British Premiership football is viewed worldwide, and broadcasters have been asking for greater capacity to supply more feeds, particularly with overseas broadcasters wanting their own interviews, graphics and commentary. To address this, BT’s Media and
Broadcast division has installed new fibre cabinets at all 20 Premier League football grounds, as well as at the national stadiums in England and Wales.
These are part of the rollout of its next-generation network, and have 60Gbps capacity (with plans to increase this to 80Gbps), allowing 28 uncompressed HD outbound channels and eight reverse feeds at once, plus capacity for additional video feeds (including TICO compressed UHD and data services). The extra capacity will also support remote production.
Two video monitors display the feed the customer is sending, and BT monitors the cabinets from BT Tower in London, from where it can also remotely open them for customers.
The air-conditioned cabinets are connected to stadium power, with a plug-in connector for an on-site generator, plus a UPS battery backup, something BT claimed no other provider offers.
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