20 ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE AWS
CAMPUS CLOUD TOUCHDOWN
Pac-12 Networks is one of the largest sports broadcasters in the US. The college media organisation recently switched its entire infrastructure to the cloud
rofessional sports take top spot in US television viewing, but university level sports has an avid following that –given fierce
fan engagement and enhanced advertising revenue. By tying together a standardised video encoding source that feeds a comprehensive cloud production workflow and distribution network, Pac-12 Networks raised the bar for college sports coverage. “The way viewers expect to consume games is changing,” says Mark Kramer, VP, Engineering and Technology, at Pac-12 Networks. “Without AWS, we couldn’t meet our fans’ needs. Now, we’re quickly setting up new workflows at scale, such as live-to-VOD and OTT monetisation. We’re changing how schools produce collegiate sports and giving fans much better, personalised experiences. We’ve solved a huge, yet simple problem: how not to run out of storage. Translation: we’re making assets available to consumers and syndication partners the minute they’re recorded, so more people can see them in more ways.” In August 2018, Pac-12 Network aired the first collegiate football game of the season, Utah’s home-opener against Weber State. “Performance and video quality were awesome,” remembers Kramer. “Everything was gorgeous during the game for linear broadcast and TV everywhere audiences. This was a huge moment – it was a threshold we’d worked towards for years.” POWERING SPORTS With the new cloud-centric approach, Pac-12 Networks’ master control uses Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) and
university loyalties – can eclipse the pros. The Pacific-12 Conference, or Pac-12, is the university sports organisation covering the western US, a region that contains some of the country’s top college teams and its most spirited rivalries. It comprises 12 universities and covers 11 men’s and 13 women’s sports, including that venerable college institution, American football. Pac-12 Networks is the conference’s media arm and is the first such company to be wholly owned by 12 universities. It offers the full range of Pac-12 sports, from football, basketball and baseball to swimming, gymnastics and rowing. The network offers streaming of all the conference sports and includes livestreaming channels from each university, an output that makes it one of the top live sports producers in the country. Last year, Pac-12 Networks moved its entire video and media infrastructure to AWS. Determined to transform the sports fan experience – reaching more viewers at more locations, on more devices, Pac-12 Networks took a cloud-enabled approach. The upgrade involved a re-imagining of core master control production workflows, as well as solutions for content archiving, personalisation and monetisation. NEW WORKFLOWS The network hoped to demonstrate that higher-quality services would bring greater
WE’RE MAKING ASSETS AVAILABLE TO CONSUMERS AND SYNDICATION PARTNERS THE MINUTE THEY’RE RECORDED
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