Avid Unveils Workflow Solutions to Accelerate Ultra-High Definition Sports Content Creation and Delivery

Avid® (Nasdaq: AVID), the platform that powers media and entertainment, today announced the immediate availability of workflow innovations for enabling sports broadcasters to streamline creation and airing of live ultra-high definition (UHD) programs. Integrating Avid’s Maestro™ graphics suite, Avid FastServe™ video servers, and Avid NEXIS® software-defined storage, these new workflow solutions, powered by MediaCentral®, were unveiled today at the fifth annual Avid Connect and will be demonstrated at the NAB Show in Avid’s booth #SU801, April 9-12.

Broadcasters accelerate their UHD production with Avid’s end-to-end sports workflows, which now include easy-to-use, cloud-enabled apps, integrated graphics production, and live content tagging and logging. By gaining production efficiency with workflows driven by the open MediaCentral platform, production teams can allocate more time to content capture, creative processes, and serving their UHD shows to every consumer device.

“Live sports production has always been a pressure-cooker—demanding incredibly short turnaround of complex highlight and replay edits, rich data-fueled graphics, all now at UHD resolutions,” said Alan Hoff, Vice President of Market Solutions at Avid.  “Avid’s helping broadcasters’ game day teams deliver at lightning speed with the most tightly integrated end-to-end UHD live production toolset available on the market today.”

Avid’s open, tightly integrated UHD sports workflow ensures maximum speed and collaboration every step of the way in sports production:

• Ingest, edit and play out content with Avid FastServe:
  Sports broadcasters can now ingest, edit, and play back more channels at UHD resolutions, with SDI or IP I/O connectivity options, using Avid’s FastServe family of video servers. Providing a turnkey solution for ultra-fast turnaround of incoming feeds, Avid FastServe | Live Edit incorporates ingest, editing, and playout all within a compact 3U chassis, making it the most robust fast-turnaround tool for live environments.
• Collaborate on content creation with MediaCentral | Editorial Management:
  MediaCentral | Editorial Management is an all-inclusive collaboration platform that enables sports production teams to work in secure, reliable and simply configured media workflows from a web browser. Assistants and producers can ingest files, create bins, add locators and metadata, create subclips, and perform other asset management tasks—all from a simple browser interface.  The resulting shared projects, bins, and any added commentary or metadata is available from Media Composer and Adobe Premiere.
• Tag content using MediaCentral | Log app:
  The MediaCentral | Log app allows sports organizations to tag and log content live with customizable templates for adding rich, time-based metadata to live feeds. Users can tag specific points in live play to quickly create highlights.
• Automatically catalogue content with YEPCO Sports Data Feed Connector:
  Avid Alliance partner YEPCO has used the MediaCentral developer toolkit to seamlessly integrate its Sports Data Feed connector into the MediaCentral | Log app for auto-indexing content based on incoming sports ticker feeds, creating a powerful searchable library.
• Collaborate with anyone with MediaCentral:
  The MediaCentral platform provides the most comprehensive end-to-end solution for sports production, covering everything from information gathering and content creation, all the way to multiplatform delivery. Completely customizable and modular, MediaCentral features a groundbreaking cloud-based user experience accessible on any device; workflow modules and apps; and a wide array of media services and partner connectors. Every user is connected in a completely integrated workflow environment and gains a unified view into all their media—on premises, in a private data center, or via the public cloud.
• Store and archive content with Avid NEXIS:
  Avid FastServe | Ingest transfers content directly to Avid NEXIS software-defined storage, making content immediately available to everyone in the organization via MediaCentral. The new Avid NEXIS | E5 NL high-density on-premises nearline storage solution enables sports broadcasters to seamlessly manage media across online, nearline and archive storage.
• Integrated real-time graphics with Avid Maestro family:
  Avid’s UHD sports workflow is fully integrated with Avid Maestro real-time graphics solutions, including:
  • Create eye-catching on-air graphics, animation, and virtual sets with Maestro | Designer authoring software
    Maestro | Designer offers integration with the MediaCentral | Cloud UX browser allowing artists to access and use content stored in MediaCentral | Asset Management easily from within Maestro | Designer.
  • Boost your live sports production like never before with Maestro | Live
    Maestro | Live is a cost-effective all-in-one solution for real-time data-driven graphics, virtual graphics and video playout that can be used by a single operator. Users can easily create controllers for different sports without any programming or scripting. Integration with real-time sports databases and scoreboard protocols enables data like scores and player stats to be updated live, enabling broadcasters to present relevant data in real time.
  • Have on air commentators draw and add graphics to videos in real time with Maestro | Telestrator
    Maestro | Telestrator is an all-in-one telestration tool with 3D graphics rendering, video recording and playout capabilities that gives fans a more engaging experience whether in the studio or at a live event.
• Display content in Maestro studio solutions:
  The content created in Maestro | Designer can be used in Maestro studio solutions including Maestro | AR, Maestro | Virtual Set and the new Maestro | PowerWall, (the next-generation Maestro | TD Control™) which enables broadcasters to easily present, manage, and control rich media—including real-time 3D graphics, video, augmented reality content, images, visual effects, and live data feeds—across multiple high-resolution studio displays and in the studio space. Maestro | PowerWall has now been enriched with a customizable pre-production process enabling broadcasters to adapt to different production needs quickly and easily.

To learn more about the Avid’s sports workflow innovations, please visit http://www.avid.com/solutions/sports production.