Manchester United Television prides itself on being one of the worlds; most innovative sports television channels. Jointly owned by Manchester United, Sky TV and ITV Granada, MUTV is accessible on a conditional access basis to a potential 18 million viewers in 68 countries. MUTV subscribers receive timeshifted home and away matches, up-to-the minute reports and exclusive interviews recorded at the Trafford Training Centre.

The Challenge

MUTV needed to bring in-house all the facilities necessary to manage its presentation and transmission directly from the Old Trafford Stadium site, broadcasting from 2 pm each afternoon to 12.30 the following morning. MUTV broadcast about 90 games each season. Premiership matches are handled by the host broadcasters, Sky Television and the BBC, who field up to 18 HD cameras for a major match. We take a feed from the back of their OB unit into our gallery where we add our own live commentary and produce our own show.

The Solution

Controlled directly from a playlist generated by the scheduling manager, Pharos Playtime creates a dynamic presentation with graphics effects without the need for external post-production facilities. Traditional broadcast control systems rely on a simple video event playlist as their timing reference. Playtime uses the Pharos ?package? mechanism with any number of independent tracks for each secondary event sequence. Individual tracks are displayed on the Playtime control screen as separate timelines, typically representing main video, backup video, discrete voice-over languages, GPIs, mix/effects, logo and subtitles. This offers a very straightforward way of automatically managing the look and style of the channel and any programme themes without the need for any additional graphics design and character generator.

Why Pharos?

Over and above the look and feel improvements Playtime enabled MUTV to develop the channel further by carrying live in-picture text feedback directly from Manchester United supporters. A particularly useful feature of Playtime is its ability to operate if necessary as a studio mixer and router in addition to its main role as a presentation switcher. A high proportion of MUTV's programme output is live so it makes good sense to eliminate any single point of operator error or technical failure in the overall system. The switcher can be used manually or under automated control from Playtime.

Business Benefits

• Gives MUTV channel complete control over its output in-house.
• Has allowed the identity and interactivity to develop using packages and templates.
• Reduced the need for a separate graphics or post production work.
• Combines automation with the ability to take hands-on control of a story or event during the match, as it happens.
• Reduces the amount of content repetition.
• Direct integration of channel management
• Any changes to the schedule can be managed at very short notice.
• Expanding the channels output and flexibility, going on air three hours earlier than before.

Key Functionality

• High operational versatility for live and non-live presentation.
• Integrated graphics control using packages and templates.
• User-friendly and easy to learn Graphical User Interface.
• Freedom to migrate gradually from tape-based operation to a hybrid of tape and hard-disk server playout.
• Open-ended flexibility means easy future expansion in number of channels.

Pharos Playtime Automation in MUTV MCR