Czech TV plugs into the future with LiveU powered IP OB revolution

MUMBAI: When live TV goes off script, Czech Television has decided its OB vans should be the last things to drop the signal. In a sweeping tech overhaul that puts IP at the heart of its broadcast muscle, the national public broadcaster has rolled out one of Europe’s largest LiveU-powered live production deployments, turning 10 Outside Broadcast vans into fully connected, mobile studios capable of exchanging live feeds across cities.

For decades, Czech TV depended on satellite links and landlines reliable but costly, inflexible, and, increasingly, outpaced by modern live-production demands. Now equipped with LiveU’s LU810 fixed encoders and servers, each OB van gains bonded IP connectivity, enabling seamless live contribution, return video feeds, and inter-van connectivity, a capability rare at this scale in Europe.

What makes this project stand out is its multi-point connectivity architecture. The OB vans can now talk not only to the master control room (MCR) in Prague, but to each other swapping feeds on the fly from football pitches, ice hockey arenas, or even triathlon routes, wherever they are deployed. For lower-tier sports, breaking news and sprawling multi-location coverage, this creates a flexible, decentralised production grid.

“This project represents a major step forward for Czech Television,” said Czech TV head of the OB department Antonin Svach, noting that bonded IP frees them from the constraints of “costly satellite and not available landlines.” With the upgraded fleet, he added, the broadcaster can deliver live coverage of “any sport, at every level” with instant connectivity and fluid control-room routing.

LiveU, already a long-standing partner for Czech TV’s field newsgathering units, now becomes embedded deeper into the broadcaster’s production DNA. “Czech TV has achieved a new level of production agility,” said LiveU regional sales director Dariusz Grudzień calling the transformation “truly unique in size and scale.”

The project was engineered and implemented alongside Smart Informatics, which supported the workflow redesign from the 2023 proof-of-concept through to full deployment. “We worked side by side with Czech TV to create a future-ready solution,” said Tomas Vesely, noting the hybrid IP-first production model is built to adapt to virtually any scenario.

With this upgrade, Czech Television is signalling a clear shift: the future of broadcasting is mobile, IP-driven and unshackled from traditional infrastructure. And thanks to its new IP-powered OB fleet, that future is already rolling on the roads of the Czech Republic antenna down, signal rock-solid.