EMG / Gravity Media has developed a remote video production workflow for coverage of Netball, a sport played by more than a half million worldwide with some similarities to basketball.
Developed for England Netball, the sport’s U.K. governing body, the workflow is designed to deliver cost-effective, sustainable production that delivers broadcast-quality coverage of regular season rounds to audiences watching via BBC iPlayer and live streaming specialist Netball Pass, EMG / Gravity Media said.
EMG worked with In Touch Productions to develop and deploy the workflow. Refined while used for other sports, the production workflow relies on two Panasonic HPX3100 ENG cameras placed on a gantry at commentary positions and a third mounted in a corner of the netball court. The setup is used during games to capture exciting moments that give the feeling of being inside the action as well as for live shots of presenters before and after matches. The camera setup also is used for pre-recorded interviews, it said.
Haivision encoders encode and pass all feeds, including audio from courtside and commentary, to the production center in High Wycombe, U.K., via a 4G high-speed internet connection. Incoming data streams are decoded and passed onto the production gallery where shows are assembled, it said.
A Vizrt TriCaster is used to switch between camera streams to produce shows. HTML 5 graphics are added via Viz Flowics, and elements like replays and editorial content are integrated with SimplyLive. Audio, including commentary, clean effects and umpire mics, are mixed with the TriCaster, as well, it said.
Return video is streamed back to the venue, and SRT-encoded feeds are delivered to the BBC iPlayer and Netball Pass, it said.
A couple of production challenges required special attention. For the game clock, the production team locks down another camera equipped with a transmitter that’s pointed at the courtside match clock. A graphics operator at the production center tracks the clock to make sure the on-screen clock remains in sync, it said.
The speed of the game also makes replays challenging. To overcome the short time available, the production team uses TriCaster to run replays in an onscreen box, making it possible to analyze clips without interrupting the flow of the game, it said.
“Remote production has proved to be the perfect solution for England Netball,” says EMG U.K. sales director Angela Gibbons, “The technology we have implemented together with our partner, In Touch Productions, allows us to cover matches with a minimal crew and kit list but maintain the highest standards of broadcast quality. In fact, social media has lit up with compliments over the quality of the current England Netball coverage that we provide to England Netball. Remote production deliveries such as these allows us to offer clients high-class production values to all manner of budgets and is a solution that can be easily adapted to any niche or Tier 2 sport looking to engage audiences on a worldwide basis.”
More information is available on the EMG / Gravity Media website.
