In May, Ross Video announced that América Televisión – Lima, Peru – implemented its Piero sports graphics analysis tool in two recording studios to enhance its coverage and viewer experience for a global football tournament. Piero uses image recognition or encoded camera heads to overlay tactical graphics on sports content. The solution can apply graphics to more than 20 of the world’s major sports, combining video effects with 3D replays and advanced virtual graphics. Wilfredo Viñas, technical director, América Televisión, says: “Implementing Piero has played an important role in raising the quality and creativity of our replay analysis – a development our viewers have welcomed.” YANKEES AND BROOKLYN GO LIVE Last October, Canadian tech vendor Evertz acquired Ease Live AS (formerly part of Sixty AS), based in Norway. Evertz could now offer its customers live interactive graphic overlays at the edge, driving interactive experiences for OTT video service providers. Ease Live AS has been integrated with Evertz cloud production solutions for the benefit of its live sports, events and linear channel operators. For video rights holders, this opens the
WATCH ME! See the overlays Yes Network uses in broadcast with help from its Ease Live collaboration
The creation of Yes Edge was down to a collaboration between Yes Network, its app developer Clearbridge and Evertz, which provided technical infrastructure to support the synchronisation of overlays from the broadcast production environment. The app incorporates a Bitmovin player and is connected to a backbone/ OTT platform from iStreamplanet. The overlays themselves were created in a matter of months by Ease Live and the Yes Network on-air graphics team headed by Rick Deutschman. “We’re reaching a point now where we see a lot of customers not only renewing their OTT but part of their RFP is that they also need to include interactivity,” Ease Live CEO Kjetil Horneland explains. “We’re able to prove it’s not just for show or making it look cool, the key figures are growing – that’s a very important thing tied to metrics. “You can now get a lot of assets from an end- user perspective and watch the highlights, see all the stats and everything brought together. You’re using live data from the games to fully automate these experiences – constantly learning about the users and understanding how they are interacting. “The market is maturing a lot, and adoption is going in the right direction. With content rights being as expensive as they are, operators need to find additional ways of adding monetisation to OTT services. It’s crowded in the OTT space, with the big question being: how many subscription services can you have as an end user? “This goes a long way to providing a better service, but starts to monetise too,” says Horneland. LOOK TO THE CLOUD The English Premier League’s Tottenham Under-19 team recently played Sporting CP Under-19s, from Portugal’s Primeira Liga, in England. Uefa partnered with BT Sport to broadcast the first-ever game
door to more sponsorships, advertising inventory and, eventually, in-game betting and wagering. One reference customer is Yes Network, the regional sports network for the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets, among others, which has incorporated Ease Live into its Yes Network interactive app as well as its recently launched direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service. Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network (Yes Network) has been the most-watched regional sports network in the US for 16 of the last 18 years.
GO INTERACTIVE The Yes Network app now features sports graphic elements from Ease Live
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