BBC Sport continues move to tapeless production with additional EVS technology

By Kevin Hilton

As the new football season approaches in England BBC Sport continues its move to a tapeless production chain, which will be used for building the highlights packages screened on the flagship Saturday night Match of Day programme.

The Post Production division of BBC Resources has further developed the system used for the BBC’s coverage of last year’s FIFA World Cup in Germany, which called for a fast turnaround of material. A similar requirement for Match of Day has resulted in new non-linear editing suites being installed at Television Centre in London, along with extensions to the existing EVS network and server.

The installation is designed to give BBC Sport as much choice and flexibility as possible and includes two additional Avid Adrenaline suites, a fifth Avid Airspeed ingest station and two more Final Cut Pros. Both systems signal a continuing shift towards non-linear editing from more traditional linear methods.

The EVS system now features the most recent version of the XT2 server, which is able to be upgraded to HD but right now will be used to distribute SD material around the facilities, managed by an Avid Transfer Manager system. EVS LSM (Live Slow Motion) units are also part of the installation.

Chris Groom, lead editor at BBC Post Production, explained that the EVS LSM system is able to better integrate with the Avid workstations and can play-out direct to air, which allows material to be turned around as fast as possible.

BBC Sport has been testing the EVS IP Director logging tool and this may be added to the overall system in the future. Clive Hodge, head of operations at BBC Post Production, commented, “This investment gives us the flexibility to align with our customer’s present needs and meet its future technological and logistical aspirations.”