PERFORM Adds DK Technologies Waveform Monitoring to OMNISPORT Facilities

UK digital-media agency and sports specialist PERFORM has expanded the facilities for its new OMNISPORT news service with the addition of two DK Technologies audio and video waveform monitors. OMNISPORT, which supplies multiplatform broadcasters, went live toward the end of last year, with material prepared in two Avid-based editing suites at PERFORM headquarters just outside London.

OMNISPORT was beta-tested during the 2010 World Cup, with such companies as T-Mobile, Orange, the BBC, ITV, and CBS Sports taking feeds. At the time of launch, the Bulletin version was distributed to SBS, Starhub, BT Vision, and Al Jazeera. Since January, the service has been available in Arabic, French, Italian, German, and Spanish as well as English.

The aim of OMNISPORT is to offer 15,000 news stories a year, with packages including video, editorial, images, and data. Right now, the service concentrates on football, tennis, basketball, motor sports, and golf. Packages are divided into UK Football, Global Football, Sport (combining football news with general sports coverage), and Special Events, looking at major tournaments.

Because of the multimedia nature of the operation, full monitoring of both sound and pictures is crucial. After visiting IBC 2010, PERFORM Engineering Project Manager Mike Edwards selected two DK Technologies PT0710M audio and video waveform monitors to go into the OMNISPORT suites, Edit 11 and Edit 12. Each suite features an Avid NewsCutter Nitris DX workstation connected to the Interplay media-asset-management system.

One PT0710M is now in service, and the other is being tested during February and March to check its remote-control capabilities over a local-area network. Edwards says the plan is to expand PERFORM’s overseas operations this year. Although there are no details on this yet, the company wants the option of the DK units’ being controlled remotely from other facilities.

Oliver Slipper, joint chief executive of PERFORM, says of OMNISPORT, “It marks a new era in the delivery of sports-news content to broadcasters. Sports fans are consuming sport wherever and whenever they can across any device, and we understand that sports-news broadcasters need a flexible sports-news solution that can be tailored to their services. We have spoken to frustrated multiplatform broadcasters who at present are using providers that deliver only editorial or video formats and often only clear rights for one platform. We think OMNISPORT will revolutionise this sector.”