In Broadcast - February 2014 - 46

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 28 - FEBRUARY 2014

N E W S

InSTUDIO
Broadcast Systems Integration - Part I Cont.

Visual Unity

46

As an OTT platform and multiscreen
services provider, Visual Unity has
witnessed a steady ramp-up of
projects through 2013, and the
pipeline for 2014 continues to grow
beyond its expectations.
Nonetheless, says Gabriel Dusil,
Chief Marketing & Corporate
Strategy Officer, companies are
cautious about IT spending and want
to ensure that both their capital and
operational expenses can directly
contribute to the bottom line.
"This has helped our business
because we can show a clear path
from OTT investments to revenue
upside," he reports. "Broadcasters,
content aggregators, and other
distributors of entertainment that
have identiﬁed OTT as a revenue
opportunity - rather than a threat - are
ahead of the game. For these players
the OTT pitch is an easy sell, and
greatly reduces our sales cycles (i.e.
from lead to deal closure). For service
providers that are hesitant to have
a full-blown online entertainment
presence, it takes us longer to
outline the business case. Often
the largest hurdle is a cultural sea
change in the organisation, that has
roots in linear television, and sees the
internet as unknown territory. With
these companies we need to position
OTT as a necessary and strategic
portfolio addition that meets the rapid
changes in consumer behaviour."

Dusil pinpoints a significant
change in that Visual Unity has been
moving from a project oriented to
a product oriented business. "We
have migrated successfully from
system integrator to digital video
services," he says. "When we began
offering digital steaming in 1998, this
launched the development of our
vuMedia platform which evolved to
become a completely modular OTT
architecture to meet the needs of tier
1 broadcasters, tier 2 aggregators
and telcos, all the way to tier 3
enterprise clients.
"Our major challenge had been
cultural; in outlining the importance
of product development to
software developers that previously
prioritised projects (namely custom
development) over product release
schedules. Gross profit was
calculated in advance, the purchase

Tipsport can now stream over 450 matches per season to any device

order had been received, and cash
ﬂow was secured for each client.
But prioritising for a product is
an entirely different story because
revenue is earned many months
(and in some cases, years) after the
inaugural release of the product. So
the transition to a product-oriented
mind-set has been a challenge.
Convincing a development team to
prioritise their man-days on a product
that will turn a proﬁt sometime in
the future, requires support from top
management, all the way down the
chain of command."

In Action - Tipsport

Tipsport offers fans the chance to watch,
socialise, and bet at the same time

Visual Unity's platform delivery
enables betting company Tipsport
to deliver live Ice Hockey streaming
throughout the hugely popular
Ice Hockey Extra League in the
Czech Republic.

Serving over 1,000 affiliates
across the country, 70% of which
are sports bars equipped with HD
screens, Tipsport offers fans the
chance to watch, socialise, and bet
at the same time.
Since 2011, Visual Unity has
worked with Tipsport to help the
company maximise its strong ice
hockey fan base and up-sell live
betting with live streaming and
betting across multiple screens.
Tipsport can now stream over 450
matches per season to any device.
Visual Unity also designed
and installed an IPTV solution for
Tipsport's betting afﬁliates so that
sports bars across the Czech
Republic can integrate with Tipsport's
betting system while accessing live
streaming of all Ice Hockey Extra
League matches.

Broadcast Networks
While the broadcast industry has
reflected the overall European
economy over the last couple of
years Broadcast Networks reports
an upturn in requests for serious
proposals and anticipates a number
of ongoing projects will become
reality in 2014.
"We are seeing a new era in
broadcasting developing, with
the likes of Netﬂix and You Tube
becoming key players," says
Malcolm Robinson, Director, Media
& Broadcast Solutions. "This will
change the traditional broadcast
content creation methods to bring
more footage to the end user.
We have to evolve to design and
implement these new ideas. We
are using our experience in the
live production and playout arenas
to develop more efficient and
innovative solutions for customers.
Second screen content and remote
productions are becoming key areas
of our business development.
"With these new endeavours, new
challenges appear. IP and data
manipulation have become crucial

in our customers' daily lives and
as such we have developed our
knowledge base in these areas."
The number of times Cisco is
appearing in design meetings is a
clear indication of the ever changing
technical scene, Robinson says. "A
lot of evolution is still needed in this
area to provide a realistic working
practical solution that will replace
the existing infrastructure, but this
is getting closer all the time."
Ultra HD 4K is another area
where Broadcast Networks are
providing thought leadership. "As
HD became the mastering format in
the early 2000s, so 4K will quickly
take over from HD as the archiving
format whilst still producing HD
programmes," he says. "A number
of key manufacturers are developing
4K products and we are ensuring
we are at the leading edge of the
solutions they will be working in."

In Action - The Hague

As part of The Hague's citywide monitoring infrastructure,
Broadcast Networks provided a hi-

Broadcast Networks Public Order

tech, ruggedised, mobile response
unit to monitor and capture content
at events and demonstrations. From
the initial coach build, through to
pre-delivery testing and end-user
training, BN managed the entire
project. The vehicle has a variety
of on-board HD cameras including:
eight cameras on the rooﬂine to
deliver situational awareness in
the direct vicinity of the vehicle
and a further eight cameras on a
retractable mast to monitor a 50m
radius. The images are stitched
together to provide a 360 degree
panoramic view of the location.

Using touch screen technology,
ofﬁcers can select speciﬁc locations
for closer inspection. There's
also a gyro-stabilised PTZ dome
camera system. Two Sony NEX-5
camcorders can be taken into the
heart of the action, with RF links
transmit live images back to the unit.
Microphones are positioned along
the rooﬂine to capture event audio.
As part of the wider safe
city strategy, truck images are
transmitted live to local police HQ
using a variety of links and then
distributed to the wider national
police network, if needed.
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