LONDON—BT Media and Broadcast has added LiveU IP-video support to its switching capability to provide dynamic live content sharing alongside its LiveU field units, benefiting its sports, remote production, news and live event customers, LiveU said today.
The move brings together LiveU’s Reliable Transport (LRT) protocol with BT’s wider content and distribution network, covering Internet Protocol (IP) and Serial Digital Interface (SDI), creating a seamless experience for customers, it said.
BT Media and Broadcast moves up to 24,000 hours of content each day through its International Media Centre at BT Tower in London. Its FacilityLine works in the uncompressed SDI domain—from SD to 4K—operating as the backbone for U.K. broadcast services, as well as linking broadcasters and the global production community.
BT has installed LiveU receiving and decoding technology to create direct receive and transmit capabilities. The collaboration will power multiple use cases, ranging from enabling LiveU users to reach takers who don’t currently use its technology to providing additional resiliency alongside traditional fixed links using LiveU, it said.
Content takers, wherever they are in the world, can benefit from a cost-effective and ad-hoc service and still access the global hub of English language content. BT Media and Broadcast is now able to provide a simple link to live content, whether SDI or LRT, to smaller broadcasters and channels that don’t have a master control room or live gallery but want live content to increase viewer engagement, it said.
“This collaboration opens up an exciting range of content sharing possibilities across sport, news and many other verticals. For ad hoc events, LiveU customers can easily send their feeds to BT Tower for secure, reliable sharing,” said Dom Wrona, head of portfolio and GTM at BT Media and Broadcast.
“Extremely reliable feeds can also be made available for remote production anywhere in the world," Wrona continued. "By working together, we will enable LiveU users to distribute their content to more customers through our network and people who want access to that content can get it via our connectivity.”
BT Media and Broadcast also has the ability to send/receive live feeds via LiveU Matrix, the company’s next-gen IP cloud content sharing platform. This will be available to BT Media and Broadcast customers in the future, it said.
The company has also acquired multi-camera LU800 field units, expanding its in-the-field contribution options for customers. These are available for hire from BT Media and Broadcast.
More information is available on the company’s website.
