Viacom18 owns the digital media rights for the TATA IPL to deliver on their OTT platform JioCinema. The media company required a solution to connect 12 stadiums to three of their studio locations, where the regional feeds are produced for the purpose of remote production and world feed contribution. The video and audio signals involved are pre-produced world feeds and individual camera feeds in both HD and UHD/4K, which need to be carried securely, reliably and in real-time over distances of up to 2,000km or 1,200 miles.

Viacom18 picked the Nevion solution that is fully redundant and offers hitless transport as per standard SMPTE 2022-7 to ensure signals are carried without interruption between locations. The solution is based on the software-defined media node Virtuoso and the media orchestration platform VideoIPath, both key building blocks of Sony’s Networked Live offering.

Virtuoso is used to transport up to 16 HD (3G SDI) and 4 x UHD (12G SDI) from the stadiums, as well as 4 x HD (3G SDI) return feeds, over diversified and redundant IP MPLS wide-area network (WAN). The video signals are compressed for transport using JPEG 2000 and JPEG XS to maintain high quality contribution feed with low latency.

VideoIPath initially provides the monitoring of network connectivity and signal flows. Its role will be extended in the next phases of the project to include network control and signals orchestration.

In addition, Nevion provided a variety of services, including on-site professional services to ensure the smooth deployment and running of this critical infrastructure supporting the very high-profile sports league.