InBroadcast - March 2022 - 42

42
www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 12 - Issue 3 | March 2022
InNABShow
The importance of monitoring
networks in live sports
With Nicolas Boulay,
Co-President,
WorldCast CONNECT...
T
here are few broadcast challenges
as critical as live sports. With
global
millions
audiences in the tens
and
upwards
of
for many
events, all of whom are expecting to
see high-quality live video on a variety
of platforms, it is vitally important to
ensure that all equipment in the chain
is functioning at an optimum level at
all times.
The reputational
and
There have been several important
changes in recent years that have
raised the criticality
of
effective
monitoring and managing of these
networks.
1. The industry
IP technologies. IP networks
increasingly used in all parts
the broadcast
economic
consequences of failure are severe,
which is why sports broadcasting
is the crucible in which all other
broadcast
equipment
is
tested.
Diversity and multiple redundancy
paths are taken as granted, with the
infrastructures established to handle
the transmission of the major, weeklong
events that occur every few
years reaching impressive sizes and
scales. Cable paths are often taken in
two directions, east and west; in case
of seismic activity disrupting a signal,
satellite redundancy is introduced;
and the system is stress-tested to
ensure that nothing can take it down.
This must occur over a long period
of time. A major tournament can take
four weeks to play out, but the testing
and establishment of the network at
least doubles that. And for sporting
properties
global
that
are effectively
series, the situation is an
ongoing one that can take up a good
proportion of the year.
value chain, from
acquisition through production and
onto distribution.
2. This
transition has
been
accelerated by the introduction of
remote production workflows that
see tasks
that would once have
been accomplished on-site using
OB trucks occurring back at base in
newly constructed production hubs.
The pandemic
has
The new workflows that are being
established to serve this evolving
picture are
very
different
from
dramatically
accelerated the introduction of these
techniques at the top-tier level.
3. Sports are no longer delivered
simply
to a broadcast
network.
Viewers watch on multiple devices on
multiple platforms in linear or nonlinear
mode.
before. An event can take place in
one country and, effectively, only the
camera and audio equipment and
their crews can be considered to be
on site. All mixing, graphics, replays
and more take place in a remote hub.
This can even involve round-trips
to third-party
specialist
of such recent innovations as AR
overlays, while commentary teams
have become habitually home-based
as a result of the pandemic.
Effective monitoring of
these
networks
is
crucial
for success, offering
predictive intervention,
identifying points
of
potential
before they
failure
break,
while also offering
the key
benefits
of
maximizing equipment
uptime - an important
consideration given the
global nature of sport
and its audience.
We worked recently with a major
rights holder to provide a KYBIO
Network Monitoring System (NMS)
that
perfectly
new workflows
as host
encapsulates
that
broadcaster,
must
splitting
the
be
accommodated.
The rights holder also operates
its
operation between a Master Control
Room in a centralised location and
a peripatetic broadcast centre that
follows the organisation's
remote workflow, the NMS has been
carefully set up to provide a single
central
reporting
local
and
has embraced
are
of
view of status
and ticketing of the organisation's
operations, delivering real-time
monitoring of
remote
devices in the MCR chain.
Customised
providers
templates
have
been established for reporting and
ticketing, ensuring any
are dealt with swiftly and efficiently,
while KYBIO has
also been
configured to provide direct control
of main and back-up switching
with one click from the centralised
interface. Lastly, the UI can be
viewed from anywhere, providing the
organisation with increased flexibility
when it comes to deploying remote
operations.
This last point is crucial. If there
is anything the last two years have
taught the industry it
astonishingly
is that it
resilient
is
precisely
because it can respond to rapid and
extensive change. The workflows that
dominated sports and live events
for decades have all but been swept
away by the pandemic, leaving the
monitoring and management
problems
of
the new workflows and ecosystems
that are taking their place of critical
importance.
More to the point, it would be
events
across four continents. Despite this
unwise to think that change is about
to slow down anytime soon, and
any NMS chosen to safeguard the
delivery of high-quality, low-latency
sports content on a worldwide basis
must be as flexible as it is scalable to
ensure proper futureproofing.
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