The last year has been tumultuous for sport and live broadcasting, with companies having to adapt to remote working environments in order to deliver programming to audiences more dispersed – and desperate for content – than ever before. Evertz has launched its new ebook, Building a Unique Audience Experience, breaking down the hurdles presented during 2020 and the innovative solutions provided by the broadcast technology specialist.
First the company’s CEO, Romolo Magarelli, explores how Evertz helped its customers in the broadcast sector adapt to the new normal of working from home. Though the move towards remote production was already underway prior to Covid-19, suddenly signals had to be routed not to broadcast centres but to operators’ homes. Magarelli explains how the “VUE Anywhere” technology from Evertz enabled interfaces found in broadcast facilities to be accessed over the internet.
Accompanying this operational shift was the use of cloud technology for production purposes, allowing esports companies to connect players, commentators and operators from their homes – effectively safeguarding multi-million-dollar tournaments against the pandemic. Meanwhile Evertz technology facilitated the growth of user-defined content, whereby sport viewers can choose their desired camera angles or interactive graphics via an app or OTT platform. This not only creates more choice for audiences, it opens up revenue opportunities for rights holders by integrating merchandising opportunities into sports broadcasts.
The ebook also features a case study detailing Discovery’s adoption of DreamCatcher™ BRAVO, Evertz’s latest suite of live production tools. The collaborative, flexible and highly intuitive system proved a perfect fit for Discovery’s high-profile subscription-streaming service, Food Network Kitchen, providing on-demand instructional videos and culinary content from the app launched in 2019.
Providing all the features required for a multi-camera production, including video/audio mixing, graphics, replays and highlights, BRAVO allowed Food Network Kitchen to host live events without dramatically increasing staffing or costs – in fact most of these live presentations were managed with just one producer and an engineer. When the pandemic hit, Evertz’s tools enabled these live segments to be filmed from the chefs’ home kitchens all over the USA. Thanks to the remote accessibility of BRAVO’s production tools, Discovery was able to keep this content cooking.
Finally Vince Silvestri, VP of software systems, discusses the aforementioned rise in interactivity and how BRAVO Studio from Evertz leverages the company’s Ease Live technology to deliver alternate replay angles, audio mixes or graphical information to viewers. “Enabling fans to curate, create and share their own version of the live events will increase engagement and reach a wider audience,” he concludes. “At Evertz we are building a wide range of tools to augment and extend human creativity.” Although events were hit hard over the last year, Building a Unique Audience Experience shows that progress has not just been unimpeded, but even accelerated.
