Every year, the Sports Video Group Europe (SVG Europe), an industry association that supports the professional community that uses video, audio, and broadband technologies to produce and distribute sports content, interviews media persons and representatives of major companies in the sports video production industry about implemented projects and updates over the past year. The companies are also invited to share insights and opinions on technological trends that will affect the industry in the coming year.
Igor Vitiorets, CTO of slomo.tv, talked about the company's achievements and plans for 2024 and shared his vision on technologies development in live sports video production in the near future. You can read the 2022 interview here.
a) Please describe a couple of your sports production highlights since September 2022 – please include information about your involvement, any measurements of success, and also what it meant to your company.
Our company is confidently expanding its presence in football with VAR (Video Assistant Referee). Together with the Tajikistan Football Federation we worked on the implementation of VAR in the national championship. In addition to supplying the VAR equipment, slomo.tv specialists carried out intensive training on how to work with the system for VARs/AVARs/ROs. Thanks to the cooperation between slomo.tv and the Federation, the project was successfully completed and the VAR was officially implemented in Tajikistan.
After the official implementation of FIFA Quality certified videoReferee® VAR equipment, the Georgian Football Federation has expanded its VAR Van fleet by two more vehicles, equipping them with a full VAR sets produced by slomo.tv.
Since spectators and TV viewers want to follow the VAR reviews, all videoReferee® systems provide the video output of the referee’s interface to the broadcasters. Last year, we added RRA-MIDO - a venue information graphics function - to our VAR servers. The videoReferee® outputs VAR graphics to broadcasters and to the arena screens to keep the spectators informed of the VAR team's actions.
For basketball competitions we have developed and started production of a specialized mobile Instant Replay System (IRS). The IRS hardware in the mobile rack is installed next to the OB Van or in a technical room, and the compact videoReferee® Box is placed in the arena creating a complete workplace for a replay operator. Both units are connected via Fiber Optics cable, which allows the system modules to be installed up to 20 km apart from each other. This provides the customer with a flexible solution that works with any OB Van and allows the IRS to be installed in any arena. The referee review can be easily set up in compliance with IRS technical regulations and is also convenient for referees. A total of 14 kits were already sold.
b) What have been your most important company developments (products, people, deals, events, etc.), in relation to sport, since September last year?
For sports broadcasting, we have launched the Simple R 4K – the world's most compact and affordable entry-level 4K replay and recording server. This server is a great fit for sports broadcasters and video production companies of any level that work with UHD signals.
Our most advanced 2U production server Arrow-V has also been actively implemented in sports video production. When working with HD and 3G signals in replay and recording for NLE modes, the 2U system provides better channel performance than any other replay server on the market. In recording for NLE mode (DMR™ mode) up to 16 HD channels can be recorded. Replay mode provides configuration of 14REC + 14SEARCH + 2PLAY + FX channel.
This year we launched a completely new product for us - our timing and events control system for team sports. The new match-controller Control-MC is a complex system designed to integrate not only with display systems and data consumers in the arena, but also with various consumers of match-controller data (MCD) working via Internet or LAN. These include various record-keeping and statistics systems of the sports leagues and federations themselves, as well as third-party consumers. For easy integration with existing arena infrastructure, Control-MC is compatible with most common timing and events data transfer protocols. This enables virtually seamless installation in operating sports arenas and integration of all MCD consumers, such as video-refereeing systems, scoreboards, information graphics systems and others.
An important function is the transmission of the MCD synchronized with the video to the TV center for overlaying accurate information graphics on the broadcast. The Smart Whistle option is also worth mentioning. It allows to start and stop the game time on the referee's whistle. Up to 4 wireless whistles are supported.
In the field of sports video-refereeing, our videoReferee® VAR system for football has been successfully re-certified to the FIFA QUALITY standard, allowing Federations and Leagues worldwide to use the technology at any football competition with an unlimited number of cameras. First certified in 2021, videoReferee® VAR confirmed its compliance with all FIFA requirements and has been recertified until December 2027.
c) What can you share about your plans for the near future?
We aim to make it easier for small and medium-sized companies, as well as new companies, to enter the 4K sports broadcasting market, for which replay functionality is a must. The development of our affordable 4K replay server Simple R 4K is an important step in achieving this goal. We will continue to make 4K accessible to everyone. By NAB 2024, we plan to launch another entry-level server for 4K, but with even greater functionality.
Affordable VAR solutions for football and video-refereeing systems for other sports are also high on our priority list. We plan to make the technology implementation for sports federations, leagues and clubs as simple, clear and cost-effective as possible. Now we have reliable time-tested technology as well as established processes for implementing the technology and training VAR/AVAR/RO, so we will make massively affordable products.
d) What technology trends do you feel have been doing the most to shape sports production workflows this year and what's the impact of this on your business?
I would like to share my vision on the development of sports video production in the near future, based not entirely on technology, but on a combination of technology and economics. Having created the world's first 4K replay servers that provided fully featured video replays from 3-4 4K video sources, I was quite skeptical about the intense growth of 4K sports production. It is true that our servers had and have the best overall performance among all 4K servers on the market, but in addition to servers, 4K sports broadcasting requires the cameras, production switchers, routers, etc.
All these video production components from Major companies are quite expensive and inaccessible to entry-level and mid-range companies, and therefore mostly the top sports events are broadcasted in 4K.
The launch and distribution of good quality and at the same time feature-rich 4K video production components from BlackMagic Design resulted in the fact that 4-16-camera OB Vans or flight cases based on BlackMagic Design equipment are now financially affordable for almost any TV company.
I know quite a few cases when video engineers, who used to work for major TV companies, created their own companies and, due to the good quality of the equipment and much lower price, successfully entered the market and took away a noticeable market share from the major players.
How will this affect our business? Sports broadcasts require replay servers. As I said earlier, we have already made a compact and the most affordable broadcast-grade 4K server, and we will continue to move towards making our hardware more affordable for budget 4K OB Vans. More 4K replays!
