LiveU has announced the implementation of its comprehensive IP remote production solution at Tabcorp – Sky Racing, changing the way Australia’s company broadcasts live horse racing events to try to reach audiences worldwide, as Jump has claimed in a statement.

Using LiveU’s IP remote production solution, Sky Racing will be able to broadcast horse races from eight tracks in Queensland (QLD) managed from its central production hub in Brisbane. The remote production set-up has eliminated the need for traditional SNG trucks, Outside Broadcast trucks and full on-site crews.

Additionally, Sky Racing has been able to reduce its costs by almost 80% by removing the whole satellite process. They’ve also designed a remote modular rack system with LiveU encoders installed in all their venues and the production team can log in and support the system from anywhere. Having a centralized hub has helped the company allowing cost savings with certain staff being able to multitask between multiple venues (Director, CCU, Replay and Technicians for example).

“LiveU’s remote production solution has transformed how we deliver live races in Queensland for aggregation and distribution to our domestic and international markets,” said Jamie Ford, Technical Operations Manager – QLD, Tabcorp – Sky Racing. “By deploying their LU810 encoders across our tracks and using our production hub in Brisbane, we’ve achieved what was previously unthinkable – maintaining broadcast quality while significantly reducing operational costs and complexity. The system’s resilience and low latency, with seamless cellular backup and flexible return feeds, ensures we never miss a moment of action while maintaining the feeds needed in both directions.”

LiveU’s features LiveU’s multi-cam LU810 fixed encoders at each race track, supporting primary transmission of between 8 to 16 cameras (or other sources) per location, over high-speed WAN, sending up to four signals per device. To try to achieve an extra layer of resilience, it is using both LU810 encoders and separate LU810-M (modem) encoders connected via cellular. This set-up looks for leveraging the public internet for baseline reliability and switching to cellular if needed.

LiveU’s remote production tools include Video Return, Audio Connect, and IP Pipe. From the central production hub, teams can monitor up to 36 live camera feeds from eight different race tracks simultaneously with LiveU’s Transceiver.

Ryan Osinga, Manager, Technical Services and Solutions, Tabcorp – Sky Racing, summed up, “We’ve ended up with a product that is cheaper, more reliable, and more resilient, it’s got more features, lower latency and we have a significant reduction in costs. For us the LiveU solution ticked every single box that we had.”

“Tabcorp went all-in on remote production for Sky Racing and we worked very closely with them to ensure that the solution was adapted to their production needs,” said Chris Dredge, Country & Sales Manager, LiveU Pacific. “The flexibility of the LiveU EcoSystem meant that we could devise an innovative workflow that worked for them, optimizing their resources on-the-ground and centrally. It’s a great use case for multi-venue events and we’re already seeing potential for similar projects elsewhere.”