SAN FRANCISCO—At AT&T Park we use in-stadium displays for much more than just showing the score and player statistics during San Francisco Giants games. Since upgrading several of our systems over the last few seasons to give our in-stadium fans more, this year we installed a DYVI software-defined switcher from EVS.
IN THE FIELD
We adopted this broadcast-grade equipment to cut together live shows for display on the main video board, which displays our game in progress (GIP) look for the majority of the game and to the eight additional LED video displays around the ballpark. We create replays for these shows by using our XT3 servers from eight broadcast feeds as well as from our own six in-house cameras and play them out on the main video board with promo content, pre-packaged assets and interactive elements to engage with fans.
I was intrigued by the programmable nature of DYVI and the more I got to see of it, the more I realized we could benefit from the fact it’s not like a traditional switcher. With its graphics processing capability, DYVI gives us a much easier route to do a lot more.
Ben Dolinky and his production team create macros for specific themes and actions during a ball game with the DYVI switcher.
Its GPU-based infrastructure means we can create macros within the switcher for specific actions within any given game or design configurations for entire games. With DYVI we can spend time creating a “Star Wars” configuration for a themed night with specially-designed assets for the video board. On the night, we then simply load up the configuration, play out all the “Star Wars”-specific content during that game and then DYVI lets us easily revert to our usual gameday configuration for the next non-themed night.
We can also create macros for specific actions—like transition effects for each of the Giants’ players. When that player comes up to the plate to bat, a single button-press plays out his transition on the board. This easy to use configuration is one of the things that I—and my technical directors—really like about DYVI.
We’ve got TDs who work in a few different stadiums and they keep coming back to the DYVI excited about what they can do here that they weren’t able to do elsewhere.
IN IT FOR THE LONG HAUL
It was important to us that the new switcher last a long time and adapt to future needs; and as a software-defined switcher, it puts us ahead of the curve. Whatever way we’ll need to deliver content in the future, DYVI will let us accomplish it.
We no longer have a production control room workflow that we can call traditional. DYVI has given us much more flexibility to create an in-stadium experience for our fans that’s hugely entertaining and much more engaging.
Dolinky manages, supports, maintains and oversees the audio/visual systems at AT&T Park and Scottsdale Stadium. He can be contacted atbdolinky@Sfgiants.com
For more information, please visitwww.evs.comor call 973-575-7812.
