Colorado Rockies Upgrade Production Capabilities with Grass Valley K2 Media Server Technology

“We worked closely with Grass Valley on our key requirements for a dependable system for our game-day productions and everything about the K2 Solo 3G — from its price to its compact size to its functionality — appealed to us,” said Scott Magennis, Manager of Audio/ Video, Colorado Rockies. “The K2 Solo gives us 25 hours of high definition storage, immediate access to clip playout and instant replays, and loading files is fast and easy. More importantly, we never have to worry about dropping a frame of video, which is really important considering the length of the baseball season.”

Grass Valley’s K2 media server technology is based on the company’s unique architecture that delivers the highest bandwidth capability of any system in the industry. The K2 Solo 3G delivers the same powerful functionality as the 4-channel Grass Valley K2 Summit® 3G but is half the size, making it ideal for small production studios where space is of concern. The K2 Solo 3G easily integrates with the Rockies’ existing Kayak™ digital production switcher for fast response time while delivering a simple and intuitive user interface.

“Because we design our K2 architecture with versatility and flexibility in mind, it continues to be widely adopted by the live sports market,” said Andy Jackson, Senior Vice President of North America, Grass Valley. “We’re so pleased that the K2 Solo 3G brings a new level of production capabilities to the Colorado Rockies staff, especially at a price point that doesn’t break their bank.”

Recently, Grass Valley announced the newest upgrade to its K2 architecture to include powerful compression support for Panasonic’s new AVC-LongG (Advanced Video Codec/Long Group of Pictures) compression type, which the company announced at IBC 2013. Grass Valley's K2 Summit® and K2 Solo are the first broadcast servers on the market to support playout of the AVC-LongG recording format, which is part of Panasonic's new AVC-ULTRA codec family of products.

Grass Valley is changing the way live television is made and delivered. Recognized with 18 Emmy® Awards for technology innovation, Grass Valley's product portfolio—from image acquisition to playout—offers a complete end-to-end workflow of flexible, forward thinking solutions which enable broadcasters and content owners to build multiscreen, multiplatform futures. By simplifying and enhancing the way content is produced and distributed, Grass Valley gives customers the freedom they need to be creative in the studio, the field, and the newsroom. Merging optimizations of IT technologies with best-in-breed media systems, Grass Valley's next generation solutions deliver higher quality and greater efficiencies. Customers include world-leading broadcasters, teleproduction facilities, service providers, government, religious, educational, corporate, and independent video professionals. Grass Valley is headquartered in Hillsboro, OR, and maintains local presence across the globe with offices throughout North and Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific regions.