Agile Content launches Agile Live. An innovative new GPU- and cloud-based production workflow
The solution rolled out by SVT for rally events saw proof of reduction in both cost and environmental expenditure
12 September 2023. Agile Content is thrilled to announce the launch of Agile Live, its brand new GPU- and cloud-based production solution. First tested as a proof of concept last year by SVT, Agile Live was rolled out for its first real-world deployment for the broadcaster’s live remote production of this summer’s Royal Rally of Scandinavia where it significantly reduced both the production costs and the environmental impact.
New product overview
Agile Live harnesses readily available technologies, innovative GPU use, and a new transport protocol to offer a transformative solution for broadcasters. Not only does it produce the highest-quality programming for broadcast or streaming (including for emerging online services and platforms) but also provides substantial cost savings. On top of this, Agile Content’s analysis of the solution’s CO2 output found that it can reduce a production’s environmental footprint by as much as 90%.
The solution does this by replacing traditional broadcast stacks with cloud-based applications for remote, distributed production. It uses standard internet connections to produce and contribute content in real time from any live broadcast cameras and/or consumer devices. Agile Live is completely cloud agnostic and can be deployed on bare metal COTS, within private data centres or in public clouds.
The GPU- and cloud-based solution features web-based proxy editing for fast turnaround live post-production, HTML graphics (which can be burnt-in or delivered separately), 3D video effects, and interactive graphics or personalised visuals. All of this comes together to allow broadcasters and content producers to widen their reach by more easily facilitating viewer-centric formats on platforms like YouTube, Twitch, Kick or TikTok.
‘Agile Live has been designed to address three of the biggest challenges being faced by broadcasters today; environmental impact, production expenses and increasing competition from new online platforms,’ explains Johan Bolin, chief business officer, media and broadcast at Agile Content. ‘We are thrilled to bring this product to the market, to provide those content producers with more options that really take advantage of the cloud to deliver such substantial benefits.’
Agile Live workflow
Waving the chequered flag for more efficient production
Swedish Television is the country’s public broadcaster and has been a partner of Agile Content for several years. As early as 2021, SVT partnered with Agile Content to address the challenges of meeting ambitious climate goals set out by the Paris Agreement and Sweden’s own green initiatives.
SVT was seeking an eco-friendly, cost-effective solution that existing products didn’t meet. So the two companies partnered on a number of tests and proof of concept projects which led to July 7, 2023 when SVT successfully broadcast its first entirely cloud-based remote live sports event using Agile Live.
The Royal Rally of Scandinavia is a brand new 16-stage, 185km round added to the 2023 season of the European Rally Championship, and one which SVT had the broadcast rights to. Thanks to an architecture which is designed to bridge production and distribution workflows, Agile Live’s ability to lower production costs meant that SVT could cover the entire three-day event with a significantly reduced budget.
The Royal Rally of Scandinavia
Not only that, but an in-depth look at the production after the event showed that SVT and Agile Content’s partnership on the rally significantly cut the production’s environmental footprint when compared to rolling out standard solutions.
‘As a broadcaster, SVT has always looked at where it can improve our programming through the deployment of innovative emerging production technologies. But we’re also under pressure as a public organization to keep operational costs to a reasonable level, and cut our environmental expenditure,’ commented Adde Granberg, CTO of SVT. ‘This was what we were trying to achieve when we started working with Agile Content to create this new cloud-based production, and the results shocked even us.’
Creating a new protocol
A key innovation that helped realise Agile Live and deliver such a successful first roll out of the solution for SVT, was the development of an open-source transport protocol; EFP (Elastic Frame Protocol). EFP not only ensures quality adjustment based on bandwidth and preferences but also achieves perfect camera synchronization. This enables the seamless integration of diverse video sources on-the-fly, allowing any connected device to contribute to the production process.
Where traditionally, the synchronization, mixing and curation of live content have all been confined to the local domain of high-bitrate SDI, Agile Live’s internet-based infrastructure allows a diverse range of sources, operating in low latency and low bitrate, to be configured for mixing, graphics, and audio, with action commands sent to the high-quality delivery feed in the cloud for seamless playout.
To engage more disparate audiences effectively, broadcasters and media organizations must adapt to the multiple preferred platforms, which requires content curation and tailoring to specific formats. Agile Live makes this possible by being able to dynamically transform productions in real-time. For example it can create completely synchronized TikTok-curated versions of programming elements with portrait-style videos and other platform-specific adjustments.
Agile Content’s GPU-based cloud-based production solution Agile Live was demonstrated at this year’s IBC show in Amsterdam between September 15-18th.
About Agile Content
Agile Content is a leading company that offers television technology solutions and services for pay television infrastructures and operations, covering all the needs of clients and partners. Through its Agile TV platform, it offers a competitive comprehensive portfolio of scalable products and cloud-based services for telecommunications and media companies.
With a team of 300 professionals and more than two decades of experience, Agile Content can guarantee that its solution differentially incorporates all the cases necessary to launch and operate an efficient TV business with sustained value for the end user.
Agile Content covers the entire content value chain, with a holistic and highly scalable approach, with adaptive solutions already reaching more than 50 million homes around the world. And it has positioned its TV service, Agile TV, as one of the 5 fastest growing pay TV platforms in Europe. With an open innovation approach, Agile Content partners with an ecosystem of companies from different disciplines to develop and drive the innovations that will revolutionize the TV experience for decades to come.
Founded in 2007, Agile Content has been listed on the BME Growth market since 2015.
