Live Sports Production & NEP Group

Signiant

December 11, 2024

6 min read

For the past few years, Signiant has been talking about the content explosion for sports broadcasters, leagues, clubs, and even players. Keeping fans engaged all year round is driving the need for a non-stop flow of content. But creating, distributing, and managing all that content has become an increasingly tough challenge for everyone in the sports content supply chain.

NEP Group + Signiant Webinar: Tackling the Challenges

In August 2024, NEP Group, a global leader in sports broadcasting, joined Signiant in the Sports Business Journal webinar, Managing the Content Explosion in Live Sports. NEP Group’s Jay Deutch, Director of Media Operations, US, and Jay Choffat, SVP Global Product, joined Scott Wall, Signiant Principal Solutions Architect, to discuss the live sports landscape, the challenges broadcasters and leagues face managing the surge in content, and how NEP leverages the Signiant Platform to meet the all the demands of live sports production.

Key Takeaways from the Webinar:

1. There is Increased Content Volume and Complexity

The amount of content produced has grown significantly, partly due to more cameras (some events use over 120), higher resolutions, and multiple viewing platforms. Content must now be delivered to various outlets, including linear TV, OTT platforms, social media, and global rights holders.

Casper Choffat noted, “The number of outlets is growing. It used to be just linear. Then OTT came in; now we have social. There are multiple outlets in multiple locations depending on how the rights are distributed.”

2. Distributed Production Workflows are Vital

Teams are often dispersed across different locations, necessitating real-time, cloud-powered workflows for collaboration. This impacts the pressing need to find, view, access and share large volumes of content quickly to meet tight deadlines.

Jay Deutsch mentioned, “There are clips being created even before the match — warmups, walk-ins, and so forth. That content is very valuable for the editors and the producers in the studio putting together a five, to six-hour-long studio show. [With Signiant,] we can get clips from the truck back to the studio in a matter of minutes.”

3. The Partnership Between NEP and Signiant is Important

Collaborative innovation between companies like NEP and Signiant is crucial for meeting current challenges and preparing for the future. The partnership allows for tailored workflows that meet the specific needs of large-scale events and smaller productions.

Jay Deutsch noted, “Partnering with Signiant has been a great experience. Together, we’re helping build a better platform and product for our overall market, not just for NEP, but for the industry in general.”

4. Technological Advancements are Essential

Signiant’s accelerated file transfer technology enables the rapid movement of large files, which is essential for live sports production. Unified control and visibility tools for monitoring and managing file transfers provide real-time insights and streamline operations.

Scott Wall emphasized, “We’re providing a level of control and visibility to the team — when the content is created, where it’s been moved to — the whole chain of custody. So, in the end, their end customer has a line of sight of where the content lived, where it’s been moved to, and where it’s ended up.

Supplying the Surge — The Content Needs Before, During and After the Event

The rise of social media, player brand building, legalized betting, direct-to-consumer offerings, and even historical archive requests all contribute to the rapidly growing demand for streamlined, efficient content workflows in sports production. Digital viewers alone are expected to grow by more than 21% from 2023 to 2025.

This “explosion” of content is driven by several factors: technical advancements, an expanding number of viewing platforms and global rights holders, increased use of in-venue screens, and audience development strategies.

To fulfill the content channel, productions are creating a growing volume of file-based content before, during, and after the game. Production deliverables around a live sports broadcast may include:

Before: Preparing production assets, including graphics, footage from previous matches, interviews, player profiles and promotional content, ensuring readiness for live coverage.
During: Transferring highlight clips, in-venue video content, referee review clips, and media obligations to global platforms in near real time.
After: Archiving game footage, fulfilling league and media obligations, delivering post-game highlights and interviews, and sending player and social media influencers content.

Adding to this complexity, content is stored across diverse locations, including on-premises systems, the cloud, and hybrid setups, while distributed production teams work from multiple locations.

From pre-production to post-game highlights, the file transfer needs in live sports production are growing more urgent and complex, requiring innovative solutions to keep pace.

The Signiant Platform — the Right Tool for Live Sports Production

The live sports industry thrives on delivering fast, high-quality content under intense deadlines and growing file demands — and Signiant helps meet that demand. Here’s how:

The Signiant Platform — the Right Tool for Live Sports Production

The live sports industry thrives on delivering fast, high-quality content under intense deadlines and growing file demands — and Signiant helps meet that demand. Here’s how:

Acceleration:

Fast file transfers to move large, high-resolution files, such as game highlights, interviews, or the final melt, in near real-time to meet tight deadlines.

Control and Visibility: 

Centralized management tools provide a clear, real-time view of all file transfers, enabling teams to track, prioritize, and troubleshoot workflows as needed.

Storage Independence: 

Integrates with any storage system — on-premises, cloud, or hybrid — providing flexibility to work with existing and future infrastructure.

Efficiency:

Automates repetitive workflows, freeing teams to focus on creating engaging and personalized experiences for fans.

Reliability:

Built-in file integrity checks ensure every bit of data arrives intact, no matter the distance, with no corruption.

The Signiant Platform is the ultimate solution for navigating the high stakes and high volume of live sports production with confidence and efficiency.

“In the next few years, given the rapid growth of our industry and the rapid content requests that we get, collaborative innovation models like the ones that we’re working on with Signiant are hugely important to drive our industry forward. That’s what we are very much focusing on, is working very closely with our partners and our partners being both people that build products and provide products for our users in the solutions that we build, but also our clients.” ~ Casper Choffat, SVP Global Product, NEP Group

Looking Ahead

As we celebrate the milestones of 2024, this webinar highlights the importance of innovation in live sports production. From the World Cup to niche streaming events, the need for powerful, flexible tools has never been greater.

To our friends at NEP Group: thank you for sharing your expertise and for trusting the Signiant Platform as part of your toolkit! Together, we’re helping the industry deliver unforgettable moments to audiences worldwide.