French broadcaster TF1 is using two Grass Valley K2 Dyno replay systems to create live HD replays of the key kicks, conversions, tackles, and tries from the 2011 Rugby World Cup, the largest event in France’s 2011 sporting calendar, with more than 10 million viewers expected to tune in, particularly when France plays New Zealand in the final next weekend, writes David Fox.
The cost-effective system consists of a K2 Dyno Replay Controller combined with either a K2 Summit production client or K2 Solo media server. The TF1 systems use both, connected with an external hard disk drive for replay, slow motion, loop record, playlist, and storage.
“The Grass Valley solution is cutting edge technology that offers a number of advantages over other systems,” said Jean-Pascal Lefort, Head of the Studio Department at TF1.
“The K2 Dyno Replay System is so intuitive to use, with playlists, thumbnails, and the ease of switching from two programmes to programme/preview, meaning our operators need little training. It is performing very well and standing up to the rigours of the World Cup, having to create live replays for up to three games back-to-back. We also plan to use it for some of our Formula 1 coverage.”
The K2 Dyno Replay System is well suited to rugby as it enables users to capture live events in HD and instantly play them out at variable speeds for critical analysis. It features Gigabit Ethernet networking, common file wrappers, continuous FTP bandwidth, and standard IT storage connectivity, removing the need for costly software and hardware add-ons to manage and move content throughout production environments. The K2 Dyno Replay Controller enables live editing, including the ability to specify playback speed changes for any clip.
“TF1 is benefiting from version 2.0 of the K2 software and Grass Valley will continue to respond to feedback from customers to ensure that K2 Dyno remains the premier replay system,” said Jeff Rosica, Executive Vice President at Grass Valley.
