In Broadcast - May 2014 - 64

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

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 31 - MAY 2014

N E W S

InTECH

FORK Automation Powers Leading
Sports Broadcast Workflows
I

64

n the sports world, things happen
in a ﬂash, and sports broadcasters
have to stay in step. Gone are
the days of simply watching the
game on TV at the appointed time
or catching the highlights on the
11.00 news.
Today's sports fans expect onthe-spot coverage, instant stats and
background info, social interaction
with other fans, and on-demand
access to entire matches - whether
they were played last night or last
year. And they expect it not only on
their televisions, but also on their
laptops, smartphones, tablets,
and whatever the next great
device might be.
To keep up with that demand,
sports broadcasters must be able
to capture and process sports
content as it happens, supplement
it with related content in near-real
time, and make it available in a
seemingly endless combination of
formats and protocols. It's a fastpaced, complex workﬂow that can
only be achieved effectively through
automation, and it's just the sort
of workﬂow Primestream's FORK
modular production automation and
asset management platform was

FORK Suite 4.6

designed to tackle.
FORK automation begins with the
FORK Production Server (PDS), the
brain behind all FORK workﬂows.
The PDS processes ﬁle conversions
in multiple formats and creates
proxies for lightweight browsing.
Action Scripts eliminate complexity
by turning repetitive manual actions
into automated background
commands, such as automated
transcoding, social media and
Web publishing, timecode break
detection, and archiving. By
automating these more basic tasks,
higher order operations are easily
handled by the production team.
FORK's Ingest Module give users
ﬂexible, sophisticated control over
even the most complex signal paths,
and can ingest multiple camera

angles at once with dynamic support
for a wide array of resolutions
and modes. The Mobile2Air iOS
application allows users to shoot
and send content from their
mobile devices, so fans or on-ﬁeld
operators can contribute unique
camera angles without cables
and transmission technology. This
creates a dynamic assortment of
perspectives to choose from when
producing packages for the second
and third screens.
With the FORK Logger module,
users can tag metadata on the ﬂy. A
new integration with global sportsinformation leader STATS means
that users can start their sessions
with populated placeholders that
contain rich event data pulled from
the STATS feed. Working from these

populated placeholders enables
users to avoid manually entering
data and increases the accuracy
of the descriptive information. Only
through the proper logging of all of
this incoming content can the media
be efﬁciently found and re-used.
FORK integrates with popular
newsroom systems such as iNews,
ENPS, and Octopus as well as with
leading nonlinear editors. Edit-whilecapture capabilities result in faster
creation of highlights, teasers, and
social media packages.
And when it's time for playout,
the FORK Playout Suite features
industry-leading metadata
integration and sophisticated
automation options that allow
master control to manage complex
schedules completely unattended.

InFOCUS
spidercam In The Fast Lane
By Sophia Hammer
Production Coordinator, spidercam
spidercam at the ATP In Monte Carlo

s

pidercam emerged as an idea in
a workshop in Austria and has
become a world leader in the ﬁeld of
aerial camera systems with a variety
of applications.
Whether in sports, studio
productions or support in the ﬁlm
industry - spidercam produces
unprecedented images for its clients.
The ﬂexible control of spidercam gives
the audience the feeling of being part
of the action. With its ﬂying speed
of up to eight metres per second
spidercam gives the viewer an
impressive birds-eye view and returns
almost immediately near the ground
to catch the action close up.
Through continuous technological
innovation, the application of
spidercam has no limits. In addition

to spidercam's integration in superior
sports broadcasts in stadiums all over
the world, the spidercam is also used
in unusual locations such as the
Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, the
Zurich Main Station, as part of an
opera performance, and in the Middle
East to follow camel races.
spidercam gives the viewer the
unique feeling of being part of the
audience, having been utilised at
performances of well-known bands
and musicians such as Muse, U2, The
Police and Robbie Williams, as an
integral part of the viewing experience.
The silent operation of spidercam
is also perfectly suited for use in
television studios, already having
been integrated into various casting
shows such as "German Idol", The

Eurovision Song Contest and the
big interview with Felix Baumgartner
after that spectacular jump from the
stratosphere in 2013.
In 2014, spidercam received the
Sports Technology Award for "Best
technology across multiple Sports",
cementing its reputation as a great
addition to any sports broadcast.
The Sports Technology Awards
have been launched to recognise
the increasingly important role that
technology plays in sports and the
positive impact of advances from the
perspective of ofﬁcials and players as
well as spectators, and we are proud
of the recognition our contribution
has received.
Even now spidercam systems
are used around the world to enrich

productions: From the ATP in Monte
Carlo, "The Voice of Switzerland" in
Zurich and the National Rugby League
in Australia.
The next exciting challenge for
spidercam is the FIFA World Cup
2014 in Brazil, where nine spidercam
systems will be used to cover the
matches up to the Finals, requiring not
only experienced crew on the ground,
but also a strong organisational
team to ensure the operation runs
like clockwork.
Due to the strong demand the
spidercam business now operates out
of three locations to supply the world
market: Besides the pre-existing two
ofﬁces in Europe, a new branch has
just been opened in New Jersey, USA,
to increase the level of service.
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/?first=Phillip&last=Izzard&search=Go https://twitter.com/inbroadcast http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpzEatLsHdE&feature=youtube_gdata_player https://www.facebook.com/InBroadcast http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/inbroadcast/id468652679?mt=8 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.branded.inbroadcast&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5icmFuZGVkLmluYnJvYWRjYXN0Il0. http://WWW.INBROADCAST.COM http://www.primestream.com/products/overview/fork-production http://www.spidercam.org/en
In Broadcast - May 2014

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