CINFO showcases multi-camera streaming technology for sport events

The new technology allows the user to switch cameras in real-time, as well as replay and time-shift during and after the event.

This year’s edition of IBC saw CINFO showcase its new video cloud technology, demonstrating a multicamera transmission for both OTT and cable from a basketball court. This innovation allows the user to switch cameras in real-time, as well as replay and time-shift during and after the event, and offers virtually the same experience for both OTT and cable or IPTV users.

CINFO videocloud technology can now be deployed fully from the cloud, without any dedicated, physical infrastructure. The platform connects to the broadcaster’s existing video switcher or encoders, as well as additional metadata feeds with scoreboard, related tweets, RSSs, user-contributed content from Meerkat and other sources, and more.

The synthetrick video rendering engine – which is a CINFO technology following its recent acquisition of Syntheractive – renders and streams a custom channel for each user, including picture-in-picture, multiview and timeline. Camera change is done entirely server-side; there is no need for the player to connect to another stream, buffer and decode it on every seek or camera change.

“This approach was completely unthinkable just a few years ago,” says Miguel Barreiro, CINFO CTO. “Today, highly optimised encoders, together with the sheer power of commodity hardware, make it perfectly feasible. Plus, by encoding a custom stream for every user, we are not tied to preset profiles: our platform is tracking the user connection in real-time and encoding at whatever bit-rate is available in a particular moment.”

Existing experiences include a successful trial with a public broadcaster, where seven of the cameras in the court were freely selectable by users, plus the ‘dirty’ production feed. Live data from the scoreboard was also integrated, enabling event-based timeshift.

“TV sports directors are interested in the value we can add to recorded sports events,” adds Barreiro. “Creative directors make a great job during the live broadcast, but after the event finishes, user demand for the event in traditional formats is very low. Adding a fast multi-camera view, plus simple and fast event-based time shift makes it far more attractive during the whole season – and beyond.”