The New OB Units: How OZ Is Redefining Sports Production-as-a-Service
Fans expect finals-quality coverage of every match, but truck-based production and big on-site crews make that impossible for most fixtures. OZ changes that — we deliver a turnkey, multi-camera program feed at up to 90% lower cost. Installed like stadium lights, the system hands you 4K multi-cam, replays, graphics, and a commentator mix—with OZ running it end-to-end.
OB Units as the Backbone—And the Bottleneck
Traditional OB units earn their reputation on reliability and consistency—but they were built for marquee events, not for the hundreds of weekly fixtures across lower tiers, women’s leagues, and academies. The cost, logistics, and scheduling overhead keep most matches off-air or under-produced. That’s the gap OZ fills.
OZ as the New OB Unit
OZ evaluates venues like any OB provider—but installs permanent or semi-permanent remotely managed enclosures so the venue itself becomes your broadcast node. The standard package is a six-camera rig producing a ready-to-take program feed: multi-angle 4K60p, slow-mo replays, graphics, and multi-channel audio—all conforming to your ingest and workflow. Two integration modes de-risk adoption:
- OZ → Broadcaster (Add Six Angles): Treat our pods as extra SDI/IP cameras—shader keeps grading; genlock/tally supported.
- Broadcaster → OZ (Unified Cut): Ingest OB cams into OZ Studio; cut everything in one web console. This is how we slot into existing operations without disruption.
Production-as-a-Service (PaaS)
You get the feed; we handle the rest. No hardware to buy, no crews to schedule. A predictable subscription per venue/season covers the base platform; optional per-event remote ops (director/replay/graphics) can be layered when needed. Commercial terms are plain-English: 12–36-month terms, SLAs on program feed availability, and a simple acceptance test match. Rights stay with the customer.
Buyer outcome, not box specs:
- Program feed: 4K60p or 1080p50/60 per contract
- Angles: main/tactical/goal/beauty package
- Replays & graphics: score/clock, lower thirds, sponsor rolls
- Audio: program + commentator mix
- Delivery: SRT/ST-2110/RTMP/HLS, raw ethernet multiplex feed of all cams, or on-site SDI-12G
- Ops: OZ schedules, runs, monitors; you just take the feed.
Partnership Rollout—From Pilot to National Fabric
At OZ, we work with OB buyers (broadcasters, leagues, federations). The field-proven first step is “Add Six Angles”—deploy OZ enclosures as supplemental cameras, measure Usable Minutes uplift, then progress to a Unified Cut in OZ once directors are comfortable. Country-level scale is enabled by regional service hubs for multi-venue remote ops and control, creating a consistent, national production fabric without the truck chessboard.
Pilot (POV) discipline: 1 venue, 1–3 matches; pre-agreed KPIs—Usable Minutes/camera, latency budget, transition smoothness, % of AI-initiated cuts accepted by the director—so the go/no-go is objective and fast.
Beyond Production—A Platform for Innovation
Once installed, OZ Smart Stadium becomes an application platform: ingest OB cams, produce vertical/second streams, surface real-time data widgets, or plug in partners via open events API. On the near-term AI roadmap: off-side assist, automated color-shading (RL), Skeletal Tracking API—unlocking new inventory and revenue (analytics, betting feeds, fan engagement).
Why OZ Works
What partners tell us matters most is not the technology itself, but the outcomes they can count on. With OZ, every match receives a clean, professional feed—multi-camera angles, replays, graphics, and commentary—without the overhead of trucks or large crews. Costs are predictable, quality is consistent, and the system integrates safely alongside existing OB workflows.
The rollout path is straightforward: start with OZ cameras as extra angles, then expand into a full OZ-cut production once confidence is built. Reliability is ensured through built-in safeguards like local buffering and failover, while the open API design allows broadcasters to connect their own tools and data services.
In short, OZ takes care of the production basics at scale, so broadcasters and leagues can focus on the parts of the broadcast that make each competition unique.
What
procurement needs
Price on production capacity & quality, not boxes: Inputs × Outputs × Autonomy.
- Annual base per venue (1080p vs 4K60, pod count, PGM + iso outputs)
- Optional per-event ops (remote director/replay/graphics, NOC/SRE)
- Add-ons (extra inputs, vertical stream, archives, data/GraphQL)
- One-time install (survey, mounts, fiber, calibration, acceptance) ROI line: replace trucks & on-site crews → recurring savings + sustainability wins.
OZ redefines the OB unit as always-on infrastructure: a venue that’s permanently broadcast-ready and future-proof for new revenue apps. The next step is simple—pick a pilot match, set KPIs, and measure the uplift.