Portland Timbers Select Grass Valley Gear to Boost Fan Experience at Providence Park

Portland Timbers’ Providence Park chooses Grass Valley as the answer to their production issues. Their K2 Dynoreplay system, GV Korona 2 M/E production switcher and three Focus 75 Live 720p/1080i switchable HD cameras are affordable, reliable and easy to use. This equipment helps the Major League Soccer team capture and share game footage with fans in the stadium and those watching from home.
“It’s important to us to have a production solution that provides the highest quality content to our fans. We evaluated a lot of systems and we kept coming back to Grass Valley—this is a long-term investment for the future of the team and the stadium,” says Matt Smith, vice president of broadcasting, Portland Timbers. “The solution we purchased is ideal for capturing games live and via streaming media, and the fact that our production team is already familiar with the Grass Valley interface means we can get right to work with minimal training for our already busy team.”

The familiar features of the GV Korona switcher allow for easy adoption by the Timbers’ production team who’ve used Grass Valley switchers before. The compact GV Korona boasts a menu integrated into the panel that enables operators to work quickly and intuitively to produce compelling content for a variety of applications, including tight integration with the Xpression graphics engine. The panel uses the same OLED and color technologies as the larger Grass Valley panels, virtually eliminating any learning curve. Its surface also contains built-in touchscreens in the transition areas that provide status of the M/E bank at a glance.

“Soccer is a fast-paced sport and it’s easy for a fan to miss a split-second play—which makes efficient and reliable production solutions so critical to an organization like the Portland Timbers,” says Tony Gaston, strategic account manager, stadiums and venues, Grass Valley. “Grass Valley’s equipment helps the Timbers’ production team create the live action and replay content fans expect.”

The K2 Dyno Replay System and Focus 75 Live cameras also offer the sports-centric features the Timbers require. K2 Dyno features multi-channel replay, an easy-to-use interface, along with remote access to highlights and clips through ShareFlex. The Focus 75 Live cameras each contain three Xensium-FT CMOS imagers with global shutter that eliminate any of the rolling shutter artifacts seen with other CMOS-based cameras, making them ideal for the Timbers’ fast-paced games.