NAB: NESN Selects Sony's Media Backbone

Sports network will use the system for content management

By George Winslow -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/19/2012 12:05:47 AM

Complete Coverage: NAB 2012

After a nine month review, The New England Sports Network (NESN) has selected Sony's Media Backbone Production System for content management. It was the second major win for the system announced at NAB this week. Earlier in the week, Sony announced that NBC would be using the system in its Olympics coverage.

Key factors in the selections included the fact that the system will streamline production bottlenecks by providing faster access to the channel's archives.

"Sony's Media Backbone Production System leverages metadata to open up our content so we can maximize its value," noted Dave Desrochers, NESN's VP of engineering in a statement. "In the fast-paced world of live sports production, if it is a hassle to find clips, they're useless. With the new system, we'll be able to punch in search terms like ‘triple play' and immediately have a wealth of thumbnails to choose from. This promises a tremendous bonanza for New England sports fans since we'll be able to put things into context for them fast. It's a bonanza for our team, too, because we don't have to trudge through hours of content to find ten-second clips."

Desrochers also praised the system's ability reliability, simplified integrations with other vendors and its open IT architecture.

"The system's open IT infrastructure is a relief from feeling forced to buy expensive, proprietary components," added Desrochers. "We felt unable to contain the costs with our old system since we had to constantly keep updating as dictated by our vendor. Now, we are free to buy cost-efficient off-the-shelf components as needed."