Football fans in Italy can now get almost instant access to action from the top leagues, Serie A and Serie B. Infront Sports & Media has used technology led by Harris to deliver highlights to mobiles, tablets and laptops as well as to conventional broadcast outlets. Broadcasters covering a game will mark up the action with live metadata as usual, enabling both the creation of their own highlights packages and news access by other outlets, a requirement of Italian media law. Through a special portal, though, the system is also connected to mobile network operators. Subscribers to these networks can register interest in their favourite team. Should that team score, the clip of that goal is sent immediately to the subscriber’s mobile or tablet. Working with local distributor Prevideo, Harris provided a file-based workflow that uses Harris Invenio asset management software with Nexio Amp servers. It also supports the editing of goal and highlights action so that media files can be transcoded to the varioujs different formats required by users. “We went to Harris with a business requirement – to create an overall archive of Italian league football matches which could serve Infront’s multi-faceted needs in terms of live, near-live and delayed supply,” said Claudio Cavalotti, production and technical facilities director at Infront Italy. “The Harris workflow made this project possible – it is an elegant and powerful media management tool that supports the exploitation of our valuable archive.” Harris commented that the distribution to mobile devices is a valuable pillar in the commercialisation of sports events. It suggested that this is an early example of a growing application in the new media age.
