Many sports fans believe there is a purity to collegiate athletics, a true love of the game that pro teams cannot match. While the big boys, Fox Sports and ESPN, cover pro sports, Pac-12 Networks broadcasts the sports for the 12 member schools that are located in Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon, Utah and Washington.

“We think being in live sports is a really special place to be, because you can’t fast-forward through it,” said Michael Harabin (pictured), vice president of technology, engineering and media management at Pac-12 Networks LLC. He also joked that it’s the main reason why sports are so popular with advertising agencies — fans will sit through any number of commercials to see their favorite teams play.

Harabin joined Lisa Martin (@Luccazara), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio, during this week’s NAB Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. They discussed the particulars of handling live broadcasts, as well as data storage considerations.

A fast production pace for fast-moving sports

Harabin said that his network has moved away from video as a means of transmission. They are now using an IP production model, which saves money and allows for much more inherent innovation.

As Pac-12 Networks built out the IP path between the schools, it has enabled content sharing, advanced production techniques, multiple camera paths and surround sound, Harabin explained. Additionally, the IP production model cuts back on the on-ground crew and equipment necessary for each of the 850 or so live events produced over the nine-month college sports season.

The data generated from that many events a year is huge. “We have a lot of volume; we do a very good job of archiving that — logging those games adding metadata, as much metadata to it as we possibly can,” said Harabin.

He explained that whatever information related to the game that can be gathered is added to the metadata, including repurposing closed-caption files, articles and still photos. That data is archived on very fast, short-term storage on spinning disks. After about two seasons, the data is pushed out to AWS and is stored in Glacier, cloud storage service for data archiving and long-term backup.

“We think we have a very efficient workflow; it’s highly automated,” Harabin concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of the NAB Show. (*Disclosure: Western Digital is sponsoring theCUBE’s coverage at the show. Neither Western Digital nor other sponsors have editorial influence on content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE