Eurosport Embraces GV AMPP Playout; Part of Larger Tech Transformation

Eurosport, Discovery’s leading multi-sports brand, has selected Grass Valley solutions as part of a major technology transformation to provide ‘true cloud’ architecture supporting playout across the network’s sports broadcasts. To help achieve their goal of a unified content delivery system, Eurosport chose GV AMPP Playout, Grass Valley’s newly launched application suite for its Agile Media Processing Platform.

The project is part of a wider technology transformation Eurosport has been undertaking, which includes utilizing cloud and remote technology within a unified production ecosystem to allow it to create and distribute world-class content onto any platform, from anywhere in the world. The new playout installation allows Eurosport to efficiently deliver every minute of its event coverage across all platforms: linear television, online, streaming, and social media.

Gordon Castle, Eurosport, SVP, Technology

A long-time Grass Valley customer, Eurosport once again chose Grass Valley for its ability to deliver the tightest integration between production elements and playout on the market. This first installation of GV AMPP Playout will process Eurosport’s playout for the region. The latest application available for Grass Valley’s cloud-based production platform empowers the Eurosport team with a wide range of flexible, scalable capabilities.

“As Europe’s number one sports destination, we are committed to offering fans the best viewing experience across both live and premium on-demand content. Eurosport’s technology transformation is a fundamental part of the evolution of Eurosport business and delivery across both linear and digital platforms, helping us to unify and streamline all our operations. Many of these were previously disparate legacy systems, but now we can leverage content so much more effectively and across the organization, from whichever location our teams operate,” says Gordon Castle, Eurosport’s Senior Vice President, Technology.

GV AMPP Playout, the latest application available for the recently introduced GV Media Universe ecosystem, delivers an elastic playout solution that increases business agility by enabling users to deploy channels, where and when they need them without requiring any additional infrastructure. Built on a cloud-first, microservices architecture, engineered from the ground up for the specific rigors of live programming, it gives customers infinite scalability with the ability to provision any number of channels quickly and easily with very low latency. Mission-critical playout operations need fault-tolerant systems that deliver five-nines service availability – GV AMPP Playout’s unique self-healing design meets these needs.

“Engaging with consumers across all platforms and ensuring they get the same captivating experience on every screen is critical to our customers’ businesses,” adds Grass Valley’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and General Manager, playout, Neil Maycock. “Services today must also evolve very rapidly to keep pace with their core audience demands and need to be able to spin-down as fast as they are spun-up. Broadcasters also need the flexibility to support live events in a range of ways, from a traditional OB set-up to at-home production – and even a hybrid approach. We are very proud to work with an industry innovator like Eurosport and to help them meet their business needs.”

The Grass Valley playout application is fully cloud-based and expandable with future GV AMPP applications, allowing Eurosport to use a distributed team of operators connected via the cloud to manage the high volume of content and playout channels that the broadcaster typically handles.

Grass Valley will announce its latest product innovations and strategic updates at the GV LIVE Presents — Engage 2020 event on October 13. This one-hour live program will be streamed to customers and partners around the world at 11am and 9pm EDT. Sign up for the event at: https://discover.grassvalley.com/gv-live_presents