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GO REMOTE FOR HIGH QUALITY Telstra Broadcast Services is using its networks to turn what used to be a backup, into a preferred method for sports production

f you wanted live sports on TV screens, the only way you could do it is through remote production,” says head of major events at Telstra Broadcast Services,

the way we used it,” explains Dargham. “The whole America’s Cup operation ended up being remotely controlled from Sydney – basically out of the production team’s homes. It was a challenge, but at the end, it was just a wonderful day.” The Telstra Broadcast Operations Centre is a Tier 4 data centre, delivering over three million channel-hours a year and managing over 400 satellite services. The America’s Cup production went to 200 jurisdictions and countries, and was streamed on several online outlets and social media platforms. America’s Cup customers were well taken care of, with the Telstra network being built from the bottom up for remote production, with a low- latency network. There was shared confidence the production was operating on a highly reliable basic platform, and there were very few issues or requests from the global customers receiving the feeds. “Any issues that did come up were resolved within five minutes of them being raised. For example, one

Steven Dargham. He’s talking about the shake-up of sports production during the Covid pandemic. “The last year has accelerated this – and some of our customers have never looked back.” In 2020, Telstra was working on the broadcast of the 2021 America’s Cup. It included lead-up events in Italy and the UK, with a plan for a major Telstra presence – including multiple production staff – on-site. But due to restrictions, the Italy and UK events were cancelled, and Telstra was left with only a compressed lead-up event and the challenge of doing the America’s Cup final in New Zealand. For the production to come off, remote production was essential. But Telstra was prepared. “From day one, we were remote production- enabled, but it wasn’t supposed to be controlled in

REMOTE CONTROL Telstra was prepared when remote production became essential

as a result of coronavirus restrictions

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