Daring to Reimagine Replay!
Key Trends & Insights from NAB 2022 — By Matt Zajicek
Now that we’ve (mostly) recovered from NAB we thought we’d take a beat to recap some of the new product announcements from Hawk-Eye’s broadcast division as well as some themes we observed from the show.
NAB marked the beginning of Hawk-Eye’s official entrance into the replay market with the first release of Hawk-Eye Replay, a high-performance highlights and instant replay platform that builds on Hawk-Eye’s best in class video processing and optical tracking technology used at major sporting events all over the world. We’ve listened to customers over the last 12 months to find out what would make today’s ideal replay solution given how the technology and production landscape has been flipped on its head coming out of the pandemic. The result was an extremely busy and successful show sharing our new product with the market and establishing partnerships with key customers to deploy our technology.
Reimagining Replay
Replay operators have fine-tuned their craft with a set of standardised tools for a good chunk of the last 30 years. The last 5 years have seen new players pop up in the space who have introduced new ways of doing things and allowed replay operators to think outside the box. Hawk-Eye Replay introduces an entirely new approach to replay and highlights workflows. The Hawk-Eye Replay UI (see below) is modular and completely customizable, giving operators the freedom to create their own experience according to the event they’re working on. Every feature is accessible by touch screen or via the controller and key UI elements can be moved and resized for ease of use. The UI builds off of our world-leading VAR front end to allow operators speed and precision when building multi-angle replay highlights.
The Changing Landscape of IP
Remote production and accelerated migration to the cloud during the pandemic caused a shift in focus for many customers when it comes to broadcast IP infrastructure. Compression and versatility have become a top priority as broadcasters looked to transport mechanisms to accommodate the explosion in remote production applications. Compressed, open-source formats like NDI vastly increased in popularity, especially in the cloud. We’ve also seen AWS introduce CDI as a standardisation option for uncompressed, low-latency production workflows in their environment. Hawk-Eye Replay has long supported IP formats and looks to build on our offering to allow maximum versatility for broadcasters for both on-prem and remote scenarios.
Replay in the Cloud
Tier 2 and 3 sports are seeing an explosion in cloud production as it provides more affordable cost models and an ability to get more content to more viewers. Cloud environments are being deployed to cover sporting events for linear broadcast, OTT and in many cases as supplementary content for 2nd screen consumption during live events. Scalability, cost savings and sustainability are key drivers when moving production infrastructure to the cloud. With that being said, Tier 1 sports often have fewer budget constraints and a duty to the fans to maintain a premium product output. While technology has advanced extremely quickly in cloud production there are still large replay market segments such as Tier 1 where the risk may not yet be worth the reward.
Data-Driven Clipping and AI/ML Automation
With an increased amount of data being generated for live sports, there is ample opportunity to leverage this information to automate live sports workflows and create insights for air. When utilised in live sports data can automate tasks that feed the media supply chain allowing operators to focus on what they do best- creative storytelling. With an in-house data platform and several existing data-driven workflow integrations, Hawk-Eye is in a fantastic place to capitalise on innovation in the space and create data-driven workflows that supercharge live sports broadcasts. An example of this is the work we’ve done with the PGA for Every Shot Every Hole. Operators have low-latency access to live golf data via the UI which allows faster live workflows than ever before.
The road ahead
Over the next few months, our broadcast product and development teams will be taking all of the feedback received at NAB 2022 onboard, building new feature sets and integrations for a second release coming to IBC in September 2022, so watch this space!
To stay up to date with key product updates, register your interest here: https://bit.ly/38eb8GV.
