Riedel Communications today announced that broadcast production services company NVP has chosen Riedel’s Simplylive Production Suite to support remote production for Serie B football matches in Italy. Rather than sending OB trucks and full crews to every stadium for every match, NVP has begun deploying the live multi-camera production platform for selected matches in its “Innovation Hub” production center, leveraging the software-driven suite to increase capacity and productivity, while reducing costs and emissions. The production center was deployed in Cologno Monzese (Milan) and integrated by Video Progetti, Riedel’s local partner and integrator.
“Serie B is the perfect project for our Simplylive deployment because it’s complex content with wide national coverage,” said Ivan Pintabona, CTO at NVP. “While our move to these new workflows will allow us to leverage innovation to reduce emissions and improve the editorial plan of the broadcast product, it also gives us the opportunity to ensure a high level of professionalism on all events. Riedel’s Simplylive Production Suite is an amazing and versatile product, and because the new machines are so powerful, we also can manage more services simultaneously.”
Through an agreement with Sky Italia, NVP will be the sole provider of HD/UHD television broadcasting services for the entire Serie B Football Championship (Serie BKT) for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons, including championship matches and related playoffs/playouts. The company is rolling out the Simplylive Production Suite on a testing basis this season, with plans for more extensive implementation after this first phase. As matches are moved to Simplylive, NVP will have the resources and capabilities they need to produce events that couldn’t be previously produced due to personnel, equipment, or scheduling constraints.
The Simplylive Production Suite provides application layers that can be tuned to specific tasks — slow motion replay, video mixing, audio mixing, graphics, web commentary, multiviewing, master recording, streaming, and referee review — or serves an All-In-One production solution that delivers virtually every capability needed to serve a live production. With a single touchscreen interface, users can perform tasks such as live switching of cameras and video sources, cueing and scrubbing slow motion replays, controlling audio, or adding graphics.
The Simplylive configuration for NVP includes two ViBox servers, each of which may act as an All-In-One production control system or as a slow-motion replay system, depending on the needs of the moment. Each system is designed to support two users and multiple simultaneous operations but can be scaled up to accommodate more. Camera and audio feeds will be sent from each pitch over fiber to the NVP innovation hub in Cologno, where the Simplylive system will provide all the necessary protocols and functions for managing remote production. The NVP team will use the Simplylive suite for slow-motion replay and third-party tools to handle other aspects of production.
“At Video Progetti, we help our customers in designing optimized broadcast systems which satisfy all editorial needs,” said Carlo Struzzi, CEO, Video Progetti. “In today’s rapidly evolving broadcast market, flexible software production tools such as the Simplylive Production Suite are key technologies that allow our customers implement innovative workflows to help them succeed.”
“NVP is an Italian leader in broadcast production that has already chosen the top of the line with Riedel intercom systems and our MediorNet audio video, signal distribution, and processing system,” said Harry Kapros, Business Director for Live Production at Riedel EMEA. “With our Simplylive Production Suite, NVP has committed to new workflows, deployment types, and business models that enable them to innovate and navigate into the future of live production. It has been great to combine forces with NVP and with our trusted partner and system integrator, Video Progetti, to see this project become a reality. We feel confident there will more innovative projects to come.”
Giuseppe Angilello, Riedel’s Sales Manager Italy, added: “It feels great to be venturing in the heart of live production with a forward-thinking partner like NVP, who has made a reputation as an early adopter of innovative technologies. It is customers like these that help us push the boundaries of the possible, and we are delighted to be able to showcase our new distributed production workflows in NVP’s new scalable and futureproof innovation hub.”
