Fremont, CA, USA – Wednesday, March 20, 2024 – Blackmagic Design today announced that the Mountain Attack, a ski mountaineering competition, was the arena for the first real world test of the live broadcast streaming capabilities of the Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2 camera.
Mediahaus GmbH has been the host broadcaster for the past decade, and this year it was able to send live H.264 streams from its mountainside race cameras using SRT, a protocol optimized for live video streaming, down the mountains to its outside broadcast (OB) truck in Saalbach, Austria.
Working with Hutchison Drei Austria, Mediahaus utilized a standalone 5G network to bring live camera feeds with incredibly low latency from the mountaintops to the production team and the Director, Wolfgang Angermüller, in the Mediahaus OB.
“Eleven years ago, when we started working with the race founder Roland Kurz, it was quite a challenge to get two cameras on two summits,” recalls Angermüller, who is also CEO of Mediahaus. “Last year, we set up four cameras on four summits, connecting each through SDI to an encoder, then to an IP connection via a cable car modem. Additionally, we used two mobile cameras on snowmobiles, linked by Mobile Viewpoint’s bonded cellular.”
He adds, “Setting up all this equipment and encoders on the mountaintops took us two days.”
This year’s use of SRT and 5G, tested with Hutchison’s standalone network, significantly streamlined the process. The tests, conducted in Vienna and then onsite in Saalbach, achieved a latency of just half a second. “We were streaming SRT at 5Mb/s output with a latency of half a second, which is nothing,” notes Angermüller.
To overcome challenges posed by the mountainous terrain blocking certain 5G signals, solutions included a connection to the Starlink satellite network and backup WiFi access points. Each URSA Broadcast G2 was assigned an ATEM Streaming Bridge converter in the OB truck. Acting as a receiver, these compact video converters allowed an ATEM live production switcher to connect to the cameras’ SRT streams.
At the finish line, the OB gallery employed an ATEM Constellation 8K live production switcher for vision mixing, with the same SRT data link sending camera control and tally signals back up to each camera position. That provided Mediahaus with remote control over the cameras, including shading via an ATEM Camera Control Panel. “The other significant advantage was that we now had tally lights on the summit cameras to let the operators know they were live,” says Angermüller.
“One of the hardest summits to reach turned out to be the summit where 5G worked without any problems,” he concludes. “Our operator took his URSA Broadcast G2 and the mobile phone and headed up there. It was so much easier not to bring an encoder and SDI cables; the camera battery powered the phone. We saved a whole day of working time with this setup.”
Spectators followed the race leaders on a big video wall at the finish line or watched the live broadcast on the Austrian sports streaming platform LAOLA1.TV, YouTube and other social media.
Press Photography
Product photos of URSA Broadcast G2, ATEM Constellation 8K, ATEM Streaming Bridge, ATEM Camera Control Panel and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images
About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com
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Mediahaus GmbH Brings SRT Live Streaming to the Mountain Attack with 5G and URSA Broadcast G2
