Instant replay has dominated professional sports and their outcomes, especially over the last decade when replay carried over into baseball.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) wanted to improve its own video replay system by bringing in new technology to replace third-party broadcast feeds. KBO selected nine of Grass Valley’s K2 Dyno Universe Replay Systems with K2 Summit 3G media servers.
The instant replay upgrade gives officials the ability to manage the video feeds from every stadium. Replays can be controlled and reviewed by a single remote control center in Seoul, South Korea.
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At the control center, officials review the play and relay the information back to the game site using a system that is much different than its predecessor. The new replay system has 6X and 4K ability and is easy to use, according to Grass Valley.
“The new system is enabling us to more accurately review disputed plays quickly and make the right call so the game can continue with minimal delays,” Jongwan Lee, team manager of the SPOTV operations group in charge of KBO project management, said in a statement. “By centralising it all in one control centre, we can have highly trained K2 Dyno operators who are experts at finding the right video clips and angles to make the call,”
The old, third-party broadcasting feed’s quality left KBO in need of an upgrade.
“Until now, we’ve had to ask our broadcast partners to show us the replays so we can review close calls,” Lee said. “This often caused significant delays as we requested different views, speeds or angles. Now, we can control the video feeds ourselves and use the slo-mo capability to get the necessary views.”
Additionally, the former four-man field system received its own makeover in 2014 when the KBO decided video replay would be used for safe-out, fair-foul, and catch-trap calls.
This update might have aided in the decision to change the video replay system considering the officials’ decisions were expanded further than just home run calls.
Audiences will have to decide for themselves if the KBO made the right decision or not by switching to the new operating system.
Instant replay’s role in the outcome and development of games is only growing, and the updated video replay should aid in that department.
“KBO’s needs were very specific and the K2 Dyno Universe replay system combined with the K2 Summit servers is an ideal solution for the group,” Andrew Thornton, Grass Valley’s vice president of sales in Asia Pacific, said in a statement. “Working with our channel partner in the area, we’ve been able to supply the perfect replay system for KBO’s centralized solution that provides exactly what is needed in all nine stadiums at any given time. It’s going to be an exciting baseball season in Korea.”