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uncertainties, alongside a number of
high-profile network outages that im-
pacted businesses worldwide over the
last year or two, business continuity
and disaster recovery will likely be hot
topics at this year’s show. Traditional
disaster recovery systems no longer
measure up to current requirements
and needs,” said Lelde Ardava, COO of
Veset.
Cloud-based playout is one ap-
proach to disaster recovery that differs
from traditional hardware redundancy
in that it does not require continuous
operational spending.
“Unlike traditional hardware-based
disaster recovery, cloud playout is flex-
ible and scalable, and critically, doesn’t
incur operational costs until it is actu-
ally needed when the primary system
experiences failure,” Ardava added.
Content authenticity
and synthetic media
A newer dimension of trust is emerg-
ing around the content itself, separate
from the infrastructure carrying it.
As Generative AI and synthetic me-
dia become more prevalent, questions
about how audiences and platforms
verify what they watch have entered
the industry conversation.
“Live production does not have an
undo; therefore, the resilience must
be there to ensure audience trust. This
also applies to the rise in synthetic me-
dia. It is our duty to ensure consumers
feel they are viewing trustworthy con-
tent. Technologies like content prove-
nance, digital signatures, and AI-based
verification will help tackle the issues,”
said Duncan Beattie, market develop-
ment manager at Tuxera.
Content provenance refers to a
set of technical standards and tools
designed to attach verifiable origin
information to media files, allowing
downstream systems and viewers to
confirm where content came from and
whether it has been altered.
The stakes are particularly high in
live production, where there is no op-
portunity to correct or contextualize
content after the fact. Establishing au-
thenticity at the point of origin, rath-
er than attempting to verify it down-
stream, is where much of the technical
focus is headed.
SECURITY
Continued from Page 20
of being there whether a fan or viewer is
watching on a big screen or a phone. That
pushes us to develop tools that expand
creative freedom, help remote and onsite
crews work as one team, and support op-
erators in real time,” said Kento Sayama,
deputy head of the media segment for im-
aging solutions at Sony Electronics.
Cinematic camera styles, typically asso-
ciated with film production rather than live
sports, have gained traction as rights hold-
ers look to differentiate the visual quality
of their coverage. Immersive production
formats designed for VR headsets repre-
sent a further extension of that ambition,
with the NBA among the organizations
that have conducted early experiments in
capturing live games for immersive view-
ing.
“One trend gaining serious momentum
in live sports is the use of cinematic style
cameras, delivering a more dramatic vi-
sual style previously reserved for film. Im-
mersive production is an area of growing
interest, with early experiments done by
the NBA to capture live games in formats
designed for VR headset-based viewing.
A broader push to create more engaging
experiences for live audiences has been
on the rise, and it will be interesting to see
how the sports world embraces these de-
veloping immersive opportunities,” said
Bob Caniglia, director of sales operations
for the Americas at Blackmagic Design.
The in-venue experience has also drawn
increasing investment.
“In the last year, we’ve seen more ven-
ues invest in new high-end in-venue LED
displays and revamp their production
pipelines to elevate the quality of content
they can distribute to those displays. Color
management has become a priority, and I
expect many professionals from the space
will be looking for tools that can help them
accurately calibrate and control color
across in-venue displays at NAB Show
this year,” said Tim Walker, senior product
manager at AJA Video Systems.
Server-side multiview, technology that
allows streaming viewers to select their
own camera angle during a live event, is
also moving from pilot deployments to live
production.
“Server-side multiview for multi-sport
or multi-camera events is moving from pi-
lot projects to live deployments, allowing
fans to control their own camera angles
during games. This shift signals that view-
er choice is an expected capability in mod-
ern sports streaming,” said Eric Gallier,
vice president of video customer solutions
at Harmonic.
Audio in a multi-platform world
The audio dimension of sports produc-
tion has grown considerably more com-
plex as rights holders deliver events si-
multaneously across multiple regions and
platforms, each with different language,
commentary and accessibility require-
ments.
“Live sports remains one of the most
demanding environments for broadcast
audio. As rights holders deliver events si-
multaneously across multiple regions and
platforms, production teams must support
multiple languages, commentary options
and accessibility features within a single
workflow. Innovations in immersive and
object-based audio, along with IP-based
production infrastructure, are helping
broadcasters create more flexible and
personalized viewing experiences. Next
Generation Audio is a key part of this shift
and will be in focus at the show, following
successful deployments at major tourna-
ments and live events this year,” said Costa
Nikols, executive team strategy advisor
for media and entertainment at Telos Al-
liance.
Next Generation Audio, or NGA, refers
to a set of standards and technologies that
allow audio to be delivered as discrete
objects or elements rather than as a fixed
mix — enabling different versions of the
same audio to be assembled for different
platforms, languages and listening envi-
ronments from the same source material.
Reliability as the baseline
Underlying all of it is a reliability re-
quirement that is more demanding in live
sports than in almost any other broadcast
context. There is no opportunity to correct
a timing error or resolve a synchroniza-
tion issue after the fact.
“Sport remains one of the most de-
manding production environments, with
multi-venue coverage, remote commentary
and direct-to-consumer streaming all oper-
ating simultaneously. These workflows de-
pend on precise timing between cameras,
graphics, audio and replay systems across
multiple locations, and the margin for er-
ror is shrinking as audience expectations
rise. Understanding actual latency from the
point of capture, rather than verifying syn-
chronization only at selected checkpoints,
is becoming the standard that serious live
production operations are working toward,”
said Anna Hurd, head of sales at Hitomi
Broadcast.
SPORTS
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