The Line Is Blurring Between Acquisition And DistributionBy Paul Shen, TVU Networks
November 2nd, 2020
View Related Products
Something of major importance is happening in the television industry thanks to IP video transport, something that in all of my years in this business I never imagined.
The line between content acquisition and distribution is beginning to blur. The loop from one to the other and back again has gotten so tight that it is now possible to engage a television audience in real-time with what's on camera-so much so that their reactions appear spontaneous, natural and in sync with what's being broadcast.
The ramifications of this are enormous as society continues to grapple with COVID-19 and hopefully one day soon emerges from home confinement to a better place.
The Mother of Invention
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and turned television production upside down, decimating long-established workflows due to social distancing requirements, we knew we had to do something to help our customers over the sizable hurdles working remotely created.
As the proverb goes, Necessity is the mother of invention, and nothing could better describe the genesis of TVU Partyline.
With TV stations and networks, production companies and other M&E organizations paring down to mere skeleton crews in house and sending most employees home to reduce possible virus exposure, the need to communicate in a manner that approximated how production crews did when they were together using intercom systems and IFBs became painfully apparent.
Leveraging our ability to perform ultra-low latency IP transfers of video and audio data over the internet with our Real-Time Interactive Layer (RITL), we developed Partyline to solve this common problem.
Fan Engagement Or Disengagement
But it didn't take too long to realize that the need for these sorts of real-time video and audio communications in live video productions was greater than remote intercom and IFB.
Interviews with newsmakers scattered across the globe could benefit, as could a mainstay of television: live sports production.
The problem facing sports leagues during the pandemic has been finding a way to build excitement among viewers when game attendance is at or near zero. Some have tried to use consumer video conferencing applications to bring in head-and-shoulder video shots of fans watching games at home and then display those videos at the venue-a short of virtual fan-in-the-stand solution.
However, that's proven to be challenging due to the inherent limitations of the video conferencing apps being used. One in particular is the latency-that is the time it takes for someone watching game action at home to see game action, react and have that video reaction contributed back into the production.
Rather than promoting fan engagement, the offset between game action and viewer reaction has tended to foster fan disengagement.
TVU Partyline's RTIL
Not so with TVU Partyline thanks to the Real-Time Interactive Layer originally put in place to facilitate production communications.
For fan engagement applications like those described here, TVU Partyline makes the roundtrip -video of game action from the venue to fans' homes, their reactions shot with a laptop, tablet or phone and video sent back-in 250 to 300 milliseconds. In essence, that's real-time reactions by virtual fans to game action.
It's also blurring the line between acquisition and distribution in a way that was unimaginable before the pandemic struck.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
Category line-up & sponsors announced
Photo: Paul Clarke
The Production Music Awards (PMA) have announced that submissions are now officially open ahead of...
01/06/2026
New hybrid sample/synthesis instrument revealed
Excite Audio have just released the latest instalment in their Evolve series, which has been developed in co...
01/06/2026
Latest TONEX expansion captures three rare vintage amps
The newest addition to IK Multimedia's ever-growing TONEX line-up introduces a set of three incr...
01/06/2026
Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded
Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...
01/06/2026
SBS confirms its broadcast sponsors for FIFA World Cup 2026
1 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has secured Hyundai, Hisense, Macca's, Rexona, bet365, Com...
01/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Satellite Industry Days 2026 guided by the motto From Earth to ...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Marshall Electronics is showcasing a comprehensive lineup of next-generation POV cameras, purpose-built to power today's connected AV environments, at InfoC...
01/06/2026
Adobe Announces Concept to Vector
Deepa Subramaniam June 1, 2026
0 Comments
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from designers is how difficult it...
01/06/2026
Vampire Feature Night Patrol Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton June 1, 2026
0 Comments
Colorist shapes dark, gritty tone for horror thri...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Mardi 2 juin 14h00
FilmLight (ARRI), 10 rue Ren Boulanger, 75010 Paris
Rejoignez-nous pour d couvrir comment FLAPI (l'API FilmLight) peut transformer e...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
31/05/2026
Olivia P rez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaud Centennial in Barcelona The Berklee graduate and faculty member will debut her choral symphony with...
31/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Wins 15 Awards at the Canadian Screen Awards - See Pho...
31/05/2026
Taiwan is home to more than 500 NVIDIA ecosystem partners. More than 1 million N...
31/05/2026
As factories move from isolated automation to plant-wide intelligence, manufacturers need AI systems that can connect live machine signals, quality systems, wor...
31/05/2026
The NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem is accelerating the global buildout of AI factory infrastructure. Partners are expanding capacity to meet growing demand from ente...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
The Line Is Blurring Between Acquisition And DistributionBy Paul Shen, TVU Networks
