Resources

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"Live production in the cloud is a growing trend across the industry, and Major League Baseball has been one of the leagues at the forefront in exploring the technology workflow for production and distribution of events internationally.

Jason Hedgcock, VP, broadcasting, technical production, and special events, MLB, spoke with SVG about the cloud-based production model behind Netflix Japan’s coverage of the World Baseball Classic. Working alongside Bitfire, J Sports, Nippon TV, Dentsu, MLB Network, and other partners, MLB produced 32 of the tournament’s 47 games entirely in the cloud.

Hedgcock explains how the scalable workflow helped overcome limited control-room space, international time zones, and the demands of Spring Training — while demonstrating that cloud production is ready to support premier live events."

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“MLB’s Jason Hedgcock on Using the Cloud to Produce World Baseball Classic Games for Netflix Japan.” Sports Video Group, 28 Jul 2026, https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/08/03/mlbs-jason-hedgcock-on-using-the-cloud-to-produce-world-baseball-classic-games-for-netflix-japan/.

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The sports-video-production industry, especially the live event sector, is constantly in a state of evolution. Tech vendors are aiming to make the the jobs of leagues, regional networks, and national broadcasters a lot smoother. As time goes on, reliance on remote and cloud-based workflows has proved pivotal to the success of broadcasts during a nonstop sports calendar throughout the year. BitFire, who specializes in scalable solutions that have become a trusted piece to the overall production ecosystem, is continuing to do what they can to streamline and simply operations for their customers.

At the 2025 SVG Summit, BitFire’s President & CEO Jim Akimchuk runs through the platform’s capabilities, how they’re allowing live event production professionals to lean on the cloud as much as they’d like, how this solution is allowing customization to fit into any of their clients’ greater broadcast strategy, and how their recent partnership with Appear will make live events even easier.

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BitFire, the leader in software-defined live production and IP transmission, today announced a strategic partnership with Appear, a leader in high-capacity, sustainable solutions for media processing and live content delivery. The collaboration integrates Appear’s high-density live contribution X-Platform with BitFire’s global transport network and cloud production ecosystem, offering broadcasters, sports leagues, and streaming platforms a faster, more flexible, and more reliable way to deliver live video from venue to viewer.

Appear’s compression functions and transport endpoints can now be paired with BitFire Engines, enabling direct ingest into BitFire’s Transport Network, providing high-quality, low-latency video contribution and distribution, and access to BitFire’s virtual production tools — including its Cloud Switcher, Cloud Replay, and FireBridge remote talent interface — to support remote control, monitoring, and distribution from anywhere.

“This partnership merges best-in-class edge encoding with professional IP transport and scalable cloud production,” said Jim Akimchuk, President and CEO at BitFire. “By combining Appear’s efficient encoding with BitFire’s flexible infrastructure, we’re removing traditional geographic and hardware constraints for all live content producers.”

The combined Appear and BitFire solution is designed for high-demand environments such as live sports and entertainment broadcasts, where near-instant transport and flawless quality are critical. Appear’s X Platform solutions, trusted globally for high-density encoding and decoding workflows, deliver high-quality feeds directly to BitFire’s best-in-class IP transport network and cloud production platform, supporting rapid deployment of cloud, REMI, and hybrid productions.

“Partnering with BitFire allows us to better serve the evolving needs of broadcasters and cloud operators by directly connecting our products with a world-class IP transport and cloud production provider,” said Andy Rayner, CTO at Appear. “Whether for global sporting events or full-time distribution, we’re collectively raising the bar for efficiency and quality in live production.”

The integrated solution is currently being evaluated by major sports and entertainment clients in North America and Europe, with full-scale deployments expected to begin in early 2026. Both companies will showcase the combined workflow at upcoming industry events, focusing on its scalability, cost-effectiveness, and reliability.

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