The IP will mark the future in media, sports and entertainment

The Real Madrid Sports City in Valdebebas hosts the conference 'The future of the media, sports and entertainment industry', given the existing sponsorship between Cisco and the Real Madrid, in which industry leaders such as Cisco itself, Telefónica Companies, Qwilt y Sony They have shared innovative experiences and future challenges.

Andrew Vilamitjana, general director of Cisco Spain, was in charge of welcoming the fifty professionals invited to this event held on June 7. In his speech he highlighted the potential of IP for the interconnection of offices and equipment and recalled that 80% of Internet traffic currently passes through Cisco equipment.

“Many things are happening both in the generation of new income for the clubs and in achieving a simpler, more intuitive and immersive experience for fans,” he noted. Furthermore, he thanked Real Madrid and RTVE for trusting Cisco to develop their Infinito Stadium projects and the evolution to IP in the Sant Cugat Production Center (Barcelona).

He has also pointed out that investment in cutting-edge technologies will be capable of generating cash flows that justify the support of shareholders. “We have a great opportunity, in a wonderful country full of innovative and entrepreneurial people, and we have the appropriate technology so that it is not an expense but an investment,” he concluded.

Enrique Folch, Systems Architect at Cisco, has shared his vision on Cisco's strategy in the media, sports and major events industry. The bet, in his opinion, should be based on achieving more manageable operating costs that allow greater dynamism when delivering content in very different ways, also automating distribution processes.

Loyalty to fans

Likewise, building fan loyalty will allow you to generate more business. The priorities of clubs and organizers of large events are to make it easier for fans to share experiences on social networks thanks to connectivity, personalize your experience and make it more immersive at the same time.

Folch has highlighted that technology will help the customer have an operational experience from when they plan to attend an event, buy tickets or travel to a place until they enjoy the event or can even buy a sandwich without queuing. “In things as mundane as purchasing food, Cisco technology can help count people in queues at different stands, or distribute flows of people through the use of digital signage,” she commented.

Without a doubt, “Media Entertainment is the vertical that is changing the most in terms of production, distribution and consumption,” he stressed. But this change must be accompanied by sustainability, in terms of consumption and efficiency.

Cisco's proposal in this area is to provide stadiums and other venues with a media specific network, a secured data center on-premise or in the cloud, the orchestration between different areas and services and a digital signage capable of transforming a stadium into a multipurpose space that can be used for a multitude of events with the corresponding monetization.

Enric Folch has stopped by showing some use cases such as digital signage that provides flexibility in personalized sponsorships at different points of a venue; the digitization of the enclosure with sensors, cameras, microphones... thus achieving a virtual representation of the enclosure; the development of virtual events parallel to physical ones and the deployment of digital and media networks. “Traditional SDI production is now moving to an IP network. Not just any switch is worth it since we cannot lose packets due to flows of more than 10 Gbps with specific time synchronization protocols,” he stated.

In line with the need to have greater bandwidths, Alberto Anaya, vice president of sales at the Californian group Qwilt, has addressed the challenges posed by future of live streaming beginning his intervention by assuring that “there is not enough capacity for everyone to consume live video only online and a solution is needed so that future media can be consumed with glasses or from a mobile phone. There is no Internet capacity in the world for us to see all online content simultaneously. For example, Dazn encountered this problem head-on when it came to broadcasting football only online in Italy.”

The proposal that Qwilt offers together with Cisco is a CDN near the limit. “20% of OTT platform users experience Low Quality of Experience (QoE). The main causes are the capacity of CDNs in ISPs, their geographical distribution or a combination of both. Qwilt's alliance with Cisco and Telefónica aims to redefine content distribution networks by deploying content distribution nodes within the operator's networks without bottlenecks, with complete QoE control and collaborating with content providers (CSPs)", has pointed out.

“Providing a local experience and quality with a global service, distributing close to end users is our goal. For this we have more than 800 access nodes spread throughout the world,” Anaya stressed.

It should be noted that Qwilt technology can be found in first-level operators such as Telefónica. “In fact, the Movistar Plus + CDN is now more powerful thanks to Qwilt,” he stated.

The infinite stadium

One of the most anticipated conferences of the day El futuro de la industria de medios, deportes y entretenimiento has been run by Enrique Uriel, CIO of Real Madrid, addressing how the new Santiago Bernabéu Stadium will technologically be an infinite stadium.

“Beyond an elite stadium, our goal is to promote a new experience combining a where, our venue; the who, who I am directed towards, the clients/fans; and the how, technology as an enabler,” she stressed.

The Bernabéu has historically been pioneer in implementing new technologies such as the deployment of convergent networks, high-density Wi-Fi network, digital emergency networks (TETRA), first control center for people and facilities, instant replays, personalized perimeter advertising according to regions of the world... Now, Real Madrid intends to change the stadium concept with an innovative sustainable proposal, completely integrated into the city and where things happen daily that attract fans/customers from all over the world to enjoy the stadium.

In this sense, technology aims to be the “glue” between the physical stadium and the people and thus be able to develop the intended activities and events.

But customer demands have changed, now they demand new services, interact and participate in an experience. "With our eyes set on the digital fan, who today consumes Real Madrid on OTT's, mobile applications, e-commerce, social media... we intend to customize what will happen in the stadium to what the fan wants. To this end, we are creating an intelligent stadium with technology at its heart that facilitates the development of new models that are addressed from the business areas,” he noted.

And, according to Uriel, the Santiago Bernabéu will take an important leap in terms of smart venues and it is intended to be a reference in terms of automation and the use of IoT refers, where all elements are intercommunicated through the network, providing key information for efficient and predictive maintenance based on intelligent data analysis, and being able to trigger automatic events. It moves from a reactive approach to a proactive one.

As for the modelo broadcast, the new Real Madrid stadium will recover the space around it for the citizen, moving all the mobile units to underground parking spaces specifically equipped for TV production. Real Madrid will bet on more sustainable production with less presence of trucks, offering facilities powered by 100% green energy, production rooms for one-sided and total connectivity to carry out the different broadcasts. There is a clear commitment to the medium-term use of the cloud as a platform for TV production. “We have already carried out retransmission tests of a match carried out completely in the cloud, a latency of less than 1.5 seconds in the delivery of the signal carried out,” he commented.

From the point of view of the visual experience In the stadium, there are more than 5,500 m² of LED screens, an LED plinth facing the outside, hundreds of IPTV screens and a dynamic façade will allow visitors to be offered a large quantity and variety of content that is expected to be produced and distributed from a new digital factory developed entirely in the cloud.

In addition, the stadium has a own production control UHD 100% IP (SMPTE 2110), from which you can create your own show for the different activities and events to take place in the stadium.

In order to be able to provide all these services, they have been developed more than 40 projects where in addition to their technological component, and given the hyper-connection of everything, a critical factor such as cybersecurity has been especially taken into account. To this end, Real Madrid has already implemented a thorough system approval process under the leadership of Deloitte, who will also carry out 24x7 monitoring of the entire facility and whose equipment and systems will even be subject to “red team” attacks to detect vulnerabilities and be able to guarantee risk-free use of the entire installation.

Telefónica leads the transformation

Before Kepa, media sector manager; Santiago Tripero, manager of the Sports and Naomi Perez, TSA product manager at Telefónica have shared their experience in technological development linked to audiovisual media and stadiums.

“The media and clubs are fundamental for technological development in the audiovisual world. Telefónica is leading the transformation, with specialist teams capable of providing a complete solution that brings together different technologies,” stated Aurre.

Noemí Pérez has highlighted that in addition to the production with the use of new media such as the use of Spidercam or SlowMotion and remote production compared to the on-site movement of mobile units or the transition from SD to 4K IP, “the main evolution regarding broadcasts sports of the last century, we find it in the stadium and around the experience around the match with small sets and sets, mixed and virtual and augmented reality, or the consumption of much more interactive and immersive content, among others. The fan goes from being a mere spectator to now being the great protagonist.”

Santi Tripero has recognized that “a match is an experience that is lived beyond 90 minutes, amplifying itself outside the limits of the playing field. The fan comes to the stadium to live an experience before, during and after the game.” Before the match, aspects such as security stand out, during the match the possibility of sharing the experience in real time on social networks or enjoying light, sound or video shows and once the event is over, continuing the fun with themed museums, restaurants , stores... For all these aspects to flow, connectivity is necessary that enables everything that is going to happen.

Pérez considers that technologies and media build a new reality. “At TSA we see some trends such as IP transforming the broadcast scheme; the adoption of 5G; an IP wireless that opens new possibilities; higher image resolutions looking towards 8K or 12K; the move from CAPEX to OPEX; the use of onsite infrastructure alongside the cloud; a greater relevance of security and cybersecurity and artificial intelligence understood as automatisms that open up unimaginable possibilities in terms of automatic production, semantic search of images based on vectors, automatic dubbing, automatically generating the voiceover of the video into other languages...

IPnóTIC IP Migration in RTVE

Jesus Garcia, director of the Technical Area of Spanish Television, has exposed the challenges that the Corporation has posed for migration to IP of the Center of Sant Cugat in Barcelona (studies 1,2, 3 and 4, graphics and recording) carried out by RTVE engineers, together with professionals from Cisco, Telefónica and other suppliers.

Both the news and programs area already have all the technical equipment 100% connected in IP with a network based on ST2110, PTP-NET synchronization and a VSM control network (Theirs). García has stated that in this new installation it is essential to have network status monitoring and analysis for all signal flows.

In the near future, RTVE will renew all continuity by turning off SDI and moving to full IP, migrating the digital newsroom to IP 2110. In a final step, it will migrate studios 5 and 6 to IP.

García has focused on issues such as the need to have equipment with accredited interoperability, avoid hybrid SDI-IP solutions, have a network architecture and addressing future scalable, maintain a master design line without exceptions, work on adaptability and collaborative workarounds between manufacturers, have interfaces software sencillos and simple network tools that allow you to analyze what is happening. He also wanted to stop at the technical profile of professionals in these new environments, with new profiles specialized in IP.

An aspect to highlight of the IP is the possibility of remote production. Currently, RTVE retransmissions is launching production experiences over IP from the Monumental Theater (headquarters of the RTVE Orchestra), the La Bolsa building, the State Lottery and Betting room or the Corporation building on Carrer Roc Boronat in the center of Barcelona.

García has also shared his experience in IP contributions over 4G and 5G networks. In the last elections on March 28, RTVE used more than a hundred backpacks as a contribution, thus achieving immediacy at the news point, talk-back orders integrated into the intercom network, program return on smartphone and FTP sending...

Finally, he emphasized that working in an IT environment allows for the adaptability of resources, isolation between systems, scalability of infrastructure, ease of updating applications and OS, and cloning and restoring systems.

“After the experiences you have had, you manage to remain a little IPnoTIzed (in this case without h) with the benefits that IP and information technologies have brought to production in the broadcast world,” he noted.

Live production in IP

Sony's Southern European Sales Director, Héctor Sierra, has begun his intervention by ensuring that “IP allows us to produce more and more efficiently by sharing and distributing resources; have greater flexibility and scalability by elastically absorbing specific needs; improve the sustainability of production with less travel and simpler logistics; and ensure technological validity based on non-recurring budget availability.”

Sierra has reviewed some of the latest success stories in which Sony technology has helped migrate in an IP environment. In the case of Warner Bros Discovery, for your channels Eurosport has connected its two production centers in the United Kingdom and Holland with other delegations through 2110, sharing different resources and providing itself with a pool of shared resources through the network. In this case, an SDN orchestration and management layer is used through Nevion's VideoIpath and compression through Virtuoso Nevion, which results in greater flexibility in production, better use of resources and a reduction in bandwidth costs. band.

In Spain, we find such relevant projects as Telemadrid, TV3 or RTPA Asturias. In the case of the Madrid regional company, its production studios have been renovated in a project led by TSA in which Sony HDC-3100 cameras, XVS-7000 video mixers and LMD-A monitors have been integrated. The network deployed is from Cisco, with control and processing systems from Lawo.

Thanks to this project, Telemadrid It now has two controls that serve four sets, gaining efficiency, prepared for remote production, simpler management and workflows, and better quality for the audience.

En lo que respecta a la Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals, the CCMA has renewed the study of its telenews 3/24, implementing a 100% IP project. In this case, the Nevion VideoIpath system has been chosen as a global manager, compatible with the rest of the manufacturers, HDC 3100 cameras in configuration with IP Box (that is, without CCU) and Sony PVM-X monitors.

Television of the Principality of Asturias RTPA has homogenized the IP both in television, radio, continuity and central control studios. In this case, TSA has integrated Sony HDC-3200, HDC-P50 (box type) cameras and robotic PTZs along with XVS-7000/6000 video mixers. All of this under a Cisco network with Lawo control and processing.

Finally, Héctor Sierra has focused on the project of Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. In this case, Real Madrid has had the complicity of Sony from its headquarters in Japan, even testing equipment that is not commercially available at the moment. In its new production studio, the club will use a solution with HDC-3500/3200 cameras in IP Box configuration (IP only) and robotic FR7.

Sierra concluded his presentation by stating that “the IP ST-2110 has reached technological maturity, now having tested and verified equipment.”

The Conference El futuro de la industria de medios, deportes y entretenimiento has concluded with a round table moderated by journalist Javier Reyero in which, in addition to some of the morning speakers, they have joined Jose Perez, Solutions Architect at Cisco; Adolfo Muñoz, director of the RTVE broadcasting area; and José Luis García Cabrera, director of audiovisual services and platforms at TSA.

Pérez has recognized that “as we move towards higher quality content, we will need more local bandwidth. Both for remote production and for final distribution of content, we will need more bandwidth. This represents greater complexity in processing, computing and intelligence.”

For his part, García Cabrera admits that “I see the hybrid future. We are living in a moment of transition, technology is an incredible enabler but we find situations where we are still facing certain events that are difficult for us to delegate 100% to the IP.” He has also insisted on the “importance of cybersecurity in the ‘IPerization’ of all operations.”

Finally, Adolfo Muñoz focused his intervention on the fact that society demands more quality and quantity of content. "The viewer is no longer satisfied with watching the broadcast of a match at Roland Garros, for example, what he wants is to choose which match he wants to see and follow a specific tennis player by accessing content beyond the program signal."

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