NFL Team’s Remote Production Workflows Fly

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A National Football League franchise is leveraging an ultra-low latency Makito X4 video encoder and decoder pair to stream synchronized multi-camera live video feeds from remote venues back to their broadcast studio.


How so? By using Haivision’s technology, the Philadelphia Eagles are able to produce unique and engaging pre-and post-game content for fans.

When the team travels to away games, the Eagles live stream content to audiences watching on YouTube and Facebook, as well as to the philadelphiaeagles.com website and their mobile app. “When working at remote venues, there are many complexities to overcome to achieve the low latency required to enable two-way audio communications between the production studio and to give fans the experience of being alongside their team while they’re on the road,” Haivision explains. “On-field, sideline, and end-zone cameras need to be set up, and there are logistics involved in managing frequencies and wiring, often in an unfamiliar stadium. Once the cameras are in place, video signals need to be synchronized and brought back at sub-second latency to their studio in Philadelphia. This used to mean transporting a large amount of broadcast gear as well as the logistical challenges involved when traveling with up to seven staff members needed to operate the equipment.”

With a focus on reducing setup time, costs, and logistical complexity, the Philadelphia Eagles turned to Haivision’s compact Makito X4 Encoder to encode four HD video inputs simultaneously at very low latency while keeping the outgoing streams in sync.

“The Makito X4 encoder allows us to simultaneously send streams from four cameras in sync back to our studio in 200 milliseconds,” said David Sullivan, Senior Broadcast & Media Engineer for the Philadelphia Eagles. “It’s been a total game-changer. We turned it on and immediately saw the benefits. Not only has the Makito X4 made our workflows easier and faster to set up, but it has also made our overall production look better.”

Brian Henry, Haivision’s Senior Vice President of Sales, commented, “We’re pleased to see that the Makito X4 is providing the Eagles’ media team with a stellar solution to streamline its workflows and deliver a wider range of content to fans. We’re extremely proud of the powerful potential that the Makito X4 offers for broadcast and remote production applications.”

By using the Makito X4 encoder, the Eagles have also been able to reduce the number of staff needed to travel to away games as everything can be managed remotely, providing significant time and cost efficiencies as well as peace of mind when it comes to reliability and ease of use.