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Sportsnetstays aheadof the gamewith QuantelLeading Canadian Sports broadcastertaps ‘nimble and creative’ Enterprise sQ

Sportsnet stays ahead of the gameSportsnet stays ahead of the gameSportsnet staysahead of the gamewith QuantelOver the last 15 years, Sportsnet has risen to become one ofCanada’s leading sports media operations. The Sportsnet andSportsnet One TV channels are complemented by SportsnetRadio, Sportsnet Magazine and its premium international sportschannel, Sportsnet World. In May 2013, parent companyRogers Media also acquired Score Media, owner of The ScoreTelevision Network, further extending its reach in the sportsbroadcasting market. For the last five years, Sportsnet has beenrelying on a Quantel Enterprise sQ system for all its productionneeds. Over this period, the system has not only handledSportsnet’s full workload, but also accommodated a doublingof operational requirements.Scoring with HockeyIce Hockey – regarded by many as Canada’s nationalsport – is at the heart of Sportsnet’s offering. Forthose who haven’t seen ice hockey, it is one of themost physically demanding of sports, with playersfrequently taking a pounding on a level with what aheavyweight boxer might expect.It’s an exciting, all action game that commandsa huge TV audience for Sportsnet. Sportsnet alsocovers baseball, basketball, American Football andsoccer. Sportsnet also took a share in 2012 LondonOlympics coverage and will be a partner in the 2014Winter Olympics coverage at Sochi in Russia.VP Operations and Engineering, Virginia Gibberd,explains Sportsnet’s approach: “Hockey is thebusiness driver for Sportsnet. We go head to headwith CBC (Canada’s state broadcaster) and oftenbeat them on multiple games nights.“A big part of our philosophy is that if you get allthe content – digital, magazine, radio – then theaudience can all benefit to the maximum. Ourbusiness model is national and regional – CRTC (theCanadian broadcasting regulatory body) regulatesthat we support regional as well as national events.”Planning paysSportsnet shared premises with CTV in Torontountil 2008. Three years of research and planningculminated in Sportsnet’s move into its spacious,purpose-designed premises at The Rogers Building -One Mount Pleasant - in downtown Toronto in April2008. Director of Technical Operations, AndrewThomas, remembers it well – he led the Operationsteam that made all the workflow decisions.“The team that designed One Mount Pleasant –known to everyone here as OMP – started researchin 2005, and the first thing we chose was the editsystem that would be at the heart of the workflow.We wanted a central ingest, edit, production andplayout solution – all in HD,” Thomas recalls. “Aspart of the selection process, we looked at severalmanufacturers’ systems in use with other customers.Included in this process were visits to the Quantelinstallations at ESPN in Bristol, CT and Fox in LA – tosee how they supported highlights packages andhigh end productions in a single solution. Quantelwas the only system that could do what we wanted.”Frank Bruno Rogers VP of TV Engineering states theEnterprise SQ system is the heart of Sportsnet.“A critical design element was the integration of thissystem to multiple third party systems. Quantel’s R&Dteam worked closely with Vizrt, Autocue, Dixon Sports,Harris Automation and Rogers Corporate IT to ensure allthese systems communicated with each other reliably. Thiswas a fundamental requirement towards new and efficientOperational workflows,” Bruno says.Starting over“What was great about starting from scratch at OMP wasthat we were able to throw out old workflows and start afresh.Sometimes it’s easier to change people’s lives completelyrather than piecemeal,” Thomas continues.The scale of the Sportsnet operation is mind-boggling – asare the production demands that it supports. At the heartof the system is 2000 hours of 1080i HD storage on sQ“There’s a wonderfulsimplicity to sQ Edit…it caters for a range of verydifferent editing styles”Chris Moskavec: Editorservers, which are split into two zones to provide operationalredundancy. The system includes 84 sQ View desktop shotselection and review applications, 11 sQ Edit advancededitors and six sQ Edit Plus HD craft editors. Between 150and 250 hours of new footage are recorded into the systemdaily, across a total of 40 ports on the Enterprise sQ systemunder the control of Vizrt DART. ENG crews send their editedmaterial back to Sportsnet via ftp, which is transcoded usingRhozet and then transferred into the sQ server. Similarly,edited material in Enterprise sQ is exported via ftp to Rhozetfor transcoding for Sportsnet’s websites.

Sportsnet stays ahead of the gameSportsnet stays ahead of the gameRunning on fullThe system typically runs between 70 and 90% full on adaily basis. Media management is all handled in the IngestArea. This critical part of the operation is run by MediaAsset Coordinator Paul Peterson, who as well as checkingautomatic deletions and archiving, also keeps an eye onnaming conventions – evidently some staff will try anythingto keep their clips on the system forever – but Petersonknows all the tricks!Long term media asset management is now via VizArdome, which was installed in 2010. It has 2500 hoursof intermediate (nearline) storage populated mainly withlo-res media, linked to an LTO-5 archive robot for storageof hi-res media. Current capacity is 200,000 hours. The VizArdome has an umbrella view of material stored on bothQuantel and Ardome. Users are able to search material andcaptured closed captioning, and initiate transfers for editor playout or to Rhozet for transcoding for web use. “Theresult is that everything that is produced and aired can beseen by everyone,” says Lisa Bowditch, Director of MediaOperations. Sportsnet is now well advanced in its programto transfer 120,000 hours of media that is still on tapeinto the Ardome archive. This all happens in the quietersurroundings of the 3rd floor media operations area, wherefootage that was not logged live is also logged so thatrelevant clips can be easily found via the MAM system.Transmission Planner Eric Soelberg controls theQuantel record ports with DART, taking in 180 hoursof footage a day - a serious media management challenge.Studio 1 – aka ‘The Stage’ takes to the air. Staff in the Logging and editing seats get agrandstand view of the program through the glass studio wall that overlooks their workspace.Capturing the highlightsThere are three main studios at Sportsnet, each with itsown control room. Studio One – aka ‘The Stage’ - looksout through its glass walls over the logging, editing andnews room. Games are logged live using sQ View within theDixon Logger - each sport has its own customized template,optimizing productivity. The logger uses Sportsnet’sAutocue newsroom system to create script notes for thehighlights packages – ‘clip 34 – great goal’ etc. On a busynight all 15 logging stations will be in operation underthe watchful eye of the Highlights Supervisor. Up to eighteditors sit opposite the loggers compiling the highlightspackages on sQ Edit applications with the producers closeby. The assignment desks are alongside, scheduling crewsall over the country to get up to the minute interviews intothe programs.Studio 2 has been deliberately designed with a moregeneric look so that quick changes in lighting and what’son the big monitors can instantly reconfigure it for soccer,skiing or any other sport. Its control room is technicallyidentical to Control Room 1, providing 100% redundancy ifrequired. Finally Studio 3 is largely reserved for hockey andits control room mirrors 1 and 2. All three control roomshave three playout channels of the Enterprise sQ systemavailable so they can go straight to air via sQ Playif required.For any sports programming, graphics play an importantrole in helping viewers’ understanding, and Sportsnetputs a lot of effort into producing high quality animations“We wanted a central ingest, edit, production and playoutsolution – all in HD. Quantel was the only system thatcould do what we wanted.”Andrew ThomasDirector of Technical OperationsThomas Michalakos in Media Operations logging soccergames that have already been recorded into the system.and over-the-shoulders to explain and inform, using acombination of After Effects, Photoshop and 3DS Max. Whengraphics are completed they are uploaded to the sQ systemusing a Quantel I/O station that lives in the graphics area.Wonderful simplicityEditor Chris Moskavec left college four years ago, havinglearned to edit on Final Cut, Avid and Adobe. He was taughtto edit on Quantel at Sportsnet in two days of training – “Iwas editing for real within a week. It’s all on the server inpieces – loggers do a loose script for a one and a half minutehighlights package. There’s a wonderful simplicity to sQ Edit– I couldn’t imagine going back to another system – it catersfor a range of very different editing styles.”Speed countsThe six sQ Edit Plus craft editors handle all the feature jobs,promotions, show packaging and effects work.Editor Vince Monteleone took a little while to re-orient toQuantel after spending seven years editing on Avid, but withthe arrival a few years ago of V4.2 with its multilayer timeline,he is now a Quantel convert and really looking forward to theforthcoming V5 upgrade.“I’m an editor – not a sports fan! Quantel is by far the fastestturnaround system I have ever seen, and the color correctoris also by far the best I have seen - I got frustrated trying todo color on Avid.“I now use effects a lot more. It’s a solid system. I also likethat even after flattening finished pieces for playout, I still

Sportsnet stays ahead of the gameSportsnet stays ahead of the game“Quantel is byfar the fastestturnaround systemI have ever seen”Vince Monteleone: EditorHigh octaneaction in theLogging areawhen the sportsaction begins.“Last summer we had staff coming back from the London Olympicshaving watched other people’s workflows, and they reported that theirQuantel system was better than anything else there ”Virginia Gibberd torhave the kit of parts on the server or the Ardome archivefor older jobs which is great for re-edits or working intodifferent stories.”Complete programming playoutAs you would expect, all studio production playout comesfrom the sQ system, but Sportsnet is also making fulluse of its Enterprise sQ system for program content too.Under the control of automation, the sQ system providesreliable, redundant playout to air of programming contentfor all six Sportsnet channels, with plenty of room for futureexpansion.Connected with QTubeQTube also plays a major role in helping Sportsnet sharemedia across the country. “I don’t know how I did my jobwithout it,” reflects Virginia Gibberd.“It means we can make content available to all ourstations and City operations, helping to make theirsportscasts richer.Nimble and creative“Quantel has been a very good product for us – it allowsus to have universal desktop access to media, throughhigh end editing and producing content for master control– ubiquitous usage of that content is what allows us tobe as nimble and creative as we are,” Gibberd explains.“Last summer we had staff coming back from the LondonOlympics having watched other people’s workflows, andthey reported that their Quantel system was better thananything else there – from the associate producer, producerand journalist perspective. It reminded us that we havea technology solution that we’re happy with – and that’sfour years on from installing it. And we’ve doubled liveevent content since then, added two channels and Quanteltechnology has sustained it – all we’ve done is added morestorage,” Gibberd concludes.at a glanceSportsnet installed a Quantel Enterprise sQ HD production system in 2008 followingan intensive three year research and evaluation programThe system handles thousands of edits a day across 250 hours of newmaterial recorded dailyOver the years Sportsnet has doubled its demands on the system, which has copedwithout problem; every day the system runs up to 90% full.“Quantel has been a very good product for us – it gives us the ubiquitous usage ofcontent that allows us to be as nimble and creative as we are.”www.quantel.com

Sportsnet stays ahead of the gameTurnpike Road • Newbury • Berkshire • RG14 2NX • UKwww.quantel.com