Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Rugby League Goes Remote at EMG UK's ViBox-led Stream ROC

19/04/2021

Rugby League goes remote at EMG UK's ViBox-led Stream ROC By Michael Burns

Wednesday, April 14, 2021 - 10:47

Print This Story

The Betfred Challenge Cup match between Widnes Vikings and Whitehaven was a completely remote production. Micron Video handled the cameras and Aviwest supplied the feeds back to the gallery over bonded cellular

There's been a lot of interest in remote production and the promise it offers for wider coverage of sport. That potential is being fulfilled with the launch of a Stream Gallery' at EMG UK in High Wycombe. Unlike the other four remote galleries in operation by the company, this addition to the EMG UK ROC is different in that it is focused on live streaming using the ViBox All-In-One system from Simply Live.

This Stream ROC, which has been in use since March covering Rugby Football League (RFL) matches, is the brainchild of Neville Smith, founder of In Touch Productions and a 40-year veteran of sports broadcasting.

Smith's history with Telegenic and EMG UK goes back to 1992 when he was executive producer/director of Sky Sports Rugby League, and the OB firm became its main facility provider for the next 28 years. Even before Sky was founded, Smith had championed rugby coverage, particularly rugby league, and is no stranger to utilising technology to further this goal; as part of the launch of Super League in 1996 he pioneered the use of the Video Referee. Smith left Sky on a high point in April 2019, as head of rugby league, but not before being enrolled onto the RFL Roll of Honour for Outstanding Services to the Game'.

Trend setter

As covered previously by SVG Europe, an early example of remote production saw In Touch produce the Toronto Wolfpack's Championship campaign matches. Working with EMG UK in High Wycombe, Smith directed eight fully remote matches from the Lamport Stadium in Toronto, 6,000 miles away, persuading Sky Sports to support the production with airtime.

We all learned a lot about remote production in that process, Smith tells SVG Europe. At the beginning of last year, I was about to sign a deal with Sky [for the Championship and Challenge Cup matches, and the Toronto home matches in Super League]. We did one match at the end of February and then, of course, COVID happened and a ball wasn't kicked off for the rest of the year.

Fast forward a year and the championship was set to kick off again, albeit in empty stadiums. I was aware that the RFL was going to do more for the season ticket holders, says Smith. In the meantime, I got hold of the Simply Live kit, which I've been looking at for a couple of years.

Along with his son Lachlan, a professional editor and replay operator, Smith familiarised himself with the remote solution, practicing on past matches. Impressed with the kit, he proposed using it to cover Championship matches for the Our League platform. This online pay-per-view platform is currently streaming matches for RFL season ticket holders until crowds are allowed back in. The RFL agreed and the gallery build swung into action.

Aviwest worked with Micron Video to supply the camera streams and embedded audio from the venues

Eamonn Curtin, deputy CEO at Telegenic, says: Building on the success of the three galleries which are servicing elite sports such as EPL and Rugby Union, we wanted to be able to offer a cost-effective solution for lower-level leagues such as Championship Rugby League. We tested different options with In Touch Productions and finally settled on the Simply Live solution and Stream ROC' was born.

EMG UK has been amazing in its support for this project, says Smith. They built the Stream ROC in a few short days, recognising the potential market that this sort of production is heading towards for the streaming market. Also offering critical support have been Aviwest, working with Micron Video to supply the camera streams and embedded audio from the venues, and Ce8 Graphics. All have been vital to help raise the bar for the RFL's Our League platform.

Going live from Widnes

Remote coverage from the Stream ROC of the Betfred Challenge Cup kicked off at the beginning of March, and on the second weekend SVG was able to sit in' on a live stream. The game was a Second Round match where Widnes Vikings hosted Whitehaven.

A completely remote production, there was no truck at the ground. Instead Micron Video handled the cameras at the match, with Aviwest supplying the feeds back to the gallery over bonded cellular. We had individual streams coming from the cameras, says Smith. We were not returning cue lights to them, but they were on the talkback, so [directing it] was just a case of being a little bit patient and not being over reactive to the match.

Building on the previous, initial game of the season, where two cameras were used, Smith wanted to take things up a notch. For the second game, I thought how can we replicate what we do with the full truck, using mini cameras or whatever else, he says. The Aviwest system allows you to stream iPhones, so we used an iPhone on a gimbal being operated by the floor manager for some of the shots on the night, such as from the players' entrance and a little bit of coverage on the touchline.

Following the Widnes game on the day, the team had access to a stream showing a multiview output of the six Aviwest sources, with four broadcast cameras into PRO380 transmitters, and two iPhones running the Aviwest MoJoPro app.

Although there were four broadcast cameras, there was only three operators, with the wide shot just a mini camera mounted on top of the follow camera on a fixed lens, explains Smith. There are disciplined ways of cutting around that so it doesn't show.

An iPhone on a gimbal was used for some of the shots in Widnes, such as from the players' entrance and some touchline
LINK: https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/rugby-league-goes-remote-at-e...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

06/10/2025

France Tlvisions Wins Prestigious 2025 EBU Technology & Innovation Award in Groundbreaking Collaboration with Dalet

France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...

04/09/2025

Monumental Sports & Entertainment and Dalet Win Prestigious 2025 NAB Show Project of the Year Award

Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...

02/07/2025

FCC Approves Sale of Sinclair Stations to Rincon

WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved the transfer of licenses for five TV stations from Sinclair to Rincon Broadcasting, which announce...

02/07/2025

TV Tech's Top Stories of 2025

As the media industry faces an uncertain business climate and rapidly changing consumer habits, TV Tech's most popular stories from the first six months of ...

02/07/2025

Average U.S. Home Now Has Two Smart TVs

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. New data shows that U.S. homes now own an average of two smart TVs, with Samsung and LG dominating the market but Roku and FireTV continue to g...

02/07/2025

Oaktree Acquires FilmRise

LOS ANGELES Funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management have acquired FilmRise, an independent digital streaming content distributor, and merged it with Shout! ...

02/07/2025

ATSC Names Luiz Fausto Vice President of Standards Development

WASHINGTON The Advanced Television Systems Committee named Luiz Fausto vice president of standards development, succeeding ATSC vice president Jerry Whitaker, w...

02/07/2025

Boston Conservatory and the Sphinx Organization Join Forces to Make Classical Education Accessible

Boston Conservatory and the Sphinx Organization Join Forces to Make Classical Ed...

02/07/2025

NVIDIA RTX AI Accelerates FLUX.1 Kontext - Now Available for Download

Black Forest Labs, one of the world's leading AI research labs, just changed the game for image generation. The lab's FLUX.1 image models have earned g...

01/07/2025

ITV Celebrates Best Sunday of 2025 with Code of Silence

The launch of Code of Silence, coupled with the Britains Got Talent semi final, gave ITV its best Sunday night of 2025. The first episode of the new crime dr...

01/07/2025

Romola Garai joins Shaun Evans in ITV thriller BETRAYAL, as filming begins in the North West

ITV and Mammoth Screen have announced the start of filming for Betrayal, a gripp...

01/07/2025

L3Harris Delivers Missionized Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Aircraft

L3Harris Technologies has delivered its second Bombardier Global 6500 missionize...

01/07/2025

L3Harris Sets Date for Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Release

MELBOURNE, Fla., July 1, 2025 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) will release its second quarter 2025 financial results before the market opens on Thursday, Ju...

01/07/2025

Movicom Selects Clear-Com to Power Communications for Global Live Events

eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......

01/07/2025

FCC Rejects License Challenges to 3 Baltimore TV Stations

WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has rejected license challenges to three full-power Baltimore TV stations, renewing the licenses for Chesapeake...

01/07/2025

Dalet Flex LTS Update Features Improved Content Workflow Tools

Dalet has released a new update to its Dalet Flex media workflow platform, introducing powerful new capabilities to its flagship platform....

01/07/2025

New Global Game' Summit Explores Future of Soccer, Tech and Media

NEWARK, N.J. With the FIFA Club World Cup final rapidly approaching and the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup now less than a year away, interest in soccer in th...

01/07/2025

COW Job Listing: Laser Engraved Logo

COW Job Listing: Laser Engraved Logo Brie Clayton July 1, 2025 0 Comments Laser engraved logo July 1, 2025Steffie Beltt's Mi Amor Music Video Cr...

01/07/2025

LeGrow.Studio Builds Broadcast Hub for ePro League

LeGrow.Studio Builds Broadcast Hub for ePro League Brie Clayton July 1, 2025 0 Comments TEM Constellation HD and BlackmagicURSA Broadcast G2 drive liv...

01/07/2025

Beeble launches SwitchLight 2.0, bringing AI-powered relighting to any footage

Beeble launches SwitchLight 2.0, bringing AI-powered relighting to any footage Brie Clayton July 1, 2025 0 Comments New AI model delivers full-scene p...

01/07/2025

Steffie Beltt's Mi Amor Music Video Created with Blackmagic Design

Steffie Beltt's Mi Amor Music Video Created with Blackmagic Design Brie Clayton July 1, 2025 0 Comments Blackmagic PYXIS 6K digital film camera...

01/07/2025

Sinclair Pays $500,000 to Settle FCC Investigations

WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement and Media Bureaus have entered into a consent decree with Sinclair to resolve a variety of in...

01/07/2025

LPTV Broadcasters Association to Hold Webinar on Station Sales

DENVER Low-power television (LPTV) station owners looking to navigate the complexities of selling their assets in todays dynamic media environment are invited t...

01/07/2025

Netflix to Carry Live Programming from NASA+

NASA announced today that live programming from its NASA+ channel will be available on Netflix starting sometime this summer....

01/07/2025

FCC Chair Carr Hires Katie McAuliffe as Policy Advisor

WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr has appointed Katie McAuliffe to serve as policy advisor in his office....

01/07/2025

GFiber Demonstrates Network Slicing to Improve Home Internet Performance

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. Alphabet's GFiber, the broadband provider formerly known as Google Fiber, has announced that it recently worked with Nokia to demonstr...

01/07/2025

DoubleVerify Debuts Attention Measurement for Social Media

NEW YORK, N.Y. DoubleVerify (DV) has announced the launch of DV Authentic Attention for Social. The product will first launch with Snap, the owner of Snapchat....

01/07/2025

FCC Rejects License Challenges to Three Baltimore TV Stations

WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has rejected license challenges to three full-power Baltimore TV stations and agreed to renew the license for C...

01/07/2025

Magewell Brings NDI into Conferencing Software and More w...

Compact new converter lets users capture live NDI and streaming sources into software over a USB interface Video interface and IP workflow innovator Magewell ...

01/07/2025

Disneys Hercules Brings Mosaic Visuals To Life On Stage W...

Disguise, the award-winning tech company driving visuals for Broadway and West End hits including Redwood, Stranger Things: The First Shadow and Disney's Fr...

01/07/2025

KIT Plugins release NOIZ One Vox

Vocal-processing plug-in joins NOIZ Hub series Launched in 2024, KIT Plugins' NOIZ Hub series was created with the aim of providing a range of professio...

01/07/2025

7 Day Mastering: New course from Mastering.com

New self-paced learning programme announced Mastering.com have announced the availability of a new online course designed to cover the fundamentals of maste...

01/07/2025

Heather Gray Named Vice President and General Manager of WRAL and FOX 50

Historic appointment ushers in unified leadership for WRAL-TV, New Media, and Digital Solutions RALEIGH, N.C. - 6-27-25 - Capitol Broadcasting Company is prou...

01/07/2025

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Spyrosoft's Jonathan Witty on Futher Business Expansion in the U.S.

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Spyrosoft's Jonathan Witty on Futher Business Exp...

01/07/2025

The NIL Effect: How the Shifting Business of College Athletics Impacts On-Campus Video Production

The NIL Effect: How the Shifting Business of College Athletics Impacts On-Campus...

01/07/2025

Cherry On the Cake: Inside the Technical Production of the Tour de France 2025 with EMG / Gravity Media

Cherry on the cake: Inside the technical production of the Tour de France 2025 w...

01/07/2025

NESN's Josh Jun on Keeping Alternative Broadcasts Fresh for Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins Fans

NESN's Josh Jun on Keeping Alternative Broadcasts Fresh for Boston Red Sox, ...

01/07/2025

TNT Sports Races Back Into NASCAR With Fresh Look, Familiar Edge

TNT Sports Races Back Into NASCAR With Fresh Look, Familiar Edge Production approach emphasizes creative freedom, bold storytelling, casual-fan-friendly tone B...

01/07/2025

cetecom advanced certifies Rohde & Schwarz test solution for the verification of Next Generation eCall functionality

cetecom advanced certifies Rohde & Schwarz test solution for the verification of...

01/07/2025

Watch: A Line Crossed: Netflix Drops Explosive Trailer for New Series, 'Marked'

Back to All News Watch: A Line Crossed: Netflix Drops Explosive Trailer for New...

01/07/2025

Broadcast Pix Showcases Live Production Tools at ACM 2025 in Boston

Tyngsboro, Mass. - June 30, 2025 - The 2025 ACM Annual Conference at Boston University was an energizing and inspiring gathering of community media professional...

01/07/2025

Teresa Smith Announced as Commissioning Editor for Factual Entertainment

RT has announced that Teresa Smith has been appointed Commissioning Editor with responsibility for Factual Entertainment following a public competition. This s...

01/07/2025

RT is Supporting 26 Arts and Cultural Events across Ireland this July

This July, RT is delighted to support Galway International Arts Festival, Earagail Arts Festival in Donegal, Belfast TradFest and 23 other arts and cultural ev...

01/07/2025

How AI Factories Can Help Relieve Grid Stress

In many parts of the world, including major technology hubs in the U.S., there's a yearslong wait for AI factories to come online, pending the buildout of n...

30/06/2025

Discover Weekly Turns 10: Celebrating 100 Billion+ Tracks Streamed and a Decade of Personalized Discovery

There's nothing quite like the magic of finding music that feels made just f...

30/06/2025

Spotify's Editors Pick Their Best Songs of the Year (So Far)

When it comes to new music, Spotify's team of editors across North America is always on the hunt for songs that make them feel, think, and move. They're...

30/06/2025

SBS On Demand boosts global news offering with launch of France 24 FAST Channel

SBS On Demand boosts global news offering with launch of France 24 FAST Channel 30 June, 2025 Media releases SBS is expanding its international news offeri...

30/06/2025

The Forsytes Season 2 Commissioned by MASTERPIECE on PBS

Star Studded Ensemble Cast Are Joined by Richard Rankin as Filming Begins on the Second Season [June 12, 2025 - Boston, MA]: The Forsytes, Debbie Horsfield...

30/06/2025

Artemis II Mission Advances with Successful RS-25 Engine Checkout Tests

The Artemis II Space Launch System core stage is integrated with the solid rocket boosters inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASAs Kennedy S...