ST. PAUL, MINN.—Tightrope Media Systems is helping Mobile Content Providers shift into high gear for live, instant sports replay with Zeplay.
MCP offers full-service, mobile unit alternatives to generate content instead of the typical 52-foot expanding side trucks. The multi-channel instant replay system Zeplay is integral to MCP’s workflow, delivering multiple camera angles from two compact units. It also enables the team to quickly build show opens, highlight packages, bump-ins and other high-quality video clips with rapid turnaround.
“Zeplay offers stability, which is everything when a production team does a live game for a major network. You can’t have equipment crashing, ” said Ray Colaiacovo, content development and mobile technology director for MCP.
The four-in, four-out Zeplay design gives MCP 16 video channels across the two units for instant replay. This gives the production team the ability to easily scale to large camera counts, or simply have an extra Zeplay on backup for typical productions.
“We recently did a professional tennis event, and the master control center experienced a satellite dropout during the live broadcast,” Colaiacovo said. “We recorded the program to a Zeplay channel on the second machine and replayed that segment from master control. This allowed for a clean airing with no signal dropout.”
Colaiacovo and his team also rely on Zeplay’s flexible tagging features for highlights and other packages, enabling operators to quickly locate player data, game information and other details. The built-in multiviewer also saves space in comparison to large monitors and multiviewer walls.
“Our units are not conventional 18 wheelers, and Zeplay gives us a solid machine with plenty of features and flexibility, and integrates well within our compact workflow,” said Colaiacovo, who is currently preparing to use Zeplay for football season. “We simply wouldn’t be able to achieve what we do with a large, conventional, complex replay system.”
