Video Progetti upgrades infrastructure for horseracing specialist Teleippica

Teleippica, a subsidiary of SNAI, deals with the distribution of TV images and multimedia pertaining to the sport of horseracing and related betting, at both a national and international level. A recent project saw the Italy-based operation upgrade its TV and web production infrastructure in collaboration with systems integrator Video Progetti.

In addition, Teleippica recently concluded an agreement with SES Astra for the use of bandwidth capacity on Astra satellite services to enable distribution and contribution from orbital positions at 23.5° and 19.2° E.

This capacity from orbital positions mentioned will be used for international coverage, and will also provide services for live event contributions made ​​in Ka-band. In addition, the agreement allows Teleippica to have a back-up, 24 hours per day, seven days per week, of all transmissions involving horseracing.

Stefano Marzullo, CEO of Teleippica, comments: “We chose broadcasting services and contribution of SES to confirm our confidence in a reliable and highest level partner. Satellite orbital positions for Astra 23.5 ° East and 19.2 ° are ideal for the needs of our business because they offer an advanced engineering solution and [are] well-established for the Italian market. Moreover, the contribution of Ka-band service ensures optimum coverage, reliable transmission and great quality to the benefit of our end-users, gamblers and fans of horseracing and sports.”

Carlo Struzzi, owner of systems integrator Video Progetti, remarks: “This year we designed and installed a system for the publisher who produces Teleippica TV channels and related web issues. After collecting the needs of the client Video Progetti configured a 24/7 production system [for] thematic contents [processed in large amounts].

“The system receives 80 feeds from all the racetracks and, on a daily basis, from 30 racecourses in which the [infrastructure] is constantly connected to both live programmes; frequently these overlap. Consequently, the goal was to try to retransmit immediately all the important events, and record and transmit other less important events to be broadcast [on subsequent dates].”

All content is stored on the Omneon video servers, tagged and trimmed for onward transmission or other distribution on the various delivery channels. The typical control room relies on a Snell video mixer which is able to handle all the feeds in all formats (HD, SD, 3D, 4K); it converts them to the format of the production required and outputs them for broadcast and recording.

All the tagging happens thanks to a device called Avita that eliminates the content which cannot be used immediately. The content itself is intercepted by the workflow manager, Mantrix, within the Omneon video servers, converted to a format suitable for the Web, and distributed on the scheduled Internet channels.

In the recording section, a Snell matrix directs the signals to the Omneon video servers, where all events are categorised, tagged, trimmed and subsequently aired.

Again within this video server the MAM intercepts the contents, places them in an archival system as the master copy, and produces a variety of other formats that are used for distribution on different platforms.

The distributed files are enriched with metadata that becomes very useful subsequently, since statistics, betting information and other background may be used to enrich the content.

The Harmonic Omneon video server has changed the playout structure substantially; in fact, the master control is now embedded so the server has a dual function and simultaneously produces content in HD and SD. Consequently, everything is branded specifically for both HD and SD, unifying the graphics and subtitles output on the same port.