Panasonic AW-HN40H TV Technology: Guide to Sports Production - Page 14

NDI® Makes the Grade At Harvard Harvard University has more Division I sports teams than any other school in the country and nearly every one of them is broadcasting all its home games, matches and competitions. The Multimedia and Production Department at Harvard University Athletics is tasked with coverage of 32 teams throughout the year. That adds up to an annual average of 275 games to produce, often, several at the same time. An average weekend of sports can include men's and women's track and field, men's swimming and diving, women's basketball, women's hockey, women's tennis, women's squash, men's squash, men's tennis, men's swimming and diving, women's swimming and diving, wrestling, women's hockey, and women's basketball. The numbers add up to hundreds of hours of live video every year. And Imry Halevi, the Director of Multimedia and Production, is the only full-time professional on staff. One of the most critical technologies that empower Halevi to succeed in this role is NewTek's NDI® video over IP standard. thought during setup," Halevi says. "I can't begin to describe how much easier NDI has made our lives." In the larger productions he's maximizing the feeds his two control rooms can access. "I don't have to use the SDI inputs on my router or my switcher, which are very limited, and I can bring in all my replay feeds or graphics into the switcher using NDI. I can share cameras between the broadcast and video board switchers using NDI," Halevi says. Using Harvard's campus-wide Gigabit Ethernet network, Halevi was able to send all his video sources over the existing - and standard - IP infrastructure. With built-in NDI support for NewTek TriCaster® multicamera production systems, NewTek 3Play® instant replay systems, and other third party NDI integrations, Halevi and his part-time and volunteer crews can take any video source on the Harvard network and use it in their productions. "We can now send and receive video feeds over our network, without any special equipment, or any additional He's also using NDI to share inputs between control rooms. This allows him to display hockey action on the video board in the basketball arena during time outs, and vice versa, something far too costly to consider using traditional SDI techniques. The smaller sports also benefit. With the mid-level productions' tabletop setup, his crew can take in any other team's live footage and feed it to the large video board at the Blodgett Pool during breaks in swimming and diving meets. They've also added cameras to supplement the TriCaster Mini's input connections, using NewTek Connect Spark™ hardware-to-IP converters. "It's difficult to remember how productions were before NDI," Halevi says. "It's implemented in such an easy way that we don't even think about it. Bringing an NDI feed in, as opposed to bringing in a feed in from a camera that's physically plugged into a switcher, is exactly the same. We don't see a difference." And quality is a factor he is constantly paying attention to. "People pay to watch our games," Halevi says. "We make sure they get their money's worth." www.newtek.com ADVERTISEMENT