A major North American sports league was losing the broadcast graphics race. Their cloud-first architecture meant on-screen stats lagged the action by a visible half-second. Fans at home saw the replay before the score updated.
Major North American Sports League
Professional Sports
Broadcast Graphics & In-Stadium Analytics
Expanso
First venue live in 6 weeks
$1.2M annual cloud cost savings
The league's broadcast partner was threatening to build their own solution. Every game, the TV graphics showed outdated stats. Viewers on social media saw the goal before the score changed on screen. The cloud architecture that worked for post-game analytics was failing for live broadcast.
We put Expanso boxes in the broadcast truck at each venue. Raw tracking data stays local. Graphics systems get updates in single-digit milliseconds. The cloud only sees aggregated stats for the website and mobile app.
A 1U server in each broadcast truck ingests Hawk-Eye feeds, runs the graphics calculation, and pushes to ChyronHego. No internet required for live graphics. Cloud sync happens during commercial breaks.
Some venues have fiber. Some have 'good enough' WiFi. The system works either way - local processing means we're not dependent on the stadium's network for live operations.
Same pipeline template deploys everywhere. Venue-specific tweaks for camera angles and sensor placement. Updates push from HQ without touching broadcast equipment.
The broadcast partner stopped threatening to leave. Graphics now update faster than the human eye can perceive. The $1.2M in cloud savings came from not streaming raw tracking data to AWS every game.
"We had a VP call asking why the score on TV was wrong. It wasn't wrong - it was just 200 milliseconds behind, and in a sport where things happen fast, that's an eternity. Now our graphics lead the broadcast, not lag it."Director of Broadcast Technology, Major Sports League
We've deployed at stadiums, arenas, and race tracks. If your graphics are lagging your action, we should talk.