The situation
A leading sports broadcaster unified routing, monitoring, and failover workflows into a single operational interface, supporting 11 concurrent live streams with deployment completed in under 10 weeks. The operation supports multiple live production workflows across cloud and on-premise environments, where stream availability and rapid incident response are critical to maintaining on-air continuity.
Live sports production places strict demands on signal availability, time-to-air, and incident response. For broadcast IT and MCR engineering teams, the ability to monitor streams, assess issues quickly, and perform failover actions without delay is essential to maintaining on-air continuity.
To support these requirements, the organization worked with Techex for signal routing and stream management, TAG Video Systems for multiviewer monitoring, and qibb to unify control and visibility across these systems.
The challenge
In live sports broadcast environments, stream reliability and incident handling are persistent operational challenges. As output scales, signals are routed through multiple systems, and operators need to respond quickly when issues arise to protect time-to-air and on-air continuity.
Operators needed to monitor stream health, identify active and backup sources, validate routing states, and execute failover actions across multiple systems. This increased operational complexity during live events and created additional risk when rapid decisions were required.
In many operations, failover is technically supported but operationally fragmented. Operators may need to move between different interfaces to determine which source is active, assess the health of backup streams, and execute a switch under time pressure. Stream status, routing configuration, and visual monitoring are often handled in separate tools, increasing cognitive load at the exact moment when speed and accuracy matter most.
In environments where streams are routed across both cloud-based and on-premise systems, this fragmentation becomes even harder to manage consistently. Acting on incomplete or outdated information can lead to incorrect switches, delayed recovery, or unnecessary disruption to live services.
As the organization prepared for a high-profile live sports production, expectations around operational reliability and responsiveness increased. Manual, system-specific failover workflows were no longer sufficient. Failover needed to be treated as a first-class operational workflow.
The solution
The organization implemented a centralized failover control and monitoring workflow integrated with Techex and TAG and orchestrated through qibb.
qibb created a centralized operational layer that unified routing control, stream monitoring, and failover workflows across Techex and TAG Video Systems. Operators can monitor stream status, initiate failover actions, and visually validate outcomes from a single interface.
At the same time, TAG multiviewer streams were embedded directly into the same dashboard, allowing operators to visually confirm the result of a switch without moving to a separate monitoring interface. Additional controls also support audio and channel selection through TAG APIs from the same workspace.
Together, this created a single operational workflow where routing control, stream status, and live visual monitoring are available in one place.
The implementation
As part of the broader MCR and playout modernization program, the workflow was introduced to support live signal distribution across mixed cloud-based and on-premise routing environments.
qibb dynamically generated stream-specific dashboard widgets using Techex APIs, continuously polled live stream status, and cached semi-static configuration data to ensure responsive failover control. TAG multiviewer feeds were embedded directly into the same operator interface, making it possible to assess stream health, execute a switch, and visually confirm the result in one workflow.
This reduced the need for operators to move across multiple tools during time-critical incidents and created a more consistent failover process for live sports operations.
The results
- Concurrent live streams: 11
- Deployment timeline: <10 weeks
- Monitoring & failover: Centralized
- Routing validation: Real-time
- Operator interface: Single dashboard
Operators can execute and validate failover actions from a single interface, reducing operational complexity during live events.
Operators can assess stream status, perform a switch, and visually validate the outcome without changing tools.
Safeguards such as unlock steps and explicit confirmation help reduce the risk of accidental or incorrect failover actions.
Workflows remain consistent across both tx edge and tx darwin environments, improving operator confidence and reducing friction in time-critical MCR workflows.
Why qibb
qibb enabled the broadcaster to:
- Connect routing and monitoring systems into a unified workflow
- Eliminate the need for custom integrations
- Centralize operational control
- Rapidly adapt workflows through a low-code platform
- Create a reusable foundation for future broadcast automation initiatives
Beyond improving failover operations, the implementation established a scalable operational framework that can support additional automation, monitoring, and control workflows as the broadcaster continues to modernize its production infrastructure.
Ready to strengthen live failover workflows?
Partners
Techex, TAG Video Systems
About Techex
Techex transports and transforms the highest value live video, over IP and in the Cloud, often in the most technically challenging environments
About TAG Video Systems
TAG replaces siloed workflows with one IP-native platform, combining multiviewing and monitoring for ST-2110, compressed, and OTT. Catch errors in real-time, reduce MTTR, maintain quality, and lower operational costs.
