CASE STUDY

Layercake deliver a new era in streaming possibilities for Qplus.tv & Queensland Rugby League

DETAILS

Client: Queensland Rugby League (QRL)

Layercake has delivered Qplus.tv for Queensland Rugby League, a best of breed streaming platform and home for broadcasting and livestreaming. Layercake’s Media Orchestration and Automation platform, Streamcake forms the backbone of Qplus.tv. The solution makes QRL’s elite match content available live for their fans and provides sponsors and partners with unique commercialisation opportunities.

GETTING TO KNOW QPLUS.TV &QRL

Qplus.tv is Queensland Rugby League’s OTT streaming platform and QRL’s home for broadcasting and livestreaming. Qplus.tv is a subscription service where users can purchase a weekly, monthly, or annual subscription, granting them unlimited access to the platform. Some feature game content is also free-to-view for users who sign up to use the platform. Every game of every state-wide competition – including the flagship Hostplus Cup – is streamed live and on demand on Qplus.tv, as well as select regional and community content.

OVERVIEW

Layercake, together with partner DoubleTake Sports delivered an end-to-end streaming operation for QRL. DoubleTake Sports managed the master control room and production while Layercake provided the technical solution and wider OTT platform offering.

Qplus.tv now represents a high-quality, cost–effective streaming platform that brings together leading technologies, vendors and production solutions to deliver unparalleled performance and reliability to QRL.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE

Qplus.tv was born out of a need to satisfy the strong demand from fans for more games available to watch live and on demand (replay).

In response, QRL engaged Layercake to replace the legacy version of Qplus.tv OTT platform together with DoubleTake Sports to deliver the production and MCR services. Together, Layercake and DoubleTake Sports provide a powerful, end-to-end managed service for the delivery of this critical project for the QRL.

Layercake was selected based on its extensive experience working with sporting codes and track-record of delivering cost-effective solutions, on-time and within budget.

The solution needed to be reliable, cost-effective and delivered within a very tight timeframe (1 month), ahead of the start of the 2024 competition.

The new solution for Qplus.tv also needed to have additional functionality including:

Subscription tracking and user metrics
Commercialisation of assets
Integrate with existing partners and technology
Asset migration

SOLUTION

Rapid mobilisation to deliver Qplus.tv on time

Layercake took the lead, by rapidly mobilising a project team and managing the deliverables across all parties and integrated technology partners. Layercake was tasked with the following:

End-to-end definition of requirements
Design and UX
Infrastructure, environments, security configuration and deployment
Platform data schema’s, reporting and meta data
Key integrations (Media Services & CDN, Stripe, Firebase, Google Analytics, Enveu, Streamcake, Stats)
Onboarding QRL and DoubleTake teams
Testing and release management

Layercake’s award-winning Media Orchestration and Automation Platform, Streamcake forms the backbone of Qplus.tv. Streamcake delivers cost-effective streaming solutions using a unique approach that enables clients to ‘BYO’ their own infrastructure and tailor their media workflows. Smart and seamless, Streamcake has enabled live and video-on-demand streaming of the QRL competitions via AWS media services. Streamcake can also integrate and automate other media services, infrastructure and platforms.

“Layercake led the development of the new Qplus.tv with technical and operational excellence, working with multiple stakeholders, resulting in the deployment of a rich and functional on-screen product in a very compressed timeline. Their work has supported and enabled the successful production delivery by the DoubleTake Sports team, allowing the efficient and effective management of multiple production tools and processes, resulting in a highly successful launch of a critical strategic program for the QRL.”

Robert Matthews,

Managing Director of DoubleTake Sports

Layercake’s collaboration with Enveu has helped to elevate the live streaming experience for Qplus.tv to new heights

To complete the solution, Layercake enlisted Enveu, the global provider of specialised OTT solutions to deliver the user experience platform, player and subscription offering that manages the fan/viewer user experience. Streamcake manages the automation of production and infrastructure going upstream into specific workflows, while pushing the data to Enveu, to manage the playout platform, user experience and device platform of Qplus.tv.

Streamcake seamlessly integrates with Enveu to push the data that automates the live stream publishing from creation to VOD (Video on Demand), transition conversion and associated content delivery and stream protection solution on the Qplus.tv web application.

Streamcake’s central user interface and flexibility allows the Master Control Room (MCR) team to quickly adapt based on specific production operations. New features of the Qpus.tv solution include:

Receive and redistribute feeds easily via various streaming protocols
Single source to multiple events or single source to event
Multiview dashboard for bulk and easy (1 click) function operations to manage and monitor streaming
Direct access to live analytics of user viewing activity and subscription data
Ability to replace files if there are issues at source or changes need to be made to original source stream/file
Ability to trim game streams providing better playback VOD experience
DVR on live to enable users to start live from live stream start time if joining late
Ability to generate VOD assets from streams (clips), insert failback slates, inject VOD assets to stream
Schedule and publishing automation via QRL Stats integration
Add overlays
Thumbnail and poster image insertion
Multiple distribution destination
Graphics overlay – HTML5 Singular.live
VOD insertion – can be used for commercialisation house ads
Trimming
Event Marking
Ad marking via low latency view
Clipping and publishing clips
Content Distribution Network
CMS (Enveu) automated publishing and updating

“Through our collaboration with Layercake, Enveu has not only elevated Qplus.tv’s live streaming experience but has set a new standard for immersive viewer engagement. Together, we’ve crafted a seamless user experience platform that ensures every moment resonates with our audience, reaffirming Enveu’s commitment to top-notch OTT solutions.”

Shalabh Agarwal,

Founder and CEO at, Enveu

RESULTS

Unmatched performance and reliability, delivered on time

More than 200 games from the six QRL statewide competitions and representative games have been streamed to Qplus.tv so far with an estimated 450 games planned to be streamed in the 2024 season. Each weekend multiple concurrent live streams are orchestrated and automated via Streamcake. Schedules are ingested via a Stats fixture integration enabling automated match details publishing through to Enveu and available for users to watch QPlus.tv.

DoubleTake Sports utilises Streamcake to easily manage the QPlus.tv master control room streaming operations from their hub office and remotely. The new Qplus.tv solution allows fans to engage with the game and to stay connected to their favourite clubs and players. Despite the tight delivery timeframe, the project was successfully completed ahead of the season launch and now provides QRL with a plethora of commercialisation and other streaming opportunities. Other benefits include:

Intuitive and easy to use interface that automates and orchestrates multiple concurrent livestreamed games
Reduced operational load through automation of streaming functions
Reduction in resourcing requirements and potential points of failure by leveraging single source to stream multiple events
Successful solution delivery and release in less than 4 weeks
Onboarded all teams on OTT solution and support operations – QRL, DoubleTake Sports and Enveu
Provision of activity and other logging information that improves MCR and similar functions reducing time to resolution and identifying improvements
Enhanced user experience for fans and QRL staff

WHAT THE CLIENT SAYS

“We needed a partner that had an established track record for quality and timely deliverables. From the outset, we knew that Layercake was the partner for us. They really are the subject matter experts when it comes to sport, video, production, digital publishing and distribution. Despite our very tight launch deadline, we knew we were in safe hands. Layercake seamlessly delivered a superior technology solution in Streamcake, the best automated streaming solution we have seen on the market. This is an outstanding result for Queensland Rugby League, which now has a cutting-edge platform, in Qplus.tv that gives us direct access to important data and additional revenue opportunities. Layercake has been instrumental in the successful delivery of Qplus.tv and we look forward to our ongoing partnership.”

Tom Mitchell, Senior Content and Broadcast Manager, Queensland Rugby League