How Discovery Communications used Amagi’s services to launch sports channel?

CASE STUDY

Premium live sports channel fully managed on cloud Why Discovery Communications chose Amagi’s SKYLIGHT managed services to launch DSPORT, their first premium sports channel in India.

Quick Facts

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Hours of live international sports content per day

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End-to-end, cloudmanaged service for entire workflow

24x7 Fully managed playout and delivery service

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DSPORT | Premium live sports channel fully managed on cloud

About DSPORT DSPORT is Discovery Communications’ first sports

British Open, US Open, and the PGA Championship, LPGA

channel in India. DSPORT broadcasts marquee global

events, live horse racing from the best international

sporting events including Major League Soccer, Chinese

racetracks in addition to rugby, cycling, and more.

Super League, The Portuguese Primeira Liga, Brazilian Series A, NASCAR, The Golf majors including the

Business requirements With a young and growing population, India is one of

to bring together a complete playout and live MCR

the most dynamic market for sports viewership. The

operations to fruition in a short amount of time. Last,

requirement was to run a channel with more than 8

but not the least, it all had to be done without putting

hours of live content every day, with content coming

together new downlink and MCR facilities.

in live from different continents. It was a big challenge

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MANAGING PLAYOUT WITH EIGHT HOURS OF LIVE CONTENT

END-TO-END SERVICES WITH REMOTE MCR

Manage content library, playlist, schedule, graphics and playout

Š 2017 Amagi Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Managing end-to-end channel operations without setting up MCR and downlink facilities

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DSPORT | Premium live sports channel fully managed on cloud

Amagi deployed it’s SKYLIGHT managed services platform to provide fully managed broadcast services for DSPORT, inclusive of playout, delivery, and 24 X 7 monitoring.

Amagi installed a CLOUDPORT Edge server at the remote datacenter which received downlinked live content as well as offline content.

Amagi also helped DSPORT create exclusive channel branding and manage playout schedule creation. All graphics, playlists, and offline content was sent to CLOUDPORT server using cloud via the web UI.

LIVE Source

Recorded Content, playlist, graphics, subtitles etc.

CLOUDPORT Server

Headends

Remote MCR Š 2017 Amagi Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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DSPORT | Premium live sports channel fully managed on cloud

System Architecture Live Source Through Satellite

01 Data Center Facility 2 IRDs (+1 Standby IRD) to record simultaneous live feeds IP

IRD

BARC Watermark SDI

Live Source through IP streaming

IP Receiver

IP

APSTARďż˝ Satellite Uplink

SDI

Encoder

Amagi CLOUDPORT Playout Server

Archival & Monitoring System

Live Stream Recorder

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(Access provided to DSPORT for managing & retrieving recorded live feeds)

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Low Resolution IP Stream (Live input & CLOUDPORT output)

On Cloud Playlist

Automated QC

Playlist Processor

Media & Graphics Assets

Amagi Facility

Scheduling Team

Editorial Team

Post Production Team

Creative Team Monitoring & Live MCR Amagi Bangalore

Transcoding

Graphics Processor

Content/ Ad Assets

Web UI

Transport Server

Ad Sales Team

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Content Tagging

Recorded Content

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Live feed is received and sent to CLOUDPORT server. Recorded live content is saved on cloud.

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Playlist scheduling, graphics creation, and content tagging is completed. Low-res feed is continuously monitored at Amagi MCR.

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Media, graphics, and playlist are processed and output is provided to CLOUDPORT server.

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Linear feed is encoded and sent to satellite uplink.

Š 2017 Amagi Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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DSPORT | Premium live sports channel fully managed on cloud

System Workflow: Content Ingest Ingesting live feeds using cloud Media assets created by Amagi’s creative team were uploaded to cloud and transported to CLOUDPORT server installed at Hong Kong datacenter. Live contribution feeds from different geographies were also downlinked at the datacenter along with offline content from UK. All live feeds were recorded and stored on cloud, ensuring readiness for future re-runs etc.

Remote playlist management Playout schedule was prepared at Amagi’s Banglore facility for complete broadcast day. The schedule was uploaded to the CLOUDPORT interface, and all operators were intimated about scheduled events with specific instructions for handling the event.

SYSTEM Workflow: Live Playout via Remote MCR Amagi’s MCR experts switched live content sources

event was streamed to MCR for instructions on ad

based on the event calendar prepared in advance.

break-in and break-out. All breaks were managed using

Graphics, and logos were inserted on the live source

CLOUDPORT’s live control interface.

as per the schedule. Director’s commentary from the

Live Playout

© 2017 Amagi Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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Transparent media asset management on the cloud

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Edge-based playout at remote datacentre

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Fully managed 24x7 playout and delivery services

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Integration with ad partners for commercials and break playlist

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DSPORT | Premium live sports channel fully managed on cloud

CLOUDPORT Features Advanced Graphics

Adobe After Effects template import capability

Dynamic graphics generated from asset meta data and playlists

DVE including L-Bands, PIP, video squeeze, and credit squeeze Static/animated logos and bugs

Multi-layer full screen graphics

Count-down timers

Ticker/Lower thirds overlay

Multichannel Playout

Security and Reliability

Live/Near live/Non-live

• Regional feeds set up-create sub feeds with local opt-out

• AES 128-bit encryption

• Playlists integration for ad/content insertion

• Audit trails of user activities

• Last minute asset uploads

• Playout server 1+1 hot swap redundant

• Real-time playlist changes

• Redundant cloud storage

• 4K UHD, HD, and SD output

• End-to-end workflow management through web UI • Live monitoring (MCR) experience on web

© 2017 Amagi Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

• Role/permissions and access levels

• Live news and sports feeds

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Media services | Playout services | Delivery services | Ad revenue services

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