Laura Atkins

Case Study LiveU Elections Coverage from across the globe LiveU has been supporting international election coverage since it was founded. LiveU’s field units provide a cost-effective flexible solution that allows broadcasters to capture political events from multiple fixed locations and on the move, providing comprehensive coverage of both local and national elections. LiveU is capturing election fever the world over with 24/7 live video coverage. US Presidential Election, 2016 LiveU has been present throughout the US Presidential Election season. From the beginning of the campaign trail, LiveU has supported everything from party debates to state caucuses and primaries. LiveU’s LU500 and LU200 units were out in force at this year’s National Conventions in Philadelphia and Ohio and the highly anticipated first Presidential Debate at Hofstra University. The introduction of LiveU Solo this year also gave online content creators the opportunity for more complete coverage of election events. One such webcaster, Political Revolution TV, used LiveU Solo for their coverage of the Democracy Spring March on Washington DC. The Democracy Spring effort grew out of support for Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders. The march started in Philadelphia, where thousands began a 140-mile walk to the U.S. Capitol to “demand Congress take immediate action to end the corruption of big money in our politics and ensure free and fair elections in which every American has an equal voice.” For their coverage of this event, Political Revolution TV used the new cost-effective LiveU Solo, enabling them to seamlessly stream from their camera through Switchboard Live and to their YouTube channel with minimal setup. UK General Election, 2015 As the 2015 UK General Election approached, Sky News wanted to offer their viewers the most comprehensive coverage available. There are 650 constituencies in the UK, each of which declares their votes for their local parliament member overnight, giving Sky News 650 declarations to report in a matter of hours. Sky News offered the most in-depth and complete coverage in its history by placing equal significance www.liveu.tv | www.facebook.com/LiveU.Fans | www.twitter.com/liveu on all media platforms, including television, digital and social media. As part of their television and digital coverage they broadcast continuous live streams from the 150 constituencies that they deemed most likely to influence the outcome of the election. Sky News chose LiveU as a key technology partner, using multiple units including the small formfactor LU200, as well as its existing LU500 lightweight backpacks. LiveU designed a solution to accommodate 150 live feeds coming from different sites and sources and provided over 100 additional LU400s to supplement Sky’s existing LiveU units. Irish National Elections Irish broadcaster, RTÉ is another to rise to the coverage challenge posed by national election night — last-minute, countrywide activity from often remote locations — by turning to LiveU. The broadcaster deployed 13 units across the Republic to bring the unfolding events of the late February night to viewers. The project was overseen by LiveU partner Tyrell. RTÉ, already a LiveU customer, was eager to increase its election night coverage and to bring a greater sense of dynamism and connection to events using live feeds from declaration centers. Outside the major urban areas, cellular coverage across the country is very poor to non-existent. This deployment shows the flexibility of LiveU’s solutions whereby if cellular coverage is poor or non-existent then Ka-Sat is a very viable alternative. Elections provide a real challenge for broadcasters and LiveU’s technology — as evidenced by multiple election deployments — allows broadcasters to think differently. Other Notable LiveU-Supported Elections Sri Lanka 2015 Mr. Priyal Udugampola of MTV Channel, a long time user of LiveU solutions, said, “With LTE-support and the new smaller LU500 backpack, LiveU was the obvious choice for the elections. Its mobile app for smartphones, LU-Smart, offered an added advantage, enabling us to cover more locations, live, around the country.” Spain 2015 Zion Eilam, Head of Business Operations Europe, LiveU, said, “It’s very gratifying to see deployments on this scale as our technology continues to grow in popularity. It’s now a question of how the technology can be used, not whether it should be used, and nowhere is this clearer than in the case of election coverage, where it’s simply ideal.” India 2014 Rajat Nigam, Sr. VP & Head Technology, Times TV Network, said, “The General Elections in India were a massive event challenging every aspect of news channel infrastructure. LiveU units proved to be of great value; they allowed faster movement between locations, quick deployment time and flexibility to provide live feeds at varied Telco strength locations. We were clearly ahead of other channels because of the effective and efficient field units.” www.liveu.tv | www.facebook.com/LiveU.Fans | www.twitter.com/liveu