Go Bananas: Simplylive Rimotion R8
Posted on Jul 13, 2023 by FEED Staff
Sponsored editorial
Riedel’s Simplylive Rimotion R8 drives fast-turnaround replay and social media clips for the Savannah Bananas, home and away
The Savannah Bananas, an exhibition baseball team based in Savannah, Georgia, have deployed Riedel’s Simplylive Rimotion R8 instant-replay system within the control room at Grayson Stadium. Since the installation in January, the Bananas have been able to upscale their streaming and social media clips, especially for broadcast on YouTube.
Having shown six games on ESPN last season, the Bananas are producing content for NESN and other local networks – and the Rimotion R8 is helping achieve this.
A major contributor to the Bananas’ popularity has been instant replays of backflips and trick plays on social media. One such event occurs every game during the third inning, second batter and second pitch – where team members perform TikTok dances.
The Bananas were able to get the Rimotion R8 up and running quickly, with student workers learning the system in a matter of hours and progressing to more complex operations using either the touchscreen or desktop controller. All camera feeds from the stadium or remote locations return to the Grayson Stadium control room for production, where they are cut, replayed and edited with audio and graphics before being exported to social media via Rimotion R8 as clips.
It provides extensive slow-motion capabilities and supports productions with up to eight cameras – two more than the Bananas had before – while keeping delay low.
The R8 system enables remote replays and clip creation for away games, meaning the Bananas need only send cameras and flypacks, with crew members to carry and operate the equipment.
Content turnaround
While they often play against the Savannah Party Animals, the Savannah Bananas occasionally go head-to-head with guest challengers such as the Kansas City Monarchs or the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association.
“It’s been such a huge benefit to get into clips quickly and easily, post them to social media and have the ability to grow our presence as we turn around content,” says Griffin Ellis, broadcast engineer, Savannah Bananas. “Being able to create those clips without ripping them from our YouTube stream – instead, it’s a clean feed with no bugs or anything – is big with the way the social media team at the Savannah Bananas turns around content. The goal is; you see something live, and there will be a clip on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook very quickly.”
“The Savannah Bananas reached out to us after speaking with ESPN, looking for a reliable, flexible and growth-enabled system that’s cost- effective and easy to use,” explains Gregory Macchia, VP business development, live production tools. “After working with our team, they discovered how powerful our replay system was and the range of replays we offered with the Rimotion line. They were delighted we were able to bundle it for an affordable price and since then, their productions have taken off! It’s been exciting to see.”
In September 2022, Riedel announced the acquisition of Simplylive. Founded in 2016, it provides software-based products for multicamera production, including all-in-one production suite, replay/slomo, venue gateways and multiviewers, for demanding sports video and broadcast applications.
With this step, Riedel extended its hardware-centric portfolio for video transport and processing with COTS- and cloud-based solutions, while gaining expertise and resources to offer new services and deployment models to customers. At the same time, Simplylive can benefit from Riedel’s global sales and support infrastructure, allowing its product portfolio to reach a wider audience.
“With this acquisition, we deliver on our strategy to move into the heart of live production, offering new workflows, deployment types and business models, and answering the fast-changing needs of our sports, media and entertainment clients,” asserts Rik Hoerée, CEO product division at Riedel Communications.
“Offering simplified, distributed production workflows deployed in the cloud, data centre or on-premises is key for answering the need for more content, while assuring sustainable production business models for our customers. Simplylive brings great products and a combined 200+ years of live TV production expertise.
“Together with Riedel’s portfolio of intercom and video-infrastructure products, our global sales, marketing and customer success presence, it opens up new perspectives for our customer base,” concludes Hoerée.
