Premier Media Group in Australia Selects Chyron for Sports Nets

Premier Media Group (PMG), Australia’s leading sports producer and broadcaster and home of FOX SPORTS Australia has installed two of Chyron’s HD/SD-switchable HyperX2 graphics systems for use by FOX SPORTS 1, 2, and 3; FOX SPORTS News; FUELTV; How To Channel; and the recently launched FOX SPORTS HD channel.

Premier Media Group owns and operates seven TV channels which are provided to subscription TV providers FOXTEL, AUSTAR and Optus, as well as providing content to mobile phones and other online partners. PMG broadcasts an average of more than 20 hours of live sport per day to a potential total audience of more than seven million viewers in Australia. PMG’s HyperX2’s are used for all main graphics, CG production and studio productions. Magazine shows are produced in native HD and down-converted for SD channels.

“The catalyst for our decision to go with HyperX2 was the launch of our FOX SPORTS HD Channel,” says PMG Chief Technology Officer Tony Scanlan says. “We decided to re-engineer all of our studio productions to HD, so the hunt was on for a capable HD graphic solution. We have had great success with a previously installed LEX SD system from Chyron and I wanted the same features – usability, reliability and high specification – in HD. HyperX2 delivers that and much more with the same ease of use and rich production workflow benefits that we have enjoyed so much with Chyron in the SD world, but now in a switchable HD/SD environment.”

PMG’s key objective in the move to HD was to maintain high levels of creativity, specifically to enable the use of template driven graphics – especially those created at the start of each Australian sport season – and utilise data integration with PMG’s new business unit “FOX SPORTS Stats” who provide template content and live statistics. PMG has already developed an extensive integration of HyperX2 and the FOX SPORTS Stats database, enabling template-driven scores, league tables, betting odds, standings and other data to be effortlessly incorporated.

According to Scanlan, “This is now all automated via database queries, XML imports and scripting. These functions provide us with a huge saving in resources and time over traditional manual entry.”

Chyron Asia Pacific Director of Sales William Payne adds, “PMG is a long-time Chyron friend and customer, and a highly respected innovator. We are delighted that they have continued to find not only great success with Chyron products, but that they have developed new ways to take our technology to ever-higher levels of functionality.”

Scanlan adds, “We’ve had tremendous success with HyperX2, but I’m also going to repurpose our original SD LEX systems for new graphics initiatives and solutions. They are simply too good to lose.”