ITV Sport and 021 Television Use EVS' Integration with Apple Final Cut Pro for Sports Broadcasting


February 10, 2009

Source: EVS

ITV, the biggest commercial television network in the UK along with 021 Television, their primary Outside Broadcast supplier, have chosen EVS for broadcasting both Champions League Football and Darts, due in great measure to EVS's ability to integrate fluently with Apple Final Cut Pro.

The Champions League Football setup, which is entirely tapeless and in HD, services the world and the UK, and is a major facility undertaking, involving two of 021's 24-camera HD scanners and a further replay truck with 15 EVS servers.

Each Champions League match can have up to nine EVS HD XT[2] servers dedicated to match coverage, which regularly includes four SuperSloMotion cameras. Three more HD XT[2] servers are used in conjunction with Final Cut Pro for the ITV1 presentation.

All of the XT[2] servers run in the Apple ProRes 422 codec, a high-quality codec which allows for easy transfer to and from the Final Cut Pro suite, without any need for transcoding. Individual operators located anywhere on the OB van can access each other's clips and record trains simultaneously, which means the workflow is extremely efficient and very flexible.

The setup is currently centered around an EVS XF[2], which allows the editor or producers to select the exact clips they require for editing. Each machine is also independently networked onto two EVS XHub[2]s for backup purposes.
The setup for Darts, an SD show, takes this integration one step further. Due to extensive transmission slots, there is high demand for cutting features and packages. There is also an entire one hour highlights show in need of editing on site for broadcast 90 minutes after the show goes off air.

Once again 021 Television uses the XT[2] server as the backbone of this tapeless outside broadcast setup. Four XT[2] servers are devoted to replays; two of these cater for SuperSlo cameras, a further two XT[2] servers are devoted for replay. Because the machines have such flexible configurations, ITV can use just one XT[2] as a server for 3 editing suites, excellent value for money. The high-speed SDTI network and massive storage capacity allow for at least five 50Mb video streams to be sent directly to the timeline with bandwidth remaining for clip transfer and record train browsing.

Three Final Cut Pro suites have dedicated XF[2] units for interfacing between the Mac and the XT[2] servers. These can transfer clips, stream live footage, and compile their own material for editing without disturbing any other element of the broadcast workflow. Finally, two IP Directors serve as powerful, but easy-to-operate, user interfaces for the XT[2] servers.

These IPDirectors enable producers to browse and log the live material, search clips, preview these clips, and subsequently send them via gigabit Ethernet to any of the edit suites directly.

Completed edits can be exported from any of the FCP's using background process which publishes it back to the XT[2] as a clip via the XTAccess software. It is not necessary to wait for the entire edit to transfer back to the XT[2], it can playout as it is receiving the data.

"The AP's don't have to spool through hundreds of tapes anymore. All the material they need is at their finger tips, and the speed of getting into and out of the edits means every second in the suites is productive" says Nick Moody, Series Producer of ITV's Darts.

"Whilst we want to provide ITV with the cutting edge technology, we still have to respect their budgets." Explains James Clement, Account Director with 021, "Using EVS technology throughout our business means that one week a machine can be an edit server, the next it can be playing clips into Dancing On Ice; better utilization means the most competitive pricing".

"Clients are often pleasantly surprised to discover how much flexibility and productivity can be achieved comfortably within today's pressured program budgets," said Brett Stoneham, Head of Technical Operations & Pre-Sales for EVS in the UK and Ireland. "This installation allows for the production of around 100 hours of programming over 10 days across two major channels, using just six EVS servers."

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