When it comes to live coverage of the hometown football team’s Big Game victory and victory parade, fans expect video as dynamic as this year’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles. For local celebrations, in-game interviews, fan celebrations during the game, and the Chief’s Celebratory Parade, Hearst Television ABC’s KMBC affiliate in Kansas City, MO, turned to TVU Networks for production and remote delivery of live video.
Bandwidth limitations at busy events such as watch parties and fan celebrations can lead broadcasters to assume they have to resort to costly measures such as a mobile truck and hiring additional on-site staff. Based on the station’s experience following the Kansas City Royals’ series win in 2015 and the Chief’s championship in 2020, KMBC has deployed five TVU One 5G video transmitters; TVU Partyline cloud collaboration solution; TVU MLink uplink transmitter and TVU Grid for IP-based video switching, routing and distribution to capture and deliver pristine video from Kansas City and Phoenix, the host city of the championship.
“The beauty of TVU One is that they have gotten to the point with IS+ that are so reliable that we can anticipate bandwidth issues on site and fix them before they happen,” he says Neeley Schmitz, Assistant Director of News, KMBC-TV. “There were thousands at a watch party in downtown Kansas City on Sunday. We had some bandwidth issues there. We simply reduced the bit rate and increased the latency by one second. The hit was cleaned without any problems. That ability to instantly adapt our equipment to the environment was key.”
TVU One offers high quality live video over a 5G cellular infrastructure. Using proprietary IS+ technology, all TVU uplink solutions utilize any combination of cellular, satellite, microwave, Wi-Fi and IP Ethernet connections to deliver live HD video from virtually any location. IS+ allows any IP connection at any time without interrupting the transmission.
For the February 15 victory parade, KMBC set up four TVU Ones at various locations along the route using network connectivity, and one TVU One sent video pools to TVU Grid for sharing with other Hearst stations and other national networks. KMBC also shared live coverage from Phoenix, postgame interviews, and live fan celebrations across the city on the Grid.
A TVU MLink from the station’s SUV carried live video of the celebratory fireworks from Union Station in Kansas City following the Chiefs’ win.
Schmitz says he appreciated being able to use TVU Partyline as a live feedback video feed for remote teams in Phoenix to communicate with the control room. “One of the biggest challenges we faced was getting our local staff to communicate with our out-of-town journalists and photographers so that they interacted visually with the images they sent. During the championship game, we sent our photographers in Phoenix a Partyline link and routed our main feed from the control room to their Partyline screen so they could see the images they are submitting as we distribute them from Kansas City.
He adds that KMBC uses TVU Partyline for live virtual interviews with one person and multiple interviewees. “It’s clean because we can deploy it seamlessly through our TVU infrastructure in the studio and it works every time. It’s much more reliable for us than traditional video calling software.”
Aside from its reliable broadcast, the mobility and accessibility provided by the TVU ecosystem were two of the main attributes Schmitz cited during the remote live production: & Light District, with that crowd, would have made the filming we have impossible. obtained. TVU offers us this versatility. We had a photographer traveling from one sporting goods store to another, capturing people grabbing championship t-shirts and hoodies. We were able to quickly edit the video and put it on the air. TVU’s efficiency and accessibility has really elevated what we are able to do.”
“KMBC’s implementation of the entire TVU ecosystem of solutions is at the heart of everything we do,” he says Paul Shen, CEO, TVU Networks. “They are using our technology to provide the most immersive video coverage possible during one of the biggest live events of the year in the city. The reliability of TVU wireless connectivity meant they could broadcast simultaneously from several locations in Kansas City and Phoenix. We’re thrilled to be able to help them reach their audience in a way that makes every viewer feel part of the action.”
