The Switch

The Switch Relies on Haivision’s Low Latency Solutions for Live Sports and Esports Customers

About The Switch

Founded in 1991 and headquartered in New York, live video production and delivery experts, The Switch has been connecting viewers around the world to live events for almost three decades, bringing them the content they want across linear TV, on-demand and streaming platforms – on multiple screens and devices. Its live content services are trusted every day by corporate enterprises, tech giants, major broadcasters, and leading sports, esports, news, entertainment, house of worship, and government organizations who rely on The Switch to turn-on their live content. The Switch brings content to wherever viewers are and to whatever device they are using whether it be for linear TV, on-demand streaming, and OTT platforms.

The Switch offers its customers a comprehensive production platform combining mobile and at-home services with the provision of highly skilled production personnel to empower its customers to efficiently capture, edit, and package compelling live coverage. The Switch global transmission network connects 800+ of the world’s largest content producers, distributors, and sports and event venues – seamlessly linking rights holders, broadcasters, streaming platforms, media outlets, and web services.

“First and foremost, we love the Makito’s ease of use. Secondly, not only is the quality of the product excellent, but the technical support and response times have been some of the best I’ve ever seen.”

Ken Stiver
Senior Director, Engineering & Field Operations, The Switch

The Switch testimonial

The Challenge

Challenges faced by The Switch

An Accelerated Transition to IP-Based Workflows

Although as an organization the Switch is predominantly known for live sports, during the pandemic the company saw a big uptick in the way that enterprise customers are conducting their businesses to plug the gap created by travel restrictions for corporate communications and events for example.

Both its enterprise and broadcast customers are far more willing to experiment with remote IP-based workflows as they simply don’t have a choice anymore.

“The broadcast industry was certainly already headed this route, but the pandemic has accelerated the transition to IP-based workflows.”

The Solution

The Switch Solutions provided by Haivision

Low Latency, Reliability, and Security

The Switch is using Haivision Makito X video encoders and decoders for several ongoing customer projects for live sports viewing and betting as well as for esports. For all these use cases, low latency and reliability are critical which is why Haivision solutions have been deployed as in some cases, systems are running 24/7.

The Makito X platform was selected because of its native support for the Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) protocol which provides both excellent packet loss recovery and the security that its clients demand to protect their valuable content. The lightweight compact form factor is also a plus factor as Makitos are used in the company’s flypacks.

Haivision provided a three-day online training seminar

The Result

The Haivision professional services team provided a three-day online training seminar covering everything from a product overview, IP workflows, configuration, best practices, and troubleshooting to the whole of the Switch team and the feedback was extremely positive.

“At the Switch, we believe in keeping our vendor count as low as possible so that our team can be true experts in fewer devices, this is key to setting ourselves up for success.”

Products Used

Makito X H.264 Encoder

Video Encoder

Haivision’s award-winning Makito X H.264 video encoder transports secure, low latency, HD video over any network at extremely low bitrates.

Makito X H.264 Decoder

Video Decoder

Haivision's Makito X video decoder delivers dual channel HD digitial video to 3G-SDI and HDMI interfaces supporting HD standards up to 1080p60.

Secure Reliable Transport (SRT)

Streaming Protocol

Deliver secure, high quality, low latency video across the public internet

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