NEP units SS11HD, SS20HD and SS25HD were on hand to produce all four days of competition in 720p HD. In addition to the EVS servers, SS11 and SS20 were both equipped with Thomson Grass Valley Kalypso HD production switchers and 10 LDK 6000 mkII Worldcam HD cameras on triax cables. SS25, one of three NEP twin HD units, housed a Kalypso HD switcher, 20 LDK 8000 HD cameras, a Trinix HD router with Concerto Series AES and analog audio operating as an integrated TDM matrix under Jupiter control and a variety of GeckoFlex modular components. 

Two Avid Symphony Nitris systems and six Avid Adrenaline edit workstations were on hand to enable direct editing of file-transferred footage at faster-than-realtime speeds from the EVS servers. Completed sequences were then transferred back to the EVS network for immediate airplay. 

The success of the tapeless HD workflow has been powered by EVS, which created compatibility extensions for their existing media management systems, such as EVS’ XTaccess that facilitated direct file transfers between upgraded XT2 servers and Avid Transfer Manager Engines. XTaccess enabled ESPN to quickly move footage between EVS production servers and the edit bays’ shared Avid Unity SAN. 

The system was so flexible, in fact, that Broadcast Fusion consultants Greg Blanton and Harris Upham had to narrow down the range of possible amenities for the X Games broadcast. 

"We needed to trim down and simplify the system to the level where it was cost-effective for a mobilized sports remote,” explains Upham, who has been involved in producing the X Games since 2001. “Avid Interplay is a great system for fixed-base post production, but we wanted to cut down on the commissioning time and user training required to get the primary benefits of this solution. We wanted something that would be easy for production to understand, and transparent to Avid editors who would fly in, sit down and start cutting." 

With a few clicks on their IP Director stations, ESPN media managers were able to send anything from restored archive clips to full current program records directly into post. Independent transfer channels allowed this process to continue while producers in the edit bays grabbed clips without queuing delays. 

“Bandwidth planning and network layout is the key to avoiding on-air playback glitches,” Blanton explains. “Our system lets the record and replay operators in the truck operate fearlessly even while editors harvest clips on demand." 

All HD media was delivered with full metadata, eliminating time consuming double-entry of clip names, timecode or user comments. 

“ESPN has spent a lot to create a permanent traveling media archive on XFile disks and EVS SQL databases,” Blanton explains. “We can now preserve and forward all relevant metadata into an edit session and add to this library while we're on-site without forcing the librarians to redo it all when it goes home between events.” 

ESPN first used the file-based bridge between live and post-production environments at the Winter X Games in January, after testing a tapeless baseband environment at several prior events. 

“We used to roll live out of EVS playout channels to an Avid digitize room,” explains Steve Raymond, coordinating technical manager of X Games for ESPN. “It saved ESPN some rent on tape decks and tape stock costs, but it was only as fast as realtime playback.” 

At those Winter Games, ESPN was able to test HD file transfers and finally break the faster-than-realtime barrier. 

“Now after several successful events, we've been able to fine-tune our solution and scale things up for even faster set-up, faster clip delivery and better organization and redundancy through multiple paths,” Raymond explains.