New graphic solutions for sports from Orad in Broadcast

Orad is showcasing the PowerPlay sports MAM solution and tapeless workflow with its slow motion PlayMaker server at the Broadcast show.

At its stand (3C11) at the International Professional Exhibition of Audiovisual Technology, Broadcast, Run is presenting, for the first time in Spain, PowerPlay, a complete and fast sports MAM solution created with IBIS. PowerPlay is a turnkey solution that manages live sports productions from ingest, instant editing of highlights, and all the way to managing dedicated sports assets in a post-production environment.

Combining Orad's PlayMaker sports replay server and IBIS iFind, a sophisticated content management solution, PowerPlay focuses on providing fast service for large-scale sports tournaments, leagues and championships. PowerPlay can be deployed in both studio and Mobile Unit environments.

In a studio environment, when dozens of live sporting events are made each week, PowerPlay ingests and edits scenes of the best moments for immediate use. Each clip is tagged and immediately saved to the main storage and database, making it available to all journalists and production staff.

The PowerPlay workflow simplifies the production effort, as no extra registrations are required and all featured scenes are tagged and available for immediate use in post-production. It opens up new possibilities for the production team, with all previous material instantly available and traceable.

With its simple web interface, journalists can search the database, review proxy versions of images, and create cut edits. Once created, PowerPlay extracts an EDL (edit decision list) for the non-linear editing environment with all relevant clips in high resolution. When non-linear editing finishes rendering the final movie, it will automatically transfer it back to PlayMaker for playback, achieving a true end-to-end solution, where the entire workflow can take advantage of the immediate availability of images and metadata.

Designed for sports

In live productions at UM, dozens of matches generate hundreds of hours of footage and thousands of highlight events such as goals, missed attempts, penalties and many more.

With PowerPlay OB, all clips are instantly transferred to external hard drives with all their metadata. At the end of the game, the hard drives are taken from the truck to the main facility, where the files are transferred to the main storage and database. All of these highlights will be available as tagged content, for search and use in post-production, without any additional effort to capture tape or post-game logs.

PowerPlay registration and search tools can be embedded into the UM workflow, so they are immediately available to production assistants and content editors, for the post-game program, or any other purpose. PowerPlay allows replay operators to be more efficient, shortening the time from ingest to edit and back to playback.

Slow motion repetitions

Integrated with this new system, Orad exhibits the new version of PlayMaker, its slow motion video server, with support for tapeless workflow. The first 8-channel slow motion server offers a complete tapeless workflow with integration linked to non-linear editing systems, such as Avid Media Composer and Apple's Final Cut Pro. Based on the DVCPro codec, PlayMaker can export files along with their meta data, in either QuickTime or MXF format, directly to non-linear editing systems for quick editing and re-import them for playback.

PlayMaker offers a dedicated studio production mode, which manages each input as a separate entity, with its own clips and playlists. This mode of work can greatly facilitate workflow, reduce labor, and shorten production lead time.

Another useful feature that will be demonstrated at Broadcast is the Playnet module that allows the creation of multiple Playmakers to network and transfer clips between them. With the click of a single button, the operator can call up any server on the network, browse lists of remote clips or playlists, and select one to preview, copy or play instantly. To improve communication between Mobile Unit operators, the PlayMakers “Inbox” module allows operators to send links to clips, much like sending email messages. Operators can view clips through the inbox list and select any clips that were “emailed” or for preview or import, significantly improving production efficiency.

Together with its other unique features such as smart clip management, 8 channels, super slow motion and 3D support, as well as its massive archiving capacity of up to 60+ hours of HD footage, it positions PlayMaker at a high level to meet today's challenges for rapid live sports production.

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