Grass Valley Equips Portland Timbers’ Providence Park

“It’s important to us to have a production solution that provides the highest quality content to our fans. We evaluated a lot of systems and we kept coming back to Grass Valley—this is a long-term investment for the future of the team and the stadium,” said Matt Smith, vice president of broadcasting, Portland Timbers. “The solution we purchased is ideal for capturing games live and via streaming media, and the fact that our production team is already familiar with the Grass Valley interface means we can get right to work with minimal training for our already busy team.”

The familiar features of the GV Korona switcher allow for easy adoption by the Timbers’ production team who’ve used Grass Valley switchers before. The compact GV Korona boasts a menu integrated into the panel that enables operators to work quickly and intuitively to produce compelling content for a variety of applications, including tight integration with the Xpression graphics engine. The panel uses the same OLED and color technologies as the larger Grass Valley panels, virtually eliminating any learning curve. Its surface also contains built-in touchscreens in the transition areas that provide status of the M/E bank at a glance.

The K2 Dyno Replay System and Focus 75 Live cameras also offer the sports-centric features the Timbers require. K2 Dyno features multi-channel replay, an easy-to-use interface, along with remote access to highlights and clips through ShareFlex. The Focus 75 Live cameras each contain three Xensium-FT CMOS imagers with global shutter that eliminate any of the rolling shutter artifacts seen with other CMOS-based cameras, making them ideal for the Timbers’ fast-paced games.

“Soccer is a fast-paced sport and it’s easy for a fan to miss a split-second play—which makes efficient and reliable production solutions so critical to an organization like the Portland Timbers,” said Tony Gaston, strategic account manager, stadiums and venues, Grass Valley. “Grass Valley’s equipment helps the Timbers’ production team create the live action and replay content fans expect.”

About Grass Valley
Grass Valley is a trusted partner completely focused on empowering customers to create, control and connect content wherever, however and whenever it is consumed. In this ever-changing media landscape, content remains the most important element. Many of our customers are faced with the need to create and support new workflows while continuing to operate their legacy workflows, simultaneously broadcasting through traditional channels, Over-The-Top platforms, and Video-On-Demand as well as to tablets, PCs, and mobile devices. 

We provide the innovative tools and expertise to help customers improve the efficiency of their operations while telling better stories to attract and keep viewers. With Grass Valley's integrated solutions that enable flexibility, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, quality and scalability, broadcasters and content creators have what they need to sustain their businesses. Headquartered in Montreal, Grass Valley has been in the broadcast business for nearly 60 years and is part of St. Louis-based Belden Inc.