Simplylive Deploys UI Gateway to Public

Simplylive is now shipping their UI Gateway. The “Gateway” represents the essential link in the Simplylive ViBox platform to enable low bandwidth, flexible and optimized remote workflows for live multi-camera productions.

Background
Producers have long been looking for solutions to reduce location production costs. Finding ways to reduce the amount of crew they take on location has been something customers have requested from equipment manufacturers for years. To date, large sports networks have utilized REMI (remote integration model) systems to feed cameras back to their “at home” production center, thus reducing the number of crew members needed at event venues. But for many producers, a REMI workflow can be prohibitively expensive.

Competitive pressure continues to increase for producers to create more niche sporting events for more niche audiences. Whether programming is delivered through traditional broadcast methods or via the internet, the need to reduce production costs, location costs, and the ability to produce programs with smaller crews located in diverse locations has never been greater. The need is compounded in the current Covid-19 environment. Producers want to work with crew people wherever they may be located.

Simplylive Solution
The Simplylive Vibox platform is the world’s most intuitive and flexible multi-camera production system. With it’s easy to use touch-screen user interface, small footprint, and scalable workflow configurations, every Vibox system is natively remote production capable. By design, the ViBox I/O hardware, the cameras and the switcher or replay operator UIs can be located in entirely different locations provided they are connected to the same network.

The UI Gateway takes the remote production concept one major step further. The “Gateway” manages the bandwidth of the information being sent between the ViBox hardware and the operator UI’s. UI information data can be reduced drastically before being delivered to the operator UIs over the network. With the Gateway, data feeds are user adjustable to between 5Mbps and 50Mbps per UI. The net result is that Simplylive applications can be run remotely over standard, affordable internet connections.

“The current situation with the coronavirus has put an incredible stress on the industry,” says Greg Macchia, VP of Sales & Operations, Simplylive, Americas. “Our ViBox technology was designed at it’s core for remote productions and today, when we speak about at-home productions, we may be talking literally about producing from the operator’s home. Now with the UI Gateway, producers can create live programming over highly available, standard internet connections. The potential cost savings are significant and the “Gateway” offers the final component to make this scalable while also taking us one step closer to true cloud-based workflows.”

Unique Benefits for UI Gateway Users

• Producers can reduce remote production headaches – Unlike many other solutions on the market, the UI Gateway is an elegant Simplylive solution that easily integrates into a ViBox workflow. No extra equipment outside of the Vibox platform is necessary.
• More than one operator can work remotely – One UI Gateway connected to a ViBox Server can feed to multiple operators doing different tasks. That means that both the TD and replay operator(s) can work remotely – even if they are in different locations.
• Dial in what the network needs- Different production locations imply different networks. In some cases, the WAN you’re connected to could be running at 1G on fiber. But in most cases, the WAN may have much less bandwidth. The UI Gateway allows users to dial in the bandwidth per UI that is needed to operate the application UI reliably over whatever internet bandwidth is available.

The UI Gateway can be purchased directly from Simplylive. It is recommended that interested parties speak to a Simplylive product specialist to review their complete production and system needs. To find out more, visit www.simplylive.tv