BBC and TVU Networks: alliance to cover UK elections with 369 live feeds

The BBC’s coverage of the 2024 UK general election relied on innovative and environmentally friendly remote production built around TVU Networks technology.

Using TVU’s cloud platform, the BBC remotely managed 369 live feeds from various vote counting points across the UK, all captured using the TVU Anywhere mobile app. The footage was broadcast on BBC iPlayer, the BBC’s news website, and streamed to a giant virtual mosaic screen at the BBC’s London studio headquarters, London Broadcasting House, providing audiences in the UK and around the world with an “unprecedented” immersive experience.

To shape this coverage, BBC sent a custom-built tripod and smartphone kit with the TVU Anywhere app to all news spots, enabling BBC News to capture real-time video footage regardless of mobile network saturation. The compactness of this technological deployment, assembled by BBC representatives already attending the count, combined with the absence of broadcast vehicles, allowed the corporation to generate more live content in an environmentally friendly way.

Geraint Thomas, project manager at BBC News, believes that this deployment marks a before and after for the historic British broadcaster: “This approach not only upheld the BBC’s highest quality standards but also pioneered a new method of election broadcasting that would have been near impossible using traditional methods. The TVU cloud platform allowed us to scale up a vast number of feeds and handle peak traffic seamlessly without investing in additional hardware. This was both an editorial and technological innovation that transformed the viewing experience, bringing the vote counting process closer to our audience, setting a new benchmark in election coverage.”

Cloud, key to BBC coverage with TVU solutions

The TVU Search cloud platform was responsible for managing the real-time ingest and recording of the hundreds of live broadcasts undertaken by the BBC. Once processed, it was the turn of TVU Partyline, a solution that, in the form of a mosaic view, allowed viewers to simultaneously view all voting locations in the UK and even access customized mosaics for their local regions.

Jonny McGuigan, BBC News streaming editor, is quick to claim that it delivered “the most personalized election coverage ever in live video.” “Across the UK, wherever you looked you could see democracy in action, live. The ability to choose from any one of 369 counts on the night meant we could always be where the story was. When augmented with our traditional broadcast live SNG and bonded connectivity, we could guarantee we’d be where audiences needed us, on digital platforms, TV and radio all night long,” he adds.

Viewers were able to tune in to the live broadcasts via the constituency pages of the BBC News website, allowing them to personalize their experience of the election process. The TV broadcasts were also somewhat personalized, as both the BBC’s central studio in London and the BBC’s Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland legs were able to choose the most appropriate signals for their broadcasts. In this way, TVU’s platform showed its versatility to deliver signals not only via IP for the network’s OTTs, but also in SDI for the various TV programs.

Paul Shen, head of TVU Networks, praises the BBC for leading what has been a “redefinition of the boundaries of broadcast technology”: “This collaboration is a testament to what’s possible when we combine our strengths. The future of broadcast is now, offering an accessible, sustainable model that opens up endless possibilities for storytelling to audiences everywhere.”