
How The Switch delivered the US and international feeds for the global fundraiser
By Jenny Priestley
Published: April 22, 2020
How The Switch delivered the US and international feeds for the global fundraiser
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin> How The Switch delivered the US and international feeds for the global fundraiser
https://www.tvbeurope.com/features/delivering-one-world-together-at-home-to-a-global-audience title=Share via Email class=share-email>
Global audiences came together last weekend in a show of unity and resilience in support of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and frontline workers. One World: Together at Home, organised by Global Citizen and curated by Lady Gaga, included a line-up of international stars, celebrities and icons who recorded performances and interviews from their homes, as many parts of the world continue to be placed under strict lockdown orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Working on a tight deadline as the event was pulled together in a short period, The Switch, the platform for the production and global delivery of live video, played a key role in ensuring the broadcast reached the right networks, channels and streaming services at the right times when as live home performances by the likes of The Rolling Stones, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Elton John, Paul McCartney, and Lady Gaga herself went out. Among a range of services, The Switch provided: ingest of the US domestic and international shows; playout for pre-feeds and the live to air broadcast shows; domestic fibre and satellite to North America; and international fibre and satellite distribution to EMEA, Asia Pacific and South America.
A UK package was hosted by Claudia Winkelman, Dermot O'Leary and Clara Amfo for the BBC, while in the US events were overseen by late-night network presenters Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert. The performances were packaged into a number of shows and livestreams broadcast on major networks across the globe, including ABC, CBS and NBC in the US and Canal+, Sony Pictures-Latin America, Sony Pictures-India, RAI Italy, TVE-Spain, NOVA-Bulgaria, Dubai-TV, Rede Globo and many others in international markets. Versions of the show were also streamed on a wide array of over-the-top (OTT) services, including YouTube, Tidal, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Twitch and Apple TV+, as well as social media sites Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
It was hugely exciting for The Switch to play an instrumental role in such an important and ground-breaking global event - addressing last minute requests right up until airtime, said David Shearer, senior vice president, Sales for The Switch. Things had to be set in motion pretty quickly but our team's vast experience and expertise in bringing major live events to the screen served us well.
Each performer and presenter pre-recorded their own contributions to the programme from home, using a variation of smart phone recordings to professional production set ups, which was then assembled at Sim's post production facility in Hollywood. Once the packages were compiled and the graphics overlaid, the feeds were then distributed globally.
The biggest challenge was ensuring we had both the US domestic and international feeds up and running within such a short timeframe, said Shearer. As Sim does not have any fulltime connectivity at a video level with the outside world, we install connectivity for live or as-live' shows when needed. For Global Citizen, we provided two temporary HD-SDI connections, one to The Switch Los Angeles and the other to AT&T's Hollywood Hub. These allowed the finished programmes to be fed to The Switch.
Once the temporary connectivity was installed, Sim then played out the domestic show to The Switch, which recorded the feeds at its West Los Angles production and control facility. Shortly afterwards the international show was recorded by The Switch, while the first playout of the domestic feeds went to ABC, CBS and NBC. Once the signals were tested and received, the networks could then customise and brand the feeds themselves. For the digital show, The Switch distributed the feeds to Vista Worldlink in Miami, which then encoded and distributed them globally via satellite and OTT.
For the international broadcast show, The Switch provided fibre feeds from Los Angeles to the BT Tower in London, where affiliates could then receive and broadcast the signals. It also provided a separate fibre path to London to Globecast, which then uplinked the signal to a Eutelsat satellite for coverage across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. APAC were also able to pick up a signal via fibre links to Australia, which was then uplinked to an AsiaSat satellite.
The spectacular show, which didn't solicit donations but was intended as a celebration in support of those fighting COVID-19, still raised $127 million for coronavirus relief efforts - to be split between the World Health Organisation and other charities.
Most recent headlines
13/03/2025
WASHINGTON FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the agency has launched a massive, new deregulatory initiative that could potentially subject virtually all ...
13/03/2025
SUNNYVALE, Calif. SDVI has announced that it has integrated its Rally media supply chain management platform with the Spectra Vail multi-cloud data management s...
13/03/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted a waiver of its local ownership rules to permit Gray Media to acqu...
13/03/2025
TV Tech: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2025 NAB Show?...
13/03/2025
Watch Student Naomi Soleils Folk Pop Performance on The Voice The songwriting major sang Stars by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals during the blind auditions.
...
13/03/2025
Bundle up - GeForce NOW is bringing a flurry of Blizzard titles to its ever-expanding library.
Prepare to weather epic gameplay in the cloud, tackling the genr...
13/03/2025
AI is leveling up the world's most beloved games, as the latest advancements...
13/03/2025
PC game modding is massive, with over 5 billion mods downloaded annually. Mods p...
12/03/2025
O Spotify acaba de lan ar o relat rio Loud & Clear deste ano, uma vis o transpar...
12/03/2025
Spotify acaba de presentar el informe Loud & Clear de este a o, una mirada trans...
12/03/2025
Ramadan, a period of profound spiritual significance for Muslims worldwide, is a time for fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. Enrich your experience thi...
12/03/2025
Spotify has just unveiled this year's Loud & Clear report, a transparent loo...
12/03/2025
More than 70% of FAST programming has been produced since 2010, according to new Gracenote report
NEW YORK March 12, 2025 Gracenote, the content data busin...
12/03/2025
GEONA, Nev. Independent digital and linear advertising rep firm Viamedia will adopt cloud-based ShowSeeker Pilot as its primary ad campaign and order management...
12/03/2025
BRUSSELS Mediagenix has announced that Wael Yasin has joined the company as sales director Central Europe....
12/03/2025
LONDON A new study highlights opportunities for shoppable TV and the massive impact online consumer spending is having on the economy, with Omdia predicting tha...
12/03/2025
CUPERTINO, Calif. Interra Systems has announced that Comcast Technology Solutions has integrated recent updates to BATON Version 9 into its operations....
12/03/2025
Nevion announces new 400G addition to its eMerge SDN media fabric offering
Brie Clayton March 12, 2025
0 Comments
High-capacity switch enhances existi...
12/03/2025
DaVinci Resolve Studio Delivers Cinematic Sound for Adam Bol
Brie Clayton March 12, 2025
0 Comments
Feature film relies on DaVinci Resolve Studio for ...
12/03/2025
SVT Leverages Ateliere Live to Pioneer 100% Software-Defined Production at Rally...
12/03/2025
Berklee Awards Fenway Neighborhood Improvement Grant to Four Organizations A total of $17,000 will be distributed among the Boston-based nonprofits.
By
Madd...
12/03/2025
TVBEuropes Jenny Priestley sits down with new SMPTE president Richard Welsh to discuss his aims for the organisation going forward, its efforts to attract a you...
12/03/2025
The new process has significantly enhanced operational efficiencies, with automation freeing up creators to concentrate on higher value tasks
By Matthew Corrig...
12/03/2025
Jellyfish Pictures, which has offices in London and Sheffield, said it has been battling hard in the face of strong headwinds over the last 12 months
By Jenny ...
12/03/2025
Visit Booth #W2213 to Experience the Latest in AI-Driven Content Discovery and Workflow Automation
Bitcentral, a leader in media workflow solutions, is set to ...
12/03/2025
CHICAGO Jeff Lilly has been named WGN-TV director of technology effective March 17, 2025, according to Ric Harris, WGN-TV vice president and general manager....
12/03/2025
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. A new study from LG Ad Solutions indicates that consumers want more features that would allow them to shop for products on the connected T...
12/03/2025
BOTHELL, Wash. The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the Video Services Forum (VSF) will once again present...
12/03/2025
PHILADELPHIA Comcast announced that it has upgraded Xfinity Internet speeds for more than 20 million customers for no additional cost....
12/03/2025
Create with Maxon: Cinema 4D Fundamentals Workshop - March 12-14
Brie Clayton March 11, 2025
0 Comments
Makin' Waffles with Elly Wade
During Marc...
12/03/2025
Ottawa, Canada - March 12, 2025 - Ross Video is pleased to announce the appointment of Aaron Tunnell as Business Development Director, Cloud Solutions, reinforc...
12/03/2025
12 Mar 2025
VEON to release 4Q 2024 trading update on 20 March 2025 Dubai, 12 March 2025 - VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON), a global digital operator, today confirms ...
12/03/2025
Getting set for the Winter Olympics: Inside SVT's ongoing software-based pro...
12/03/2025
THE PLAYERS Championship 2025: AI Commentary, Shared-Reality Viewing at COSM, La...
12/03/2025
Seamless SMPTE 2110: A Discussion on Making the Move to IP Less Painful Leaders from Netflix, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, LinkedI, and Megapixel address ...
12/03/2025
Opening Doors of Perception: Meta's Ajit Ninan on Rethinking AR/MR Perceptua...
12/03/2025
With the 2025 Formula 1 season set to begin in Melbourne on March 16, Sky Sports is gearing up to deliver its most comprehensive F1 coverage yet. Following a th...
12/03/2025
Unicanal and Trece TV revolutionize Digital TV in Paraguay with Rohde & Schwarz ...
12/03/2025
Honoring Service, Celebrating Sport: Rohde & Schwarz UK Sponsors NavyFit Rugby D...
12/03/2025
New HVS-Q12 Represents a Quantum Leap in Switcher Design...
12/03/2025
Telespazio and ABS Expand Partnership to Deliver Tailored C-Band Connectivity So...
12/03/2025
ABC conducts independent audits across the TAG programs. In the March 2025 TAG s...
12/03/2025
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Moonlight: ESA program to create a satellite con...
12/03/2025
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
In 2025, Thales ranks among the top 0.01% of the...
12/03/2025
Consumer show back following hugely successful first series
10 March 2025 Following a hugely successful first series, The Complaints Bureau returns to RT ...
11/03/2025
By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival...
11/03/2025
Salsa is making a comeback, captivating new listeners with its infectious energy...
11/03/2025
For many people, music can serve as a reflection of their roots and upbringing. ...
11/03/2025
The solution delivers reliable, scalable and secure connectivity for critical pu...
11/03/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced that Weigel Broadcasting has deployed Harmonics VOS Media Software, which offers playout-to-delivery capabilities, inclu...