The ability to spin up capacity in a cost-efficient and flexible manner, and enable commentators to contribute live regardless of location, are among the reasons why sports broadcasters and service providers are increasingly looking towards cloud platforms to deliver remote sports commentary.
Martin Dyster, vice president of business development at Telos Alliance, cites flexibility as the main benefit of cloud-based commentary. “Commentators and production staff can be brought into the same virtual environment from different locations without the overhead of expensive hardware and infrastructure, and the cloud system can be scaled easily and efficiently to suit the event,” he explains.
Synchronising different feeds has also become more straightforward in the cloud era. Rafa Perez, application and sales manager for Prodys, says: “In terms of synchronisation, the use of shared resources and virtual codecs running on servers or cloud infrastructures opens a completely new world of possibilities that were much more difficult to implement using purely hardware-based solutions.”
The ability to deliver efficient localised services at scale is another boon. “A lot of customers were creating or hosting a single-language production, but now it’s super-easy for them to use the same work feed and keep on adding other languages. It’s a great way to further decorate your production and get more business,” says Fernando Pinto Jez, head of solutions EMEA at TVU Networks.
Nonetheless, consideration still needs to be given to perennial live programming challenges such as latency. “Synchronisation is about delivering programme audio, IFB, mix-minus, talkback and contribution feeds consistently, wherever the commentator is working, so latency still needs careful engineering,” says Dyster. “Simply moving to the cloud does not remove latency by itself, but a properly designed platform can make it predictable and manageable.”
Cloud and hybrid
Consequently, a host of solutions – some entirely cloud-based, others more of a hybrid offering involving hardware elements – have come to market in recent years. In the case of Telos, this takes the form of the Telos Infinity VIP virtual intercom platform, which extends the hardware-based Infinity IP intercom system into cloud, hybrid and remote production workflows. It can be accessed and controlled by virtual panels running on any HTML-5 browser or via the Infinity VIP apps for smartphones, as well as working with physical Infinity panels and beltpacks. It also integrates with Elgato Stream Deck control products via dedicated plugins.
Dyster explains that the “commentary component within VIP is the Infinity VCP virtual commentator panel. It gives commentators a familiar operating surface with everything they’d expect in a hardware-based announcer console: separate on-air and intercom mic channels, automatic on-air muting when comms are used, and monitor controls for IFB, programme, mix-minus, and auxiliary feeds. It can be deployed with the same ease as a VIP intercom panel, and because VCP is browser-based and audio device-agnostic, the voice talent can connect to the production system from anywhere in the world.”
The ability for commentators to join a session quickly and easily is also foremost for TVU Networks, whose TVU Remote Commentator is a cloud-based commentary platform that uses a simple browser-based interface on a laptop or smart device. Each participant logs into the interface and sees the same stream, synchronised over a TVU-powered low latency connection – ideal for capturing the all-important “banter between members of on-air teams” during sports broadcasts.
Prodys’ virtualised commentary solution is QuantumX, which can be deployed in a variety of modes, including the customer’s own infrastructure, a private cloud or public cloud environments. It is also available as a managed service from Prodys, as well as a complete turnkey solution combining hardware, software and support.
Perez observes: “Our philosophy has always been based on a hybrid approach that combines dedicated hardware for the commentator’s user interface with virtual codecs and software-based workflows. This enables customers to benefit from the reliability and usability of purpose-built hardware while taking advantage of the flexibility, scalability and resource efficiency offered by virtualised environments.”
With customers including the Basketball Champions League – where it was used during 174 of 178 games in the latest season – Broadcasting Center Europe’s Holovox system has also made a real impact on the sports market. Described as a cloud-based remote voice-over and production platform, it allows commentators, journalists and presenters to live-stream multi-language commentaries, voice-overs and fully remote talk shows from anywhere in the world using a standard internet connection, computer, microphone and webcam.
Pierre Dereux, product marketing lead at BCE, highlights the support, management and scheduling aspects of Holovox: “We’ve got a dedicated 24/7 NOC [Network Operations Centre] in Luxembourg, so can provide support even in the evening or the middle of the night. And our booking platform is ideal for organisations that, for example, might have 15 events on the same evening and there is a need to coordinate all of the events and make sure everything goes smoothly.”
On-site complement
There is a general consensus that adoption is most advanced in those areas of sports production where flexibility and cost-efficiency are most closely aligned. In Dyster’s words, these include “secondary and regional sports, multilingual commentary, international events, shoulder programming, and productions where sending a full team to site is difficult to justify.”
Indeed, in a broadcasting landscape where privately owned broadcasters are competing more intensely than ever for revenue, and public broadcasters are facing all manner of economic and existential challenges, it seems more likely than ever that cloud comms will be an important component of live sports. That said, there is little appetite or expectation for it replacing more conventional on-site systems outright, while variable cloud egress costs remain a challenge to some lower-tier productions. Accordingly, a hybrid model – increasingly including more elements achieved at the edge – may be a good route to take for many future productions.
There will continue to be plenty of instances, says Jez, “where you still have voice-over booths and are doing things in a more traditional way, but clients are trying to achieve a lot of things these days. Cloud commentary suits those scenarios where you do need a level of flexibility and speed on provision and deployment.”
“Live sport will remain hybrid; the balance will change depending on the event,” says Dyster. “Major productions will still use on-site infrastructure where it makes sense, but commentators, language teams, contributors, producers and technical staff will increasingly connect remotely.”
Perez also highlights the value of hybrid deployments, with cost often determining the option taken by broadcasters. “While public cloud platforms offer tremendous flexibility, the cost of transporting high-quality video streams can still be a challenge for some workflows,” he explains. “In private cloud or on-premise virtualised environments, these costs can be significantly reduced or avoided altogether. For this reason, we believe the future lies in flexible architectures that combine cloud, private infrastructure and dedicated hardware according to operational needs.”
