A coverage that was a slam dunk

Born in Argentina and a benchmark for transmissions football in that country (in fact, he has the contract exclusive with the AFA Football Association Argentine to show the matches of the first division), the cable television sports signal T&C Sports is betting on having an increasingly regional reach.

The story began on September 3, 1994, the day on which the that the first signal went on the air, and became the first exclusive sports channel with 24 hours of programming of the country, emerged from the union of two large companies media venues: Grupo Clarín and the company Torneos and Competences. The idea, however, had been very much conceived. a long time ago, since 1989, when these two companies they were working on the subject.

Today, the TyC Sports signal, open, leaves for all of Argentina with programs of general interest and news, as well as the transmission of some football matches of the first division and promotion and other sporting events. Then it appears TyC Max, the premium alternative, which streams the most games important of Argentine football, the matches of the League National Basketball and some relevant boxing fights.

In addition, they have a double international signal (one for Latin America and another for Mexico and the United States) and with additional channels used only when there is overlap of Events. For example, the last date of the 2008 season of the Argentine football meant that four of the participants could be champions. As the regulations of the local association indicate that in these cases all teams must play their matches at the same time, TyC Sports had four channels for transmit each of the meetings.

According to data from the audience meter Ibope, T&C was the most viewed cable signal of 2007 in the country, with a rating of 1.46, a figure that placed it above even the air channel with less ignition, the state Channel 7. Data for 2008 still they are not available, but a situation suggests that number could be even larger: during the last semester, the ten first-class football matches were played at different schedules so that everyone had a place in the grid of programming. In addition, at the end of August, the month of the Games Olympic, the signal had registered a very high rating of 2.92, consolidating itself as the most viewed of the local cable, by above the TN news channel, his immediate pursuer.

Don't play all at the same time!

With this idea of regionalization, during 2008 he carried out a strong bet: to cover the Beijing Olympic Games thinking of the public of the different countries in which the channel has reach, such as united States, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela.

When we started planning transmissions from China, we concluded that we needed a powerful tool that allowed us to record simultaneous events, since several sports are practiced at the same time, of which one is would pass live and the rest would be stored until the time of their respective transmissions, describes Horacio Mazzitelli, operations manager of TyC Sports. After evaluating different Alternatives, the decision fell on the solution Squid, of XV-Tech.

This tool allowed the TyC Sports team to record events on an ongoing basis and keep them until the time of the transmission, thanks to the TDPlayer module, which has the flexibility to defer programming even for very long times brief, like a minute. In addition, the system continues recording while putting the deferred on the air, Ariel points out Mindiuk, partner of XV-Tech.

Among the features provided by the TDPlayer tool, it includes, for example, the intelligent generation of content, that allows you to choose the content name and preconfigure a prefix for events. In this way, every time it is select a segment, typically program blocks without the commercials, the operator with the press of a key the will add to the list of identified events, points out Mindiuk. It also allows the selection of segments during the recording and even playing them in that situation. Herself you can generate an event by selecting only the entry point (start of the block) in the event that you have not yet completed your capture, the executive adds.

I love you

These characteristics, as explained by the own Mazzitelli, they gave us the possibility to look, select and transfer the recorded material and even the one that was still on recording. From there, the notes that are edited or that were recorded in the loops were derived from the play out server to go on the air at the required time by transmission. In conclusion, it was so useful for archive all the material we were able to ingest, as for the airing, concludes the operations manager, for who was very important the dynamics that this solution allowed us. The director clarifies that the islands of they received the material from the cameras and from there they went to the Squid, where they were installed in a playback schedule, which we could assemble and modify according to needs transmission-specific at that very moment. Later the images were executed on the air, thanks to the play module out, also acquired by the signal.

Mazzitelli says they brought to China other options of recording, but they were used very little, overshadowed by the results obtained with the XV-Tech tool. In addition to bring the games to the Latin American public, this experience allowed to bring t&C a little closer with its objective of regionalization. Mazzitelli even confesses that there were even an interest of customers to support with campaigns specific advertising based on the work that the signal I was performing. In fact, the impact they had of potential customers outside Argentina refueled in a way remarkable the generation of notes with athletes from different Latitudes. Estimated at a distance and from the point of view of the spectator, and considering the history of this competition in the Argentine television, was by far the most complete coverage which has been received to date from an Olympic Games.

On a long way home, the Squid returned to Buenos Aires and it is being reintroduced so that it continues to bear fruit in terms of of backup and for future simultaneous events that require deferred transmissions. We plan to add it to our storage structure, although it is first going through a technical review with the people of XV-Tech, due to the strong rattle he suffered during the games, Mazzitelli account.

The tapeless era

The investment in Squid made by TyC Sports is part of a strategic vision of moving towards a workflow tapeless. Today, in the central control there are servers for Automated Profile transmission with Harris for air. In edition, there are about ten Avid Unity islands. The matrix is part analog and digital part, although the plan for 2009 consists of expand the latter. The cameras are Thomson, and for outdoor, Panasonic. The switchers are from the Kayak line, from Grass Valley, and audio consoles are also in full swing migration to digital. The entire backup structure it is currently mounted on Squid, including the Harris, Mindiuk is proud.

Still some things are produced in tape and others in P2, after which the intake is made for each of the Islands, adds Mazzitelli, who immediately clarifies that the tape has a close expiration date within the universe of T&C Sports.

TyC plans to strengthen its commitment to Squid. Surely we will be growing on this solution, in particular for activities not related to the theme of the transmission, which we have quite resolved with the available infrastructure, says the manager of operations, and clarifies that it is very likely that they will also go growing in storage capacity. Mazzitelli believes that the new version of Squid will allow us to complement the workflow with P2 technology and will give us new cataloguing and search tools for material from file.

This situation will always collaborate in a notorious way according to the analysis carried out by Mazzitelli, to which the workflow is much faster, because when ingest does it directly on file and from there the memories are available so that they can come out again or, eventually, saved in archives so that the material remains available to be transferred to the editing server in the moment that is required, points out the specialist.

Checking the results, it can be said that the decisions taken by Mazzitelli and his team so far have been right from here to China.