Notes From the Show Floor: Azzurro Group, Broadcast Pix Do More with Less

Across the NAB Show floor, vendors are showcasing new ways for sports productions to do more with less.

For the Azzurro Group, more with less translates to finding new ways to acquire more high-quality content at low cost, and the company has achieved that through its Azzurro IP Service. On display as the NFL Network uses it, Azzurro’s fully managed transport service takes in video feeds from all 32 NFL practice sites and brings that content back to network headquarters in Culver City, CA.

“NFL Network has eight decoders in their facility in Culver City,” explains Bill Cordo, senior sales director for the Azzurro Group. “When you’re a broadcaster, you can have these cameras anywhere you want, and you’re able to call them up any time you need them. Through our interface, we can control the cameras with pan/tilt/zoom, control audio levels, IFB, even lighting.”

Clients can also log into the Azurro interface from any WiFi network, so breaking news can be covered remotely, no matter how far the producer is situated from the camera.

Broadcast Pix has made a business out of doing more with less, thanks to its popular channel-in-a-box production solutions. Paul Lara, director of marketing for Broadcast Pix, is seeing a steady progression away from switchers that only switch, which plays right into the company’s theme.

“It’s becoming more of an expectation that a switcher incorporate more than just cutting video,” Lara says. “This year, Broadcast Pix is working down the ladder to the broader market. We’ve come out with a new hard surface, the 500 panel, that’s a $3,000 switching surface that is cheaper, by far, than anything Broadcast Pix has ever offered. That same surface plays into all the integration we have on the 2M/E switcher.”

With the ability to do more than just switch within footprints far smaller than that of traditional switchers, Broadcast Pix is showcasing innovative ways to do more with less.