AVNation TV

Tag: Viz Mosart

  • Viaplay increases Premier League live content output with Vizrt’s sports production automation

    Viaplay increases Premier League live content output with Vizrt’s sports production automation

    Vizrt, the global leader in live production technology revolutionizing viewer engagement and experience, brings automation to live sports production for Viaplay’s coverage of the Premier League and football matches.

    For this year’s football season, Viaplay’s goals were to simultaneously increase content output and improve show quality and consistency, while ensuring scalable workflows. With Viz Mosart assisting live productions, a single operator can now run an entire show, enabling the production of more localized content for different audiences.

    Viz Mosart puts all the power of the gallery and studio at the operator’s fingertips, with templated actions controlling lighting, graphics playout, robotic cameras, and videowalls simultaneously. Viaplay’s teams across Denmark and Norway are creating consistent, on-brand live content that entertains and informs football fans before, during, and after every Premier League match.

    Consistency and reliability across every show

    Automating repetitive tasks ensures consistent, reliable productions, while enabling more creative storytelling and making it possible to deliver more content with the same resources. Viz Mosart is at the center of production workflows across the Viaplay studios, ready to be flexible and deliver what’s needed for each production team.

    Viaplay subscribers across the Nordic countries and the Netherlands can tune in to the streaming service’s pre-match build-up, halftime debrief, and post-game analysis. For all live Premier League matches, football fans in each territory can enjoy commentary in their own language, providing them with unparalleled access to expert insight and coverage of the beautiful game.

    “This is an important step in our journey to future-proof our sports productions, and without the reliable system and strong expertise we receive from Vizrt as our partner, it would not have been possible for this project to go live in such a short time,” says Robin Gerbino, VP Production, Sports Operations at Viaplay Group.

    “Production automation needs to be flexible to make a real difference. Adaptability is as important as reliability, especially in live sports, where so much of the excitement comes from not knowing what will happen,” says Andrew O’Neil, VP Sports, Strategy & Growth at Vizrt. “The purpose is to free up your time, while keeping the production process efficient. With Viz Mosart, the show is completely yours to create and change as you please.”

    Making art with Mosart

    To effectively implement Viz Mosart across the Viaplay studios, Vizrt offered comprehensive training of the automation solution for team leaders, including training in show design to help make shows as creative as possible.

    Following the successful launch of the solution for Premier League content production, Viaplay plans on expanding its use to more markets and other sports coverage during the year — including premium rights such as the Champions League, Formula 1, Superliga, FIS Skiing, and many more.

    “With our new partnership with Vizrt, centered around implementing Viz Mosart to strengthen our productions, we are very pleased with the collaboration and the support we have received making it possible to go live in the new football season kick-off. This is a first step, and we are very much looking forward to what the collaboration can bring in the years to come,” says Robin Gerbino, VP Production, Sports Operations at Viaplay Group.

  • Vizrt delivers groundbreaking software-first studio to Germany’s Welt with highly automated, switcherless SMPTE 2110 production

    Vizrt delivers groundbreaking software-first studio to Germany’s Welt with highly automated, switcherless SMPTE 2110 production

    BERGEN, Norway — Vizrt, the world’s leading provider of software-defined visual storytelling (#SDVS) solutions for media content creators, today announced that Welt television in Berlin has equipped their brand new, paradigm-shifting news studio and production installation with software-based production tools from Vizrt. The German broadcaster’s highly automated SMPTE 2110 NMOS-based infrastructure switches, composites, and actualizes a full broadcast output without the use of a production switcher, giving unprecedented creative freedom, accuracy, and operational efficiency.

     

    Together with the solution integrator, Qvest Media, Vizrt delivered a number of advanced software tools to achieve this workflow advancement: Viz Mosart for automation, Viz One for asset management, Viz Pilot Edge for journalist workflows, Viz Multiplay for video wall content control, and Viz Engine to power, interconnect, and output.

     

    Thorsten Prohm, CTO for Welt said, “Creating a news broadcast facility is a technical challenge even with traditional architecture. What we invented at Welt are innovative workflows for every step needed to create the program we envisioned. This influenced the choice of journalist and automation tools and how our infrastructure needs to work and can be controlled. Our intention was not to eliminate the switcher. With the flexibility and functionality from software components and the underlying IP infrastructure, there was no need for one anymore. With Vizrt we found the right software provider to pull this project off the ground.”

     

    Gerhard Lang, CTO for Vizrt said, “The creative minds behind the workflows and aesthetics of Welt approached Vizrt with a concept where they wanted to take full control over every aspect of the production chain. Together we designed a setup which is entirely software based and functions without a production switcher. A technical challenge like this not only requires the modules to work, but a deep collaboration between the parties. We are happy and proud that Welt chose us as a partner for this groundbreaking project allowing us to show what is possible with IP and software.”

     

    Flexibility through software
    To work without a traditional hardware production switcher, the planners at Welt had to think software-first to solve their challenges. Vizrt’s software-defined visual storytelling tools provide the functionality and the flexibility needed to achieve this goal. All mix/effects (M/E’s) and digital video effects (DVEs), as well as all content for the moving LED videowalls and the state-of-the-art virtual studio are done with software. Welt’s journalists also benefit from the flexibility that a modern software defined solution can deliver, as they utilize the latest in template-driven software storytelling tools connected with their NRCS, enabling them to work from any location right up to the final second before air time to file their stories and deliver content.

    A rare automation challenge
    The Welt vision included having highly automated workflows that eliminate on-air errors. The advanced studio setup features not only 7 robotic cameras but also moving, fully motorized LED panels and IP-controlled lighting, making it a highly complex challenge. To achieve their vision, the broadcaster relies on Viz Mosart to orchestrate the interplay between many different and (literally) moving elements with accuracy and reliability. Content on the advanced video walls are also driven by software, being controlled by a combination of Viz Multiplay and Viz Mosart.

    Streamlined and resource conscious IP workflows
    A guiding principle of the project was to maximize performance while keeping a close control on resource usage to optimize operational efficiency. The setup takes full advantage of a SMPTE 2110 NMOS infrastructure with the help of an orchestrator and a broadcast controller. Pooling of inputs for fast access and for assignment through NMOS plays a vital role in keeping the setup lean and nimble, and ensures that while performance is always at peak, only the needed bandwidth is used all the way through the interconnected IP infrastructure.

    The fully SMPTE 2110-compatible Viz Engines deployed in the installation carry out clip playback in addition to graphics work, which guarantees perfect synchronization, keeping cost to a minimum, helping Welt deliver more stories, better told.