Colorado Rockies Upgrade Production Capabilities with Grass Valley K2 Media Server Technology

For improved production quality and greater reliability on game day, the Colorado Rockies production staff have installed a Grass Valley K2 Solo 3G 2-channel media server into the control room at Coors Field in Denver, CO.

The compact, standalone server allows staff members to tap into a powerful 24/7/365 file-based infrastructure and high-performance file operations while guaranteeing that on-air channels will never drop a frame of video, which is vital during live sports productions.

“We worked closely with Grass Valley on our key requirements for a dependable system for our game-day productions and everything about the K2 Solo 3G — from its price to its compact size to its functionality — appealed to us,” said Scott Magennis, Manager of Audio/ Video, Colorado Rockies. “The K2 Solo gives us 25 hours of high definition storage, immediate access to clip playout and instant replays, and loading files is fast and easy. More importantly, we never have to worry about dropping a frame of video, which is really important considering the length of the baseball season.”

Grass Valley’s K2 media server technology is based on the company’s unique architecture that delivers the highest bandwidth capability of any system in the industry. The K2 Solo 3Gdelivers the same powerful functionality as the 4-channel Grass Valley K2 Summit® 3G but is half the size, making it ideal for small production studios where space is of concern. The K2 Solo 3G easily integrates with the Rockies’ existing Kayak™ digital production switcher for fast response time while delivering a simple and intuitive user interface.

“Because we design our K2 architecture with versatility and flexibility in mind, it continues to be widely adopted by the live sports market,” said Andy Jackson, Senior Vice President of North America, Grass Valley. “We’re so pleased that the K2 Solo 3G brings a new level of production capabilities to the Colorado Rockies staff, especially at a price point that doesn’t break their bank.”

Recently, Grass Valley announced the newest upgrade to its K2 architecture to include powerful compression support for Panasonic’s new AVC-LongG (Advanced Video Codec/Long Group of Pictures) compression type, which the company announced at IBC 2013. Grass Valley’s K2 Summit® and K2 Solo are the first broadcast servers on the market to support playout of the AVC-LongG recording format, which is part of Panasonic’s new AVC-ULTRA codec family of products.