Sinclair Broadcast Group Upgrades ENG Services With LiveU HEVC

Sinclair Broadcast Group recently signed a multi-year lease agreement with LiveU that upgrades its fleet of hundreds of portable transmission units to LU600 HEVC for its newsgathering operations. The agreement immediately upgrades Sinclair stations spanning 80 production locations in the U.S. to LiveU’s flagship model of HEVC field units featuring higher efficiencies, greater stability, increased reliability, and the best video quality in low bandwidth situations.

Sinclair has been a LiveU customer since 2011 and has grown with LiveU. The media group chose to upgrade its fleet of bonded IP solutions to maintain a competitive edge in newsgathering and grow as generational improvements occur in the LiveU solution set.

“From the beginning, Sinclair recognized the value that LiveU technology provides to our news gathering and content operations. It is the commitment of the people at LiveU who develop and support the product that make the difference,” says Del Parks, SVP Chief Technology Officer, Sinclair. “We value our relationship with the company’s COO & Co-founder, Avi Cohen and LiveU. This deal is a recognition of the value LiveU brings to our content operations.”

“As Sinclair Broadcast Group has expanded its footprint, LiveU is there to ensure its stations have the latest cutting-edge technology to deliver maximum image quality at any bit rate and compete within their local markets,” says Cohen. “We continue driving the IP revolution by providing our customers with the best performing live newsgathering bonded cellular solution available on the market. We look forward to Sinclair’s continued success with our technology.”

Sinclair continues pushing the technology envelope with the use of LiveU’s other IP-based solutions including LiveU Matrix, LU-Smart, and LiveU vehicle solutions.

Real-time Content Contribution & Distribution
Sinclair is implementing LiveU Matrix to share live content for news events, such as the California wildfires, across all its broadcast and digital news platforms. LiveU Matrix, the company’s next-generation IP cloud video management platform, enables Sinclair’s stations to view, manage, and distribute live content quickly and efficiently throughout the station group using low-cost internet connectivity.

LU-Smart for Mobile Journalists
As breaking news happens anywhere at any time, Sinclair is evaluating the ability to arm its field reporters and crew with LU-Smart app for smartphones, so they can go live virtually anywhere and send that content back to the studio for editing and distribution.