What NFL Films needed was a way to produce content for the Web quickly, without errors, in a variety of formats and bit rates - all without increasing labor costs. That’s a tall order, and one that couldn’t be met with any combination of desktop-based tools.

Agility

As NFL Films investigated ways to improve their streaming production, they were introduced to Agility™ - the world’s first enterprise-class software platform for automating the production and distribution of streaming media. Agility is an end-to-end platform for automated media production, from ingest and transformation, to programmatic editing, transcoding, and packaging for digital distribution. Agility combines a modular architecture that scales to achieve unparalleled output capacity, a robust Web Services API that facilitates seamless integration with enterprise systems, and a proven fault-tolerant redundant design for demanding 24/7 media operations.

Anystream™ outfitted NFL Films with a pair of three node Agility systems to automate their production process. Now, edited packages - two minutes on average - are recorded to tape from the Avid, then submitted to Agility from DVC Pro tape decks. Once the job has been submitted, Agility automatically captures the segments from tape, then preprocesses and encodes them in both Real® and Microsoft Windows® Media at speeds of 56 Kbps, 100 Kbps and 300 Kbps - and occasionally at other broadband speeds up to 800 Kbps. Completed streaming files are then sent directly to the NFL streaming servers - all without human intervention.

NFL Films: Agility scores a touchdown

With a near fanatical devotion to quality, the National Football League led the charge to create a broadcast sporting experience that could rival the drama and excitement felt by fans in the stadium. It’s no wonder, then, when the NFL looked to extend its brand on the Web that their standards for streaming video were no less exhaustive, and required new technologies and new production methodologies.

NFL Films owns the rights to game footage from every NFL football game, and is responsible for all video and film production for each sponsored game or event. Although the networks record the games on video, NFL Films continues to shoot their game action and behind-the scenes coverage on film, preferring its higher resolution and richer look.

So when NFLFILMSTV.com, the Internet division of NFL Films, was called on to produce multimedia content for the Web, they demanded streaming quality equal to their reputation.

Looking Ahead

NFL Films now can turn their attention from day-today production challenges to other important long-term goals. As Franza explains, “We would like to provide the best sports footage in the world at true broadband levels on the Web, and I think the Agility product will help us to do that.” With 100 million feet of film in their library, the possibilities are enticing. And with Agility, NFL Films is now able to score at will, providing millions of football-hungry fans with all the quality streaming content they can handle. NFL Films created a customized job submission page with support from Anystream’s professional services group. The unique application allows all metadata for the packages to be entered before the football season starts. This saves an enormous amount of time during the season when time-to-Web is most critical, and allows NFL Films to apply automation to the encoding process while maintaining the most important elements of their existing workflow.

Quantity and Quality

This new, fully automated workflow has enabled NFLFILMSTV.com to decrease time-to-Web by 83 percent. Where they once needed four people and twelve hours to deliver files at only two bit rates, now only two hours and two people are required to deliver three bit rates. According to Dave Franza, chief information officer and executive internet producer of NFL Films, producing higher volume with fewer people hits their bottom line directly. With the Agility, Franza says, “The amount of content we produced this year was probably triple.” Equally important to an organization like NFL Films is the unprecedented control over image quality enabled by Agility. The system delivers a wide range of image processing functions that can be automatically applied prior to encoding to ensure the highest possible output. Complex combinations of settings can be saved in profiles to be recalled at any time. According to Franza, “The Agility system really improved the quality and efficiency of our whole project.”

• Hearst-Argyle Television
• Accuweather
• SPEED
• VRT
• ZDF
• RAI
• BT
• NFL Films
• SCRIPPS Networks
• CNN
• sky
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