How NOMOBO is using Remote Production and Haivision Hub to Bring Live Events into the Future
Like many other organizations throughout 2020, NOMOBO has had to pivot in order to adapt to a new, more virtual world. In this post, we’ll explore how this Netherlands-based, live events production company is using video streaming technology, including intelligent cloud routing, to bring people together virtually, and pave the way for events in the future.
Prior to COVID-19, NOMOBO was already a successful broadcast company, helping organizations and performers develop and execute event broadcasts with captivating video. NOMOBO’s experience with video and events has allowed them to help others adapt to new realities with engaging live virtual events – from online performances by top talent, to important corporate events.
Overcoming Challenges with Remote Production
Transitioning from in-person to virtual events presented a number of challenges. Fortunately, NOMOBO was ready to rise to the occasion. Knowing that having on-location staff for many of these digital events would be limited by travel restrictions and local guidelines, the team decided to develop a remote production solution for their clients.
The first step was finding the right tools for the job. The team at NOMOBO was already familiar with the Haivision Makito series of video encoders and decoders, whose reliability lead them to Haivision Hub to manage their remote production workflows in the cloud.
Haivision Hub’s global reach allowed the NOMOBO team to produce live events from around the world, with their production team remaining in Amsterdam. By monitoring the incoming and outgoing streams at very low latency, they were able to easily spot and troubleshoot any incidents that arose. “Haivision Hub allowed us to really direct the workflow,” said Robert Buisman, CEO and Founder of NOMOBO. “We knew exactly what was going on with our signal from A to B, and that really feels comfortable and gives us confidence that we can handle anything.”
Streaming Long Distance with Low Latency
Several of these virtual events required contribution feeds from speakers who were presenting from home. Fortunately, Haivision Hub’s global reach made it easy for these video feeds – often contributed over home internet connections – to make a short jump to reach the Haivision Hub cloud ingest point and then over Azure backbone to the NOMOBO production team, as opposed to trying to organize multiple point-to-point contribution video streams. Using SRT, the secure and low latency streaming protocol, from location to location and across the cloud made it possible for NOMOBO’s Amsterdam production team to work with several live video sources simultaneously and in real-time. A recent live event even called for 36 simultaneous video sources.
Using Haivision edge devices and cloud tools for remote production certainly made it easier for NOMOBO to obtain live contribution feeds while respecting local guidelines – but more importantly, it helped to create an immersive experience for their clients and in turn, their client’s attendees. Clients came back pleased about both the low latency of the video, (for one event, the return feed had a round-trip time of 2.6 seconds from San Francisco to Amsterdam and back) as well as the overall broadcast quality production.
Broadcast-Quality Video, Made Easy
Robert noted how using SRT allowed NOMOBO to deliver a level of video quality and reliability that they were not originally expecting with streaming over the internet. “It was a very noticeable step up compared to Web RTC, which many of them had been using.”
“Everybody was really impressed by the quality. One thing that really stood out was people asking us if it was 4Mbps – it looked like broadcast, and we could actually see the lighting.”
If the quality of the video feeds seemed to surprise NOMOBO’s clients, it may have been because of how easy the feeds were to set up. For events being filmed at larger venues with several cameras, the NOMOBO team no longer needed to send a broadcast engineering team as they can just send a Makito video encoder in a flypack for streaming over an internet connection with SRT. This of course not only helps to optimize costs, but has also gives the NOMOBO team a greater degree of flexibility. And this flexibility is allowing NOMOBO to bring their clients, and video content for events, into the future.
Learn more about NOMOBO, and how they’re creating engaging video content for organizations and events around the world.
Learn more about Haivision Hub and how it can help you easily route and transport live video through the cloud for broadcast and beyond.
