TVNZ upgrades its portable link fleet with HEVC Bonded solutions from LiveU

The New Zealand broadcaster will employ multiple LiveU units to cover live news and sports, both national and international, both on television and through TVNZ's online platforms.

The leading open broadcaster in New Zealand, TVNZ, is upgrading its fleet of portable contribution units from LiveU a LU300 HEVC y LU600 HEVC, ensuring the highest quality live video performance. The agreement has been overseen by LiveU's local partner in the region, Pacific Live Media, which provides ongoing service and support.

TVNZ has been using LiveU since 2015 with multiple units deployed across the country as well as New York, London and Sydney. The units have been used for all major sporting and news events, including royal and state visits, covering political campaigns and elections, as well as the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Sydney, the Rio de Janeiro Summer Games in 2016, and the recent yellow vest protests in France.

The updates come in time for September's Rugby World Cup in Japan, where LiveU will be used to cover all the action around the games and even serve as disaster recovery backups for the fiber broadcast of the games themselves.

Andrew Fernie, general manager of operations, news and current affairs at TVNZ, explains: "We had been interested in the technology for some time, but it really came to a head before the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England. After testing the equipment, we were impressed by the small size of LiveU's LU200, its ease of use and video quality, and we began rolling out units across the country."

"In 2017, we introduced a centralized editing model, taking all the contributing servers and combining them into one main content and production server in our main newsroom in Auckland. This meant that all content could be streamed or stored and forwarded to the main server; we could then bring all content to our linear and digital channels almost immediately. We were able to create a team of video journalists who could operate from the most remote regions using a small camera and a LiveU unit," he adds.

Fernie goes on to say that "LiveU has completely changed our business, allowing us to cover every story quickly and cost-effectively without the need for SNG trucks. We can really go anywhere with this system, even broadcasting live from the most remote islands in the Pacific using LiveU as an encoder combined with a Satellite IP system. In terms of future major events, TVNZ has secured exclusive rights to broadcast the upcoming America's Cup in 2021 and we are already planning our deployment on LiveU."

There is Eshel, Vice President of Sales at LiveU, emphasizes that "this is an excellent example of how TVNZ has transformed live news gathering and sports coverage using small portable LiveU units for live broadcast and advanced store and forward capabilities. We are delighted that TVNZ is developing our latest HEVC technology and we look forward to continuing our long relationship."