NAB 2016: The Video Call Center Selects Haivision Video Streaming for Remote Production
Haivision announces that The Video Call Center (VCC), a video technology and content production company, has selected Haivision’s low latency video streaming solutions to power remote production capabilities of its revolutionary video caller television program solution. The companies will exhibit this solution at NAB 2016 at the Renaissance Hotel, 2nd Floor.
VCC has pioneered a new genre of video caller television, where entire programs are built around interaction with video callers from anywhere in the world. These programs are a radical re-imagining of how relevant and timely live broadcast TV talk shows can be produced – capturing millennials’ interest in being “inside the story.” At the intersection of social and mass media, TV and the web, VCC enables a video talk show host to produce a program from any location by engaging with remote audiences through video calls from their laptops and mobile devices, all without a control room. The remote host relies on low latency, high quality video to control the show.
Haivision’s video streaming solutions power the remote production capability of the VCC solution. A unique characteristic of VCC is the host controlled option, which permits a host, from the comfort of his or her local studio or even their home, to manage an entire show from a single automated control position. Viewer calls are first answered, screened, and organized at VCC’s production center in New York. Multiple camera angles of the remote host are also delivered to the production center. Participants’ live streams, the live streams of the host, and the production control feeds are then fed back to the remote host to integrate into a full broadcast production using the VCC Host Automation Technology (HATTM) to direct the show, select guests, add video or graphics and get interviews on air. The proprietary “control-room free” automation assists the host on maintaining focus on the content and maintain eye contact with the camera.
VCC uses Haivision’s Makito X low latency H.264 encoders and decoders at both ends of the remote production experience providing multiple links in both directions – two cameras on the host and two return feeds supporting the production. VCC also leverages Haivision’s SRT technology so the local stations can take advantage of low cost and easy-to-deploy public Internet connections. A key element of the workflow is the Haivision Media Gateway, installed within the VCC production facility to enable simplified and rapid switching of all IP video streams between customers. Supporting SRT, the Haivision Media Gateway is like a combination video router and distribution amplifier for IP video.
“We’re supporting a revolutionary new genre of participatory television that lets people from anywhere call in and join live on-air programming,” said Larry Thaler, CEO of VCC. “The Video Call Center offers a number of solutions for program creators who want to improve engagement with their audiences, expand their market and create new compelling live content, while still providing the efficiency and editorial control to produce a high quality show.”
“VCC is another great example of how broadcasters are leveraging new technologies to gather more types of content,” said Peter Maag, Haivision’s CMO. “It really challenges the traditional ways of contributing live content, and we’re proud to power the solution with our video streaming products.”