At every home game, the Carolina Panthers broadcasting team, based at the Bank of America stadium, delivers the high-quality footage, highlights and replays their fans expect. Even after game day, the team compiles highlight packages for local TV stations and supports additional events taking place at the stadium. To enhance its broadcast initiatives on and off season, the Panthers organization utilizes the K2 Dyno Replay System powered by the K2 Summit 3G production server, K2 Fast Storage and NVISION 8140 Hybrid router from Grass Valley, a Belden Brand.
“When we needed to replace our router it only made sense to expand our relationship with Grass Valley. Not only did the NVISION 8140 meet our unique needs, but Grass Valley’s post-purchase support has always been second to none,” said Berkley Dickens, manager of broadcast engineering, PantherVision/Panthers Broadcasting. “The features and technology included in Grass Valley’s replay solution, servers, storage and routers, coupled with their support have helped us grow our production capabilities without adding to the team’s workload.”
For the Carolina Panthers, the NVISION 8140 Hybrid router offers the advanced features of an enterprise class router, such as redundant power supplies, control cards and crosspoints, in a 144x288 matrix; but most important to the Panthers broadcast teams, the NVISION 8140 supports integrated audio routing capabilities with no need for external embedding and de-embedding of audio. Unlike other routers on the market, NVISION 8140 requires no additional equipment when separating and re-integrating audio to a different video file. Additionally, the ability to pre-set game settings before the game clock starts allows the team increased operational flexibility and efficiency as anyone can help operate the router after it’s been set up for the game.
The K2 Summit 3G server with K2 Dyno controller allows the Carolina Panthers to easily meet the NFL requirement to replay each play of the game. K2 Dyno’s unique AnySpeed technology dynamically provides the smoothest playback at any speed from zero to 200 percent; and the DynoZoom tool allows for pan/zoom functions to be applied to high frame-rate camera systems including 3X 1080p, 6X and 4K UHD. The team uses three K2 Dyno replay systems for multi-angle replay of every play at Panthers’ games plus highlights of relevant out-of-town games being played at the same time. The efficiency of the replay system allows operators to easily mark clips to be used in the highlight show the Panthers produce for the local TV station after each game. With the added power of K2 Fast Storage, the Panthers can store an entire season’s worth of clips from K2 Dyno for future use.
“A long-standing customer relationship, like that with the Carolina Panthers, gives us an opportunity to truly understand their operation, and the unique challenges the team is facing,” said Rich Zabel, vice president sales, eastern region, Grass Valley. “Whether through our solutions or through our ongoing support, we’re proud to play a role in their broadcast efforts now and moving forward.”
Due to the fast-paced nature of live sports, the Panthers’ broadcast team looks to invest in solutions that can be quickly and efficiently operated with minimal training as different members of the team may need to manage different roles throughout a game. Grass Valley solutions provide the flexibility and reliability necessary for the Carolina Panthers to engage fans throughout the game and comply with NFL broadcast guidelines.
