Broadcasting Presentation Tool “football World Cup 2010″
Burmester Event- & Medientechnik recently presented a revolutionary sports-broadcasting presentation tool, developed on behalf of the German multi-media system house ICT AG and the SWR (part of the German PSB giant ARD). The exciting setup is currently in use during the international football World Cup in South Africa. It is hard to imagine a better time to let viewers experience the inspiring possibilities of this presentation tool.
The setup includes the use of a touch sensitive plasma screen, that enables the presenter to choose from a range of Full-HD sources represented on the screen by a variety of preview-windows, that can be freely selected and moved around. This way, the presenter can e.g. select live-feeds spontaneously, or change the sequence in which the available video content is supposed to be integrated into the show. The image sources, which are stored in a complex database, can easily be fed into pre-defined placeholders.
This applies to just about any kind of image source. Live broadcasts can be combined with film clips and/or different internet content this way.
Once a particular source on the screen has been selected, it will be displayed in large-scale, with the remaining content sources still present in small-scale.
In the context of football tactics, this setup allows presenters to change the visualized team formations, in order to highlight the strategic implications.
On the hardware side, the heart of the complete system is undoubtedly the coolux Pandoras Box server range. The impressive ability of being able to process multiple Full-HD streams in this particular case, in addition to extremely little delay, make coolux products the perfect component for an innovative TV presenter tool like this.
Not only live sources but already existing material can be directly accessed and played out through the system as well. An additional function that is used daily is the press review feature
All these functions have one thing in common. They can be modified within seconds and allow a seamless integration into the broadcast workflow. Using an old-fashioned setup, even a simple action like updating the score can take a few minutes, due to the render time. In our case however this time gets reduced to a mere few seconds. Spontaneity is guaranteed this way, right up until the final whistle.
Exactly the same type of presenter tool can easily be modified to fit the needs of any other kind of sports broadcast. The ability to change the script of a live TV broadcast on the fly offers TV presenters a previously unknown degree of freedom.
The following coolux components are currently being used in the SWR’s main studio at the IBC (International Broadcast Centre) in Johannesburg: Five Sets consisting of one Pandoras Box with dual DVI and SD/SDI each, together with the coolux
Manager PRO and the coolux Serial Link, in connection with a frame grabber system and a database system, courtesy of the Burmester Event- & Medientechnik. The Serial Link controls the SDI matrix switch (for choosing the image source showed in fullscreen mode), as well as the EVS (Timecode/Start/Stop/Shuttle).
These systems are used to play out the content to the presenter desks and the 103“ plasma screens mounted on the studio wall. Three of these systems are intended for mobile use inside the studios of the different football stadiums and for use with outside broadcast vehicles.