Viasat Sport: Broadcasting with GigaContent
Denmark's largest producer of live sports programming is on
the air with GigaContent. Viasat Sport broadcasts live from all SAS
League (Danish premier league) football games on GigaContent's
network. This means that all the best in Danish sports action is
delivered securely and in high quality directly into Danish living
rooms across the country. Viasat is delighted about GigaContent's
solution.
Viasat Sport was the first of the dominant Danish broadcasters
to see a big opportunity in employing GigaContent's solutions.
Viasat Sport today uses GigaContent's network to broadcast directly
from the football games of the SAS League, and the management is
delighted to have received a unique and effective professional
solution. GigaContent has given Viasat Sport technical benefits
that have not been seen before, says Johnny Sørensen, Technical
Manager of Viasat Sport.
- GigaContent provides us with a fast and secure connection with
large bandwidth to all of the stadiums of the SAS League. This
means that we are able to broadcast direct SAS League football
without being forced to use several satellite connections and SNG
vehicles, and this has simplified our production a lot, says Johnny
Sørensen.
No more satellites and SNG
Before GigaContent Viasat Sport was forced to use conventional
connections via satellite in order to achieve sufficient security
for the transmission. Today Viasat Sport uses two of GigaContents
super fast 1G bit connections to transfer SD and HD signals from
every SAS League stadium and back to the control room in Amager,
south of Copenhagen. Viasat Sport also uses cross connects to other
stadiums, where other matches are underway, and this has opened up
for entirely new production opportunities.
- Today the production team in the OB vehicle is able to add live
HD signals from parallel games to our main programming stream via
GigaContent. This gives additional creative flexibility when we put
together our program. It is also possible to download archived
footage very quickly, because the connection to our main facility
is much faster than before, says Johnny Sørensen.
Perfect sound and pictures with HD and Dolby
5.1
Viasat Sport is also very satisfied with the fact that
GigaContent's network is highly future proof. This is due to the
fact that all connections are secure and provide gigabits of data
speed. The high speeds ensure that Viasat is ready to launch
channels in full HD as soon as the need arises, and also full Dolby
5.1 digital surround sound is well on its way into Danish living
rooms.
- GigaContents services mean that we are read to send Dolby 5.1
to our viewers already today. Dolby 5.1 employs all of 6 speakers
to create a new and much bigger entertainment experience.
Particularly the impressive sound creates an effective setting for
video on super sharp HD quality, says Johnny Sørensen.
In addition to unlimited access to the GigaContent network
Viasat Sport has received a complete set of hardware, including
coders, decoders and switches. These units transform the stream of
content from Viasat Sport to signals that can be transmitted across
GigaContents optical network. Equipment and channels for so-called
intercom - meaning internal communications for the production team
- also form a part of the total solution.
The future looks bright
Next step for Viasat is to gain super fast access to the most
exciting indoor sports events in the country. GigaContent is
continuously expanding its coverage and number of
points-of-events - meaning locations offering attractive
content - and this will soon give Viasat Sport access to among
others the most important handball and ice hockey arenas. The goal
is to offer direct connections to more than 70 of the most
attractive points-of-events in the country.
But Viasat Sport would also be keen to see GigaContent offer
even faster services to the stadiums of the SAS League in order to
render the production of direct sports programming easier and more
effective.
- If we look further into the future it would be optimal to
introduce 13 separate gigabit-speed connections to each stadium
corresponding to one connection to each HD camera on site. This
would mean that we no longer would need an OB vehicle and local
production facilities, and instead could produce the broadcast from
our studios in Amager, says Johnny Sørensen.