Riedel Bolero S Changes the Game for Referee Communications in the Swiss Football League
The Swiss Football League (SFL) is the latest major sports organization to supercharge referee communications using Riedel Communications' Bolero S. In partnership with production company NEP, Riedel is providing Bolero S — a managed-service offering built around the award-winning Bolero wireless intercom — to drive the SFL's groundbreaking Video Assistant Referee (VAR) program.
Bolero S is a fail-safe intercom system built around Riedel's Artist communications infrastructure that provides an individualized, voice-activated, Bolero-based wireless device, with remote support delivered by NEP from SFL's Technical Operation Center in Hegnau, Switzerland. Bolero S pairs industry-leading intercom technology with custom engineering and hands-on support by Riedel-qualified engineers. The result is clear, reliable, and seamless communications that can be applied in any sport and for any crew members, including officiators and coaches.
Rolled out for the SFL's 2019/2020 season, the referee communications infrastructure developed by Riedel and NEP was successfully used for all 182 games of the Raiffeisen Super League. The system enabled reliable communications between officials, their assistants on the sidelines, and the SFL's Video Operation Room in Hegnau. With two Bolero S antennas and seven beltpacks deployed to each of the stadiums of the 10 Raiffeisen Super League teams, a three-member team at the NEP Broadcast Center facility supported referees in the stadium by monitoring multiple television broadcast feeds of live game play. The video operations team then used the Bolero S system to communicate information in real time and with highest-possible audio quality to the match officials to help them make informed decisions on questionable plays.
An extensive signal transport and routing network based on Riedel's MediorNet handled video signals from the stadiums to the VOR in Hegnau. The MediorNet installation included three MetroN core routers and 28 MicroN high-density media distribution network devices, which operated as decentralized routers. Twelve of the MicroN devices were configured as multiviewers using the MicroN MultiViewer app. To support the Bolero S intercom, an Artist-1024 high-density digital matrix mainframe delivered AES67-compliant communications.
Dani Wermelinger, Head of Elite Referee Department, SFV, commented: "After a detailed analysis of all 182 matches, we can state that the VAR presented a clear and obvious error in 36 cases. Without the support from the video operators in Hegnau, these situations would have been wrongly assessed and in the worst case would have led to a different result. This clearly demonstrates that the VAR has made football in Switzerland fairer and more just."
"We're very proud of the VAR system, which is by far the most important technology innovation in modern Swiss football. The VAR project was extremely complex, with a wide range of technology, training, and process elements that had to be interlinked, and our partnership with Riedel was one key to the success of this project," said Reto Häuselmann, VAR Project Manager, Swiss Football League. "A stable, reliable communications link with outstanding voice quality was also critical, and looking at the positive feedback we've gotten from our referees, Bolero S seems to have delivered on its promise."
Broadcast Solutions and Dream Chip Ink Distribution Deal
System integrator Broadcast Solutions and Dream Chip announce a distribution agreement for several Broadcast Solutions offices and their respective territories. With the deal, Broadcast Solutions offers Dream Chip ATOM one mini cameras and mini slow-motion cameras in DACH countries, the UK, Baltics and Nordics, CIS countries, Middle East and Africa and Southeast Asia.
Dream Chip’s Atom one cameras are the smallest SDI, 2K, 4K or HDR broadcast cameras in the world. They offer unmatched picture quality with a minimal design. Depending on size and specs they are equipped with S-, C-Mounts, global shutters, RS 485 control, offer multi-matrix control and can be connected to common RCPs. Together with their unrivalled video processing power, the broadcast picture quality and the small form factor, they offer entirely new ways of delivering high-class video material. The latest product is the Atom one SSM500, the smallest high-speed broadcast camera which can shoot 500 fps in HDR and comes with internal storage for 60 sec/500 fps.
Stephane Ducobu, Director Sales Broadcast Products Worldwide at Dream Chip, on the agreement: “We are very happy to work with Broadcast Solutions to push Dream Chip’s broadcast products. We and the broadcast industry know Broadcast Solutions as a trusted partner, and we think, with their know-how, open-mindedness and their team of experts, they are a perfect match to develop new markets and opportunities.”
ChyronHego Releases PRIME 3.7
ChyronHego has announced the release of PRIME 3.7, the latest iteration of the company’s flagship graphics solution. With PRIME already recognized as a design and data integration powerhouse, a primary focus for this release is fulfilling the highest expectations of operators in a fast-paced live playout environment. ChyronHego has a long legacy of understanding and serving the needs of control room and truck personnel, and PRIME 3.7 continues this tradition.
“We are excited about the integration of PRIME 3.7 with our new Chyron Classic Keyboard,” stated Louis Garvin, vice president of product and engineering at ChyronHego. “With this release of PRIME, the global community of operators who are familiar with our LYRIC CG will find that they can now drive PRIME with the same special keys and keyboard shortcuts that are already ingrained in their muscle memory. This is a natural evolution of the product, closely following the release of PRIME 3.6, which featured the ability to run Lyric and PRIME side by side on a single platform.”
ChyronHego’s PRIME is in use throughout the world. PRIME is resolution- and format-agnostic, capable of outputting high pixel density, and the platform is flexible, supporting multiple use cases: PRIME CG, PRIME Clips, PRIME Video Walls, PRIME Touchscreen, PRIME AR, and PRIME Branding. PRIME integrates easily with any major NRCS, switcher/vision mixer, or automation control system.
PRIME 3.7 Highlights
Fast Live Playout
Because PRIME is now fully integrated with the new Chyron Classic Keyboard, longtime Lyric operators can use the keys that are already familiar to them. Additionally, users now have more options to configure and customize their keyboard shortcuts through the PRIME interface.
File Management Enhancements
Operators can save .psk and .dsk files to keep, recall, or transfer their preferred shortcut key settings for playout and design. They can also save graphics as .tiff, .png, or .jpg for reference or use off the system. PRIME 3.7 users also benefit from new file zipping and file management functionality.
Tabbing and Highlights
Now, operators can easily tab to different areas of the user interface. Configurable highlights allow them to see at a glance the active area of the UI.
Track Recall Per Channel
Operators can see at a glance the next message set to cue to a channel, even as they switch from one channel to another to load, fulfill, and quickly play messages. With focus set to any channel, the number of the next message appears in an information field next to the channel-selection buttons.
Dejero helps NBA 2K League Shift Third Season to Large-Scale Remote Production during Pandemic
Dejero has provided the NBA 2K League with a variety of remote connectivity equipment, via Defacto Entertainment and facilities partner Dome Productions, to help the professional esports league save its third season threatened by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that prevented its 23 teams from gaming together in the league’s new Manhattan studio. The esports league shifted its entire season 3 production from a studio-based model to a large-scale pan-North-America remote gameplay production model in record time, with the help of Dejero.
“Our new Manhattan studio was evacuated suddenly during the COVID-19 shut down in New York just as our highly anticipated season 3 was about to start from the league’s new home,” said Chris Mitchell, senior account manager of Client Solutions at Dome Productions. “With our production partner, Defacto Entertainment, we worked to find a solution to help us move the entire production and transmission pipeline to a remote model that combined live video feeds from 27 cities across the US and Canada, which is a massive undertaking. I’m really proud that the team was able to think innovatively without much breathing room and that we could rely on hero suppliers such as Dejero.”
During previous seasons, the players would compete inside the NBA 2K League studio in Long Island, New York, on a centre stage, with six different teams competing throughout the day. The games air on multiple digital and linear platforms including ESPN, YouTube and Twitch, a gaming platform owned by Amazon that houses a range of esports. Dome Productions had to figure out how to move this production to a remote setting quickly once the pandemic hit.
To bypass the security challenges posed by the open source networks used by the teams from their homes, and to address fluctuating bandwidth in those various locations at peak traffic times, Dejero provided a combination of EnGo mobile transmitters and PathWay rack-mounted encoders/transmitters to Dome Productions. This low latency video transport solution was key to forming the sterilized plug and play kits that were distributed to the competing teams across North America, in order to deliver the signal strength needed in a local network that may otherwise be congested, so Dome Productions could guarantee reliable connectivity on location. As the players set-up the equipment at their homes, Dome Productions’ technical support team were able to configure the encoders/transmitters remotely and operators are tasked with checking the connections in each location daily throughout this last season of 2020, which runs until the end of August.
An NBA 2K League game administrator oversees each match remotely by monitoring each player’s movements via live video. Game administrators are able to hear and communicate with players directly in real time. Each match is played in a best-of-three format, which allows the NBA 2K League broadcast to switch between games in real time and gives fans more opportunities to experience the league’s most exciting moments.
The Dome Productions control room located in Toronto is receiving, mixing and distributing a large number of live feeds from teams playing in 23 different cities aided by the Dejero WayPoint receiver; live feeds from two ‘casters’, located in Chicago and North Carolina respectively provide live commentary for the games; with Defacto Entertainment producing and directing the broadcasts in real time from their offices in Vancouver. The low latency of the Dejero CuePoint return video server ensures that the casters in Chicago and North Carolina can comment on live feeds without lag. Dome Productions also enjoys the ability to remotely access the Dejero equipment to check parameters like bitrate and latency.
The backbone to Dejero’s solutions is its patented Smart Blending Technology which simultaneously aggregates diverse wired and wireless IP connections from multiple sources to form a virtual ‘network of networks’, enhancing the reliability of connection paths, expanding coverage and delivering greater bandwidth.
The games are not only distributed live over Twitch but are now being picked up by the more traditional sports broadcasters such as ESPN in the US and SportsNet in Canada, turning esports into mainstream viewing while the usual sporting events are put on hold. The advantage of this new production environment is that multiple games can be produced at one time which is boosting viewership, something that was not possible out of a single studio.
“Dejero has allowed us to network the entire system and create a low latency game play and production value around all these local markets tied in together remotely,” added Brian Carr, who is responsible for distribution and emerging technology at Dome Productions. “We have had a very successful third season so far despite the challenges we faced. We wanted to keep the NBA 2K audience alive, especially when we were just about to kick off a season everyone was excited about.”
ChyronHego Releases PRIME 3.7
ChyronHego has announced the release of PRIME 3.7, the latest iteration of its flagship graphics solution. With PRIME already recognized as a design and data integration powerhouse, a primary focus for this release is fulfilling the highest expectations of operators in a fast-paced live playout environment. ChyronHego has a long legacy of understanding and serving the needs of the control room and truck personnel and PRIME 3.7 continues this tradition.
“We are excited about the integration of PRIME 3.7 with our new Chyron Classic Keyboard,” states Louis Garvin, Vice President of Product and Engineering. “With this release of PRIME, the global community of operators who are familiar with our LYRIC CG will find that they can now drive PRIME with the same special keys and keyboard shortcuts that are already ingrained in their muscle memory. This is a natural evolution of the product, closely following the release of PRIME 3.6 which featured the ability to run the Lyric application side-by-side on the PRIME platform.”
PRIME is resolution and format agnostic, capable of outputting high pixel density. PRIME is in use throughout the world and the platform is flexible to multiple use cases: PRIME CG, PRIME Clips, PRIME Video Walls, PRIME touchscreen, PRIME AR, and PRIME Branding. PRIME integrates easily with any major NRCS, switcher/vision mixer, or automation control system.
PRIME 3.7 Highlights
Fast Live Playout
Now fully integrated with the new Chyron Classic Keyboard, long-time Lyric operators can use the keys that are already familiar. Additionally, users now have more options to configure and customize their keyboard shortcuts through the PRIME interface.
File Management Enhancements
Operators can save .psk and .dsk files to keep, recall, or transfer their preferred shortcut key settings for playout and design. Additionally, save graphics as .tiff, .png or .jpg for reference or use off the system. There is also new file zipping and file management functionality.
Tabbing and Highlights
Now, operators can easily tab to different areas of the user interface. Configurable highlights allow you to see at a glance the active area of the UI.
Track Recall Per Channel
See at a glance the next message set to cue to a channel, even as you switch from one channel to another to load, fulfill, and quickly play messages. With the focus set to any channel, the number of the next message appears in an information field next to the channel selection buttons.
SES Simplifies Sports Production with Stockley Park Facility in London
As remote production for sports ramps up around the globe, SES is providing broadcasters with a newly opened, full-service sports and events facility in Greater London. Apart from handling downlink, decoding, processing and recording, SES’s Stockley Park facility offers sports broadcasters a range of services that help simplify sports production workflow.
The video services offered at SES’s Stockley Park facility range from content management services such as clipping and editing, subtitling, audio dubbing and titling, storing and archiving of content for easy retrieval to channel playout services to multiple broadcast or online platforms. In addition to addressing diverse customer needs, the facility in London will also provide playout services for European customers and provide redundancy to SES’s Munich facility.
The Stockley Park facility features a 2,400-square-foot master control room and will act as a primary media centre for all sports originating in Europe. From Stockley Park, broadcasters and content owners can leverage SES’s robust IP, fibre, terrestrial, and satellite hybrid network infrastructure capable of delivering and receiving multiple, simultaneous feeds. The facility is equipped with high-performance, broadcast-grade equipment to ensure superior quality delivery of all live signals, with the possibility of Ultra HD 4K transmission. Stockley Park is completely resilient, guaranteeing 100% continuity for live broadcasting, backed by a highly experienced team of on-site project managers and technical operational support staff.
“London is a major hub for sports, and we’re excited to host a world-class master control room for live sports and provide signal delivery across Asia, Europe and the Americas,” said Steve Collar, CEO of SES. “SES delivers over 620 hours of premium sports and live events daily, so we’re heavily immersed in the sports broadcasting world. Creating the Stockley Park facility in London, we can even better serve the needs of our customers, helping them reach more viewers during this critical time as live sports are relaunched coming out of the COVID-19 shutdown.”
VenueNext and Ticketmaster Expanding Technology So Fans Can Manage In-Venue Experiences
VenueNext, a leader in mobile commerce technology, has announced a multi-year partnership with Ticketmaster, the global leader in advanced ticketing technologies, to deliver its contactless payment and ordering services to Ticketmaster’s entire user base. The features will be made available at every venue around the world that is powered by Ticketmaster technology as they tap into digital ticketing capabilities.
The partnership will provide fans with a fully personalized event experience, allowing guests to manage everything from venue access to concessions and more, all from their mobile device, making venues even safer and more convenient for fans as they return to live events. This will be made available across Ticketmaster’s digital platforms with a special emphasis on the Ticketmaster app and clients’ mobile app experiences.
“Ticketmaster has been leading the transition to mobile ticketing due to its many benefits for artists, teams and fans, from fraud prevention to streamlined event-day experiences and more,” said Amy Howe, Global Chief Operating Officer, Ticketmaster. “Now with the new health and safety guidelines for live events accelerating demand for digital ticketing to an all-time high, we’ve partnered with forward-thinking companies like VenueNext to co-create the most innovative technologies available to help fans get back to seeing their favorite artists, players, and teams in person that much sooner. Most importantly, fans will have extra peace-of-mind as they return to live events knowing these venues are taking added measures to protect their safety and make their live event experiences even easier.”
Ticketmaster’s partnership with VenueNext will extend its contactless offering beyond digital tickets to develop offerings to make venue entry and in-venue purchases, experiences and special offers more personal and convenient, from services like in-seat ordering to pre-purchasing merchandise to dramatically reduce wait times at pick-up windows in venue.
“By partnering with Ticketmaster, we significantly extend the reach and depth of our products,” said VenueNext CEO Anthony Perez. “In this new era, venues and content owners are prioritizing contactless solutions more than ever to make their venues safer and more efficient, all while providing a personalized commerce experience that has long been the pursuit of teams and venues throughout sports and entertainment.”
Riedel Maintains Communication in NBA Bubble
Riedel’s Bolero wireless intercom and Artist digital matrix intercom solutions are providing an extensive communications backbone for the 2020 NBA Bubble in Orlando, Florida. Located within Walt Disney World, the NBA Bubble is a strict isolation zone created to allow the 2019-2020 basketball season to continue while protecting NBA players from COVID-19.
Firehouse Productions deployed the landmark Riedel solution, which enables officials, coaches, and production personnel to communicate safely during NBA games played in the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
“This was a complex installation, and there’s no way we could have met all of the NBA’s comms requirements with any intercom manufacturer other than Riedel. Working with the Riedel team, we were able to design a truly elegant and integrated solution that enables crystal-clear communications while also ensuring that officials, coaches, and producers maintain safe distances from each other,” said Vinny Siniscal of Firehouse Productions. “The ability to add custom logic to the Artist network is a huge plus because it allowed us to build in more redundancy and ensure effective monitoring for the entire intercom ecosystem. It’s an example of why Firehouse chose Riedel, and why Artist and Bolero are our go-to solutions for big events.”
Firehouse Productions’ NBA Bubble deployment consists of 12 Riedel Artist intercom nodes, providing almost 500 active communications ports to support 113 master panels; 57 Performer C3 intercom beltpacks; 116 Bolero wireless intercom beltpacks; and 186 analog 4-wire connections to six onsite OB trucks. Deployed in a fully redundant fiber ring configuration, the Artist nodes are able to support users communicating via Bolero beltpacks throughout the vast ESPN complex — including players, coaches, and officials in the green zone, where games are played on three venues, and the yellow zone, encompassing the technical and broadcast compound.
Using Bolero, personnel who can no longer speak directly with each other due to social distancing measures can now communicate clearly and easily. For instance, coaches and officials are able to converse with scorers and other game personnel who are sequestered behind plexiglass shields at courtside. Luis Espinal, Intercom Curator for the Firehouse team, built custom logic functions into the Artist nodes that allow specific mic feeds to be routed to specific broadcast trucks. The onsite Bolero universe, based on two fully redundant hub-and-spoke networks of Luminex switches, offers up to 128 multicast flows — giving the deployment room to grow as more beltpacks are needed.
“The NBA Bubble is a perfect example of thinking outside the box to ensure continuity for one of the world’s most popular sports, and we’re proud that Riedel has been able to play such a key role,” said Joyce Bente, President and CEO, Riedel North America. “Once again, our partnership with Firehouse Productions has ensured a smooth and highly creative deployment that meets the NBA’s stringent requirements for safe and reliable communications.”
Cartier Queen's Cup 2020 Polo Tournament is the First Multi-Camera Sports Production Using LiveU’s LU800
This year’s Cartier Queen's Cup 2020 Polo Tournament, organised by the Guards Polo Club, based in Windsor, UK, was the first sporting event to take advantage of LiveU’s game-changing, multi-camera LU800 capabilities. The event was streamed live to viewers on the Guards TV website and a leading sports channel in Latin America. The event was covered using four cameras with the live feeds streamed in low delay from the UK to the production studio in South Africa.
This year was the 60th anniversary of the prestigious Queen’s Cup, which has been sponsored by Cartier since 2012. Taking place in the dramatic Windsor Park, where there are multiple polo grounds, this year’s event had to take place without fans due to social distancing requirements with the organisers aiming to create maximum fan engagement while taking into full account current restrictions.
Ronen Artman, VP of Marketing, LiveU, said: “We all know that the sports sector has been particularly badly hit by the pandemic; therefore, technical innovation is required to maximise coverage of those sporting occasions that take place. We are very excited to see the first use of the LU800 production-level field unit, launched in June, with full advantage being taken of its multi-camera capabilities alongside our remote production solution.”
South African based Live Production Tech partnered with Polocam.tv to handle the production. Greg Hughes, Director, Polocam.tv said: “Having covered this tournament and being on-site for the last decade, we were really struggling this year without the ability to fly to the UK or have more staff on site. LiveU provided us with the bonded streaming technology for not only broadcasting this event, but also setting the model for how to move forward with other events around the world.”
Having tested the LU800 during the early rounds, the multi-camera unit was used for the semi-finals and final. The commentator was at the event in the UK with the graphics, replays and switching carried out remotely from South Africa. This, of course, saved considerably on human and technical on-site resources as well as cost, with premium quality coverage achieved using remote production.
For the semi-finals, there were two side cameras, a centre pitch camera and a camera positioned on a crane. Two LU600s were also used to provide goal line coverage. The final was a similar setup, with some drone footage too, the aerial footage further enriching the fan experience, increasing the multi-angle coverage.
The LU800 supports up to four fully frame-synced feeds in high resolution from a single unit, using powerful IP bonding of up to 14 connections. The unit also offers the highest-quality video performance, with up to 4Kp60 10-bit HDR transmission for optimal colour depth and richness, as well as up to 16 audio channels for high-end productions.
Michael Esteves, Director, Live Production Tech, said: “Having trialled the LU800 during earlier rounds, and been very impressed with its capabilities and the great enhancements it brought to our coverage, we were excited to use it for the semi-finals and final. The coverage we achieved was fantastic and allowed us to really expand what we were able to capture for viewers. LiveU’s remote production capabilities were also crucial, particularly given the current restrictions, providing us with the flexible production capabilities we needed, cost-effectively.”
Ronen added: “The LU800 really moves sports production to the next level given the unit’s multi-camera capabilities. Alongside our remote production solutions, we are now able to satisfy both simple and very complex sports productions at a price point that has previously simply not been possible using other technologies.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgx37BOtCYg&ab_channel=LiveUVideos
ISE postponed to June 2021
After a period of consultation with the industry and the impact of the ongoing pandemic, Integrated Systems Events announce that ISE, scheduled for 2-5 February, has been postponed and will now take place in June, dates tbc, alongside a virtual offering.
Additionally, ISE will launch RISE Digital, a regular programme of content and networking events which will run throughout the year and support the live show.
Integrated Systems Events released the following statement:
We’ve been monitoring the conditions in Europe since the beginning of this year and have worked hard on your behalf to balance health and safety concerns with the need for commerce and F2F interaction. These two factors have had shifting weight throughout the calendar year and although we’ve felt confident and hopeful regarding delivering this show in February, we’ve come to the conclusion that the best option for all of us is to delay the show edition until June 2021.
“The health and safety of our team, exhibiting companies, industry partners and attendees is our number one priority,” said Mike Blackman, Managing Director, Integrated Systems Events. “Given the understandable concerns among all of our stakeholders regarding coronavirus, and the uncertainty regarding travel restrictions and country lockdowns, we have concluded it is not prudent to maintain our original schedule of an in-person February 2021 trade show.”
“From our many conversations, it is clear the industry can’t wait to get back together doing business face to face and we are committed to delivering an engaging and safe in-person ISE in 2021. We feel by moving the event to June, it provides time for the industry to adapt and restore balance. We look forward to hosting the global AV community in our new home in Barcelona.”
Fira de Barcelona Chairman, Pau Relat, commented: “From Fira de Barcelona we highly value ISE’s strong commitment to Barcelona and, in moments as complex as the current ones, the decision to postpone the event for a few months in order to ensure the best possible edition with the largest international participation of companies and visitors, will be very positive both for attendees and for the city. We will keep on working together to ensure that a leading event such as the ISE has a great first edition in its new home in Barcelona in 2021.”
David Labuskes, CEO, AVIXA commented: “AVIXA is proud to be a partner with CEDIA in delivering ISE to the audiovisual industry each year. We fully support ISE’s decision to postpone the first show in Barcelona until June 2021. This isn’t a trivial undertaking and has thousands of moving parts, but in making this decision, ISE reaffirms their commitment to the health of all those who participate in these events from the taxi cab driver to the exhibitor teams. And all of those same people will be even more committed to be a part of the extravaganza that ISE promises to be.”
Tabatha O’Connor, CEO, CEDIA added: “We are eager to gather as a community once again at ISE 2021, the decision to postpone was made after careful and thorough consideration. We know moving the show to June will provide the time and resource needed to ensure the show is both safe to attend and can deliver on the exceptional experience that ISE is known for, fostering opportunities to learn, discover, and be inspired by the technology that is driving our industry forward.”
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our stakeholders - exhibitors, sponsors, visitors, media partners, contractors, and the team at FIRA Barcelona for continuing to support us through this uncertain and ever-changing situation.
Lastly, we wish you and your family all stay safe and well in these challenging times.
The Team at Integrated Systems Events