Case Study

Sky Sports (UK) commenced a new 3 year contract in 2013 for US Open tennis – an event they have shown for over 15 years – most of that time from their own studios in London. 4 years ago it was decided for the first time to have a presence on site, and for the last 3 years, this has included a studio, production scanner and edit trailer, as well as ENG camera crews capturing arrivals, interviews and Sky’s own view of the action court side.

Flexibility

Since the first on-site event, Edit Out have supplied the edit requirements, but in 2013 year we were able to provide a much smarter and still cost effective solution with a pair of main edits, shared storage, and a comprehensive media management solution.

One of the biggest challenges was the amount of ENG footage shot – and the choice this year to shoot not only P2 HD media, but a lot of high-speed footage from a pair of Sony FS700 cameras. We also had to integrate with the EVS XT3 servers on site, not only to send completed edits back for play out, but all to stream selected matches directly to shared storage for onsite highlights that could be enhanced with Sky’s own coverage.

A 24Tb Small Tree Titanium Z video server was specified for the event, and we also made extensive use of Adobe’s suite of tools – Adobe Prelude to import, compile and transcode footage to the DVCProHD codec needed on site (matching material already bought from London) as well as After Effects for visual design – and from 2014 Adobe Premiere Pro as the main edit platform. A dedicated media manager was able to keep the large amounts of ENG and other EVS sourced material organised, as well as compiling ‘best of’ compilations for use later in the tournament. The system also held all match points from all televised games, useful for inevitable ‘route to final’ packages, and player stories.

Enjoy the “Story of the US Open” that closed their comprehensive 2 week coverage – the vast majority of which was shot on site exclusively by Sky by David Caine and Oli Hallowes for Sky Sports.