ROLAND GARROS 2021
Acing it: The Switch empowers rightsholders to deliver more immersive live French Open coverage than ever
Live time
- 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
Always there
- 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
Always on
- 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