BCC Live manages the encoding of its remote productions with AJA Bridge Live

Bridge Live, the AJA encoding and decoding solution, is a key part of the remote production workflow at BCC Live, a company specializing in outside coverage of events such as Ironman and the Rock n’ Roll Marathon.

Although its origins date back to IT, BCC Live quickly evolved to specialize in the world of live production in the Colorado (USA) environment, helping organizations deliver broadcast-quality coverage of specialized sporting events and conferences to global audiences. BCC Live president and event technician Dave Downey attributes this success to a smart and passionate team dedicated to tackling the most ambitious live broadcast and streaming projects for international clients. To support a wide range of encoding and decoding demands, BCC Live invested in an AJA Bridge Live IP video workflow bridge.

Whether broadcasting or testing, BCC Live deploys Bridge Live almost every weekend to support a wide range of production demands (e.g. 1080i or 1080p, 50 or 60 frames, Secure Reliable Transport, etc.). They also leverage it to intuitively send SCTE markers to clients to trigger breaks. In the case of Ironman 70.3 competition broadcasts where a production partner handles commercial breaks, such as European Ironman races, BCC Live will leverage Bridge Live’s ability to send SCTE metadata to the broadcast channels so that the production team can trigger commercial breaks.

BCC Live offers comprehensive services from production to post-production, including animation and graphics, so every project is different. At the beginning of each project, BCC Live ensures that all necessary personnel, resources and equipment are in place, and then develops custom graphics for the event. Often, the BCC Live team receives a live event feed from a production company, mixes the content, adds graphics and broadcasts it to millions of viewers via YouTube or other online video platforms. They also package the content into 45-second reports for social media platforms such as Instagram. Regardless of where the content is produced, everything BCC Live broadcasts or streams arrives at their Boulder studio before being distributed to viewing platforms.

SRT, RTMP, SDI, NDI… with Bridge Live by AJA

BCC customers frequently request to use SRT and RTMP, as well as SDI and NDI. With Bridge Live, the company manages all of these variables from a single device. “The fact that Bridge Live supports so many connectivity types, video codecs, and protocols has significantly reduced the volume of equipment we use. It allows us to go in and build a new profile for any project, so we’re set for the broadcast without a lot of stress,” Downey explained.

Commenting on NDI in particular, he continues, “We love using NDI with Bridge Live because we don’t have to get up from our seats to send the signal in the studio; I can easily open the signal on my laptop in NDI, do a quality check, pull it into the TriCaster, and make sure everything is how I want. Then, I can patch it and set it up as SDI, so whenever we need it in multiple places, we can use a matrix splitter. This means multiple studios can grab what they need off NDI; it’s a simple way to split off a world feed as we get it.”

BCC Live, Ironman and streaming platforms

Many of BCC Live’s productions for European Ironman events start with a live pre-mix provided by a partner production company. BCC Live’s Boulder studio receives that signal via Bridge Live, feeds it into its video mixer via SDI and sends it to various destinations within the studio. BCC Live transmits the signal through their replay machine and sends a split to their TriCaster via SDI, where the team adds HTML5 graphics. They use a green screen background and place the video behind the presenters to make it look like they are on location at the event.

BCC Live then sends the signal through Bridge Live to YouTube, Facebook and Outside for viewers to watch, as well as to Grabyo, where your client can pull content for social needs. The team then generates a global channel that is sent to LiveU Studio and also streams a mixed channel to LiveU Studio from Bridge Live. In LiveU Studio, they can bring in remote presenters, mix localized content and send it to a relevant network or streaming platform.

Growth remains a key objective for BCC Live, especially with a major sporting event planned for 2028. Downey and his team are eager to find a way to participate in the production using Bridge Live, among other tools.