C-Cast focus on second screen for EVS
EVS has introduced C-Cast at IBC, a new concept for delivering content directly from EVS servers to second screens such as computers and mobile devices. The system allows clips and highlights created on an EVS server during a live broadcast to be instantly available to viewers and subscribers. And fully synchronized multicamera angle recording allows for new ways to give fans the angles they want.
The system ties two EVS servers together, a distant server in the field (and OB truck) and a central server that is located at the network operations centre and can package content for delivery to different codecs and devices. Metadata and third-party stats loaded into the C-Cast database on the distant server ties the data together with video content. Desired clips are then transferred to the central server for publishing.
The system can operate in one of two modes: automated, building clips based on metadata and log sheets, and manual, requiring an operator to be located within the OB truck.
“The latter offers better quality as the operator sees all the clips and has control over all camera angles,” says Johann Schreurs, EVS, general manager, new media broadcast. “They can review and approve all angles so that if there is an angle that isn’t usable or they don’t want to publish it they can do that. They also are sharing the atmosphere in the truck and can understand what is a good moment editorially.”
The demo of the system at IBC involved a rugby match and offered the user a stadium diagram with camera locations. The user could instantly change viewing angle of a play by simply clicking on a camera icon on the diagram.
“That application is a template,” says Schreurs who adds that the publisher can create their own interface and then tie it into the EVS API to retrieve content.
“It’s an easy configuration tool,” he says.
An application example for use by a major sports league would involve the C-Cast central server pulling in content from various distant servers located at multiple events. Once content is brought into the C-Cast server a content management system allows the operator to publish content to different devices.
Also making operations easier is the ability for the system to be automatically personalised for a client. If a production truck with the system is working for ESPN one day and Fox Sports the next, the use of passwords allows for the distant server to automatically be reconfigured.
The system cannot currently handle live feeds but Schreurs says R&D efforts have begun to add that capability.
EVS also demonstrated an enhancement to the Xedio Clean Edit: adding editing in the field with a feature called “edit-in-place.” Coupled with an ENG camera that records content on solid-state memory, Clean Edit software on a laptop can allow instant access to media on the disk and allow for the user to build an edit decision list without needing to first transfer content from the disk to the laptop. Once the edits are completed the system then downloads the required material from the memory card.