Revolutionising sports broadcasting in Asia-Pacific with Appear
Shakunt Malhotra of Appear highlighted the company’s technologies that push the boundaries of broadcast innovation in the Asia-Pacific region.
As the broadcast industry continues to shift towards decentralised production and cloud-based workflows, Appear, a global leader in live production technology, has proven itself efficient in producing bankable and game-changing solutions in the studio and on the field.
Speaking with Asia-Pacific Broadcasting+, Shakunt Malhotra, Appear’s Vice President for APAC, discussed their latest innovations—including the X5 and VX, that were showcased at the BroadcastAsia event in Singapore—that have marked significant advancements in live broadcasting and innovation in media transport solutions.
X5: Compact power for smaller productions
X5 is a new compact media processing solution that responds to the demand for flexible and high-performance live production. This technology is ideal for productions that do not need massive infrastructure but still demand broadcast-quality performance.
The X5 combines ultra-low latency, superior compression, and resilient IP media transport in a single, compact, and cost-effective unit. Whether it’s covering breaking news, sports events, or live entertainment, this delivers the same premium capabilities used by the world’s largest broadcasters
“Despite its compact half-rack-width form, the X5 delivers uncompromising performance,” Malhotra explained. “It ensures ultra-low latency and precise time synchronisation—both critical in remote production—whilst enabling high-quality video contribution over the internet. Designed for agile, small-scale IP workflows with premium quality demands, the X5 supports both SDI and IP, ensuring seamless integration with legacy infrastructure and future-ready environments.”
Moreover, it has a resilient transmission, with built-in support for SMPTE 2022-7, SRT, and IP-FEC guarantees signal continuity.
The X5 has a lightweight, portable design built for low power consumption, which is perfect for flight-case deployment and remote production environments. It offers AVC, HEVC, 12 G-SDI, and UHD workflows, which give users unmatched versatility between legacy SDI and current IP infrastructure.
With the introduction of the X5 and expanded capabilities across X10 and X20, Appear is enabling a new era of live media production.
“The X5 has proven highly effective for live contribution, offering broadcasters the ability to handle video encoding, decoding, SRT, and even satellite modulation and demodulation—all within a single 1RU unit,” said Malhotra. “This all-in-one approach empowers field teams to deliver both IP and satellite contribution with exceptional operational efficiency.”
VX: An open platform for agile and software-defined live production
VX transforms live production through software-defined workflows. Malhotra emphasised how this technology empowers operators to build, scale, and adapt production environments with speed and simplicity.
VX enables media companies to construct live production workflows using modular software components that can be deployed across on-premise systems, data centres, or public cloud environments.
The X platform’s versatility is evident in its ground-to-cloud live contribution of AVC, HEVC, and JPEG XS content originating from the stadium to the studio. VX platform enhances that capability using IP workflows with hyper-efficient affiliate feed distribution using advanced SRT in both cloud and low-cost, off-the-shelf hardware. The next-generation workflow management, built on a node-based architecture; and has real-time system monitoring capability through integration with Prometheus and Grafana.
VX, Malhotra further noted, is purpose-built to address the complexities of fully IP-based broadcast operations. It includes end-to-end workflows with a unified support model, low-latency media processing and rapid stream/channel setup, flexible deployment across any infrastructure, microservices-based architecture, lifecycle management and intuitive versioning for seamless upgrades, and elastic scaling with usage-based billing.
“With VX, we are also bringing in ultra-low latency, which happens in the cloud,” Malhotra stated. “There is a lot of processing that happens in the cloud, and we have optimised the SRT protocol to achieve ultra-low latency in a virtualised IT environment.”
Whether you’re broadcasting a global sporting event, distributing breaking news, or managing a cloud-based affiliate network, VX delivers the agility to stay ahead in an ever-changing media landscape.
VAR System: Award-winning technology
In addition to the aforementioned technologies, Appear also collaborated with I-Sport and introduced Thailand’s first centralised Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system.
Appear technology transports real-time video from stadiums across the country into a central Video Operations Room (VOR). This approach results in faster and more accurate decisions in a centralised environment. It’s a major leap forward for Thai soccer by optimising on-ground resources.
With over 550 matches annually, the ability to review footage with low latency and high precision is crucial. Having proven its efficiency in responding to this demand, the system has earned acclaim at the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting+ Awards 2025.
For broadcasters in the Asia-Pacific region, Malhotra emphasises, the message is clear: Appear is here with innovative cross-generational products, and it’s ready to power the next generation of live production.
“Appear looks forward to replicating its success in the U.S. and Europe,” he said of the company’s plans to expand its footprint. “We already have some great leads, and are doing some innovative proof of concept work in the region.”
To know more about Appear’s technologies that lead the future of live production technology, visit https://www.appear.net/.
