Grass Valley and Dorna Sports shortlisted for Innovation Award

Grass Valley and Dorna Sports have been shortlisted in the IBC2011 Innovation Awards. Recognized for achievements in the Content Creation Category, the companies were shortlisted out of more than 130 submissions for the live production of the MotoGP World Championship.

Grass Valley developed a storage and asset management solution for Dorna Sports for use during the racing events. Dorna Sports covers all 18 races in the MotoGP international motorcycle season, with more than 120 high-definition cameras at every event.

Grass Valley developed its solution based on touchscreen controllers that allow a small team of operators to mark, rate, and prepare clips for replay. Approximately 2,000 clips a day are created. The solution enabled the Grass Valley K2 Dyno Replay Controller and K2 Summit production client to interface with an Apple XSan and 25 seats of Final Cut Pro for editing. The entire system was readily portable, so Dorna could take easily transport it around the various race tracks.

“Dorna has been involved in the MotoGP World Championship live production since 1992, working hard to develop and refine innovative technologies to serve the live broadcasting requirements of a unique sport,” said Manel Arroyo, media area managing director of Dorna Sports. “While we believe that we have the best workflow for the type of sports coverage we produce, being shortlisted for the IBC Innovation Awards just confirms this, and we couldn’t be more pleased.”

Grass Valley and Dorna Sports are one of three shortlisted in the Content Creation category for the most innovative projects. The IBC2011 Innovation Awards are unique, recognizing the application of technology in bringing creative, commercial, or operational benefits to the end user.

“We are thrilled to be nominated for this prestigious award alongside our partner Dorna”, said Charlie Dunn, Senior Vice President of Editing, Servers and Storage at Grass Valley. “Dorna was looking for a highly automated, tapeless workflow after its move to HD sparked a rethink of the way its production workflow is handled. We came up with a tailor-made solution which enabled them to work seamlessly and we are delighted that this innovation has been recognized at this high profile awards event.”