Tata's Launch of The Switch@Victory Begins New Era of Global Production

Tata's Launch of The Switch@Victory Begins New Era of Global Production By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director

Tuesday, March 12, 2024 - 9:04 am

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The Switch was one of the first companies in the U.S. to embrace remote production at its facilities in Los Angeles. And the grand opening of its new home in Los Angeles last week not only brings two separate Switch operations in Burbank and Motor Avenue under one roof but it also kicks off an ambitious global plan by Tata to create connected production centers around the globe in places like London, Europe, and Asia. But, first, the focus is on getting the new 66,000 sq. ft. facility up and running and meeting the needs of clients both old and new.

Explains Dhaval Ponda, global head of media and entertainment services, Tata Communications: We were looking to invest in a new facility and consolidate our West coast operations in a significantly bigger presence. This facility came along at exactly the right time, and it is very well suited to what we are doing currently, and it was ideal for what we wanted to build on for the future. There are very few facilities where you can enter it and just feel wow.' This is one of them and we have paid a lot of focus and attention to building something that will suit us for the next 10 years.

Ponda says the investment in The Switch@Victory is a show of faith from Tata to those on the production side of the business. The facility is designed to support live content production from rightsholders of all sizes - from major sports and esports leagues to lower-tier and college sports teams to awards organizers and entertainment brands to leading global enterprises livestreaming corporate events.

If you talk to our customers in the Americas, they will call us as the media cloud partners for Americas, says Ponda. If you go to Europe, they'll refer to us as the incumbent for the region for getting things like motor sports or even football to areas outside of Europe. And if you go to Asia, they will refer to us as the single partner to bring global sports into all parts of Asia, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and so on. So, for us, this is definitely the beginning of a significant transformation for live production services.

Among the facility highlights are four sound stages with powered lighting grids and green screens; large multi-row seating production control rooms with best-of-breed switchers and digital audio consoles; multiple insert studios for media training, live shots, and satellite media tours; video and audio editing stations; and plenty of supporting facilities like dressing rooms, office space, and more.

The facility is also connected to Tata Communications' global low-latency video delivery network and also has satellite downlinks to deliver raw feeds, audio, and communication to control rooms within the facility.

Paul Wheldon, The Switch, EVP of sales, says the facility is designed to meet just about any need, with office space for either temporary or full-time clients as well as flexible production rooms that can be reconfigured for a number of needs.

Every space can become production space as we have the ability to plug in anywhere, he says of the interior facility, the loading dock, or even the parking lot where additional production trucks can be rolled in for more production support or even to host shows. And because all of the content sits on our network, we can do remi productions, on-site productions, or cloud productions.

The Switch@Victory facility currently features Yamaha audio consoles and will be adding Calrec consoles in the future.

The facility's control surfaces for equipment like production switchers and replay operations are very flexible, allowing for equipment like the Ross Video Carbonite switchers, Grass Valley Kayenne switchers, EVS XT3 replay servers or Ross Xpression graphics systems to be moved around the facility as needed. In addition, all the equipment licenses can be flipped to 4K mode.

As for the studios, the largest one measures 3,840 sq. ft. and is also one of the few studios in Southern California that is rated for pyrotechnic use. The second-largest studio measures 1,200 sq. ft. That studio is also in an area of the facility that can be cornered off to allow for more privacy for talent and guests.

The largest studio at The Switch@Victory allows for the use of pyrotechnics.

Ponda says The Switch and Tata team have worked hard to get the facility up and running as the entire move and installation of new gear and facilities was managed in house.

The team knows the solutions that our current customers require, and they are also very much aware of what is the next wave of technology to be deployed here, he adds. I am immensely proud of the team and the work that has gone into this facility.

Production control rooms at The Switch@Victory includes plenty of room for a full production team.

Defining the Future

Understanding those needs has required some proof of concepts and Ponda says the goal is working with clients to better understand the various workflows and how The Switch can best meet future needs.

We are spending a lot of time doing POCs with our industry partners so we can really understand what use cases make sense, he says. There's a lot of talk and a lot of interest in new workflows but those only make sense if you are enhancing the end user experience. And that means either it is bringing additional monetization for content owners, or they can use technology to do significantly more in a cost effective manner.

The POCs include everything from productions where everything is on premises to full cloud-based productions. Key is sitting down with CEOs and CTOs and understanding three-to-five-year roadmaps and how Tata can best meet future

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2024/03/12/tatas-launch-of-the-switchvicto...
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