Exterity has announced that its products will again be used at The Open to deliver live TV and video across the Old Course at St Andrews, Scotland. The Exterity professional IP video system was originally deployed for The Open in 2010 to allow competition organizers to stream live footage of the event over newly installed course IP networking, enabling broadcasters to contribute high-quality content directly to screens across the venue. The new installation has extended the reach of the Exterity system to all the hospitality and media suites at St Andrews, so that golf fans can witness new records and watch close-ups of the action regardless of their location within the hospitality village. The system is also used by on-site broadcasters to monitor their channels as delivered from satellite and Freeview services.
The installation was led by C3i Events, which specializes in events management for large-scale sporting competitions. On working with Exterity for The Open, C3i Events owner Jason Hall commented, “The Open requires months of planning and two months on-site. Streaming a competition of this scale would have been impossible without Exterity. The system provides all off-air and on-course channels in a flexible and scalable way, as well as all the control and management features we need, and that can all be managed centrally by a single administrator. On top of consistently delivering high-quality video, the Exterity professional IP video system is easy to set up and robust. In fact, it’s so reliable that we’ve only had to expand on the original installation for this year’s 144th Open to cater for a greater number of screens!”
“Our IP video distribution solutions are being used by organizations around the globe, from financial corporations to offshore oil rigs and production houses,” added Exterity CEO Colin Farquhar. “Temporary installations such as The Open require a robust system that is quick and easy to install and doesn’t compromise on picture quality, while ensuring that the action is streamed in real time to enable visitors to be immersed in the competition, even when they’re not next to the fairway itself. We’re delighted that our initial work with C3i has resulted in continued collaboration at such a prestigious event.”
Technical specifications:
· The Exterity IP video solution sits on top of the existing fiber-based network, which has been installed on the championship course
· Distribution of content from capture to delivery to every screen is controlled centrally from Exterity’s management system, the AvediaServer Director
· The Exterity system uses 335 receivers, HD-SDI and HDMI encoders, as well as satellite and Freeview TV gateways as backup
· The system streams content from Exterity AvediaStream encoders straight to the 36m LED video wall situated in the media center
