MONTREAL—During the IBC2023, Grass Valley has been showing scalable, end-to-end UHD/4K, NativeIP and/or 3G HD workflow that particularly benefits those producing sporting events at venues, in the cloud, on OB trucks, over REMI IP and/or hybrid configurations, the company reported. 

“To catch every moment of game action, you need powerful, reliable gear designed for today’s  demanding live sports environment,” said Louis Hernandez, Jr, CEO for Grass Valley. “As the  industry transitions from SDI to IP, we at Grass Valley understand the needs of our high-value  sports customers, whether they’re producing live events from control rooms, OB trucks, REMI  remote IP configurations, and increasingly, live OTT streaming. We’re addressing industry  demand by delivering powerful, reliable advanced solutions with familiar control interfaces,  custom-tailored workflows, and the freedom to work from anywhere as an integrated creative  team.” 

At IBC, Grass Valley will demonstrate its ongoing support for traditional, hardware-based  facilities, including its new updated 4-stripe Kayenne production switcher control surface driving a full raster 4K 2160P K-Frame XP video processing engine. The industry’s standard, K-Frame XP’s versatility is evident in its video processing of both popular IP formats, SDI video sources, or a combination of both. 

It will also be showing Grass Valley’s cloud-based AMPP platform, which  complements on premise-based hardware. In AMPP, Grass Valley has created an easily scalable,  unified workflow that anyone on the sports production crew can access and use from any  connected device or location. 

For live sports, Grass Valley said that it has glass-to-contribution solutions tailored to the unique  production workflows and budgets of its diverse customer base. 

Starting with acquisition, Grass  Valley will debut the new LDX-C150 broadcast camera, which puts the functionality of its full size LDX-150 Native IP/UHD camera into a compact form factor. The C150 provides superior NativeIP and UHD HDR imaging, 3X  UHD and 6X 1080P/60 HDR speed modes, and ST2110 and JPEG-XS compression directly from the camera head. For backwards compatibility, the C150 also supports connectivity to the camera base station for system installations. It’s particularly ideal for SKYCAM, Steadicam, beauty shots, ultra slomo and unmanned applications, the company said. 

Another highlight at IBC is Grass Valley’s LiveTouch X replay system supporting 16+ sources, which can run on standard COTS servers in the truck, the control room, and in the cloud on AWS or any other cloud-based computing service. When running on AMPP,  it offers unparalleled reliability and pay-as-you-go SaaS elasticity, along with the flexibility for  replay operators to be anywhere in the connected world. 

Grass Valley’s vast product portfolio also encompasses the newly upgraded Framelight X media  asset management system, which now features a native MOS Clip List Player. This allows  playout to be driven by any MOS-compatible system, such as a newsroom computer system  (NRCS). As part of the AMPP cloud-based ecosystem, Framelight X further allows customers to  produce anywhere and distribute everywhere, making it well-suited to remote sports  production and collaboration. 

SAN JOSE, Calif.—In a first for the Indonesian market, Mola TV used Harmonic's VOS360 cloud streaming SaaS for UHD HDR streams of UEFA Euro 2020 football matches in Indonesia.

"We are enormously proud that, for the first time, our viewers can watch live, high-profile sports events in UHD HDR," said CP Lee, CTO at Mola TV. "Mola TV has always relied on Harmonic cloud streaming solutions for its sports streaming services. As we bring more high-profile sports events such as the UEFA and EPL, Harmonic's VOS360 SaaS will be instrumental in ensuring the best possible streaming experience for our subscribers." 

Harmonic reported that VOS360 SaaS simplifies all stages of the media processing and delivery chain while its EyeQ AI-based encoding technology on the VOS360 platform improved the streaming quality for Mola TV's service. 

The technologies are supported by a DevOps team providing 24/7 monitoring and assistance that gives the Harmonic cloud-based platform the high availability and reliability required for live sports streaming. 

"UHD HDR is a game changer in the live sports streaming environment, where video quality can easily determine the success of a service," said Tony Berthaud, vice president of sales and video services, APAC, at Harmonic. "Harmonic's VOS360 platform ensures Mola TV can securely deliver crystal-clear UHD HDR video to a large variety of devices. This assurance is crucial for operators streaming high-demand events like the UEFA Euro Championship." 

Further information about Harmonic and the company's solutions is available at www.harmonicinc.com. 

LONDON--The SMPTE ST 2110 suite of IP standards for professional media production made its mark last month on Wimbledon when NEP UK put to use an IP infrastructure centered on Grass Valley technology for the first UHD HDR live production of the tennis championship.

NEP UK deployed two SMPTE ST 2110 trucks, Venus and Ceres, for production of the 2018 Wimbledon Tennis Championship for host broadcaster Wimbledon Broadcast Services (WBS).

The setup included multicamera production of all 18 courts, a first for Wimbledon coverage. The camera complement included a net-cam on both Center Court and No. 1 Court as well as other production enhancements.

NEP UK’s Venus and Ceres OB trucks were responsible for HD, HDR and UHD content, delivering world feeds to 20 onsite broadcasters as well as 21 of its own production galleries. A portable IP flyaway system was used to connect the two trucks, forming one of the world’s largest SMPTE ST 2110 OB installations to date. Together they were able to handle more than 118 camera signals. The Grass Valley IP infrastructure handled movement of streams with far less cabling than the miles that would have been needed for a similar baseband setup, Grass Valley said.

The IP infrastructure was built around Grass Valley IQ UCP 25GbE gateway cards. The modular, reprogrammable cards provide bi-directional interfacing between IP and baseband equipment. Each truck is equipped with 70 of the cards, and flyaways have 200. This flexibility makes it easy for NEP to adapt to the specific requirements of any particular event or venue, Grass Valley said.

The trucks, which also were deployed to cover the royal wedding in May, include Grass Valley’s IPEDGE-SVR turnkey IP routing control system with Orbit control and monitoring software, Grass Valley Kayenne and Kahuna video switchers and IP multiviewers. These seamlessly integrate with Arista COTS network switches, AXON Digital Design master control systems, Calrec audio mixing capability and comms facilities from Telex Communications.

“As the Wimbledon 2018 project illustrates, we came together with Grass Valley to create a highly customizable live production capability that delivered high-quality action with unmatched images,” said Rob Newton, CTO of NEP UK and Ireland.

More information is available on the Grass Valley website.