YES Network Case Study
Challenge
YES Network sought to transition from an SDI-based infrastructure to a new ST 2110 IP environment at their Stamford studios. The primary challenge was maintaining oversight of signal chains during the process of migration, but also establishing a centralized, reliable monitoring solution to guarantee the highest quality for live New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets productions.
Solution
After receiving a strong recommendation from Digital Video Group, an industry-leading supplier of broadcast and production equipment and systems, YES Network contacted 2110 Solutions to oversee their IP transition, and as a part of their recommended implementation, 2110 suggested the integration of Bridge Technologies’ VB440, a market-leading production probe that would not only provide for the monitoring of the switchover process and validation of new IP signals, but would also continue to serve as the central monitoring and analysis platform for all video, audio, and network streams within the new ST 2110 environment.
Results
The combined efforts of YES Network, 2110 Solutions, and Bridge Technologies resulted in a successful transition to an ST 2110 IP infrastructure with dramatically increased system visibility and reliability. The VB440 has reduced troubleshooting time, empowered both engineering and colourist teams with intuitive, real-time analytics, and extended critical monitoring capabilities to senior engineers remotely, ensuring consistent quality and reducing risk during live broadcasts.
YES Network is an American sports broadcasting network and the exclusive video streaming home of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets. As a leading regional sports network, they also produce a wide range of studio programming and original content, distributing it across multiple platforms to fans located across the world.
Overview of Need
In 2024, YES Network began a fundamental transition of its Stamford studio and transmission facilities toward a new, IP-based infrastructure built on the SMPTE ST 2110 standard. This shift promised numerous advantages, particularly in supporting a high volume of live and taped productions. However, over its 25-year history, YES Network’s operational requirements had grown significantly. With this growth came a critical need for greater visibility across all signals. The engineering staff required a centralized solution capable of monitoring every aspect of the new IP environment — not just at the transport level, but with the depth needed to quickly diagnose issues, verify compliance with standards, and maintain consistent quality across numerous transmission paths. The goal was clear: to find a single, trusted monitoring and analysis platform that could function for all of their production needs.
Implementation
YES Network engaged with 2110 Solutions, who provided a demo of the Bridge Technologies VB440. The demo environment proved immediately compelling, showcasing the product’s capabilities and highlighting how it would not only be able to meet the network monitoring needs of the engineering team, but also extend further to a wider range of production functions, including camera shading and coloring.
2110 Solutions provided strong support throughout the evaluation, procurement, and integration process, with integration of the VB440 into the system representing a straightforward part of the deployment. Crucially though, the VB440 became an invaluable tool that then further aided the deployment phase itself, allowing the engineering team to inspect and troubleshoot new IP signals as legacy devices were gradually migrated from the old SDI infrastructure.
The VB440 itself was uniquely suited for this task. As a high-density IP media probe designed to monitor uncompressed ST 2110 flows, it provides deep analysis of video, audio, and metadata. For YES Network, its support for high-density 40/100 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces meant that it could handle numerous streams in real time and in parallel: an essential feature for a high-output facility. Key features used by YES include monitoring the ST 2022-7 redundancy scheme, precise PTP timing analysis, and detailed inspection of packet behaviour to identify issues like jitter and loss before they impact live production.
Joe LoGrasso
Managing Director at 2110 Solutions, who managed the purchase and installation of the Bridge Technologies system, explained the importance of the VB440 integration: “Not only will the VB440 provide YES Network with an ongoing ability to monitor their IP-based production network over the upcoming years, but during the transition from SDI to IP it was a key tool in managing an effective and efficient change and transition process. We’re proud to have supported them through this journey, and as always, we’re proud of our ongoing working relationship with Bridge Technologies.”
Technical Deep Dive
In essence, the VB440 gathers network data in an IP production environment and converts it into usable, intuitive information accessible to production professionals with next-to-no latency via any HTML5 web browser. This data can be used by a whole host of production professionals to perform a range of specialized tasks: be they network engineers, producers, camera painters or audio specialists.
For camera painters, this means HDR preview on SDR screens, comprehensive readouts including vectorscopes and waveforms with graticule for IRE and NITS, and full Rec.601, Rec.709 and Rec.2020 compatibility.
Audio engineers can measure up to 64 channels of multichannel audio within a single service, with tools including microphase, Gonion, LUFS and room meters, ST 2110-41 monitoring for immersive audio, and support for the full range of Dolby standards including ATMOS. They can also create stereo downmixes and isolate single channels for listening previews.
Network engineers gain visibility into packet and timing behavior, packet loss and jitter, media metadata, deep packet analytics, signal integrity, redundancy relationships, PTP clock sync and error detection. And with the new AV sync functionality, engineers can also ensure not only internal sync between audio, video and auxiliary data, but also assess sync across different paths of the same stream (for instance, when camera feeds are transmitted across both IP and satellite to provide redundancy).
For YES network specifically, it was the network engineering functionality which drove their integration decision, though some of the color correction aspects have also been fundamental to YES’s operations.
Simen Frostad
Chairman of Bridge Technologies, echoed the enthusiasm, concluding:
“YES Network have built a truly impressive facility, and have been forward-thinking in their approach to network technologies. Building a new IP infrastructure represents a particular opportunity to think about network analytics right from the beginning, and build monitoring elements right into the overall solution, rather than tagging them on at the end. This is a key idea that Bridge has been a proponent of for more than a decade, and we are pleased to see a network as important as YES echo our views on this. We hope that they will provide an inspirational example to other production companies who may soon be faced with the unique opportunity that comes with a move from SDI to IP”.
For Engineering:
The team constantly uses the VB440’s robust tools to inspect Precision Time Protocol (PTP), packet timing, video essence, audio levels, and ancillary data. During live events, its value is further amplified; the intuitive, easy-to-read interface allows traditional video engineers to quickly identify complex IP issues like stream alignment problems or packet loss, dramatically speeding up troubleshooting when every second counts. The team also uses the VB440 to proactively validate network behavior and confirm signal behavior, ensuring system health at all times.
For Video Colorists:
The video colorists rely on the VB440 for critical tasks like camera shading and coloring. The platform provides high-precision tools including waveforms, vectorscopes, and colorimetry displays, all of which are essential for maintaining a consistent and high-quality visual aesthetic across all productions.
Crucially though, it was not just the functionality and capacity of the probe that was important to YES network, it was the usability and workflow flexibility provided for by the probe due to its remote and distributed operational model. Because the probe can be accessed by up to eight users through HTML browser, from anywhere in the world, in real-time, the VB440 represented an important facilitator of the YES Network’s wider goal to move to remote, distributed, ‘at-home’ working arrangements. This was particularly important for senior engineers, who can now access the full power of the VB440 GUI from anywhere, enabling them to assist in urgent troubleshooting without being physically present in the facility.
Outcomes
The implementation of the VB440 has delivered tangible technical and business benefits to YES Network.
Technical Impact: The most significant outcome is the drastic reduction in troubleshooting time. Issues that might have previously required lengthy investigation can now be identified and addressed almost immediately. More than this though, there is in general a greater level of transparency in the network: engineers are able to understand network behaviour not only in the moment, but across time. This has led to increased overall system reliability and has proactively validated network and signal behaviour, preventing potential problems from reaching air.
Business Impact: This increased technical reliability translates directly into reduced operational risk, especially during high-stakes live broadcasts of the Yankees and Nets. The VB440 is now a key part of YES Network’s strategy for ensuring consistent, broadcast-grade quality across every signal in the facility.
Organizational Impact: The remote/distributed operating basis of the VB440 has allowed engineers to perform their work from anywhere in the world, on a real-time basis. This facilitates at-home working, which presents an important benefit to employees and helps YES to recruit and retain engineers of the highest caliber. But it also allows technical experts to coordinate their activities without needing to be in the same place at the same time, providing much greater operational flexibility and the most efficient distribution of knowledge and skill resources.
Alex Martin
CEO Digital Video Group commented: “When YES Network entrusted us with the transition of its Stamford facility to ST 2110, the challenge was not simply to build for the future, but to get there without compromising the live productions happening today. That requires trust, careful migration and complete visibility at every stage. Working with 2110 Solutions, we saw the Bridge Technologies VB440 as a natural fit because it gives the entire production and engineering team a shared view of what is happening across the infrastructure. In a project of this scale, that level of visibility is fundamental to building confidence in IP.”