Dalet Powers In-Venue Production for San Jose Sharks, Showcases Latest Versions of Amberfin, Brio Platforms

Dalet Digital Media Systems is powering game-day content production for the NHL’s San Jose Sharks. Deployed at the SAP Center at San Jose, CA, the turnkey Dalet SportsPack solution is based on the Dalet Galaxy MAM, Brio and AmberFin platforms. The package features all of the logging, cataloging, post-production and distribution tools required for high value, frictionless assembly, multiplatform distribution and tactical analysis of game-day media.

“For less than $300,000 and in a very short period of time, the SAP Center was outfitted with a turnkey system that enables the Sharks to prepare and distribute massive amounts of content efficiently,” says Arnaud Elnecave, director of products and packaged solutions division, Dalet. “The new installation allows the San Jose Sharks to meet the high production demands of a sports venue while creating the ultimate in fan engagement both within the SAP Center and via various social network channels. And because the content is associated with metadata, no longer will staff and coaches need to dig through hours of game footage to find plays, as the powerful Galaxy search engine can locate it in a matter of moments.”

Dalet SportsPack supports industry-standard metadata sources making it easy for hockey teams like the Sharks to associate their NHL logs and scoreboard metadata with SportsPack-ingested content.

“The turnkey system was a straightforward deployment,” says Duane Yoslov, SVP at Diversified Systems, the system integrator that spearheaded the installation. ” It took less than two months from the time we received the order to the time it was rolled out and up and running – a testament to both the San Jose Sharks’ can-do attitude towards fan engagement and the flexibility and interoperability of Dalet’s technology.”

At the SAP Center at San Jose, Home of the San Jose Sharks, Dalet Brio, which features advanced ingest and playout capabilities, will be used to manage ingest of the venue’s eight camera feeds. To easily log this rapidly ingested content, staff can use Dalet Sports Logger with customizable sports-specific action buttons, a specialized application that is included with SportsPack. As ingests happen, the metadata-rich content is referenced in the Galaxy MAM catalog and stored on the NetApp shared storage. Thanks to the Dalet Xtend for Adobe Premiere module, the Shark’s five editors are connected directly to the Dalet Galaxy MAM content catalog, sharing and editing content even as it’s being recorded. All the key plays logged by sports loggers as well as metadata provide by others appear on the Premiere timeline as markers for any video recorded of the event, making a video editor’s job simple and efficient when editing multiple camera angles.

The Dalet AmberFin transcoding farm will allow the Sharks to receive and export content in multiple formats. Staff can quickly send packages to YouTube, Twitter and other social networks under command of Dalet’s NetXchange. Both Dalet AmberFin and NetXchange ship as part of the Dalet SportsPack configuration.

Dalet Releases Updates for ‘Facility of the Future’
In addtion at NAB, Dalet Digital Media Systems demonstrated the latest advancements in its Dalet AmberFin transcoding and Dalet Brio server technology at the NAB 2015 exhibition (booth SL4525). The new releases – Dalet AmberFin v10.6 and Dalet Brio v3.1 – feature future-proofing capabilities that will keep facilities ahead of the curve by supporting emerging formats and broadcast infrastructure, according to Dalet.

“The latest Dalet AmberFin and Dalet Brio releases respond to major changes in the industry, meeting the increasing demand for managing UHD content and merged broadcast IT environments,” comments Matthieu Fasani, Dalet product manager.

Dalet AmberFin is the high-quality, scalable transcoding platform with fully integrated ingest, mastering, QC and review functionality. The new v10.6 release adds support for high-quality up- and down-conversion to/from UHD to HD/SD in the scalable and fault-tolerant transcoding tool Dalet AmberFin Dark. One of the first to market with this breakthrough capability, the new Dalet release enables broadcasters to create and archive high-resolution UHD masters while maintaining high-quality outputs through their traditional and OTT broadcast platforms.

“Dalet AmberFin lets facilities manage 4K workflows without compromising quality. Customers can easily produce high-quality HD from 4K masters or even the other way around,” says Fasani. “There is no need to invest in 4K-specific tools. It provides the flexibility and scalability needed to manage the full range of mastering workflows from SD to 4K, allowing facilities to better cope with the reality of transitioning from HD to 4K.”

Dalet AmberFin 10.6 Feature Highlights

• UHD Transcode – Extensive transcode capabilities for resolutions up to 4K including up/down scaling and color space conversion. A single Dalet AmberFin transcode farm manages all file formats from HD to 4K seamlessly.
• XAVC 4K – Support for XAVC 4K Intra CBG on transcode-in.
• JPEG-2000 – Support extended to UHD-1 and 4K resolutions (transcode-in and transcode-out).
• Timecode and Cadence – Full support for timecode and cadence anchoring in standards conversion.
• Dalet AmberFin Dark – New front-end proxy, load-balancer and API adapter service facilitates the integration of Dalet AmberFin Dark in complex customer architectures.
• (AT)3 Standards Conversion – Toolkit includes new high-quality standards conversion mode combining ACC and Cinnafilm Tachyon.
• AS-03 Workflow – Metadata insertion and extraction for AS-03 workflows.

Dalet Brio is the cost-effective video server built on an IT-based input and output platform. It embeds critical capabilities that facilitate a wide range of production tasks including sports logging, highlight production, replay, gang ingest, gang playout and more. In addition to its embedded capabilities and robust modules, Dalet Brio can be controlled by third-party automation systems including Dalet’s own news, sports and MAM solutions to manage news ingest and playout, studio production, QC and much more.

The new release, available in May 2015, gives operators the ultimate in flexibility, channel resilience and interoperability. “Dalet Brio is all about flexibility, giving broadcasters more choices for their infrastructure, which ultimately allows them to better control costs,” explains Fasani. “Dalet customers that want to move away from traditional broadcast-specific hardware to standard IP switches can do so with Dalet Brio. They will not only benefit from lower hardware costs, but gain flexibility and scalability with regards to their signal distribution and routing, supporting any resolution from SD to 4K.”

Dalet Brio v3.1 Feature Highlights

• IP Streaming Ingest – Support for SMPTE 2022-2 H264/AAC streams recording.
• FIMS Capture V1.1 – REST-based implementation with interactive online documentation.
• Ingest Plugin for Adobe Premiere CC – Start, stop, monitor and check an ingest directly from Adobe Premiere.
• Ingest to Amazon S3 and S3 compatible storage – Upload ingested content to Amazon S3 storage while ingest for immediate content sharing or backup.
• Ingest to Apple FCP X – Edit MXF files recorded by Brio in FCP X during ingest.
• Automatic Time Delay – Time delay application lets users manage delayed playout across different time zones.
• Sony XAVC-Intra and Long GOP HD Playback – Support for the latest Sony camcorder format.
• Panasonic AVCLongG HD Playback – Support for the latest Panasonic camcorder format.