CP Communications Evolves Playbook

CP Communications and its Red House Streaming subsidiary once again took to the streets of New York City to manage end-to-end content acquisition, networking and transmission for the 2023 TCS New York City Marathon, a 26.2 mile race, organised by New York Road Runners (NYRR), that takes runners through all five boroughs.

Working under the direction of FILM 45, a non-scripted entertainment and branded content company responsible for the overall event, the CP and RHS crew achieved 100 percent video and audio coverage of the men’s, women’s and wheelchair races using IP and bonded cellular technology.

For the late 2023 event, CP an RHS also added new cloud production techniques, specialised wireless spectrum technologies, and IP transmission gear to enhance collaboration, strengthen network coverage, and reduce program latency to near zero.

Red House Streaming officially launched just prior to the 2017 running of the annual race to reduce the burden of acquiring wireless RF frequencies for marathon coverage. CP and RHS technicians have since gradually eliminated most RF from the technical plan over the past several years as IP, cloud and bonded cellular networks and technologies have matured. Red House Streaming's efficient solutions now provide complete coverage from the Staten Island starting point to the finish line in lower Central Park, with CP Communications' flagship 53-foot expando HD-21 serving as the local NOC for IP transmission, QC and monitoring.

"We deployed a coverage network with eight routers that all connected back to HD21, which created high-capacity pipes to move video, audio and intercom across multiple points including three REMI sites for talent, four smart cars and two electric motorcycles," said Frank Rafka, Technical Manager for CP Communications. "We had approximately 300 devices on our network with every signal pumping through redundant IP paths, and we increased the bandwidth this year to accommodate four 1Gb drops that connect to the 10Gb switching infrastructure on HD21. That allowed us to push a very large amount of data, much of which was sent into the cloud to enhance our collaborative production processes around live switching, graphics, and distribution."

New this year was the adoption of Haivision gear to accommodate low-latency video networking and transmission needs over IP and 4G/5G cellular networks. That included Haivision Pro460 5G mobile video transmitters mounted inside smart cars, and Pro360 4G transmitters added to electric bikes. Haivision Makito X4 video encoders and decoders were used to send SRT feeds to HD-21 for live monitoring, and Aviwest encoders were assigned to special CBRS wireless spectrum. CBRS, short for Citizens Broadband Radio Service, provided CP and RHS with the spectrum to architect a private LTE cellular network to improve coverage in spotty areas such as the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.

The CP and RHS team handed off content to another production company for live broadcasts with national and international television and streaming partners, including ESPN (ESPN2), WABC-TV and their respective mobile apps. The NYRR also engaged CP to provide live camera feeds for the TSC New York City Marathon App, a second-screen experience powered by Tata Consultancy Services. CP deployed one Haivision StreamHub instance in the cloud to monitor and manage live camera feeds that allowed app users to watch their favorite runners cross the start, finish and key spots along the course, complementing the general race stream. Grabyo cloud video production tools were also used to produce graphics and insert commentator audio, enhancing the experience for app viewers.

"StreamHub can exist as an on-premises device or in the cloud, which helped us evolve our content management strategies this year," said Allen Harris, Lead IP and Bonded Cellular Specialist for Red House Streaming. "We had six physical StreamHubs on HD-21, which we used to manage 12 program feeds, four camera return paths, and security camera feeds. Many of these streams would be converted to SDI for use on the truck, and some of these streams went directed to StreamHub cloud instance as IP streams for distribution to the Tata app. It represents a strong example of how we use ScreenHub as the digital glue in our productions to connect multiple vendors, and enable wider distribution of out signals."

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