By Brian Galante
LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y. — For a decade, St. Petersburg-based CP Communications and its Red House Streaming arm have been on the streets of the City of New York on a Sunday that sees thousands of athletes of all shapes and sizes seeking to conquer the TCS New York City Marathon. With a combined engineering and production team, working with event producer FILM 45 on behalf of the New York Road Runners group that stages the annual 26.2-mile affair proved to be successful once again this year.
For the 2024 affair, the CP and RHS teams took on new technical challenges, and improved previous elements. Among the bigger enhancements was a broader implementation of private LTE spectrum, streamlined REMI site systems, and an integration with Starlink that enabled IP-based aerial acquisition.
These content acquisition and networking innovations from the RHS side paved the way for CP technicians to expand the event’s streaming footprint to 48 outbound feeds originating from HD-21, CP’s flagship 53-foot expando production truck. Those feeds were sent to multiple broadcast and streaming platforms, including flagship TV broadcast partner WABC-7 in New York, co-owned MVPD and streaming-distributed channel ESPN2, the TSC New York City Marathon App, and NYRR’s social media platforms.
“Over the years, we have gradually taken control of production elements where we can make a difference,” said Frank Rafka, Technical Manager for CP Communications. “This year, we took full responsibility for the TSC New York City Marathon App consumer experience, producing and streaming nine live feeds. That’s a big change from last year where we handed off select camera feeds to a third party. We added two VMix systems to HD-21 and assigned a dedicated operator to each for live mixing and switching of all nine feeds. We also added a dedicated encoding channel to our on-board Haivision Makito X4 video systems for low-latency transmission, which ensured real-time delivery to the app.”
As was seen in past years, the RHS team deployed REMI production systems to three locations, slimming down the technologies to simplify setup and operation. Haivision Pro460 5G mobile video systems were among the encoding and decoding technologies used to contribute live feeds to HD-21 from the three REMI sites, leveraging both public mobile networks and special CBRS wireless spectrum from Citizens Broadband Radio Service. RHS also deployed Pro460 systems to seven on-course motos, including dual-stream Smartcars with Sony cameras and microphones to capture live POV feeds and commentary from on-course talent.
The CBRS spectrum proved especially useful for intercom communications, particularly at the start and finish lines where public mobile spectrum can quickly reach capacity. “We assigned a Green-GO digital intercom system to the CBRS spectrum, which provides a private LTE cellular network for mission-critical needs with networking and communications,” said Aaron Segarra, Vice President of Sales for CP Communications and Red House Streaming. “That ensured clear spectrum for intercom at the start and finish lines where you have large crowds of spectators sharing their own pictures and live video feeds.”
The Green-GO intercom network included 18 beltpacks at the starting line and 12 at the finish line along with six iPhones at each site, with connectivity to a cloud server from Pente Networks to manage all technologies assigned to CBRS spectrum. The communications strategy included a city-wide Unity radio system for field technicians, moto drivers, bike spotters and press vehicles, and an RTS ADAM matrix with RVON connectivity between HD-21 and the three REMI sites.
The biggest change happened in the sky where RF technology was long exclusively used for aerial content acquisition and networking — until this year. CP Communications established a partnership with Heli INC to provide a camera-equipped helo for aerial coverage of the race. CP and RHS technicians designed a platform in collaboration with Heli INC to mount a Starlink satellite antenna and use that service for connectivity and Haivision for encoding.
“That was a huge accomplishment in our quest for uninterrupted connectivity,” said Rafka. “We recently started using Starlink to embellish existing cellular coverage for sporting events as there are always spots with coverage caps, and others where we can’t establish a reliable internet drop or run a cable across the street. For the marathon, we equipped Starlink connectivity to a helicopter for the first time. We still had a traditional RF microwave link on the helicopter for backup, but we used Haivision encoders as our primary encoding links. For the first time, we provided uninterrupted coverage of the entire race from all locations via IP with sateliite-based Starlink connectivity.”
— Additional reporting from RBR+TVBR in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
