At IBC 2018, Red Bee Media will be demonstrating how we, in a unique way, can bring together the drama of live events, our broadcast grade MCR for remote production and our managed OTT platform with high quality 4K video encoding in an agile and efficient managed service.

Throughout the conference Red Bee Media will be recording a 4K video stream on our exhibition stand (Hall 5. B27) and from the 4K4 Charity Run held 07:00 on Saturday morning, 15th September, close to the RAI exhibition Center, where Red Bee Media staff will be participating to help raise funds for a local and global nonprofit, Stichting NewTechKids and Iridescent.

"The 4K4 Charity event give us a unique opportunity to show how we can capture live 4K video in the field, then encode and deliver it to audiences via our state-of-the-art managed OTT services, in an efficient and streamlined way.”

Kris Langbridge Head of Transformation and Distribution, Red Bee Media

Building a 4K workflow fast with portability in mind 

Space and size are key factors when it comes to choosing the equipment we use on our busy exhibition stand and in the field, especially if we want to bring video from the heart of the event.

For portability, we selected the GoPro HERO 5 4K camera and a LiveU LU600 portable transmission unit that enables a secure high bandwidth broadcast feed over multiple mobile data connections. Combined with the 4K HEVC Pro Card, we have found that the LU600 delivers unparalleled video performance with extreme bandwidth efficiency, in one of the smallest portable cellular bonding units in the market.

"We're increasingly seeing the impact of our 4K HEVC technology in the sports domain, most notably at the recent FIFA World Cup™ in Russia. Demonstrating our live 4K feeds in this innovative IBC project with Red Bee Media is an excellent way to show the high level of video quality attained on any OTT device.”

Paul Shepherd Regional Sales Director, LiveU

The video will be received in our Media Gateway in Hilversum and monitored by our global MCR team, where we have installed the LU4000 bonded video receiver, which will reconstruct and playout an HEVC/ H.264 video stream of up to 4Kp50/60 over 12G SDI video feeds.

For the encoding solution, we chose Media Excel’s Hero 4K Ultra HD HEVC Encoder. We configured the solution with the Hero 4K to transcode and package a Microsoft Smooth Stream in an adaptive bitrate format towards our managed OTT service platform.

"The HERO 4K OTT encoder product line enables operators to deploy services across different workflows (Live, VoD, Live2VoD, VoD2Live) and form factors (appliance, virtual, cloud). Media Excel has always advocated best-of-breed architectures; Red Bee Media's end-to-end architecture embodies exactly that and delivers quality, reliability and flexibility in a modular and cost-effective value proposition.”

Nikos Kyriopoulos VP of Business Development, Media Excel

Once published on the OTT platform, users will be able to enjoy the 4K experience over Apple TV, iOS and Android devices, by viewing the live stream or selecting our catch-up feed.

A collaborative approach

Thanks to Thomas Huurman, Red Bee Media, who configured the 4K workflow to optimize user experience, supported by Ad de Groot, Heynen B.V., LiveU and MediaExcel.

"Heynen is happy to contribute to Red Bee Media’s live 4K workflow with the mobile 4K video uplink solutions from LiveU and the 4K OTT solutions from Media Excel. At IBC Red Bee Media is showing that broadcasters can benefit today from a reliable live 4K workflow.”

Lennart Heijnen CEO, Heynen

For a full demonstration or to ask further questions about our 4K workflow, come and find us at IBC or contact us here.

Kristian Langbridge, Head of Transformation and Distribution, Red Bee Media.