LiveU helps deliver online vision for Cologne Marathon

Working in partnership with LiveU, Livestream and GO:TV, the Streaming Factory brought the recent Cologne Marathon, held in early October, to more than 25,000 online viewers.

The 16th RheinEnergie Marathon Cologne is described as the largest sporting event held in the North Rheine Westphalia region of Germany. For online coverage of the latest edition, a LiveU LU70 unit allowed Streaming Factory to closely follow the entire race using a motorcycle and cameraman. Additionally, Streaming Factory placed cameras around the finished line and these, along with the cellular signal from the LiveU unit, were vision mixed onsite and then streamed via Livestream’s CDN.

The solution and support was supplied to Streaming Factory by Netorium, LiveU’s German partner.

Zion Eilam, LiveU’s key account executive, comments: “Having a constant stream from the motorbike really brought the event to life and at a price point that was cost-effective for the organisers. High quality cellular uplinking is a real game-changer for the streaming market, allowing events beyond the traditional sports to gain great coverage. This is another example of how our technology can be used.”

Markus Frisch, CEO of Köln Marathon, adds: “The live coverage of the RheinEnergie Cologne Marathon course was a complete success. There were great images from the race of the battle for the lead and the winning break shortly before the finish line. Live coverage like this was really valuable; it was widely appreciated, especially by the friends and family of all the participants. Journalists could also follow the exciting race live including the setting of new course records. We will use the excellent LiveU technology again at future events.”