements. Mics run through Shure mixers into Osprey 260E video cards in the Dell PCs, and video runs directly into the cards.

Since the installation of the Wirecast system, views have gone up from 30,000 to 340,000, according to Ryan Darmon, Channel 18’s media coordinator.