Norway’s TV 2, Telenor Tap Nevion for a new sports production system

OSLO—Virtual media production solutions provider Nevion announced that Norwegian broadcaster TV 2 and telecommunications service provider Telenor will create a groundbreaking sports production ecosystem using Nevion solutions, products and services.

TV 2 owns the TV rights to several national sports leagues in Norway, including men’s and women’s football (soccer), handball and ice hockey and the new tech ecosystem will help it deliver the highest quality video , the companies reported.

The ecosystem involves more than 60 sites and several simultaneous games as well as the fact that TV 2 hires several production companies to produce the content.

“Our goal is to create the most compelling sports content for our audience, and that means using the highest production values ​​for all leagues, both elite and lower level,” explained Svein Henning Skaga, Solutions Architect at TV 2. “It would normally be a logistical and financial challenge, but the new production ecosystem allows us to overcome that.”

Using the system, all games must be produced remotely, with TV 2 producing the final program to be broadcast, making it a distributed production, with centralized production centers. TV 2 can also produce other events directly, from locations or new locations.

TV 2 engaged Telenor to build the WAN infrastructure needed to achieve these goals and provide it to them as a service.

Telenor, in collaboration with Nevion and TV 2, is now creating the remote production solution linking cinemas, production companies and the broadcaster itself. The solution is based on Nevion’s software-defined media node, Virtuoso; its SDN multimedia framework, eMerge; and its media orchestration platform, VideoIPath, the companies reported.

Virtuosos are used to ensure the reliable and secure transport of video, audio and data signals over Telenor’s network which connects theatres, production companies and TV 2. This involves, among other things, the encoding of SDI signals and SMPTE ST 2110-20 uncompressed as JPEG XS (SMPTE ST 2110-22), Nevion said.

25G/100G eMerges are used as access switches, providing aggregation and other functions.

VideoIPath orchestrates the media streams between each relevant location. Using VideoIPath’s multi-tenant functionality, Telenor enables production companies to control the streams involved in their own productions – effectively offering them orchestration as a service.

Some production companies are also using VideoIPath’s new broadcast control feature to manage connectivity, Nevion said.

VideoIPath must also be federated with TV 2’s existing VideoIPath system, which already orchestrates media streams within and between the broadcaster’s SMPTE ST 2110 production facilities. The VideoIPath federation allows media streams to be easily controlled end-to-end by TV 2, without compromising the performance, resiliency and security of their own system, Nevion said.

Additionally, Nevion provides a full range of professional and support services, including consulting, infrastructure design, device configuration, device integration, orchestration system configuration, testing, and troubleshooting.

“This project is very innovative from a commercial and technical point of view, and we are delighted to be a part of it,” said Thomas Heinzer, CEO of Nevion, which is owned by Sony. “We are obviously delighted that our flagship products and their latest features are being used. We are also very pleased with the collaboration between TV 2, Telenor and Nevion to make this production ecosystem a reality.