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Skandia Cowes Week broadcast on own dedicated event channel

Case Study - 31 December 2008

Providing the results and information services for Skandia Cowes Week, the largest, longest-running, and most prestigious international sailing regatta, is a complex assignment, performed since 1992 by IT and media services company Next Generation Results (NGR). During the eight-day event, 1,000 boats race in up to 40 different classes in one of the busiest commercial stretches of water in the world. This year, using streaming technology from Garland Partners Limited (GPL), live video footage of the action, together with results, news and information, was broadcast to the 8,500 competitors and 100,000 visitors at the annual regatta, which is held every August at Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK. The broadcast service, known as EventTV, was distributed via local cable provider Wightcable, telecommunications partner to the event.

“Broadcasting an event like this is neither a simple nor easy task,” stated Malcolm Harland, Director of GPL. “It required us to look to several different suppliers to provide the variety of equipment Next Generation Results needed to produce timely, reliable coverage of one of the key sporting events of summer.”

Located in the depths of the Skandia Cowes Week Regatta Centre is the “Bunker,” a purpose-built computer centre and production studio from which NGR’s team of 20 professionals worked to process results and race information, and produce the live video output.  For the EventTV service, remote camera feeds were taken into a Teracue ENC100 MPEG2 encoder and sent via IP over a fibre link to the Bunker where it was decoded by an Amino Aminet110 IP Set Top Box. This presented the feed into the playout centre. The output from the playout centre was put through an MGW1100 MPEG2 encoder chassis produced by Optibase, and then delivered to Wightcable via IP for live TV broadcast over the Wight TV service.

Within their overall system, NGR also trialled the Vx8000 ASI-IP gateway, with equipment provided by supplier Path1.  The Vx8000 is a multi-port, bi-directional IP video gateway for live broadcast applications. Designed for maximum flexibility, the Vx8000 enables broadcasters to deliver real-time, broadcast-quality MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 video in both Standard (SD) and High Definition (HD) formats to remote locations over public and private IP networks. 

“With the assistance of our partners, GPL, we are looking forward to extending our broadcast services,” said Ged Lancaster. “Expanding the audience for these world-class events lets us significantly increase their profile and value for sponsors, participants, spectators and the media.”

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