Digitisation and Live Broadcast over IP for the FEI

The FEI is the world governing body of equestrian sport. It exists to ensure that events are conducted in a fair, consistent and structured way across the globe and that the welfare of the athletes is upheld.

Holding several hours of video archives of the numerous events taking place worldwide, the FEI was looking for a partner who would be able to digitise their content, manage their legacy and upcoming assets and facilitate their distribution among members.

“This project follows the strategy of our company by ensuring the perfect digitisation of their archives and at the same time enhancing content exchange thanks to a solid platform,” comments Frederic Fievez, Projects Development Manager at BCE.

To do so BCE (Broadcasting Center Europe) designed a platform as a service solution (PaaS) taking advantage of its numerous in-house services but also its strong partnerships with key technology providers such as EVS.

“It was paramount for us to make more of our content. BCE and EVS came up with a solution that allows us to save our video archives and to leverage this content through global distribution,” Ralph Straus, FEI Commercial Director.

Digitisation and content management

Located in the heart of RTL City in Luxembourg, BCE offers numerous state-of-the-art services for the media market. Managing digitisation projects for key media players (HBS, European Parliament, EBC, CNA, FFT, Qatar Olympic Committee, to name but a few), BCE is able to answer to mass digitisation projects.

“In order to answer the media digitisation challenge, we have created a dedicated digitisation site, connected to BCE headquarters via dark fibre. This site allows the provisory storage of the archives which are scheduled to be processed.” Explains Tun Van Rijswijck, COO at BCE.

The digitisation site is perfectly secured with 24×7 guards and monitoring, upon reception, the FEI archives are handled with the utmost care by BCE’s engineers and, after careful review of the lots, the archives are organized and scheduled for digitisation. In order to maximise the processing time and rendering quality, BCE uses two dedicated LMS and “Au2Ingest”, an in-house software solution which automates the digitisation processes.

“Using our own software solution give us the possibility to tailor-made the features of the solution to the needs of the project. Au2Ingest was then able to match FEI needs but also connect seamlessly with EVS solutions”, explains Olivier Waty, Technology and Project Director at BCE.

BCE’s Media Manager manages FEI content through EVS MediArchive Director. This solution offers a set of software tools to centrally manage archive digitization and content delivery platforms, including formats which allow intelligent media browsing based on metadata and logging.

FEI assets metadata is stored in the solution with the user information; the Media Manager is able to control the QC as well as the transcoding tasks.  EVS MediArchive director is also connected to the online EVS storage for the latest clips and to BCE’s nearline library (Oracle) located in RTL City Datacentre for other material.

File-based distribution

To ensure the seamless content delivery to FEI partners worldwide as well as the reception of IMG highlights for the federation, BCE has integrated in the PaaS its high speed file-based delivery system “Movie2Me”.

“Delivering and receiving content from the US majors as well as from RTL Group subsidiaries since 2007, “Movie2Me” is the most appropriate solution to distribute assets within a completely secured and encrypted environment. The Media Manager is able to trigger deliveries, give access to the FEI and its partners and manage in and out going content,” comments Xavier Thillen, head of Digital Media Operations at BCE.

Thanks to BCE’s cloud-based interface, the partners and the FEI are able to review the content online and receive the files via “Movie2Me”. More than delivering content, the FEI also needed to broadcast its events on the USA market.

Live over IP

Being pioneers of IP infrastructures, BCE holds a strong experience in “over IP” services and can therefore offer smart alternatives to its customers.

“Being integrators and operators, BCE is able to provide us with high quality live services. The complete workflow runs seamlessly from the coverage of our key events globally, to the delivery of full HD streams to our partners in the US,” comments Ralph Straus, FEI Commercial Director.

Numerous events are covered by the FEI. In order to make these productions available worldwide, FEI asked BCE to ensure the live broadcast of their content to the USA. To do so the live productions of the Federation are sent via satellite to BCE’s teleport in Luxembourg.

The live feeds are immediately transcoded in our Datacentre to a full HD IP Stream. The live IP stream are then sent to FEI’s partner in New York and broadcasted live among their network.

The largest European telecom hub for media distribution

Connecting to BCE via our file-based distribution services grants you access to our media network. BCE boasts the largest European telecom hub for media distribution, connecting you to almost every major city in Europe. As a telecom operator, BCE has global telecom lines with a strong presence in Europe. Hosting 3 of the main worldwide players positions BCE at the heart of telecommunication in Luxembourg.

“Cost-effective and flexible enough to compete with other transmissions solution, Live over IP meets today standards of the broadcast industry and allow fast communication with FEI partners for worldwide broadcast. “ Costas Colombus, Technology Project and Support Director at BCE.

BCE and EVS have orchestrated the development of the FEI legacy and daily content. With this new streamless workflow, the FEI will be able to develop its footprint on a global scale and strengthen its relationships with its partners. The Federation can now focus on content creation with a future-proofed platform and strong media services.