Globecast is working in partnership with the Egyptian Local Organising Committee (LOC), Lagardère Sports, managers and marketers of sports rights across Europe and Africa, and the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF). For additional on-the-ground logistics support, Globecast partnered with local specialists KAR Technology. Iris Media provided SNGs as well as additional technical support.

Globecast services included contribution, distribution and VOD content preparation and storage. For the first time, the opening match and the final are being broadcast in 4K, using HEVC encoding. In total there were 52 matches being held in four cities across Egypt.

At each stadium, Globecast supplied two flyaway SNGs. The first is uplinking the main feed, plus a second feed with additional pre-match footage to build more involvement in the event. Full redundancy is provided by the second SNG. The primary feeds are received at Globecast’s Paris teleport and are then turned around for onward distribution. The backup feed is received in London.

To increase ROI and viewer engagement, VOD content is being prepared by Globecast using its Content Marketplace service, a module of its Digital Media Hub content processing suite. Signals are transcoded into multiple formats and resolutions, including full broadcast quality, clipped and metadata added. Each broadcast affiliate using the system then receives new content notifications to promote download.

Philippe Bernard, Chairman and CEO, Globecast, said, “We are really pleased to have been selected by the Egyptian LOC, extending our relationship with CAF and Lagadère Sports. This year sees particular innovation with the use of both 4K and VOD content supply, with our Content Marketplace providing broadcast affiliates with new ways to extend viewer engagement. This is a major tournament that needs very high level technical and logistical expertise and all our partners have provided exactly what’s required.”