|
|
PTV
PTV streams British soccer content with Windows Media
British soccer content is streamed over the Internet by PTV using Windows Media, with Windows Media Digital Rights Management technology ensuring security for the rights owners
PTV  (Premium TV) is the largest paid-for producer of streaming sports content in the UK. It creates websites and additional streaming content for many of the soccer clubs in the Premiership and Football League.
The service began with traditional websites focusing on textual information, but the premium content side, which launched at the beginning of the 2002/2003 season, to which fans pay to subscribe, contains highlight shows, some offering TV-style news programmes with interviews and features, five days a week. There is also a searchable video archive, and a separate live audio commentary console. The service has generated 48,000 subscribers, making it the biggest online sports subscription service in Europe.
All of this soccer content is created using Windows Media® and Adobe Premiere software. Ninety-nine per cent of the clubs use this combination. "I've used just about all the editing software there is and I think Premiere is the easiest to use and the most versatile," says Ben Forman, audio/video and streaming technician, from PTV, who set up the system.
"We chose to use Windows Media as part of our system because it is very versatile. It is easy for us to communicate software changes with clubs and flexible for different user abilities. We know we are reaching our subscribers.
"The player is easy to integrate with our websites and the encoder with our video editing systems," he adds. "The picture quality is great." The combination of technology has a lot to do, as it's a high volume operation. "We work to a large scale and with tight deadlines, about 100 games a week, all in," says Forman. Match highlights are recorded from a satellite feed onto tape, captured on Adobe Premiere workstations, then edited and commentary added. The material starts as uncompressed AVI files and then, using Windows Media, these are encoded into three separate versions according to where on the service it will end up: broadband at 300 Kbps, mid-range (for downloading) at 200 Kbps and 34/38/44 Kbps for modem users.
"We are integrating Windows Media into a massive system which involves 40 plus soccer games and 70 plus radio stations on a Saturday," comments Forman. "We have 80 encoders running all the time, each producing a constant stream—this allows the clubs to broadcast when they want—to have a mini radio station. The chairmen are happy, because it means more money for the club, and the fans are happy because it allows more interaction."
The 100 games a week total doesn't include additional feature programming produced by the clubs themselves. Each club has access to an Adobe Premiere workstation and some basic camera equipment. They use this to create interviews and features, which are edited, voiced and encoded on site (most clubs have a presenter), before being sent back to PTV for broadcast.
Then there is the commentary service. "There are around 80 commentaries—available as a Windows Media stream—every match day. No-one else provides that kind of volume when streaming Windows Media," says Forman.
"On a match day, three staff members might be listening to commentaries, and four or five editing games and monitoring the feed. All the ITV regions send each other the goals produced in their region, we have a satellite on our roof and pluck the goals out of the air."
The searchable archive on the premium sites is another selling point for soccer fans. Each game is edited, encoded into a media file and important events are logged, so that when a user searches for say ‘Alan Shearer goals’, a list of playable clips arrives on screen. "This involves a massive database backend, combined with a simple user interface for the fans," explains Forman.
So far, PTV's video programming involves pre-packaged features and highlights, but there are plans for the next stage: live Internet broadcast of games. "In the next 12 months we want to be broadcasting live video games. When we do, Windows Media will be useful to us as it has very good digital rights management tools providing security features and passwords—which means that only those who pay, get to watch."
 Back to the top
|
|
