The Challenge
To deliver live tennis to multiple markets around the world and grow its reach, Tennis Channel, based in Los Angeles, looked to create an alternative program output for its major tournament matches.
The production team sought to replace local tournament commentators with international commentary in production.
With its international commentators situated across the world, Tennis Channel needed a remote commentary solution to increase talent availability.
The sports network also needed a solution that could seamlessly slot into its existing distribution workflow, in which it sends live RTMP output streams to Amagi, its playout system, which then streams out to its FAST channels globally.
To achieve this output without building a complex and expensive production workflow, that also fits into its existing distribution setup, Tennis Channel looked to cloud production, and to Grabyo.
The Solution
After trialling a number of other platforms, Tennis Channel was able to create a reliable and efficient workflow using Grabyo Producer.
The workflow is simple and highly effective, requiring only a handful of people in a hybrid on-prem/remote environment.
Tennis Channel ingests a clean, live SRT or RTMP feed of each match into Grabyo Producer, with camera switching taking place on-premise. These feeds include all audio channels from the venue minus local commentary.
Commentators then join the live production via Grabyo Producer Guest. Producer Guest is a browser-based remote contribution platform, in which talent can join productions using a mobile device or laptop/PC from anywhere in the world. It streams the video and audio inputs from the chosen device into the production.
The crew sends commentators a URL link to join the guest ‘room’ on their chosen device. In this room, commentators can view and hear each other, as well as view the program output in a low-latency, high-definition preview.
Within Grabyo Producer’s Control Room, Tennis Channel creates a number of scene snapshots – various layouts featuring on-camera commentators, graphics and the live match feed. The production team then switches between these layouts seamlessly.
The Results
This workflow was successfully executed for the Italian Open, Bad Homburg Open, Stuttgart Open, Madrid Open and Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. Tennis Channel continues to leverage this workflow for all major tournaments.
Tennis Channel has been able to create a reliable workflow that scales to meet its needs when producing tennis tournaments all over the world, recruiting commentary talent without restrictions on location, and streaming matches to its FAST channels in all of its chosen markets.
For more information on how to monetize live video on FAST channels, click here.
