Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Thought leadership: Bridge Tech on simplicity and complexity in sport broadcast

14/05/2020

As published by SVG Europe Simen K Frostad, chairman at Bridge Technologies

The world of sport embodies a beautiful contrast between ideas of simplicity and complexity. The graceful arch of the body as a foot makes contact with the ball, the smooth lines and clean movement of the back and arms as a racket swings to strike; visually, these movements are artful in their purity and simplicity.

But the reality is that underneath lies a world of complexity; nerve impulses that travel in split second speeds (interestingly, different for each system: muscle position travels at 119ms, whilst pain signals travel at 0.61ms and touch signals at 76.2ms), muscle fibres that work together in complex and precise interactions to deliver millimetres of adjustment in movement, coordination between memory, instinct, the senses and the body to anticipate, react and strategise.

Top level athletes work to understand and control these complex actions, training, repeating and refining, so that when it is time to perform, the net result looks simple and effortless. As Greg Hull, manager of UK football team Leeds United has said: Know your sport or event in its utter complexity so you can practice it simply .

Immersion in the moment

There's also a beautiful contrast between simplicity and complexity in the presentation of sports. The end user flicks on a channel on their TV, or makes a selection through their chosen over the top (OTT) provider, and within a single second there is a crystal clear, 4K live broadcast in front of them. The viewing experience must embody pure simplicity for them; any disruption to the broadcast, anything that causes them to leave their chair or fiddle with settings is an utter disruption of their immersion in the moment. It is a lost customer.

And so underneath the production and broadcast process must unravel incredible levels of complexity. Highly technical engineering that moves packets of data across the world; disassembled, assembled, multiplexed, demultiplexed, routed, rerouted. Differing protocol standards, compressed, uncompressed The level of technical engineering knowledge needed to make this happen - and to understand what is happening - is simply immense.

All of these ideas about the interrelated dance of simplicity and complexity resonate strongly with Bridge Technologies, because a philosophy of making the complex simple has always been our core mantra. Sixteen years ago, when we anticipated the way that IP could revolutionise the field of broadcast, we embarked on our mission to develop an unrivalled understanding of packet behaviour across networks. We built a team of engineers who have devoted their careers to the analysis of packets loss and jitter - understanding their distributions and timing planes, and recognising how this impacts things such as image quality, latency and lag - ultimate, the elements which impact the quality of experience (QoE) and quality of service (QoS) experienced by the user.

Leadership founded on understanding

However, understanding packet behaviours on a network was only ever the first part of our mission. Returning to our sports analogy and Greg Hull's statement, a good manager is not just one who has a complex understanding of the game, but who can communicate that understanding and vision to those around him clearly, concisely and effectively to ensure that it is practiced simply, even in cases where the practitioner lacks that highly technical expertise.

It is this translation of complex theory into something that is simple and actionable and that is the hallmark of effective leadership.

And so it is this philosophy of leadership that we used to guide us as we sought to become leaders in the field of network monitoring and analytics. It was not enough that we had unparalleled understanding of network behaviours, we needed to translate this knowledge to something that could be accessed, understood and used by all.

We instinctually knew that visualisation and intuitiveness would lie at the heart of this mission. All the cleverness of what we do is hidden down in the guts of the system. What the network engineer, camera painter or media control room manager sees is clear, readable and simple. It tells them what they need to know about their network, in the way that they need to know it, at the time when it is most important to be known.

This philosophy of intuitive and usable has inspired our strategy through our sixteen year journey, and now permeates not only our individual product design, but our fundamental model of operation. This year sees us move to the development of our new Integrated Services Monitoring' (ISM) model.

When we started in the field, different components of the broadcast market tended to specialise; they generally stayed in their own lane'. It made sense for businesses to develop specific products for individuals, tailored to the specific ways in which they needed to understand and analyse their networks.

Holistic perspective

Today though, as the nature of production and broadcast becomes increasingly merged and hybridised, the deployment of individual, disparate solutions become a less and less tenable approach within the industry. With organisations diversifying to include multiple layers within their media cycle, from production to signal acquisition, contribution streams, OTT, streaming media, traditional broadcast distribution with DTT or satellite, and picture archiving, the deployment of effective and efficient technologies becomes an even higher priority.

Each technological acquisition must work in a versatile, multi-functional, effective manner, maximising decision making capability, and minimising the efficient expenditure of resources; time, space, people and money.

We recognised that leadership in our discipline meant accommodating that need; moving from the specific
LINK: https://bridgetech.tv/thought-leadership-bridge-tech-on-simplicity-and...
See more stories from bridgetech

More from Bridge Technologies

07/02/2022

Bridge Technologies Upgrades ASI Monitoring with VB246

New blade facilitates continuous parallel monitoring of six inputs Bridge Technologies announces today the release of its VB246, an ASI input option card for r...

13/12/2021

Bridge Technologies Brings Audio Enhancements to VB440

Facilitating immersive production on a distributed basis Bridge Technologies, a leading provider of end-to-end monitoring solutions in the broadcast field, to...

28/11/2021

Bridge Technologies HDR Blog Post

How we see HDR Are you seeing what I'm seeing? In this month's blog we unpack the miracle of colour, and explain how we're bringing incredible HDR...

28/11/2021

Bridge Technologies Integrates JPEG XS to VB330 Appliance

For continuous real-time monitoring and metadata recording On the back of Bridge Technologies' recent announcement regarding support of the JPEG XS compres...

31/10/2021

Bridge Technologies to Showcase its VB440 with HDR Capability at IBC2021

Provides a localised preview of an HDR output image for remote production Bridge Technologies today announces its intention to demonstrate the new HDR capabili...

28/10/2021

Bridge Technologies announces its HDR Capability on the VB440

Provides a localised preview of an HDR output image for remote production Bridge Technologies today announces its intention to demonstrate the new HDR capabili...

13/10/2021

TVB Case Study

Bridge Technologies supplies Hong-Kong broadcaster TVB with full redundancy switching through business partner Mediatech. Covering most of the HK terrestrial b...

13/10/2021

Bridge Technologies Equips VB440 with JPEG XS Compression Analysis

Ensures the probe remains at the forefront of developing production and contribution standards Bridge Technologies, a leading provider of end-to-end monitoring...

13/10/2021

Bridge Technologies Adds Closed Caption and Packet Capture to its VB440

The new functionalities secure probe as an indispensable production tool Bridge Technologies, a leading provider of end-to-end monitoring solutions in the broa...

13/10/2021

Data driven decision making - what does it really mean?

IABM Journal Article By Simen K. Frostad Chairman, Bridge Technologies What is a decision? It seems like a simple question, but it's one worth considerin...

13/10/2021

The Magic of Monitoring and Measurement in Movie Making

Article for The Future.TV By Simen K. Frostad, Chairman of Bridge Technologies Why mistakes make for great movie plots, but terrible productions In the world...

25/06/2021

Finding the perfect platform

What do the terms embedded, appliance and software-based mean to you? One of the difficulties - but also pleasures - of working in the broadcast industry is kn...

16/06/2021

Ziggo Case Study

Challenge To minimize network downtime and maintain reputation by providing a high-level, cost-effective monitoring solution that could identify in-the-momen...

27/04/2021

Bridge Technologies' VB440 Underpins Densitron's UReady 4RU Solution

The collaborative product takes broadcast operator control to new levels After cementing their working relationship together in September 2019, Bridge Technolo...

30/03/2021

Bridge Technologies Wins Tech Leadership's Best Production Technology' Award

The win recognizes the contribution of the VB440's new Audio Metering functi...

10/02/2021

Bridge Technologies Partners with North American 2110 Solutions

Together they aim to facilitate creative excellence through innovative production technologies Bridge Technologies today announces its partnership with 2110 So...

22/01/2021

Bridge Technologies January Blog

Can Procrastination be Productive? A key challenge of working from home has been the issue of procrastination. Even the most grown-up and disciplined of us fin...

21/12/2020

Bridge Technologies September Blog Post

Wired for sound (or maybe not ) The evolution of audio engineering that should be recorded' in history One of life's great annoyances is teenagers th...

08/12/2020

Bridge Technologies Partners with Germany's Broadcast Solutions

United by a focus on IP-based, future-proof production environments, and a commitment to customer service Bridge Technologies today announces partnership with...

30/11/2020

Ziggo Upgrades its Cable Network With the Help of Bridge Technologies

Burst Video, the Dutch Business Partner has completed the installation Bridge Technologies today announced that it has delivered forty VB120 probes to Ziggo, t...

18/11/2020

Bridge Technologies Joins the Grass Valley Technology Alliance

Further enhancing confidence for broadcast providers seeking multi-vendor network solutions Bridge Technologies is proud to announce its membership of the Gra...

02/10/2020

Our Virtual Experience with IBC2020 Through Video Content

The psychology of a deadline The times they are a' changin' Have you noticed that something seems a little off this year? A little different? Maybe i...

30/09/2020

Bridge Technologies Wins 2020 TV Technology Best of Show Award

PoE for accessible and meaningful visual IP network analytics Bridge Technologies today announced that ii has received the TV Technology Best of Show' a...

24/09/2020

Bridge Technologies Announces PoE+ Tabletop Aluminum Kit

A unique form factor for accessible anywhere' analytics Bridge Technologies today announces a new range of data display options; the PoE Tabletop Aluminu...

22/09/2020

Bridge Technologies to Support Australian Nine's Greenfield IP Site

The VB440 will enable production teams to continuously survey all layers of media transportation Bridge Technologies, through Australian business partner Tech...

17/09/2020

Bridge Technologies Shows Mosaic and Multiviewer Created Within Its Widglets API

The distinction between studio and real-time remote production becomes blurred In time for the virtual IBC2020 this year, Bridge Technologies announces the mo...

15/09/2020

Bridge Technologies Announces VB330 v6 with Dramatic Increase of Monitoring Capacity

It supports a tenfold increase of monitoring OTT traffic, TS IPTV ETR290 and add...

28/08/2020

Simplifying Monitoring

Tony Orme, Editor at The Broadcast Bridge As IP, COTs and IT systems advance through broadcast infrastructures, monitoring continues to play a critical role in...

18/07/2020

Bridge Technologies July Blog Post

Why being silly matters Find your probes in our music At Bridge, we're quite a fan of being transparent. You'll often find in our blogs that we dive ...

14/05/2020

Thought leadership: Bridge Tech on simplicity and complexity in sport broadcast

As published by SVG Europe Simen K Frostad, chairman at Bridge Technologies The world of sport embodies a beautiful contrast between ideas of simplicity and co...

14/05/2020

Bridge Technologies Partner with Appear TV to Provide Advanced IP-based Production and Distribution

End-to-end delivery and monitoring of uncompressed to compressed content deliver...

24/03/2020

Integrated Services Monitoring Capability Launched by Bridge Technologies

Delivers invaluable network performance insights from production, contribution and distribution Bridge Technologies today announced ISM Integrated Services M...

24/01/2020

Bridge Technologies January Blog Post

Where We Have Been Dunno where I'm going, Dunno where I've been When guitar legend Rory Gallagher sang that, he obviously hadn't been keeping me...

17/01/2020

Bridge Technologies Appoints DVEO as Business Partner

Brings in-depth technical knowledge, extensive experience, total commitment to customer service OSLO, Norway - 15 January, 2020 Bridge Technologies today anno...

17/12/2019

Bridge Technologies December Blog Post

The end-of-year roundup. Is it already? How can you possibly do a roundup of the year when January was just a few weeks ago? Yes, to say that this year seems t...

09/12/2019

SatNews: Year in Review 2019

By Simen K. Frostad Every year, the broadcast industry descends en masse on the RAI Convention Centre in Amsterdam. Once again, IBC provided invaluable insight...

29/11/2019

Bridge Technologies November Blog Post

Media streaming: it's an OTTortunity If you're old enough to remember dial-up access to the Internet, you'll recall that even downloading a simple ...

31/10/2019

Bridge Technologies October Blog Post

IBC 2019: a great recognition of what we are doing By Simen K. Frostad Even if you're a pretty confident person, and you're fairly sure that what you...

01/10/2019

Bridge Technologies Wins IBC2019 Best of Show Award

Widglets API has the potential to revolutionise and transform many aspects of the broadcast industry Bridge Technologies today announced that it had received ...

20/09/2019

NRK Case Study: Making the difficult easy

Making the difficult easy This case study describes how Bridge Technologies and Norway's NRK worked together to help the transition to the use of CDNs even...

07/09/2019

Bridge Technologies to Demonstrate 8K IP Network Probe at IBC

VB440 represents an entirely future-proof solution Bridge Technologies today announced that, at IBC (stand 1.A71), the company will demonstrate its VB440 IP n...

03/09/2019

Bridge Technologies August Blog Post

Bridge Technologies - the mad hatters of the broadcast world In this month's blog, we find out how the Bridge baseball caps we gifted in May have found th...

30/08/2019

Bridge Technologies Joins SRT Alliance and Supports SRT Open Source Protocol

Enormously enthusiastic about the SRT Alliance and what it is trying to achieve Bridge Technologies today announced that it has become a member of the SRT All...

30/08/2019

The Widglets API: the most exciting thing we've done to date!

By Simen K Frostad Did you know that Facebook has had 250 billion photos uploaded to it since the company started in 2004? Or that 700 million hours of video a...

21/08/2019

Bridge Technologies to Showcase Transformative' Technology for Remote Production at IBC

New Widglets API for VB440 probe puts full-motion, low-latency video/audio HTML5...

12/08/2019

Bridge Technologies' Presence at IBC to be Bigger, Better Than Ever Before

Company also teases exciting announcement for opening day of show OSLO, Norway - 12 August, 2019 At IBC 2019, Bridge Technologies will have its largest and ...

09/07/2019

Bridge Technologies Wins Prestigious SCTE Award

VB330 Probe is voted Technological Innovation of the Year Bridge Technologies has announced that its VB330 Probe with support for Remote PHY received two award...

02/07/2019

Bridge Technologies June Blog Post

How IP-based remote production was the star of our 15 year celebration By Simen K. Frostad In 2004, the EU underwent its single largest expansion at the time,...

15/06/2019

Sports Production Companies Embracing Remote Production

Sports Production Companies Embracing Remote Production Bridge Technologies has long been a fervent proponent of IP technology and the benefits it brings to th...

03/06/2019

Showcasing Video Service Monitoring and Analytics Solutions at Broadcast Asia

Enabling broadcasters and content distributors to ensure operational efficiency and Quality of Experience OSLO, Norway - 2 June, 2019 At Broadcast Asia (18 Ju...