Viacom18 bets on Nevion contribution for TATA IPL 23

Millions of fans will be able to watch the TATA Indian Premier League – IPL 23 cricket thanks to technology Nevion (Sony) made up of Viacom18 (Network18 Group).

Viacom18, holder of the digital rights of the TATA IPL 23 for your OTT platform JioCinema, needed a solution to connect twelve stadiums live to three of its production studios with distances of up to 2,000 kilometers. To address this challenge, the company chose the software-defined media node Virtuoso and the orchestration platform VideoIPath of Nevion (Sony), a fully redundant solution that offers “seamless” transport according to the standard SMPTE 2022-7.

Virtuoso It is used to transport up to 16 HD (3G SDI) and 4 x UHD (12G SDI) signals from stadiums, as well as 4 x HD (3G SDI) return, through a MPLS IP Wide Area Network (WAN) diversified and redundant. Video signals are compressed for transport using JPEG 2000 y JPEG XS to maintain a high-quality contribution feed with low latency. On the other hand, VideoIPath It is initially responsible for monitoring network connectivity and signal flows. Its role will be expanded in subsequent phases of the project to include network control and signal orchestration. Nevion is also providing additional on-site services to ensure the functioning of this critical infrastructure in support of the TATA IPL 2023.

Rajat Nigam, technical director of the Network18 Group, takes stock of the challenges of this important production carried out with systems Nevion: "We had a vision to offer a never-before-seen cricket experience to Indian viewers by providing live matches in UHD/4K format for the first time and in 12 languages, including the VR360 Cam experience. We have our own IP video network from Jio and the solution developed in collaboration with Nevion provides us with a high-capacity and glitch-free video network from different locations in India. We average more than 75 million daily consumers on our platform and have witnessed more than 24 million of simultaneous consumers on our OTT JioCinema.” Finally, Hans Hasselback, commercial director of Nevion, adds: "This project perfectly illustrates the importance of media networks in enabling business objectives. We are proud to have delivered this solution in record time."