SYDNEY—Australia’s Sports Entertainment Network, tasked with building out an OB operation, opted to use Dejero EnGo mobile transmitters as part of its setup to deliver high-quality live video of its sports productions to different regions and networks.
Dejero EnGo’s bonded cellular system was a key component for SEN, as the network’s head of TV production, Peter Morris, said they wanted to complement its live and pre-recorded studio programs for second-tier sports, those with a broadcasting requirement but not the budget for a full-blown OB operation.
EnGo’s SmartBlend technology provides SEN with reliable connectivity for low-latency live video, allowing for high-quality live video to be transmitted with latency as low as 0.8 seconds. HEVC compression and bitrates up to 20 Mb/s at 1080p 50/60 assist in delivering that high-quality video, while hybrid hardware/software encoding can adapt in real-time based on the complexity of the video scene. Dejero also boasts of its reliable cellular reception in challenging network environments because of its design separating antennas for enhanced reception.
One example of SEN putting the EnGo units to use was the WNBL basketball championships. SEN had five cameras on site sending feeds back to Melbourne over the EnGo systems. A live switch of the game was available on-location, as well as remote switching from Melbourne as a backup option. But the rest of the production—instant replays, editing live footage, graphics, operators and machinery—were at the SEN Hub in Southbank.
This setup with EnGo has expanded the sports that SEN is able to cover.
“Some sports, particularly those where budgets are very tight such as the recent Hockey Australia tournament, can now have a full broadcast presence,” said Morris. “For Hockey Australia we armed individual camera operators with a Dejero EnGo and each sent a camera signal back to our Melbourne hub using our proprietary software for timing and synchronisation. It was a simple but very effective workflow.”
“The Dejero EnGo has enabled SEN to get into and cover live sports where previously the OB costs were prohibitive,” Morris added.
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