The Match, a one-on-one tournament between top pro golfers Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau held at The Wynn in Las Vegas last November, was captured live on site with audio mixed more than 2,000 miles away at Bleacher Report in New York that was delivered via a REMI stream utilizing a Digigram IQOYA SERV/LINK and IQOYA CONNECT system incorporating a Dante connection to the production’s communication system.
Mark Steinmetz, senior manager of video technical operations at Bleacher Report/Warner Media, explains, “When Don Kuser from Professional Wireless Systems initially talked me through the capabilities the IQOYA system could provide for our remote workflow, I knew we had to try it. IQOYA opened up a whole new world, making everything run smoother for the producers. The audio was coming in from 2,400 miles away, but it was so clean that you couldn’t tell that there wasn’t a broadcast truck on-site.”
REMI — or remote integration model — is a production workflow allowing live content to be captured from a remote location and managed at an off-site control room. Steinmetz says the IQOYA SERV/LINK and IQOYA CONNECT decreases the amount of broadcast trucks needed on-site due to its multi-functionality.
“It saves all REMI productions from having a truck on-site every time because you only need a few of the features the truck allows,” he notes. “The IQOYA CONNECT takes care of all the routing. And it allows for multi-set monitoring. You can’t do that without it. It was nice to monitor the bitrate and the jitter via the Cloud.”
Professional Wireless Systems rented and installed the system, with Kuser adding, “The IQOYA System allowed Bleacher Report/Turner Sports to not have a full truck on-site and not have to worry about what truck is in the area or how much it’s going to cost. Now we basically have a giant digital audio snake from New York to anywhere in the world as long as we have an internet connection. I knew this technology would be a game changer for our clients when we saw it.”
Due to the pandemic, production companies have cut down on the number of people working on-site, a place where where the IQOYA system can provide advantages. “With less people on-site, something like IQOYA is big because it’s brand agnostic as long as we have one on both ends,” Steinmetz concludes. “It ties a bunch of systems together, so that’s really exciting.”
