Czech TV’s live production project for live sports and news coverage equips ten OB vans with LiveU LU810 encoders, using bonded IP technology for flexible live production workflows.
Czech Television, the national public broadcaster of Czechia, has traditionally relied mainly on satellite and landlines to power its OB fleet. But recently, Czech TV undertook a major live production project for live sports and news coverage, equipping ten Outside Broadcast (OB) vans with bonded IP technology that enables the broadcaster to achieve flexible, cost-effective live production workflows that can be upgraded and re-configured over time.
This project involves the installation of LiveU's LU810 fixed encoders and servers into the vans in order to set up reliable bi-directional IP connectivity for live contribution and return feeds. The deployment is unusual in Europe because of its ability to establish interconnectivity between the OB vans at scale. The vans are not only able connect to central facilities but can also interchange live feeds with each other across different locations.
The LU810 works as an alternative for fibre and satellite-based productions. It supports broadcast-grade, low-delay multi-cam video transmission between the vehicles at up to 70 Mbps over HEVC, with up to 16 audio channels. The result is resilient live video transmission over public internet, achieving up to 4Kp60 10-bit HDR transmission over SDI for colour depth, while keeping latency down to 0.4 sec.
With the OB vans serving as mobile studios, multiple channels can be sent immediately to the master control room [MCR], and signals sent back as a video return. The set-up is used for both the production of lower tier sports games and news stories relating to larger international events.
The LU810 is bandwidth efficient, handling wired as well as 5G/4G bonded transmission. It supports up to four frame-synced feeds in high resolution from a single unit. Equipped with six internal 5G/4G modems, users can switch dynamically between cellular, wired and satellite connectivity to achieve the highest-possible quality transmission and adapt to location requirements in most situations.
LU810 is also powered by LiveU’s Reliable Transport (LRT), an adaptive live video transmission protocol that maintains high video resiliency and reliability over cellular and other IP networks, even under fluctuating conditions. Transmission quality and costs can then be continuously optimised through the dynamic bonding.
Streams are managed using the LiveU Central unified cloud management platform, which Czech TV can use to oversee their complete fleet of encoders from one virtual interface
"This project represents a major step forward for Czech Television. Using LiveU's IP contribution, we can modernize our fleet beyond the limitations of costly satellite or the availability of landlines," said Antonin Svach, Head of OB department, Czech TV. We can handle live coverage for nearly any sport, at every level – whether it's football, ice hockey or a triathlon. Our OB vans can now connect anywhere and exchange feeds between each other and with our master control room in Prague.
This project, designed and implemented with LiveU's partner Smart Informatics is one of the largest LiveU live production projects in the region. "LiveU has already been our global newsgathering partner for years with their portable field units. This deployment shows the reliability of their solutions for live sports as well," Antonin said.
"Moving slowly away from a satellite and landlines-only models was essential for us. This new hybrid setup, delivered with Smart Informatics, makes our OB fleet future ready. With bonded IP connectivity at the heart of our workflow, we can adapt to any production requirement, from small competitions to national broadcasts." www.liveu.tv
