TMCnews Featured Article

KenCast (News - Alert) will provide live coverage online of the Dan Finn Classic 2012 Games on Jan. 14, 2012. The six basketball games will be broadcast live online for a single fee of $10.00 as a PPV event by this charity organization. Five of the games will feature some of the best high school basketball teams in the US and some of the best individual prospects. 

The games will be played in the Jersey City Armory, a National Guard Facility. The building is a cavernous older brick facility with a high ceiling. The basketball court is in the center of a quarter mile running track used by local colleges for track meets. Seating at floor level and balcony level are a substantial distance from the basketball court. This means long cable runs from cameras with expensive lenses in the balcony to the video switcher operated by the event director. 

In addition, there is no Internet access wiring in the building.

This makes four camera coverage of this event - with video switching and broadcast requirements difficult to accomplish. Traditional coverage calls for an expensive, fully equipped truck parked outside the building to provide microwave or satellite links to reach telecommunications facilities that can carry the broadcast of the games to the Internet.

KenCast will employ technology that uses wireless data services (so called 3G & 4G networks) from carriers such as Verizon, AT&T (News - Alert), T-Mobile and Sprint, to carry the live feed directly from the video switcher to telecommunication facilities that enable delivery to viewers on the Internet, anywhere worldwide, with any device (desktop computer, laptop, netbook, iPhone, iPad, Android (News - Alert), etc.). 

The requirement is to carry the video up to the Internet at High Definition (720p), and deliver at the best resolution possible to each viewer accessing the games. To carry the video from the games into the Internet Cloud will require bonding four wireless networks to get enough bandwidth for High Definition. Since these wireless networks are shared public networks they are noisy and drop parts of the transmission.  In addition to bonding, KenCast will add error correction to overcome the typical noisy signals to get a flawless live stream.

In order to accomplish this, KenCast will employ its Video-on-the Move (VOTM) Pro System IBIS appliance.   This appliance is battery powered and weighs only 1 ½ pounds. The IBIS will take the output from the video switcher and broadcast the output wirelessly on four bonded networks to the Internet Cloud. Transcoding in the Cloud will enable viewers with any device to see the games at the best quality the signal from their device up to the Internet enables. The IBIS removes the need for the expensive truck.

In addition, KenCast wireless technology will link one or more cameras covering the game to the video switcher. This eliminates some of the problems of long cable runs. This type of wireless connection, employing WiFi (News - Alert), enables a camera person to roam the facilities completely – in this case, enabling in audience interviews, courtside close-ups of in team huddles, etc.

This Video-On-The-Move (VOTM) technology adds flexibility and ease to coverage of many such events where unrestricted movement is desirable and wireline facilities are lacking.