Elite badminton players from around the world congregate each year to compete in the Malaysia Open, an important stop on the circuit of tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). Fans unable to make it to Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil this year were kept apprised of the latest updates via high-quality YouTube live streams produced by Macking Domain. Over the course of the six-day tournament, more than 12 hours of match footage across four courts were streamed to the Malaysia Open YouTube channel. Macking Domain relied on a host of technology to deliver the action, including four AJA HELO H.264 recording and streaming devices.
Given a straightforward set of video delivery requirements by its client, Macking Domain set out to establish a workflow built on AJA’s HELO. “We needed to deliver 1080/60p video with audio from each of the four courts and get live scoreboard content from each court integrated into the feed, which is why AJA’s HELO made so much sense,” shared Yoke Tee Tan, General Manager, Macking Domain. “It’s an affordable device that makes it incredibly easy to bring audiences a very high-quality viewing experience.”
Four Sony cameras, one on each court, were connected to a Newtek VMC1 digital media production system and captured live match footage. Courtside laptops housing scoreboard feeds were then encoded to NDI, and audio was embedded from each court using AJA Mini-Converters. Embedded audio signals came in as an NDI stereo channel via a network device interface converter and were split into two separate mono channels on a TriCaster video production system. The eight mono channels were routed to the corresponding scoreboard and linked with the associated court stream using 1 M/E; that signal was then routed to each SDI output on the VMC1. All four SDI outputs from the VMC1 were connected to four AJA HELO units for live streaming straight to YouTube; footage was simultaneously recorded to SD cards in HD using the HELOs.
“The results were impressive,” shared Tan. “All four HELO units streamed seamlessly with no delays or setbacks, and the UI presets made it easy to save and recall settings in a single click, which helped ensure a consistent look across streams.”
About HELO
AJA’s HELO allows users to simultaneously stream video signals to Web Content Delivery Networks while encoding and recording H.264 files to SD cards, USB storage or network-based storage with the push of a button. Supporting a range of professional workflows, the H.254 streaming, recording and encoding device includes 3G-SDI and HDMI inputs and outputs and the power to handle up to 1080p recording formats among other features. www.aja.com/products/helo
About AJA Video Systems, Inc.
Since 1993, AJA Video has been a leading manufacturer of video interface technologies, converters, digital video recording solutions and professional cameras, bringing high quality, cost effective products to the professional, broadcast and postproduction markets. AJA products are designed and manufactured at our facilities in Grass Valley, California, and sold through an extensive sales channel of resellers and systems integrators around the world. For further information, please see our website at www.aja.com.
