ESPN Billboard Powered By BirdDog Studio NDI

The uses of NDI keep growing and growing. The possibility seems endless and the innovations ahead are difficult to imagine. BirdDog released this case study on a popular event that needed multiple BirdDog Studios to encode and decode video feeds back and forth in a labyrinth to produce a live stream for ESPN. The live production company B Live headed up the project and they knew that they'd need the assistance of BirdDog Studio NDI converters to make this happen. Running the gamment of NDI products and live streaming gear, the BirdDog Studios were the glue that brought it all together.

The production not only called for live streaming, but also distribution to many local and national broadcasters. There was also a requirement to send NDI® back to the large television the super fans watched the game on perched up high on the billboard. To achieve all this Jay knew he had to turn to NDI® and BirdDog Studio NDI hardware.

The technical challenges of the project were substantial. 4 people living on a billboard 80ft in the air, multiple camera feeds from the ground as well as on top of the billboard, routing video back to the television on top of the billboard; all with the video control room more than 250ft away from the base of the billboard. With all the live sources needing to be fed into the main NewTek TriCaster, NDI® was the logical choice of IP format and BirdDog Studio NDI hardware was the backbone of the entire production.

“The billboard was 80ft high and our video control was about 250ft away down the back of the building in the back parking lot. To simplify the setup and management of everything I decided to go with a fully NDI® workflow.” Said Jay Kopelman, Director of Digital Engineering, Video Production, Live Streaming and Digital Production at B Live. “I ran tactical Cat6 cable up from control to a POE switch up by the billboard. From there I ran out 100ft Cat6 to each BirdDog Studio NDI and cameras"...[continue reading]