NBC Sports employed 16 channels of Abekas’ Mira Production server for the Football Night in America production during Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale, Arizona. Mira delivered content to on-set displays at three different locations around the University of Phoenix Stadium, and was used for clip playback during live coverage of the pre-game, half-time, and post-game shows.
At the NBC Sports headquarters in Stamford, Conn., another 40 channels of Mira Production and an Abekas Tria are the backbone of all on set graphics playback across four control rooms for all NBC Sports broadcasts. An optimum workflow has been established that delivers graphics on-air far faster than previous systems. The graphics department uploads graphic packages to a dedicated Mira transcode channel. The transcoded clips are then automatically uploaded to a storage area network (SAN). Each Mira is connected to the central storage system via the internal LAN. For the Super Bowl, this workflow was extended via wide area network (WAN) to the NEP SS24 remote truck at the stadium.
“We have created a very efficient graphics playback system centered on Mira,” explained Craig Bernstein, director of remote technical operations, NBC Sports. “Using Mira Servers in Phoenix was a no-brainer for us. It saved us a considerable amount of manpower hours because the graphics team didn’t need to recreate all of our existing content to accommodate another clip playback system in the truck. With Mira on board and connected through to Stamford, all of our clips can simply be transferred to the Mira Servers on the truck already transcoded and ready for air. This also means that last minute graphics changes are easily accommodated.”
The nature of live sports means last minute changes. Sponsors might change or players might be injured, and these events require new last minute graphics. The graphics department in Stamford creates new packages and follows their normal workflow—the new graphics are transferred to the Mira at the remote location and can be used on-air moments later.
“The technical directors for Football Night in America requested the use of Mira at the Super Bowl,” said Bernstein. “We have really come to rely on Mira—it’s a rock solid product and extremely user friendly. The fact that we were easily able to extend our workflow from Stamford to Phoenix makes it difficult to imagine using any other multi-channel clip playback server for this type of event.”
The maturity of the battle-hardened interface means doing even the most complex clip playback sequences are very straight forward. Using AMP protocol, a technical director can cue all 16 channels of Mira instantaneously, dramatically simplifying the operation and interface to the switcher on game day.
“The fact that NBC Sports relied on Mira for their live coverage of the most-watched TV program on the planet is a testament to the product’s reliability and ease-of-use,” said Junaid Sheikh, CEO, Abekas. “NBC has standardized on Mira for all studio productions; in addition to the 48 Channels at Stamford, there are over 180 channels at NBC Networks at 30 Rock.”
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More