L’Équipe transmits live from the field with TVU Networks

News reporters often went into the field without a team. « Early on, the technology did not allow the solo reporter to overcome potential technical problems – even if the connection procedures were greatly simplified, » states Vautier.

For the technical direction of the station, it was important not to depend on a single system: « That’s why we quickly chose to add a second solution to L’Equipe’s journalists: TVU Networks,” notes Vautier, “We started deploying TVU Networks in 2012, as soon as L’Équipe TV became L’Équipe 21 for digital news, which became L’Équipe in 2016.”

Meanwhile, 4G LTE cellular networks have been on the rise, the size of the packs has been reduced — especially with the TVU One TM1000 — and network connections have become more reliable and simplified. TVU products are now part of our journalist’s daily life. “After mastering this new way of working, we are now able to transmit 6 Mbps in HD quality, while significantly reducing contribution costs.”

Today, in the newsroom, “there are four TVU feeds (two per server) and two other feeds from its competitor, that we use every day,” says Jean-Guy Blum, audiovisual and computer maintenance technician, L’Equipe.

« In the field, we have become used to working with several sets of SIM cards,” says Blum. “Mobile operators Orange, SFR and Bouygues for France; Orange and Vodafone for Europe; and 3HK cards for the rest of the world. »

“This strategy allows us to be ready for nearly 85% of the situations we encounter,” says Vautier. « In order to mitigate the unfortunate hazards of cellular networks, such as different frequencies from the rest of the world, we rent additional TVU units from our dealer Magic Hour for some countries. This is what we’re doing for our coverage of the next Rugby World Cup, to be held in Japan. »

While L’Équipe has used TVU Networks solutions for contribution toward its final distribution for a few live matches (basketball and volleyball local games), the main usage is for video transmission of daily news and live feeds during the program L’Équipe du Soir. « We estimate around two hours of daily use, from the TVU One TM1000 packs and the TVU Anywhere app on smartphones,” says L’Equipetraffic operator Maxime Bidan.

It’s a “revolutionary” solution, according to Vautier: “We reach speeds of 5 Mbps and render great video output.”

The TVU Anywhere application makes it possible for twenty journalists from L’Équipe to be sent anywhere in the world and for regionalcorrespondents to contribute to the live show or the website.