NBC Olympics selects MediaKind, Telestream
June 7, 2021
NBC Olympics, a division of the NBC Sports Group, has selected MediaKind to provide video contribution and distribution solutions for its production of the Games of the XXXII Olympiad, which take place in Tokyo, Japan, from July 23rd to August 8th.
MediaKind will provide a range of its video processing and advanced modular receiver technologies to support NBC Olympics’ video distribution to millions of viewers. MediaKind’s specialist engineers will also provide assistance through the installation of equipment and system set-up. The engineers will be present on-site 24/7 to offer multi-site support throughout the event.
“We are delighted to extend our long-standing partnership with NBC Olympics and to help support its coverage and production of the Olympic Games in Tokyo,” said Matt McConnell, CEO, MediaKind. “The Olympic Games continue to captivate viewers all over the world and the enduring appeal of this prestigious live event underlines the critical importance of high-performing, ultra-reliable broadcast delivery. By providing our leading compression solutions and services, including our market-leading encoder and receiver technologies, NBC Olympics will benefit from a high-quality, satellite distribution solution that realizes the immersive viewing expectations of today’s U.S. audiences.”
“Based on MediaKind’s innovative solutions for the media industry, we are excited to once again partner with them for our production of the Olympic Games,” added Christopher Connolly, VP of Transmission Engineering and Operations, NBC Olympics. “With their partnership, we will be able maximise our resources to deliver the highest quality content to all platforms.”
Additionally, NBC Olympics has selected Telestream to provide media capture and automated processing workflows for its production of the Games. This workflow will save significant time and enable editing teams to work on both the SDR and HDR products during the editorial process simultaneously.
The Lightspeed Live Capture systems will receive 1080p59.94 HDR signals from the events and create media simultaneously to two different formats. As the 1080p59.94 HDR is recorded in XAVC Class 100 HDR (Hybrid Log Gamma or HLG) format, Telestream’s Vantage software, running on an array of Lightspeed G6 servers will process the media as it’s growing. SDR versions will be created in XDCAMHD 422 at 1080i59.94. The HDR to SDR conversion will be done through a new advanced color processing pipeline in Vantage utilising colour processing Look Up Table filters (LUTs) that translate HDR (HLG) to SDR (Rec. 709). In real time, while Lightspeed Live Capture is under record, Vantage will check both HDR and SDR assets into Avid Interplay. The Vantage system provides frame chase editing capabilities of both the HDR and SDR product, allowing Avid operators to edit on the fly from the live files as they are being recorded.
The unique HDR/SDR workflow takes advantage of Avid’s new cross-rate dynamic relink capability. Avid operators focus on editing the 1080i59.94 SDR-based content, which will be consumed by the majority of viewers, and then simply re-link/conform to the HDR assets to finish edits against the 1080p59.94 HDR product.
“It’s truly been a collaborative effort between Telestream, NBC Olympics, and Avid to develop this dual path HDR/SDR production workflow,” said Scott Murray, senior VP of marketing, Telestream. “The work we’ve done here will enable these types of workflows to be repeated for productions of all sizes in a more cost-effective manner going forward.”
“Simultaneously creating an HDR/SDR product brings with it an enormous amount of complexity and additional workload on all systems,” said Darryl Jefferson, VP Post Production & Digital Workflow, NBC Sports & Olympics. “Telestream is enabling us to take on this dual path production workflow without significant additional resources. A cutting-edge production like the Olympic Games is only made possible when organizations work together in true partnership to raise the bar.”