Sports Technology & Communications News from Around the World

Glowpoint, a provider of cloud-based, managed services for telepresence, video conferencing and collaboration, announced it will offer video managed services to conduct live interviews in high definition (HD) during football draft in April.

The current contract is part of a multi-year agreement signed last year. Professional football draft will be broadcast on the leading sports broadcasting network. The 2011 draft coverage will be during April 28-30.

Interviews in HD will be carried via Glowpoint's (News - Alert) Open Video platform. The platform has the capability to collaborate across video technologies and on disparate carrier networks. Services from Glowpoint will support live, interactive programming on national television, leveraging telepresence-grade technology and services.

Glowpoint services offer several advantages to broadcasters. The services enable interviews to be conducted at various locations across the country. Content can be distributed directly to the head-end broadcast studio for instantaneous delivery on-air.

Glowpoint is planning to build and deliver applications and services that offer maximum flexibility for broadcasters, while continuing to ensure the highest quality.

“Glowpoint is proud to continue to support high-profile, nationally televised events,” said Stephen Vobbe, SVP of Sales and Marketing at Glowpoint, in a statement. “We are seeing more and more use of telepresence and video technology being used for broadcasting and live television content acquisition and delivery.”

Company officials said Glowpoint services are cost effective. Coverage will include a split-screen format, showing the ability to provide zero-latency, quality of service connectivity in a live-to-air application of video conferencing technology.

Glowpoint works with sports broadcasters, sports leagues, cable stations, and collegiate conferences for providing IP-based broadcast solutions. Glowpoint's video-network exchange reduces transport costs by up to 80 percent, as compared to traditional satellite feeds. It provides real-time communications.

In October 2010, Glowpoint and Acme Packet, a provider of session border control solutions, announced the launch of on-demand video conferencing solution that leverages Acme Packet’s (News - Alert)  Net-Net Session Director session border controller, which will be deployed in Glowpoint’s Open Video platform for business-to-business video communications.