With the UEFA 2020 European Championships amassing over five billion viewers last year, undoubtedly global interest in and engagement with football has never been as colossal as it currently is.
In an effort to capitalise on football’s worldwide appeal, stadiums and arenas are redefining the fan experience through a greater focus on in-venue AV (audio/video). With the viewing times for football matches being as varied as they are across the world, in-arena AV workflows must be designed to accommodate fans catching the action virtually or in-person.
Fans who engage with football both at the stadium and virtually expect high quality AV standards, especially at the highest level of the game. Hence, delivering a compelling experience to in-venue and remote fans requires a smart AV setup at the stadium which is comprised of the right technologies (such as cameras, routers, frame synchronisation, conversion technology and more).
From an acquisition standpoint, it’s essential to start with the highest possible quality video and audio signals from the pitch and also consider the content needs of rights holders, production crews, leagues, teams, and coaches. Juggling these requirements successfully subsequently equates to a lot of gear spread across the arena; however, 12G-SDI and Fiber equipment can provide assistance.
12G-SDI and Fiber solutions help to streamline audio and video signal conversion, recording, and transport to OB trucks, online platforms, in-venue displays and more. 12G-SDI solutions from AJA notably reduce cable clutter and troubleshooting on-site while also providing the bandwidth required to support 4K HDR content, ensuring a richer, more dynamic fan experience. AJA also offers a range of Fiber Solutions – from routers to video recorders converters and more – to support common needs that arise in the field, like conversion of baseband signals from coaxial to Fiber.
Signal routing is equally significant to ensuring a solid venue AV blueprint, especially given the volume of different capture technologies used today to acquire different player, team, and pitch views. In live sport situations, a variety of acquisition devices are in play – including ENG and drone cameras, cameras on wire above the pitch, cameras fixed in the goal, and ENG or iPhone cameras. This means that the right combination of 3G-SDI and 12G-SDI routers (like those of the AJA KUMO line) is necessary to allow a breadth of sources to be seamlessly routed from the venue to an OB truck and/or through a switcher while also utilising RF transport streams.
Moreover, venues are starting to explore the use of HDR and analytics to enrich the fan experience via in-venue LED display content or OTT streams that offer alternative views of the pitch interlaced with metadata and statistics. The effective application of both require the use of multiple frame rates and a level of consistency that demands frame synchronisation and conversion that is stable, reliable and – most critically – capable of implementing HDR workflows directly from a range of cameras and switchers in real-time.
Select frame synchronisation technology like the AJA FS-HDR is aiding in the process of enabling teams on the ground in venues to make immediate colour adjustments that allow greater vibrancy and key moments in a live matchup. Particularly in the case of OTT streams, AJA BRIDGE LIVE can assist by offering a comprehensive solution for live streaming arena content to a range of platforms like Twitch and YouTube, with support for SRT, HLS, RTMP/S, TRP/UDP, and MPEG-TS.
In addition to encouraging an elevated fan experience, these workflows, when paired with a device like the AJA Ki Pro GO multi-channel H.264 recorder, can provide coaches, players, and teams with invaluable footage right after a match for performance analysis. Furthermore, in the case of editorial teams, a USB drive recording of the match provides these aforementioned coaches, players, and teams with the capacity for compiling highlight reels or promotional content for online distribution.
Founded in 1993, AJA employs over 200 people worldwide in building industry leading video capture cards, digital recording devices, video routers, frame synchronisers and scalers, digital converters and professional cameras. AJA’s engineering has consistently supported advancements in broadcast technologies as well as format standards to provide video professionals with future-proof workflow solutions.
AJA also provides its unique technology to leading manufacturers and developer partners across the professional video industry for integration into their product lineups. High-profile media companies around the globe – along with broadcasters, networks, post-production houses, mobile truck operators, cinematographers, film editors and more – rely on the reliability, flexibility and performance of AJA technologies to accommodate an elite customer experience.
