Broadcast Pix Anchors New HD Production System for Tampa Bay Rowdies TV Broadcasts

Before the start of the 2014 season, the Tampa Bay Rowdies negotiated broadcast rights for all 13 of its Saturday night home soccer matches. As a result, it was time for the team to upgrade its SD production facilities at Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg, Fla. The new HD production includes a four-camera setup, custom animated graphics and a Broadcast Pix Granite 1000 integrated production switcher.

Hi-Tech Enterprises in Clearwater, Fla., was the integrator for the project. According to Ed Griswold, Hi-Tech engineer, the new control room was built in about three weeks, and the system was operational in time for the first Rowdies home game on April 12.

Since the Rowdies began calling Al Lang Stadium home in 2010, VideoArt Productions of Palm Harbor, Fla., has been providing live coverage of their matches. Established in 1982, VideoArt has produced thousands of hours of live programming, and worked with a number of Florida-based professional sports teams and content providers.

The first three seasons were produced exclusively for a Web audience, but this season's Rowdies contests are also broadcast on WTTA, the MyNetworkTV affiliate in the Tampa/St. Petersburg market (DMA #14). All matches are also streamed to the North American Soccer League's live streaming site, NASLlive.com, and some are streamed to ESPN3's Web site.

Art Dryce, president of VideoArt, handled directing, TD, graphics, and commercial and replay roll-ins for the first three seasons. With the move to HD production and the added complexities for broadcast television, however, he did not want the new setup to be another one-man control room. Instead, he wanted a system that could support separate positions for a TD and graphics operator.

The upgraded control room is located in a dedicated area of the stadium's press box. The typical Rowdies production features two high midfield cameras - one is the main game camera and the second handles tight action follow shots - as well as a sideline camera and end zone camera. The cameras are connected via fiber, which allows for an extremely high quality video signal to the Broadcast Pix system, Dryce said. Productions also include animated graphics, which are stored in the Granite's built-in clip server, and instant replay. Video Art provides all crew members during production.

The new Granite system replaced a Stream Breeze Pro, which is now tasked with encoding the broadcast (and changing some ad content) for the Web. Griswold said the Broadcast Pix created a more traditional workflow for the on-air broadcasts.

Dryce still produces and directs, but Tom Sipos, vice president of VideoArt, handles TD duties for Rowdies broadcasts. A graphics operator shares the system with Sipos, but each work station has its own monitor, populated by Granite's built-in Fluent-View customizable multi-view. Griswold is also on site to monitor the broadcast signal and provide engineering support.

The graphics operator uses Fluent Rapid CG is used to update the on-screen clock and scoreboard during matches. Ideal for sports coverage, the Fluent Rapid CG option for Broadcast Pix systems streamlines the creation of data-intensive CG graphics. By automatically integrating databases, RSS feeds, cloud-based content and custom actions like scorekeeping into templates, Fluent Rapid CG produces customized graphics with significantly less manual effort.

The system was easy to learn to use, and is easy to operate during our show, Dryce said. It has met the expectations we had for our production flow, capability and quality, and with every game we continue to learn new things. It is a powerful production tool. We're very impressed.

About Broadcast Pix Founded in 2002, Broadcast Pix is the leader in integrated production switchers, with customers in more than 110 countries. Available in several configurations, from compact systems with end-to-end integration to large-scale systems for high-end live productions, Broadcast Pix switchers include CG, dual clip stores, file-based macros, external control software, and customizable multi-view and virtual sets with patented control options. Broadcast Pix also offers ReVue next generation slow motion systems, fX3D real-time 3D graphics, Rapid CG dynamic graphic playout software, and VOX voice-automated live video production, each designed to enhance our highly integrated live production switchers. Customers include leading broadcast, corporate, education, government, religious, sports, streaming, and visual radio studios. Learn more at http://www.broadcastpix.com.

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