Quicklink Makes a Difference for National Rugby League Webcasts

Optimizing webcast content offerings and production operations is the goal

Earlier this year, Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL) turned to Quicklink  to improve and optimize its content offering and production operations. NRL’s webcasts both on official website NRL.com and on the NRL app have driven digital audience engagement to new heights in 2019.

NRL in Australia is relying on Quicklink to improve webcasts.

The technology was deployed by the NRL’s digital division, which creates, produces, archives, and live-streams hundreds of hours of content to NRL.com and the NRL app on smart devices.

NRL implemented the ST55 (Studio Browser) into its workflow for HD-quality, bidirectional audio/video contributions. The Studio Browser solution enables NRL to very easily introduce players and coaches via a simple web browser to Studio for interviews on its Inside NRL weekly feature and other studio shows.

The ST500 (Studio-in-a-box) was also implemented at NRL’s head office for the weekly football briefing press conferences. The portable, all-in-one solution has made it very easy for NRL to deploy and is fully remote-controllable from the Quicklink Manager at the Studio control room (in a different location).

“The Studio-in-a-box is a compact unit with simple inputs/outputs that has made it easy for us to set up almost anywhere,” says Alex Agaciak, of the NRL Media Services team. “We have been able to facilitate a regular production operation with this technology that was not on our original radar when we procured the technology, and it has been easy collaborating with Quicklink to validate things when required.”

The Studio-in-a-box incorporates a Panasonic PTZ camera, inbuilt lighting, and LCD touchscreen and is ideal for broadcast contributions where available onsite technical resources are limited.

Quanah McBride, digital operations lead, NRL, notes, “The Quicklink solutions have added considerable value to our production capability from the day they were commissioned.”

McBride also explains that NRL envisages using the Quicklink solutions more and more as the team looks to improve and optimize its content offering and production operations even further.