Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Powered by the Cloud: Taking a fresh look at virtual live events

27/11/2020

Grass Valleys Ian Fletcher takes TVBEurope behind the scenes of its GV Live Presents - Engage 2020 event, which was produced entirely in the Cloud.

By Contributor

Published: November 27, 2020

Grass Valley's Ian Fletcher takes TVBEurope behind the scenes of its GV Live Presents Engage 2020 event, which was produced entirely in the Cloud.

target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin> Grass Valley's Ian Fletcher takes TVBEurope behind the scenes of its GV Live Presents Engage 2020 event, which was produced entirely in the Cloud.

https://www.tvbeurope.com/production-post/powered-by-the-cloud-taking-a-fresh-look-at-virtual-live-events title=Share via Email class=share-email>

When the pandemic hit in March 2020 and proceeded to become a global health crisis, the lights were turned off in production studios, sports arenas, and venues around the world.

At the same time, all live business events, such as exhibitions and conferences, were canceled - webinars and Zoom calls abounded as the broadcast technology community strived to maintain the critical connections and conversations that drive our industry forward. At Grass Valley, we were intent on maintaining engagement with our customers and partners, whether they were working in their home or office. We created a fresh and innovative approach to keep our customers informed and help establish an air of normalcy during a time that was anything but normal.

Pivoting to the virtual world In March 2020, GV Live Presents was born. At its core, this initiative is about engaging with customers, partners, and industry peers and keeping them engaged. We wanted to deliver a comprehensive debate and vision programme on the key topics driving the TV industry, new product launches, customer case studies, deep-dive product demonstrations, and webinars - entirely on a virtual platform.

The Engage 2020 live newscast that took place in October this year formed a key component of this virtual offering. Our aim was to create a truly innovative and engaging programme, giving customers and partners a vital opportunity to connect with us in the absence of the annual industry gatherings in Las Vegas and Amsterdam.

Making it happen To bring the events to life, we decided there was no better way to showcase the capability of a newly launched, Cloud-based SaaS product - which is ideally suited for live production environments - than to produce a whole live event ourselves.

We used our game-changing GV AMPP (Agile Media Production Platform) Cloud-based production system to run the entire live production for both events. The very same technology that our customers - like esports giant Blizzard Entertainment - deployed to connect with their global audiences helped create our virtual offering. We gave attendees a firsthand look at how this revolutionary approach to live production could seamlessly handle multiple live feeds from various locations worldwide.

Production for the event was spread across seven sites and two continents, with everything from animated graphics, live video feeds, and master control orchestration through to pre-recorded live video feeds, interviews, and panel sessions handled entirely in the Cloud. The new GV AMPP System Dashboard was pivotal to the smooth running of the production, providing an overview of the entire infrastructure deployed to put the live newscast together. It let us bring lots of different components - the main production switcher, multiple clip players, and a secondary mixer - onto the same screen, so we had a clear view of exactly what was happening across the entire workflow.

Taking a virtual, Cloud approach also freed the production team from being in a single physical location. We had a small production crew of three, including the director and technical director (TD), in a Covid-safe environment at the Florida studio, audio and master control were handled from the UK, and clip playback out of Belgium.

Although the TD was calling the shots from Florida, none of the vision processing was done there. Instead, we took the four live camera feeds, and fed them into our GV AMPP 1RU servers, where they were encoded and sent to an AWS datacenter in Oregon - at low latency - over the public internet. Additional feeds were coming in from our offices in Breda, in the Netherlands, Newbury, UK, and Crown Point in Grass Valley, California as part of the multi-camera, multi-person discussions.

One of the live newscast's standout features is the minimal delay between the presenter communicating to panelists at the other side of the world. Although the video feeds of each of the panelists were arriving at the datacentre at slightly different times because they were coming from different parts of the world, GV AMPP automatically time-aligned the feeds and seamlessly managed latency throughout. As a result, the Grass Valley leaders could interact and engage naturally, without any awkward pauses or time lags.

It was quite a complex show for us to pull off, but GV AMPP was flawless. We didn't experience any technical problems during the entire production.

Changing the virtual game Grass Valley not only revolutionised Cloud-based remote production with GV AMPP, we showed that innovative virtual events - when done right - are a real gamechanger and provide an entirely new platform for the industry to connect and communicate.

The GV Live Presents program and the Innovate 2020 and Engage 2020 virtual live events speak to Grass Valley's status as a true industry pioneer; we don't just talk about breaking barriers - we do it. We're excited to show even more innovation in the coming months.

GV Live Presents - Innovate 2020 and Engage 2020 events have been hugely successful, allowing us to connect and engage the media and entertainment community. The two live newscasts drew over 5,0
LINK: https://www.tvbeurope.com/production-post/powered-by-the-cloud-taking-...
See more stories from tvb

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

28/07/2026

LiveU's World Cup Support Breaks Company Records

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/07/2026

Encompass Selected by Channel 4 to Deliver Managed Linear...

Encompass Digital Media has been selected by Channel 4, one of the UK's public service broadcasters, to deliver managed linear playout services as part of a...

28/07/2026

Cinegy partners with SAMA Digital Media Solutions to sati...

Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has confirmed a new partnership with leading Korean systems integrator and distribu...

28/07/2026

Limecraft Adds Multicam Player and Audio Fingerprint-Base...

Limecraft today announces version 2026.5 of its AI-powered production platform. Limecraft 2026.5 https://(www.limecraft.com/limecraft-2026-5-multicam-quad-view-...

28/07/2026

Appear powers first large-scale 4k FIFA World Cup viewing...

X Platform technology enabled a premium UHD viewing experience through a hybrid ground-to-cloud architecture developed with Chilevisi n, ClaroVTR and Pixop App...

28/07/2026

LiveU Delivers Record-Breaking LIQ and Cloud Service Depl...

LiveU, the pioneer in IP-video transmission and cloud-based remote production, today announced it has set historic performance records during the 2026 World Foo...

28/07/2026

DHD Releases New Firmware and Options for its Audio Produ...

dhd.audio announces that its latest generation firmware, Version 10.4, is now available to DHD customers. Version 10.4 introduces expanded configuration capabil...

28/07/2026

Study: TV Operating Systems Gain Influence Over Viewing

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/07/2026

Maryland Public Television Promotes Ling Ling Sun to CTO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/07/2026

NUGEN Audio Helps Mix Technician Blake Bunzel Deliver Rel...

Brand's Intuitive Metering and Dialogue Tools Improve Efficiency and Maintain Clarity Across Projects Ranging from Sitcoms to Effects Heavy Fantasy Series ...

28/07/2026

TAG Video Systems Accelerates the Move to Cloud and Virtu...

TAG Video Systems, a leader in 100% software-based realtime media monitoring, multiviewing and quality control (QC), today announced the latest innovations to i...

28/07/2026

Harvard Athletics Transforms Collegiate Sports Storytelling with AJA Gear

Harvard Athletics Transforms Collegiate Sports Storytelling with AJA Gear Brie Clayton July 27, 2026 0 Comments Between the maturation of IP and remot...

28/07/2026

New Live Action Projection Mapping Film Captured with URSA Cine 12K LF

New Live Action Projection Mapping Film Captured with URSA Cine 12K LF Brie Clayton July 27, 2026 0 Comments Large format sensor allows Texas Legacy ...

28/07/2026

NVIDIA Agent Toolkit Expands With New Omniverse Libraries, Putting AI Agents to Work Building Simulation-Ready Worlds

NVIDIA Agent Toolkit Expands With New Omniverse Libraries, Putting AI Agents to ...

28/07/2026

AI Agents Expand Creative Tools to Millions

AI Agents Expand Creative Tools to Millions Brie Clayton July 27, 2026 0 Comments Hero image courtesy of Epic Games Leading creative applications are...

28/07/2026

How Rick Aggeler Built a Music Community for Boston Teens

How Rick Aggeler Built a Music Community for Boston Teens When he was a Berklee student, Aggeler volunteered at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, where he hel...

28/07/2026

Are you coming to the Fleadh? RT will be there

RT Raidi na Gaeltachta, RT Radio 1, RT One and RT Player to showcase the best of the reels, rhymes and rambles from Comhaltas Fleadh Cheoil na h ireann 202...

28/07/2026

RT to broadcast The Irish Question

Through a wide range of perspectives, this documentary looks at how Ireland might navigate one of the defining political questions of the future Wednesday, Jul...

27/07/2026

AES Educational Foundation Announces 2026/2027 Scholarship and Grant Recipients

The Audio Engineering Society Educational Foundation has named its scholarship and grant recipients for the 2026/2027 academic year. The awards support students...

27/07/2026

ESPN and MEAC Reach Multi-Year Media Rights Agreement Through 2030-31

ESPN and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) have signed a multi-year media rights agreement covering basketball championships and select football and ba...

27/07/2026

Yahoo Sports and Cameo Integrate Celebrity Video Bookings into Yahoo Fantasy

Yahoo Sports and Cameo have partnered to allow fantasy football users to book personalized celebrity videos directly within the Yahoo Fantasy app and website. T...

27/07/2026

Eutelsat to Receive $504 Million in FCC Upper C-Band Transition Payments

Eutelsat has welcomed the FCC's order establishing the regulatory framework for the transition of Upper C-band spectrum in the United States. Under the orde...

27/07/2026

ESPN Acquires U.S. and International Rights to International Dance League

ESPN and the International Dance League (IDL) have signed a global rights agreement for the 2026 season. Events will air bi-weekly on ESPN2 at 7 p.m. ET beginni...

27/07/2026

NBCUniversal and YouTube Announce Multi-Year Global Partnership

NBCUniversal and YouTube have signed a multi-year global partnership that includes bundling Peacock with YouTube Premium, extending NBCUniversal's distribut...

27/07/2026

Two Weeks Away: 2026 SVG Venues & Teams Summit at Miamis Kaseya Center To Reunite In-Stadium Production Community

Agenda includes presentations from the Miami Heat, Inter Miami, Florida Panthers...

27/07/2026

Behind The Mic: CBS Sports Bolsters College Football Analyst Team

Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, including new deals, departures, and assignments compiled from press releases and repo...

27/07/2026

PBR Goes Animated With BS: Bull Stories, Giving Its Bucking Bulls a Voice

Ten one-minute shorts will roll out across CBS, The CW, Paramount+ during the 2026 PBR Teams season PBR is officially moving into scripted animation. The Profe...

27/07/2026

Vochlea announce DubBox

New app turns vocal percussion into polished loops Vochlea, the company behind the voice-to-MIDI instrument Dubler 2, have just announced the launch of a ne...

27/07/2026

Sonora Cinematic launch Pure 12-String for Soundbox

Latest MPE-capable instrument completes Pure Trilogy line-up Sonora Cinematic have just released the third and final instalment in their series of acoustic ...

27/07/2026

fedDSP introduce Opto compressor plug-in

Emulates four varieties of optical compression The latest addition to the fedDSP line-up has just been announced, and packs four distinct optical compressor...

27/07/2026

Drawmer reveal the OC1 & FC1

Optical & FET compressors join 500-series line-up At our recent GearExpo UK show, we heard from Drawmer that they would soon be launching a pair of new 500-...

27/07/2026

T-Mobile Tops Ookla's Mobile Network Rankings

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/07/2026

Pebble to Feature Virtualization, Cloud-Based Playout Tech at IBC

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/07/2026

NBCU Telemundo Turns To Chyron PRIME 5 For World Cup Graphics

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/07/2026

Lightware Adds SNMPv3 Monitoring to Taurus Devices

Lightware announces SNMPv3-based monitoring support for selected Taurus devices, available from firmware v1.20.0. The update enables IT administrators and AV in...

27/07/2026

Mediagenix Showcases the Real-Time Media Enterprise at IB...

Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, will showcase its vision for the Real-Time...

27/07/2026

Official trailer: Gugu Mbatha-Raw stars in Sky Original supernatural thriller Possession

All episodes available Thursday 6 August on Sky and streaming service NOWMonday ...

27/07/2026

Seven paradoxes shaping the next era of media production - Episode 4

Why Confidence MattersIn this series, we explore the technologies, architectures and operational realities shaping modern media operations. Along the way, we ex...

27/07/2026

Apple brings AppleCare One to the UK, streamlining coverage - UPDATE - Posted on 27 July 2026

Apple today announced AppleCare One - a new way for customers to protect multipl...

27/07/2026

944,000 VIEWERS WATCH RT'S COVERAGE OF MAYO'S HISTORIC WIN, AFTER A 75 YEAR WAIT TO LIFT THE SAM MAGUIRE

Yesterday witnessed truly memorable scenes in Croke Park, bringing the curtain d...

27/07/2026

SES Statement On FCC Upper C-band Auction Decision

Luxembourg, July 27, 2026 - SES, a leading space solutions company, issued the following statement following the U.S. Federal Communications Commission approval...

27/07/2026

Industry Leaders Unite in Open Secure AI Alliance for AI Safety and Security

Open source software is a critical pillar of the global economy. It underpins cloud computing, financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications, government...

26/07/2026

Audio Vivid: A New Destination for Immersive Audio

What is Audio Vivid? A New Destination for Immersive Audio Over the past several years, immersive audio has evolved from a niche production consideration into a...

26/07/2026

NVIDIA Harnesses Vera CPU to Speed Up Design of Next-Generation CPUs and GPUs

The complexity of modern chip design continues to grow as engineering teams work to develop increasingly sophisticated CPUs, GPUs and AI systems. To help meet t...

25/07/2026

Vochlea introduce DubBox

New app turns vocal percussion into polished loops Vochlea, the company behind the voice-to-MIDI instrument Dubler 2, have just announced the launch of a ne...