BAMMA 6 benefits from Aframe live footage logging

UK: London-based Giant Film and TV became the first company to use Aframe’s live footage logging application on a sports production when it rolled out the web-based technology on coverage of BAMMA 6 on Saturday night, writes UK Correspondent, Will Strauss. For the sixth tournament in the mixed martial arts (MMA) franchise, the independent producer used Aframe to help quicken turnaround of the broadcast and online highlights packages that are made available around the world after live transmission of the fights. Footage of the event was tagged as it happened, allowing international journalists, sponsors and broadcast editors covering the event to immediately edit their own story or package by searching for action by text keyword.

Rough cuts were also completed within Aframe itself and then sent to the US for broadcasters to air on the night of the tournament. In previous years, with footage logging done after the event, US broadcasters had waited several days for highlights to show while journalists and website publishers had to request DVD copies.

BAMMA executive producer David Green, who is also the chief executive of Giant Film and TV, said: “Aframe gave us a fantastic opportunity to deliver our content in an incredibly fast, easy and accessible way. It’s not only revolutionary for the MMA industry but for any sport that thrives on live broadcasting and the need to deliver highlights to the plethora of media outlets around the Globe.”

How it worked:

• A live feed of BAMMA 6 was taken from an OB truck in London and fed into the cloud-based Aframe platform via Streamtank.
• As soon as footage appeared on the system, Aframe’s logging team in Sunderland added keywords to precise moments in the timecode using terminology and tags provided in advance by Giant.
• A member of the Giant production team back in London monitored the tagging via Aframe to ensure accuracy.
• As soon as the tagging had started, a BAMMA production team member used Aframe to rough cut a highlights package using the logged metadata.
• URL links to full resolution (Avid and Final Cut compatible) video files were then emailed to broadcasters to download and broadcast.
• At the same time, journalists and other online publishers logged into Aframe and cut their own ‘best of’ packages – based on their own individual requirements – before transferring them to their own websites.

David Peto, the chief executive of Aframe, said: “Suddenly BAMMA went from dealing with desperate DVD requests to allowing everyone to grab what they wanted, at the exact moment they wanted it, and then put it on their website. As far as I can see there is no else in the world that has ever done this before.”

Peto went on to suggest that the success of BAMMA could open up the door for other live events to do something similar. “As long as there is some kind of capture device, which Aframe can pick up a feed from, we can have it tagged live,” he said. “We’re not trying to do OB trucks out of business but it opens up a whole world of fun stuff around sports events and franchises. It could work equally well on factual or reality shows too.”

He acknowledged that even before the event had taken place he had received an approach from a US sports producer who is interested in making use of live footage logging.

MMA 101

BAMMA (British Association of Mixed Martial Arts) is a MMA promotion based in the UK.

As a sport, MMA has come a long way since the early days of UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) where rules were limited, and only extreme acts of violence, such as biting or eye gouging, were outlawed. The rules are now fairly strict and fights are much better organized, being divided into weight categories, much like Boxing. The events even require the athletes to undergo random testing for performance enhancing drugs

As far as the actual rules of MMA are concerned, the ways in which you can win a fight are by knockout, technical knockout (referee stoppage), or by submission. Submission can be due to strikes, a joint lock or a choke. According to MMA insiders, the biggest difference between MMA and other fighting disciplines, such as boxing, is that there are honourable routes to defeat.

If a fighter is in a position where they are going to lose, they can choose to tap out in order to avoid major damage. As a result, there has been limited serious injury to MMA athletes in its short history while boxing has, on average, 65 deaths per year.

BAMMA 6 was held at Wembley Arena on Saturday 21 May 2011 and was shown live on the Syfy channel. Amongst the fights on the night, middleweight champion Tom Watson defeated Murilo Rua to retain his title.