Welsh Rugby Union meeting of 3 December 2013

3xScreen is a London-based studio that provides online video services for Agencies, Corporates, Events and Sports. 3xScreen specializes in the video production and live streaming of events online – which 3xScreen does for the likes of the BBC, The Football Association, Disney, Universal, The Press Association, Red Bull, EA Sports and VANS. Using our LiveU backpacks, 3xScreen can live broadcast in HD from anywhere without an Internet connection or satellite truck. Recent 3xScreen projects include:

 

 

  • Live production and live streaming of YouTube’s Summer in the City music festival;
  • Live production and live streaming of UCI BMX Supercross events around the world;
  • Live production and streaming of music event for Original Penguin;
  • Live production of VANS BMX and skateboard events around Europe;
  • Live production and streaming of England Women’s football matches for the Football Association;
  • Live coverage of England football team training sessions and press conferences prior to all international matches;
  • Live streaming of Cage Warriors cage fighting championship events;
  • Live streaming of events for the Facebook and Twitter Q&As for the Hollywood studios;
  • Live streaming for Manchester City Football Club.

 

About 60% of 3xScreen’s business today is production and streaming, 30-35% live streaming and 5-10% live crosses for TV.

The unbranded live player we currently use is JW Player, which can be skinned and customised, within an iFrame. We auto-sense the viewing device in the iFrame, giving desktop viewers a Flash stream and iPad, iPhone and Android viewers a HTML Live Stream stream. Both Flash and HLS are adaptive multi-bitrate and consist of 3 or 4 streams each. For corporate clients we have started to use HLS for both desktops and mobiles since it is less impacted by corporate firewalls.

 

We deliver our own streams via a combination of Tier 1 Global CDNs – Akamai, Limelight and Edgecast – and have no practical limit to the number of viewers. For the royal baby coverage we did for the Press Association this year we had 5.5 million live stream viewers, and at it’s peak, 30,000 viewers per second join the live.

 

An example live stream player can be seen here.

 

On-Site. For production, we have a small OB truck and flyaway production kits. We have produced live sports this year around Europe, in the US and further afield. We use Tricasters as our production switches and use a combination of manned HD, robotic HD and Point of View cameras. The use of Tricasters as our main production switchers gives us the ability to easily add production graphics such as sports clock and score, substitutions, score lower thirds and broadcast bugs; play in clips and other materials; mix and match cameras; integrate affordable slow-motion instant replays; utilise multiple M/Es for broadcast effects and picture-in-picture and other effects and drive the robotic cameras.

 

Connectivity. We send the live program output produced at the event to the 3xScreen Master Control Room via a LiveU backpack. The key value of utilising LiveU in our production workflow is that we don’t have to worry about the vagaries of the internet at the stadium.  The LiveU bonds together seven 3G/4G mobile phone circuits along with whatever Ethernet and WiFi is offered up to create a point-to-point, groomed, high quality live video link. If there is no 3G coverage we also have Ka satellite flyaway kits and a Ku dish on our OB van to add bandwidth from those to the LiveU backpack.

 

MCR Production & Encoding. Our MCR has primary and backup 100 Mbps x 100 Mbps fibre links – so we have lots of bandwidth for live streaming to multiple platforms simultaneously. In addition to being able to take in multiple LiveU feeds, we also have satellite dishes to downlink and live stream feeds – and a bi-directional HD BT Tower connection – so we can take a feed from basically anywhere to live stream – and we can also send live to broadcasters via BT Tower. Each LiveU feed is received in to a Tricaster where additional graphics can be added if needed and we can play slates, tickers and other content prior to and after events. We can also split languages and add stream-specific graphics. We record all productions, clip and upload highlights and turnaround replays all at the MCR. We principally use Elemental encoders for live streaming at the MCR.
A selection of 3xScreen sports-related live stream productions are here:

 

A selection of 3xScreen productions are showcased in the following playlist player.

 

Representative pricing for sports events is:

 

Six HD camera game live production, not including Director and commentators – £8,000

 

HD Outside broadcast kit consisting of:

 

  • 4 x Sony PMW500 XDcam EX Camcorders including 4 x Canon HJ22 zoom lenses, heavy duty tripods, rain covers, external controls and view finders
  • 1 x Sony HD wireless camera for pre-game tunnel, pre and post-game pitchside, coach/bench during game
  • 1 x GoPro commentator camera
  • 3 x 416 microphones including wind gags and spikes
  • NewTek Tricaster 855 vision mixer, NewTek 3Play 425 EVS and NewTek LiveText graphics machine
  • Tally to cameras and crew production comms
  • Commentator unit including 2 x Coles lip mics, program monitor and dedicated commentator talkback
  • Animated match graphics

 

Nine person production crew of:

 

  • 5 x live sports experienced camera operators with SIS experience or similar
  • vision mixer, graphics operator, replay operator, unit manager/broadcast/stream engineer

 

Live streaming including connectivity from site, stream graphics, adaptive multibitrate Flash and iPhone/iPad streams and all CDN costs. Also delivery of 2-minute highlights and FTP full copy of the game. 24-hour replay immediately folioing game.

 

Travel additional. Assumes no structures required. Assumes 240v 13A or 16A power available for OB van.

 

Single HD Camera Press Conference Live Stream – £2,000

 

1 x Sony HD camera.

 

Broadcast bug and lower thirds added at 3xScreen MCR.

 

Live streaming including connectivity from site, stream graphics, adaptive multibitrate Flash and iPhone/iPad streams and all CDN costs.

 

Delivery of 2-minute news edit on FTP along with full copy of press conference.

 

24-hour replay immediately following conclusion of press conference.

 

 

Three HD Robotic Camera Production and Live Stream of Awards Ceremony – £3,000

 

3 x HD robotic camera live production including live mixing desk, HD robotic cameras, vision mixer/director and robotic camera operator.

 

Broadcast bug and lower thirds added at 3xScreen MCR.

 

Live streaming including connectivity from site, stream graphics, adaptive multibitrate Flash and iPhone/iPad streams and all CDN costs.

 

Delivery of 2-minute news edit on FTP along with 2-minute highlights and full copy of awards.

 

24-hour replay immediately following conclusion of awards.