ROLAND GARROS 2021

Acing it: The Switch empowers rightsholders to deliver more immersive live French Open coverage than ever

The French Open wanted to enable rightsholders to offer more advanced and immersive live coverage of the 2021 tournament after a year of pandemic-induced sporting disappointments, keeping tennis fans worldwide excited with more feeds delivered from more courts than ever
It was vital that an expanded on-site production set-up at Stade Roland Garros, home to the Grand Slam tournament, was operational as quickly as possible and easy for the on-site engineering teams to configure
The Switch stepped up to deploy groundbreaking connectivity and transport of live feeds to support blanket coverage of the world’s premier clay court tournament for major rightsholders, including Tennis Channel, ESPN, Stan Sport and Nine

As the primary connectivity and delivery provider for the French Open, The Switch extended its network capability in France to enable a 100% IP-based production environment conforming to SMPTE ST2110 standards
All-IP media workflows permitted the separate transport of fully uncompressed video, audio and data from 17 courts at Stade Roland Garros, including direct connections to rightsholders’ Los Angeles facilities and The Switch’s London media hub
State-of-the-art deployment allowed the transport of uncompressed HD feeds via dedicated fiber paths
Utilized three dedicated transmit paths between Europe and North America, one created specifically for the tournament, and installed new hardware at Roland Garros
Net Insight provided the primary backbone for the network through the installation of Nimbra nodes for the transport of high-performance feeds

SMPTE ST2110 integration meant more camera feeds were carried from the Paris venue, offering Tennis fans worldwide significantly more viewing options, with simultaneous live feeds of different matches being made available
The project increased the agility and efficiency of broadcast rightsholders in delivering live content, giving them more ways to meet the expectations of modern tennis fans
The Switch’s close partnership with Net Insight significantly reduced the cost and complexity of the installation and ensured it was operational within three days
Best-in-breed delivery network enabled Tennis Channel to reach its largest audience yet, with the men’s singles semifinal between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal on June 11 reaching 511,000 viewers