AE Live to deliver remote graphics for BT Sport’s Premier League coverage

AE Live (AE), the broadcast graphics solutions company, has agreed a deal that will see it deliver graphics services to BT Sport remotely from its UK office.

For the start of the 2021-2022 football season, AE operators have been delivering match and presentation graphics for BT’s Premier League football coverage from a newly built Graphics Operations Centre (GOC) based at the AE Live Campus.

The GOC, which is connected to the BT studio in Stratford by BT Media and Broadcast, boasts several pods that house AE operators in an environment that replicates the look and feel of a traditional production room.

The pods are fully equipped with monitoring, including live camera feeds from venues, and connected talkback with the entire production crew, allowing AE operators to fit seamlessly into the production workflow despite being removed from all other personnel.

AE operators are using PCs housed in the GOC, which have been installed with AE’s suite of bespoke software applications, to drive live on-air graphics on BT-owned Chyron Prime engines based in Stratford.

Dave Gill, AE’s CTO, commented, “We’re delighted to be working so collaboratively with BT Sport on this project, enabling us to deliver graphics remotely from our GOC. The benefits of remote production for utilisation, staff safety and welfare and, of course, sustainability are now well understood.

“The investment we’ve made in our flexible remote capabilities and connectivity at our AE Campus allows for a variety of different remote workflows and we succeeded in our aim for the operator to experience no discernible difference between working in the pod vs working on-site at the OB. This project also demonstrates our capabilities across multiple render platforms, having delivered this project in CH Prime.“

Jamie Hindhaugh, BT Sport Chief Operating Officer, added: “Our link with AE is a key plank of our ongoing and well established de-centralised remote production effort. AE’s tools along with those of our network of trusted partners provide us with the flexibility to bring our viewers more coverage of more events while enhancing staff well-being and creativity.”

After the successful delivery of remote graphics on Premier League football coverage, AE and BT are now planning to also deliver rugby union graphics from the AE Live Campus in 2022.

In the summer, AE provided Sky Sports with remote graphics services for its coverage of the cricket tournament The Hundred.