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Why Cisco Canada is proud to be a broadcast sponsor of the Masters golf tournament


April 12, 2013


The Masters is one of professional golf’s biggest events, one of four major tournaments on the PGA Tour that showcase the best the sport has to offer, with the world’s best golfers vying for the coveted green jacket. This year, we’re thrilled that Cisco Canada is an official broadcast sponsor of the event in Canada. Broadcasting golf tournaments is very different from other sports because the action is not contained on a single field or court but divided over 18 different holes, and spread out over the entire golf course. Needless to say, with so much going on the challenge for broadcasters is in determining what to show viewers.

Today’s sports broadcasts are very different from those 10 years ago. High definition has brought viewers an intensity second only to being there, while innovations in camera technology have allowed broadcasters to get audiences closer to the game than ever before.  And today, Cisco is helping enable those innovative viewer experiences whether you’re watching from home or enjoying the event live.

Sporting events like The Masters draw sports fan to more than just their television. Because the tournament is spread out over four days, many fans will not be able to stay in front of their televisions for the entire event but will still want to stay close to the action. To satisfy the demand for a television experience on-the-go, viewers can access the tournament through the official Masters website, including special features like multiple camera angles not available on the television broadcast.

Just a few years ago it would have seemed unbelievable to be able to watch the live television broadcast of the Masters tournament while keeping track of things like the leaderboard and watching different broadcast angles on a separate device.  Welcome to the era of the dual-screen television experience.

Cisco’s technology is at the heart of making the dual-screen experience possible. We’ve already discussed the benefits of Cisco’s Videoscape Unity on this blog, a solution we first introduced at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), but it bears a quick recap. Unity lets service providers deliver next generation experiences across multiple screens. For you, the fan, it means watching your television at home and using your tablet to continue that experience as you move around your house. The key is that with Unity there is no downgrade in quality when moving between platforms and devices, your content is scaled to whatever device you are watching from.

Viewers also are not tied to a specific location  – by leveraging Cisco technology, service providers are able to offer television everywhere experiences whether over home Wi-Fi  networks or over a mobile connection.

For service providers, these evolutions in technology mean being able to offer their subscribers a television experience that they cannot get anywhere else, and for fans it means bringing you closer to the game than ever before. And that’s precisely why we are a proud broadcast partner for the Masters in Canada this year.

You can watch the tournament on TSN and Global April 11 – 14.

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