With Mobile TV Group's Cloud Control, RSNs Look To Control Their Own Storytelling for Away Broadcasts

With Mobile TV Group's Cloud Control, RSNs Look To Control Their Own Storytelling for Away Broadcasts MTVG also launches new 49Flex-CC mobile unit to operate under cost-efficient remote-production platform By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor

Tuesday, August 3, 2021 - 11:11 am

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In June, Mobile TV Group's new Cloud Control remote-production platform officially debuted when Bally Sports North produced its away Twins broadcast from a Cloud Control room at its office in Minneapolis with the MTVG mobile unit onsite at the game in Kansas City. After years of development and extensive testing, this was the first use of the Cloud Control system for a live broadcast.

For the Twins-Royals MLB series in early June, Bally Sports North produced its away Twins broadcast from a Mobile TV Group Cloud Control room at its office in Minneapolis.

Cloud Control rooms are now up and running for Marquee Sports Network in Chicago and ATT Sportsnet Pittsburgh. In addition to Minneapolis, CC rooms are in place and being tested at Bally Sports Florida (Fort Lauderdale), South (Atlanta), and Southwest (Dallas), with plans to begin broadcasting next month. Bally Sports' goal is to have CC rooms finalized and tested at all its RSNs by September, with all in operation for the start of NHL and NBA seasons in the fall.

I think the industry has welcomed the concept of remote production and now wants the mobile vendors to come to the table with solutions that give the RSNs everything they want but at a lower cost, says Mobile TV Group CEO Phillip Garvin. This is the first step towards what we believe the industry wants for the future.

How It Works: Home Team Onsite, Away Team Remoted In With Cloud Control, the director and producer are able to call the broadcast for away games from a control room at the home office like this one in Minneapolis.

With Cloud Control, the visiting team's producer, director, replay, graphics, and scorebox operators remain at their office and use control panels to remotely control the technical facilities in the mobile unit at the venue. The mobile unit - typically, a dual-feed unit - provides the home show with a normal full-blown facility while providing the visiting network with a switcher/TD and audio board/A1.

The visiting network avails itself of three dedicated cameras plus all the home show's cameras, including four super-slo-mos. Two EVS replay servers are dedicated to the visitor, networked to all the EVS servers in the home show, including a super-slo-mo.

With [Cloud Control], you truly have control of your own show again, explains Mike Connelly, EVP, production, Bally Sports Networks. Our producers and directors can cut their own show like they did with the traditional dual-feed model [prior to the pandemic]. At the same time, we're saving costs by not having to travel our entire [crew] for away shows because [crew members are] located at the [Cloud Control room] in their office.

An Alternative to the World-Feed' Model Cloud Control rooms are primarily deployed in what was previously office or conference space at Bally Sports RSNs.

Mobile TV Group serves dozens of RSNs across the country that have been forced to transition to a world-feed production model for MLB, NBA, and NHL games due to COVID-related facility/personnel limitations at the venue. As a result, visiting RSNs are largely reliant on the feed produced by the home RSN and are often limited in their ability to tell the away team's story within the broadcast.

The Cloud Control system is an alternative to that approach, which was commonly used in the past year. With the world feed, the home show cannot produce its normal show, and the visitor has access to only a few cameras/sources. With Cloud Control Duals, the home show produces its normal show while the visitor produces its normal visitor show with nearly unlimited access to cameras and sources.

Cloud Control gives visiting RSNs the control over their broadcast that they had under the dual-feed model used by RSNs for the better part of decades - but at a lower cost. Many RSNs, including Bally Sports and others, have embraced this model, looking at it as a way for visiting RSNs to regain the storytelling power they lost to the pandemic.

If the visiting network has ever done a dual-feed production onsite, the Cloud Control Dual will perform exactly the same, says Garvin. We've been working to make an efficient and scalable system for nearly three years, and we think this is the right remote-production solution for RSNs.

Combining Quality and Cost Under the Cloud Control model, Bally Sports' lead EVS operator can be located at the home office rather than in the truck for away-game productions.

Mobile TV Group provides, installs, and maintains the Cloud Control room for a tiny fraction of the cost of a typical control room. Connectivity between the Cloud Control room and the mobile unit requires only 300 Mb, including access to four super-slo-mo cameras. MTVG has hired Cloud Coordinators to ensure proper communication between the remote-control panels and the mobile unit.

The goal with Cloud Control was not only to supply a solution to the demand for remote-controlling production systems but doing so at scale, says MTVG COO Nick Garvin, You can always throw enough technology at a problem to accomplish a one-off production; but we've been working methodically on this to create a system that can be used for 5,000+ events a year.

He adds that MTVG is currently building a Cloud Control room in the offices of RSNs around the country and they will be set up to easily integrate with all mobile units.

49 Flex-CC: New Mobile Unit Design Embraces Cloud Control Mobile TV Group's 49 Flex-CC launched in June.

To further enhance the cost-efficiencies of Cl

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2021/08/03/with-mobile-tv-groups-cloud-con...
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