Fox Sports Netherlands Adds L-S-B Broadcast Technologies’ Virtual Studio Manager

In the Netherlands, Fox Sports’ playout facility has gone live and is controlled by L-S-B Broadcast Technologies’ VSM (Virtual Studio Manager), which is housed in a brand new facility in the Media Park Hilversum.

From the start, Fox will playout and manage six channels of HD playout, 9 online channels with the capacity for future expansion. Fox Sports is the largest premium TV channel in Holland with live sports coverage of Eredivisie & Jupiler League, Barclays Premier League, ATP tennis tournaments & Wimbledon, NFL, MLB and Formula E.

LDM Audiovisual Systems BVBA (L-S-Bs exclusive local partner for the BeNeLux) working with UK system integrator Broadcast Networks worked closely with Fox Sports proposing VSM as it offered freedom of control to manage resources and allowed complete dynamic assignment of operational positions.

Fox used VSM’s unique ‘Boxing’ functionality allowing any operational position within the playout centre to be assigned to any operational task. For example an operational position could be set up for any workflow task from selecting a playout channel to be controlled, QC operations, monitoring, editing or ingest. The user interface was designed to give a graphical representation of the facility so the operators could easily select their seat and assign the workflow offering ultimate flexibility of space and resource.