sport tech journal 2015 pr (final)

AUTUMN 2015 AN PUBLICATION

ADVANCING THE CREATION, PRODUCTION, & DISTRIBUTION

OF SPORTS CONTENT

Live from Six Nations Rugby, World Snooker, Paris-Roubaix, UEFA Champions League, Wembley Stadium and WimbledonFootball Production: FIFA Womens World Cup SportTech Europe: Road ahead for 4K and IP

Champions Summit: Production for Bundesliga Rio 2016: Preview with Yiannis Exarchos, OBS

PLUS: SVG Europe Sponsor Update for 2015

SVG Europe 2015.indd 1 20/08/2015 16:59

The Future of Sports Entertainment Is in Dolby

Dolby and the double-D symbol are registered trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. 2015 Dolby Laboratories, Inc. All rights reserved. S15/28658

Visit Dolby at IBC in Hall 2, Stand 2.A11.

When it comes to the serious processing power and bulletproof-reliabilty required by todays broadcasters, the Studer Infinity Series sets a new

standard with massive performance and aviation-class redundancy levels.

Now with a choice of three processing Cores and two class-leading control surfaces, Studer Infinity offers cost-effective broadcast mix solutions for any

application, from OB Trucks through to TV and radio production facilities, with up to 800+ audio channels and over 5000 inputs and outputs via our D23m

modular I/O system of analogue, digital and video interfaces.

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Compact control surface - up to 52 faders and optional meter bridge

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Infinity Core - now available in 200, 400 and 800+ channelsGame on.

From the football field to the basketball court, powerful and intuitive audio mixing solutions from Studer help to create the

memorable events in sports broadcasting.

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The Future of Sports Entertainment Is in Dolby

Dolby and the double-D symbol are registered trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. 2015 Dolby Laboratories, Inc. All rights reserved. S15/28658

Visit Dolby at IBC in Hall 2, Stand 2.A11.

When it comes to the serious processing power and bulletproof-reliabilty required by todays broadcasters, the Studer Infinity Series sets a new

standard with massive performance and aviation-class redundancy levels.

Now with a choice of three processing Cores and two class-leading control surfaces, Studer Infinity offers cost-effective broadcast mix solutions for any

application, from OB Trucks through to TV and radio production facilities, with up to 800+ audio channels and over 5000 inputs and outputs via our D23m

modular I/O system of analogue, digital and video interfaces.

studer.ch

Compact control surface - up to 52 faders and optional meter bridge

Expanded control surface - up to 72 faders (more on custom configs.)

Infinity Core - now available in 200, 400 and 800+ channelsGame on.

From the football field to the basketball court, powerful and intuitive audio mixing solutions from Studer help to create the

memorable events in sports broadcasting.

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AUTUMN 2015 IN THIS ISSUE

ST J is produced & published by the Sports Video Group EuropeST J 2015 Sports Video Group

Printed at Partnion, Tel: +31 613 62 43 21 Amsterdam, The Netherlands

04 From the Chairman Think globally but act locally says SVG Europe

Chairman of the Advisory Board Peter Angell

06 Opening Comment Welcome to an association of information and

connection across Europe, says SVG Europe Executive Editor Fergal Ringrose

08 Facility Integration Summit ESSMAs Dimitri Huygen discusses the connected

future for the stadium

10 Inside Super Bowl XLIX Sky Sports tackles game with new Sure Shot unit

12 World Ski Championships Eurovision delivers for world broadcasters, writes

Ken Kerschbaumer; co-operation clears way for Nordic Sky Championship, reports Philip Stevens

16 Six Nations Rugby Observe and Sunset+Vine Host Broadcast

operation at Stadio Olimpico

20 Football Production Summit Match-day production: a view from the top 8K

production for FIFA Womens World Cup

28 Paris Marathon & Paris RoubaixFTV and Euromedia balance demands of marathon weekend, reports Fabrice Marinoni

30 World Snooker Championship Cue the OB: How IMG produces snooker for the BBC

34 SportTech Europe Summit The road ahead for 4K production, by David Fox

No big bang for video-over-IP, by Will Strauss

42 Champions Summit & Champions League Final

Emerging IP technologies set to boost remote production, reports Birgit Heidsiek: finishing touches for UEFA Next Generation Services, reports Fergal Ringrose; 4K production and ZDF host operation, by Ken Kerschbaumer

54 Wimbledon Championships NHK undertakes latest 8K trial, by David Davies

56 Rio 2016 Olympic Games How OBS is preparing for Rio 2016,

by Philip Stevens

60 FA Community Shield Live from Wembley: BT Sport launches 4K

UHD era, reports Fergal Ringrose

62 SVG EUROPE SPONSOR UPDATE SVGE sponsors discuss their 2015 accomplishments

as well as new technologies that will debut at the IBC2015 show this month. Compiled by SVG Europe contributor Ian McMurray

81 Sponsor Index

84 Closing Comment Summer of change for European sport,

writes Sports Video Group Editorial Director Ken Kerschbaumer

16

34

60

28

SVG Europe 2015.indd 2 20/08/2015 16:59

E U R O P EBecause Sport TV Leads the Way

Leading sports television executives from across Europe are at the vanguard of Sports Video Group Europe. An independent affiliate organisation formed by the successful Sports Video Group in the USA, its mission is to advance the creation, production and distribution of sport content on all screens via information, events and industry initiatives.

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SVG Europe 2015.indd 3 20/08/2015 16:59

4 EUROPE SPORTTECH JOURNAL / AUTUMN 2015

SVGEUROPEUPDATE

Think Globally, Act Locally

BY PETER ANGELLChairman of the Advisory Board,

Sport Video Group Europe

As 2015 enters the final furlong it is worth reflecting on a year that continued to see the sports production industry move forward with new technologies and productions that once again set new standards for the industry.

For SVG Europe members and sponsors as well as sports fans those advances are all good news. Good news because they have given sports production professionals better ways to tell the story of an event in a way that viewers find more entertaining and informative. And better for sponsors as it means that investments in R&D can more easily offer up an ROI.

SVG Europe, for its part, will celebrate the production and technical accomplishments in 2015 at IBC in Amsterdam on 12 September. This years honourees are being selected by the SVG Europe advisory board as this publication is going to press so to see who will be honoured please visit SVG Europes home page. The SVG Europe home page will also provide you with an opportunity to attend the event.

The Sport Production and Achievement awards are one example of the many pan-European events that SVG Europe has created in order to give our industry a chance to come together, learn, network, and return home better enabled to do our jobs.

But as many of us know the vast majority of the sports production community makes a living not working on pan-European or even global events but rather local events. And that is why those pan European SVG events will, increasingly, be complemented by regional, language-specific events.

Take, for example, Germany. Over the past three years SVG Europe has held a German-language event that gives sports production professionals in that region a chance to come together and have high-level discussions on the issues facing the German-speaking sport

production community. And in October of this year we will hold a similar event in Italy. Our plan is to also hold a French-language event in Paris by the time January 2016 comes to an end.

And probably the most important on-going initiative that will be shifting into a higher gear in 2016 is the work SVG does to encourage more women to join our industry and those within it to more easily advance and expand their careers. A look five years down the line lays bare that our industry (and many in the media industry) is poised for a crisis as there has not been the influx of new production and engineering talent required to fill the void created by those who will retire. The female workforce, which comprises more than 50% of the possible workforce, is a resource that we must reach and prioritise.

For its part SVG Europe is going to do much more to make that happen. You can expect to see an increasing number of panel discussions at our events focused on Production Management, a key sector for women in our industry, as well as more women-only technology seminars, and much more.

That outreach will require input from you. Our efforts are only helpful if we can get meaningful momentum behind them and also more input to make sure they best meet the industrys needs. If you would like to spearhead a regional language event in your home nation or get involved with helping women player a mucg ,arger role in our business please reach out a member of the SVG Europe team today.

2016 will be a massively busy year for the industry. The Euros, another Summer Olympics, a full slate of football action, and much more will put sports media front and centre in the living rooms of sports fans all around the world. And you can be sure that SVG Europe, in a number of ways, will help you follow what is going on and what it means to you.

CHAIRMAN Peter Angell IEC in Sport, COO

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, EDITORIAL Ken Kerschbaumer

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS Simon Ackermann Habegger AG,

Creative Director Robert Adams Constantin Sports Marketing,

Managing Director Konrad Bartelski Consultant Riccardo Botta Sky Italia, Head of Production

and Creative Hub Jonny Bramley BBC Exec Producer

Glasgow 2014 & Rio 2016 Robin Broomfield Sky, Technical Manager Angelo Carosi Sky Italia, Director Jean-Louis Cleret SIS Live, European

commercial director Charlie Cope BBC Sport,

Technical Executive Tony Coxon European PGA Tour

Productions, Head of Production Operations

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Luc Geoffroy EuroMedia Group, CTO Meryvn Hall AELTC, Broadcast Manager Duncan Humphreys Stream TV Networks, Head of

Broadcast UK&Europe Steve Jenkins NEP Visions, Group MD Barry Johnstone CTV, Managing Director Jens Knudsen TV2 VP of Production Timo Koch Outside Broadcast,

Managing Director Manuel Lesaicherre Orange, Director of Content Manfred Lielacher ORF, Head of TV Production Dean Locke Formula One Management,

Executive Director, TV Production

Brendan Mallon UTV GB Media, Head of Operations

Dan Miodownik HBS, Production Department Director

Roger Pearce ITV, Technical Director Sport

Simon Potter BT Sport, Consultant Bernard Ross UEFA, Head of TV

Production Inga Ruehl Sky, Account Director,

Sport & News Paul Ryan ESPN EMEA,

Head of Event Operations David Shield IMG Sports Media, Director

of Engineering & Technology GP Slee Broadcast Rental, Owner Pauli Subira TV3, Art & Directing Director Henk van Meerkerk Fox Sports NL,

Head of Production Arjan van Westerloo Endemol Sport,

Managing Director Pascal Wattiaux PW Sport, Consultant Phil White IBC, Director Of

Technology & Events Tom Woods Woods Media Group,

Co-Founder & CEO

ADVISORY BOARDEUROPEFROM THE CHAIRMAN

SVG Europe 2015.indd 4 20/08/2015 16:59

SVG Europe 2015.indd 5 20/08/2015 16:59


SVGEUROPEUPDATE

As an association serving the European sports broadcast production community, at its simplest I really see Sports Video Group Europe as having twin missions: to inform and to connect.

Our first role, every day and every week of the year, is to keep members informed with news and insight across our web site and newsletter. The latter may look like a straightforward list of headline stories every week but in fact we have developed a number of strands that speak of variety, depth, reflection and comment in our coverage.

Youll be familiar with our Live From strand, where our reporting team is on-site at some of the biggest events in the European sporting calendar. On top of that we regularly run SVGE Analysis, SVGE Sit-Down, Guest Comment, SVGE Q&A, Show Preview and Show Wrap-Up stories across the weeks and months of the year.

We dont tend to make a lot of noise about the quality, speed and depth of our show coverage, its just another service we provide but we probably should. Ive been covering this business for over 20 years so I do know how good our NAB and IBC preview and analysis coverage really is!

We have also increased the strength and depth of our reporting team in Europe over the last year, to the point where very little gets by us each week. The newsletter is a valuable resource, full of insider information: if you do not currently receive it just go to svgeurope.org and click on Subscribe to Newsletter to receive your own copy.

Our mission to connect is of course paramount and hopefully you are familiar with the results; in fact, hopefully you have actually connected by attending one of our many events over the past year?

December 2014 saw our forward-looking, tech-heavy FutureSport take place at Lords Cricket Ground in London. In February it was on to Amsterdam for our Sport Facility Integration Summit at ISE, where a highlight was the keynote address by Dimitri Huygen, EURO 2020 Brussels Project Director and Managing Director European Stadium and Safety Management Association. The ISE event is a very valuable step for us into the stadium world (as opposed to the broadcast environment), one that we will be taking with greater fortitude for the February 2016 event.

March saw us flying to Barcelona for the St Patricks Day Football Production Summit, in association with our colleagues at Mediapro Spain. Firmly established in the calendar, this event brings together the most senior people at European football federations, leagues, clubs and broadcasters to discuss match-day production issues. We were lucky this year in gaining, from Host Broadcast Services Head of Production Dan Miodownik, a unique insight into broadcast and digital preparations for what turned out to be a thrillingly successful FIFA Womens World Cup tournament in Canada 2015.

In May we were at MediaCityUK in Manchester, where BBC Sport and dock10 graciously hosted tours of their respective facilities ahead of our SportTech Europe conference at Old Trafford. Again a packed programme and packed house, featuring a Rugby Special preview of Rugby World Cup 2015 and a fantastic insight from Euromedia CTO Luc Geoffroy into the production complexity behind the greatest bike race in the world, the Tour de France.

September sees us back in Amsterdam for Sport Production Summit 2015 at the NH Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky in Dam Square, as well our Sport Production & Technical Achievement Awards during IBC at the RAI, presented by Canon Europa.

On top of this roll-call of scheduled SVG Europe events I must also mention three special days that have taken place over the past year. In partnership with IMG Studios, led by Global Director of Engineering & Technology David Shield, we produced the Sport Facility Tour & Conference at Stockley Park, London last October, providing an overview of the top-class faciliites on-site as well as special insight into the phenomenal power of Premier League Productions.

In early March, an important first for the associations Womens Initiative as Bubble & Squeak Managing Director Sadie Groom interviewed BBC Director of Sport Barbara Slater a tremendous success for everyone involved.

And in June, the inaugural Champions Summit was produced in Berlin by Sky Deutschland in association with SVG Europe. This partnership yielded a fantastic day of German-language sports production debate Broadcast Goes IT, Young People in Sports Production, Champions Week 2015, New Ways of Sports Storytelling and Whats Next in Remote Production involving a top tier of German sports professionals including Fraunhofer Institut, Plazamedia, Production Associates, ProSiebenSat.1, Sportcast, Topvision, TVN Group, TV Skyline and Vectorform.

Sports Video Group has a powerful parent organisation in the United States and is rapidly increasing in quality, reach and insight as well as sponsorship support here in Europe. My message to you, in my role as Executive Editor? Stay informed, stay connected: get involved!

Association of information and connection across the European continent

BY FERGAL RINGROSE EXECUTIVE EDITOR SVG Europe

OPENING COMMENT

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SVGEUROPEUPDATE Sport Facility Intergration Summit

The rise of the connected sports stadium and the new opportunities this means for revenue generation were among the themes of the keynote presentation given by Dimitri Huygen, who heads the European Stadium and Safety Management Association (ESSMA) and is a prime mover behind the EURO2020 stadium development project in Belgium.

Setting out his vision for the emergence of a new, increasingly tech-savvy generation of stadium, Huygen confirmed that a newly-designed facility is likely to be much more than an old school stadium. The stadium of the future will be a smart stadium a smart city, even.

Integral to the success of these next-generation venues will be the generation of additional revenue from the matchday experience. Measures by which this can be achieved include building up the overall hospitality and VIP experience,

ESSMAs Dimitri Huygen discusses the connected future for the stadium

BY KAREN HOGAN

and improving the food & beverage offering across the board. Huygen readily conceded that, at present, this is something that is still sorely lacking in many Belgian stadia.

Nonetheless, the trend towards the selling of stadium naming rights and burgeoning revenue from broadcast distribution have meant that construction costs are now lower for many new projects, he added.

But the focus of venue development initiatives shouldnt be solely on the matchday experience: There could be scope for increased revenue on non-matchdays, too. For example FC Porta organises kids club and childrens birthday parties.

Non-sporting entertainment, such as live performances by major name bands, is also set to remain an integral part of the overall mix.

Outlining the multi-stadium project of renewal that he is currently undertaking in Belgium, Huygen also foresees increasingly sophisticated integration with visitors mobile and other handheld devices. We are now getting into a kind of society thing where people come together at the stadium and get connected, he said. The result will be much more profitable venues where [operators] are able to achieve a more significant return on investment.

Dimitri Huygen, ESSMA: The stadium of the future will be a smart stadium a smart city, even

SVG Europe 2015.indd 8 20/08/2015 16:59

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SVGEUROPEUPDATE

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Inside Super Bowl XLIX

Sky Sports UK is in the first year of a new five-year deal for the Super Bowl and is expanded on previous coverage with the use of a new combined satellite/production trailer from Sure Shot, a larger studio position, a pitch side position, and more programming in advance of the big game.

We have been running a lot of NFL Network programming so there is a lot of live network programming taking place all week based around the NFL and what the Super Bowl is all about as we give a boost to the coverage of the NFL, said Keith Lane, Sky Sports, director of operations.

Sky Sports game coverage kicked off Sunday at 10 pm GMT, an hour before the pre-game festivities. For game coverage Sky Sports relied primarily on the NBC dirty feed for the game coverage and the world feed for the halftime show. It also had access to individual camera

Sky Sports tackles game with new Sure Shot unit

BY KEN KERSCHBAUMER

(L-to-R) George Jeffrey, Sky Sports, creative production manager; Keith Lane, director of operations; and Travis Schwartz, lighting director, inside the Sky Sports studio at Super Bowl XLIX

SVG Europe 2015.indd 10 20/08/2015 16:59


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feeds and three EVS servers so the production team could build up replays for analysis and also cut around NBC promotional material. Adobe editing software was also used for building packages.

Outside of the game coverage Sky Sports this year had a pitch side host position. We want to bring the game and atmosphere to the viewers at home and we thought it would be good to have a pitch side reporter who has an opportunity to grab some people and talk to them, added Lane.

Meanwhile upstairs on the studio level Sky Sports had a 19x12 foot studio outfitted with a 70-inch touchscreen panel with RT Software tOG-Sports Pro analysis software.

The biggest technical change this year was the use of Sure Shots KMHD, the companys newest production/uplink truck. It measures 42 feet and has a C-band uplink plus Grass Valley LDX-80 cameras with Canon lenses; a Grass Valley Kayenne K-frame production switcher with four mix effects; two EVS six-channel servers (Sky had a total of three EVS servers); and a Chyron LEX 3.1 Duet graphics system.

We used Sure Shot on some of our golf coverage and this year we saw an opportunity to do something a little bit different, said Lane. Sure Shot built a new truck that gives us an opportunity to try using a production/uplink

truck for a large on-site production.Lane says Sure Shot has done a good job outfitting the

truck with really good equipment and the C-band link will provide domestic satellite transmission to New York City where a fibre connection from Pac TV was used for primary transmission back to the UK. Encompass provided a backup transmission to the UK and Sky Sports also downlinked the world feed in the UK as an extra layer of redundancy.

Inside Super Bowl XLIX

SVG Europe 2015.indd 11 20/08/2015 16:59


SVGEUROPEUPDATE

The FIS Alpine World Ski Championships were held in the US for the first time in 16 years, and much has changed in TV production since the last time the event was held in Beaver Creek and Vail, CO. And this year it was up to Eurovision Production Coordination, working alongside technology service providers like Game Creek Video and Bexel, to ensure that the production was all it needed to be.

We are trying to lift the production level for an Alpine-skiing event here in North America and leave a legacy, said Franck Choquard, managing director, Eurovision Production Coordination.

Nearly every day featured a mix of training runs and 13 medal events. There were 26 rightsholders around the globe, and 20 of them had a presence onsite. The 1,500-sq.-metre International Broadcast Centre, located

near the finish line at Red Tail Stadium, was home to about 400 production people every day, including staffers from Eurovision, NBC Sports, ORF (Austria), ARD/ZDF (Germany), France Tlvisions, YLE (Finland), SVT (Sweden), and SSR/SRG (Switzerland).

The top three for this event are the Swiss, Austrians, and Germans, said Coquard. For the Swiss and the Austrians, this is their Super Bowl, and with the broadcasts

Eurovision delivers for world broadcasters

Franck Choquard, managing director, Eurovision Production Coordination

BY KEN KERSCHBAUMER

World Ski Championships

SVG Europe 2015.indd 12 20/08/2015 16:59


SVGEUROPEUPDATE

www.asperasoft.commoving the worlds data at maximum speed

Hall 7 | Stand # B27September 11 - 15, 2015

Amsterdam RAI

in primetime, they will have a market share around 80%.A production team of more than 200 was on hand to

capture all the happenings (plus medal ceremonies, press conferences, and more) with more than 60 cameras, including more than 50 Sony HDC1500 cameras with Canon lenses, five Sony HDC3000 high-speed cameras, Antelope super-high-speed cameras, and a CamCat wired aerial system covering 700 meters on the mens course and 400 meters of womens course.

We had a maximum of 45 cameras for one race and a total of 18 EVS machines and operators, said Choquard.

The core event coverage was produced out of three Game Creek production units: Amazin and Dynasty A and B units.

Because we have mens and womens events on the same day, we need three production units, said Choquard. Amazin covers the womens events, Dynasty A the mens events, and the Dynasty B unit does the pre-cut production.

Bexel was hired to lay fibre for the course and to connect the medals plaza in Vail to the compound at Beaver Creek and laid 200 fibre patch points. We sized it big, said Choquard, and it was almost fully loaded.

One hot innovation that wasnt in use is drones, and it was not for lack of trying. We studied a lot of alternatives

and faced a few issues like altitude and wind, said Choquard. But the biggest challenge we had was that 95% of the event is on federal land and you are not allowed to operate drones for commercial purpose on federal land.

The CamCat aerial system solved those issues and also had the speed required to keep up with skiers speeding down the course at 70 mph. And, like the high-speed cameras and the two wireless cameras at the bottom of the course, it proved to be a solid investment.

When you get the super-high-speed images at the right time and moment, they offer amazing pictures, said Choquard. And weve been asked why do we need two wireless cameras at the bottom of the course. But when [US skier] Bode Miller crashed, we could get a close shot of his wife and the emotion. And sport is more than action; it is the emotion carried to the people around it.

Eurovision also produced a world feed plus, a second feed that offered an additional two-plus hours of coverage of the morning inspection of the course, the ceremonies, and bib draws, as well as additional slow-motion coverage that might not have made the original world feed because of time constraints.

Additionally, when we have time, we interview the skiers and coaches, added Choquard.

World Ski Championships

SVG Europe 2015.indd 13 20/08/2015 16:59


SVGEUROPEUPDATE

Between February 18 and March 1 2015 the FIS (International Ski Federation) Nordic World Ski Championships took place in Falun, Sweden. During that twelve day period events 700 athletes from 55 nations competed in Cross Country Skiing, Ski Jumping and Nordic combined where, as the name suggests, the winner was decided on the basis of one jump on the ski jumping hill and one cross-country skiing pursuit race. For Swedish Broadcaster, SVT, this was one of the biggest events it has covered for many years. In all, some 200 technical and production personnel were involved.

We started our planning in 2011, stated Adde Granberg, executive producer at Swedish Television. Although we have covered these Championships previously this is the first time we have also acted as Host Broadcaster.

This Host Broadcasting (HB) function is being carried out on behalf of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). SVTs Johan Bernhagen directs the Cross-Country competitions while Bjrn-Gunnar Vellan is in charge of Ski Jumping. Alongside the HB commitments, SVT is also providing unilateral coverage for its own viewers.

In an exercise that demonstrated Scandinavian co-operation, colleagues from Norways NRK are assisting SVT in certain operations. Our sports department has not produced ski jump coverage for a number of years and when plans were being discussed that might include a new and unique jumping hill being included at Falun, we asked our Norwegian friends to help us out with all the knowledge they had gained especially in the Oslo 2011 World Championships. That co-operation has worked exceptionally well.

Granberg explained that the personnel from NRK worked with SVT when construction of the hill course was taking place. This helped us identify the optimal positions for our cameras. It would be unforgiveable to miss any part of the action during the events. Whats more, we are going to have our staff shadowing the production personnel from NRK so that we will be in a good position to produce Ski Jumping in Falun after the 2015 event.

Swedish Television has commissioned outside broadcast units from Mediatec and Norways OB-Team to provide the wide-ranging coverage of the events. Both companies have extensive experience of covering the events included in the Falun Championships. Mediatec has been involved in many of the World Cup cross-country meets,

including at the Falun venue. OB-Team assisted SVT with Host Broadcaster production of the World Cup biathlon last year.

Covering all the anglesWe are utilising around 100 cameras across all the events, reported Granberg. These include a number of specialist units such as wirecam, rails, multicopter, and polecams. We are also using two hyper-motions for six times speed and five super slomo cameras for three times speed. The aim is to produce as much innovative coverage as possible with all the resources to analyse skiers and jumper techniques and performances.

The International Broadcasting Centre (IBC) is located at the Lugnet Arena within the sports complex in Falun The OB compound covers around 12,000 square metres. We service the requirements of 26 international broadcasters from this facility, said Granberg. The arrangement is that each broadcaster provides its own equipment for use within the IBC.

The broadcaster is also providing second screen options for the Local Organising Committee at the Live Arena within the sporting complex. He concludes, Our goal for these Championships is simple: To take sport production to the next level.

Co-operation smoothes the way for ski coverage

BY PHILIP STEVENS

Nordic World Ski Championships

Adde Granberg: We are utilising around 100 cameras across all the events

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SVG Europe 2015.indd 15 20/08/2015 16:59


SVGEUROPEUPDATE Six Nations Rugby

The Northern Hemispheres major rugby tournament, the RBS 6 Nations, kicked off with victories for England in Cardiff, France in Paris and Ireland in Rome. The Host Broadcaster operation for Italy v Ireland was a joint effort between Observe (part of the Dublin-based Screen Scene Group recently acquired by NEP) and Sunset+Vine. SVG Europe was at the Stadio Olimpico di Roma to learn the background to this RBS 6 Nations partnership and observe how they brought Italy v Ireland Match Day to broadcasters around the world.

Six Nations Rugby Ltd, in the last TV rights deal, decided they were going to produce some of the games themselves. This would give them an opportunity to work with new or different broadcasters in the future, said Alan Burns, co-founder and director of the Screen Scene Group and Observe OB crew technical director in Rome.

Italian broadcaster DMAX didnt have a huge history of sports coverage in Italy, but they really wanted to do it. Dmax is an Italian free-to-air channel, owned by Discovery, that targets mainly male audiences, and theyre starting to get into sports. Discovery was very keen to do the deal, said Burns, but didnt have a lot of sports production experience. Six Nations Rugby Ltd decided to go ahead and they asked me to come and produce the game as Observe. Last year was season one, and the deal is for four seasons, ten games here

Live from Six Nations Rugby: Observe and Sunset+Vine Host Broadcast operation at the Stadio Olimpico di Roma

BY FERGAL RINGROSE

Cerith Williams, S+V: I was lucky enough to get involved early on and it fell to me to move it forward

at Stadio Olimpico (two home games one year and three the next).

Six Nations Rugby Ltd wanted to increase the quality of the coverage coming out of Italy so that it was on a par with what the other broadcasters were producing out of the British Isles and France. Production is not my speciality, so I spoke with [Sunset+Vine chairman] Jeff Foulser and we brought in Cerith Williiams from their Welsh office and thats really where it kicked off. Its a Six Nations Ltd production; Sunset+Vine is the production company and Observe provides the technical facilities.

The initial approach was made to Observe, the facilities company, confirmed Sunset+Vine match director Cerith Williams. We had worked on other projects with Observe, and Alan approached S+V to do the production element of the operation. And I was lucky enough to get involved early on and it fell to me to move it forward and Im very pleased because rugby is a passion and mostly what I do back in Wales for Sunset+Vine Cymru. We do most of the coverage for Welsh language broadcaster S4C.

I think the Six Nations people have seen what other sporting bodies have done in other sports, cricket in particular, said Williams. The ICC Champions Trophy and Cricket World Cup are their property, their asset and they own it. Its not an unwise thing to do.

Were very pleased to be involved, said Williams. It adds to our rugby coverage. In Wales we got involved in rugby almost ten years ago. More recently, we got involved with ESPN to provide coverage of the English Rugby Premiership. And now, Sunset+Vine does all of BT Sports rugby including European Champions Cup and Challenge Cup. Rugby, now, is becoming a big part of Sunset+Vines core business, he said.

Camera set-up at Stadio OlimpicoHere in Rome were creating a world feed with 20 cameras, said Burns, and for the first time this year on Six Nations games were using a mobile camera on the referee. Thats provided for us by BSI, who have also done it for us on BT Sport coverage of Champions Cup rugby.

We use Broadcast RF for the radio cameras; Ben Hawker is here on the Broadcast RF side. We have three wireless cams on the pitch and a beauty shot weather permitting on the gold statue up on the hill above the ground,

SVG Europe 2015.indd 16 20/08/2015 16:59


SVGEUROPEUPDATESix Nations Rugby

with the stadium in the foreground and Rome in the background. It looks fantastic.

Broadcast RF on-site engineer Ben Hawker added, Weve four cameras here: three inside the ground and one up on the hill. A couple of them are custom-built: theyre dirt cheap for what they do, and they look really good!

Were not allowed to use Spidercam in this stadium, said Burns. A Spidercam got caught on a pole a few years ago (well before our time!) and they had to get a cherry picker out to untangle it. That was the end of that. Our camera set-up would be comparable, or maybe a little bit more, to any other Six Nations production.

We have two super slo mos and one high speed radio camera here, he said. The high speed 400 to 500 frames per second, on a radio link back to the OB. This is not a live camera, but were getting those extra handheld shots at high speed. Thats a Sony camera, with a radio link from Broadcast RF to the EVS. Its just for analysis.

One interesting thing about cameras, added Cerith Williams. Id not worked this stadium until last year. Where I have my main camera gantry (Cameras 1, 2 and 3) is the furthest away from the touchline that Ive ever seen in any stadium. Its a good 100 metres. So we have to have very very powerful lenses on all of those cameras.

Hopefully, viewing at home, you wouldnt know the cameras were that far away! Other than that its a great stadium to work with, plenty of atmosphere, full to the rafters with plenty of colour.

This stadium is municipal and multi-purpose, said Burns. Its not

bespoke. Theres no cabling infrastructure and anyway a cable rig for rugby is different than a cable rig for soccer. So were very much on the ground, with handheld cameras, touchline ground cameras, TMO cameras in the corners you dont have any of that with a football match.

OB compound: broadcasters and trucksBecause its a tight stadium for broadcasting major sporting events, the OB compound configuration at Stadio Olimpico is rather unusual. There are three layers of an OB compound, going up the hill above the stadium, said Burns. The ground layer is the production vehicles; the next layer is the uplink compound; and the very top layer is where the generator and support vehicles go.

Were the Host with OB 1 and our support vehicle; DMAX is next to us; and the other people we have on site are BBC Sport with Telegenic. They do studio analysis and pitch-side pres with BBC staff. Theyve four or five cameras and they take our feeds. They have their own personality camera so that when there are lulls in play they can choose one of their own people rather than whats coming off the world feed.

DMAX do something similar: they take our feed and do their own commentary, analysis and pieces theyve shot and so on. And then theres RTE [as Main Visiting Broadcaster] who have a small set up here with an interview camera and theyre doing news pieces with that for RTE Sport and RTE News. We do the commentary team set-up for them.

SVG Europe 2015.indd 17 20/08/2015 16:59


SVGEUROPEUPDATE Six Nations Rugby

Our truck has eight EVS XT3s on board, said Burns. This truck has a massive Evertz EQX multi-embedder, Evertz routers, RTS Telex talkback matrix, Sony vision mixer and Sony cameras. Weve always been Evertz; Simon Reed has been a good supplier to us for 12 years. All our trucks are Evertz.

In audio we have a Studer console. Weve just put Calrec Artemis into our other trucks. Were actually moving to the Artemis, from the Studer, said Burns. We had Calrec before, then we went to Studer and now were going back to Calrec. When we bought this desk, Studer was a little bit ahead. But with the Artemis now, Calrec has gone ahead. The Artemis is excellent, excellent.

Alan Burns, Observe: Six Nations Rugby Ltd decided to go ahead and they asked me to come and produce the game

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New RBS 6 Nations graphics with Alston ElliotThis year, as a separate project, the Six Nations has now got a new graphics look, said Burns. We did a test run here and in Ireland last year. Now theres one RBS 6 Nations graphics feel across all 15 games this year.

Six Nations Rugby contracted Alston Elliott to produce the graphics, as part of this look. The look was created by Screen Scene and then Alston Elliott took the design and prepared it to work on air.

There are Alston Elliott machines in the Observe truck and in the BBC truck. They can generate different version of the graphics: English, French, Italian and Welsh. Theyre now very much part of the RBS 6 Nations look and feel. On the ground, its a combination of their staff and my staff.

So whether youre watching on BBC, RTE, France TV or DMAX, it all looks the same, said Burns. Then for the world feed, Pitch International distributes it to all the other territories South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina.

Its been a two-year project a look across the whole competition, whether the broadcaster are commercial or non-commercial, he said. Its all centrally pooled with Alston Elliott; everybody has the same data and were all running off the same graphics engine.

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SVG Europe 2015.indd 19 20/08/2015 16:59


SVGEUROPEUPDATE

How do we tell better stories, more cleverly, to engage the viewer? How do we recreate that spine-tingling atmosphere of a raucous crowd in a packed stadium for a top of the table club clash? Manuela Baraschi is head of Sport Production and Operations at Sky Italia. She said, were in a situation where our competitors have the same matches, so the difference in coverage is one of personalisation. For Sky Italy this is the last season of the current bid.

In these three years we have introduced exclusive images from the locker room and tunnel, and additional cameras i.e. I-movix with antiflicker and player/coach cameras. Weve also gone from 10 to 16 cameras coverage for each top match. We use Piero and Viz Libero for tactical analysis, and a studio on-site for top matches with analysts like Vialli, Boban and Marchegiani. For the big matches we also have Twitter from the pitch and so on.

On match-days, said Baraschi, we start and finish with Sky Sport News (SkySport24), covering the pre-match from three hours before kick off and 90 minutes for the post-match. SS24 also covers the training pitch all week long in the build-up to big games.

We have also connected eight of the stadiums (11 football teams) by fibre to improve the quality of the feed and weve reduced the satellite band from 36 to 24 Mhz, using MPEG-4 DVBS2 uplinks without losing quality but reducing connectivity costs.

Were looking at other technologies such as video-stitching for the second screen, but we understand that it is necessary to find a marketing strategy to cover the production costs.

What would we like? More exclusive matches; more availability from the coaches and players; tactical analysis in the pre-match; and all-week access to the key players, said Baraschi.

Premier League Head of Production Nick Morgan told us of the three key areas of responsibility in his position. Im the person responsible at the Premier League for Premier League Productions, our international production and distribution arm. Secondly I look after our UK broadcasters, almost like an account manager, making sure they get what they need. And the third part is working with our 20 member clubs to make sure they deliver whats needed to both domestic and international broadcasters.

In terms of broadcasting we work in a three-year cycle and were now in the second year of this one, said Morgan. While were always looking to enhance our coverage year on year there havent been any seismic changes in this cycle. Some of the key differences weve brought to our offering over the past couple of years? One, from a domestic point of view, is standardising our offer across all of our clubs. Previously, there were quite a wide variety of approaches among clubs, whether that be camera positions or commentary positions, the level of player and manager engagement and so on. We did a big overhaul of that a couple of years ago, to bring it up to the level we felt was a prerequisite for being part of the Premier League.

From an overseas point of view, said Morgan, weve brought a number of new tools into our offering. Perhaps most notable is MARS multi-angle replay system which has capitalised on the investment weve made to allow us capture any moment of a match from a variety of angles, irrespective of whether the director had cut them to line.

Remotely at IMGs Premier League Productions facility in Stockley Park a producer can watch the match and decide for themselves editorially which are the most interesting moments and angles and then compile the together in a clips channel which we distribute around the world, he explained.

Match-day production: A view from the topA panel of speakers from Italy, Netherlands and the UK joined SVG Editorial Director Ken Kerschbaumer on stage in Barcelona to give us an insight into key innovations taking place in those countries to bring us closer to match-day action

BY FERGAL RINGROSE

SVG Europes Football Production Summit

What would we like? More exclusive matches; more availability from the coaches and players; tactical analysis in the pre-match; and all-week access to the key playersMANUELA BARASCHI

Manuela Baraschi: The difference in coverage is one of personalisation

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SVGEUROPEUPDATE

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Were an enabler, providing content for broadcasters, rather than being a broadcaster ourselves were giving remote broadcasters more and more opportunity to behave like a host broadcaster, so their analysis at half time can involve more control of the pictures. Historically, as you all know, sitting on a world feed can be quite frustrating when you dont know whats happening when and where.

In addition to that we now provide a dedicated wide shot at our matches; its there, so you dont have to hope that the host broadcaster goes back to that shot at the right time. You have total control and can act as if you are the host broadcaster. Were trying to enable international broadcasters to feel like theyre more a part of the action and part of the domestic experience, said Morgan.

Hearing the heart of the actionI was delighted to have the opportunity to sit here and talk to all the other broadcasters, because I think were all looking for the same goal which is getting closer to the game, said Henk van Meerkerk, Head of Production at Fox Sports Netherlands. And the funny thing is that were always talking about cameras; more cameras every time, more 4K, nice graphics and a lot of technology.

But I think the easiest way to get into the game is audio. Were not allowed to use full audio [for the Eredivisie]. We can use the microphones of the cameras around the pitch, but were not allowed to use the conversations of the referees and were not allowed to wire players.


Henk van Meerkerk: Were all looking for the same goal which is getting closer to the game

SVG Europe 2015.indd 21 20/08/2015 16:59


SVGEUROPEUPDATE

When I started in 1995 we placed a camera between the benches, and we put a microphone on the camera, said van Meerkerk. That microphone is still there, and I would like to show you a clip from the Netherlands: were a small market, and probably most of you have never seen football from the Netherlands before! he told the Barcelona audience.

The clip has two components. The first is emotion. Youll see a lot of coaches screaming and yelling to referees, and talking to their players. And nobody in the Netherlands cares about this camera. Nobody cares about the audio; its just there, and they [the coaches] know its there, and they behave the way they normally do.

Another dimension youll see is a high-profile coach and ex-international striker Marco van Basten actually using the camera to explain to the audience why he didnt like the decision of the referee. He speaks to the camera and also explains to the referees boss why they should change certain rules!

Van Meerkerk then showed the audience a clip of recent action from the Eridivisie, with no censorship whatsoever on the utterances of the managers in the technical zone pitch-side. The startled reaction of the crowd, most coming from the larger markets around Europe, suggested that indeed they had never heard

anything like it in their own country nor would their leagues even consider allowing such colourful language on air in primetime! Looking at your reaction to the clip proves to me that this should really be the step to get into the game, van Meerkerk remarked. Will the big European leagues follow this Dutch example?

Inside Sky Sports shopping listMike Ruddell, Head of Technology at Sky Sports UK, took us on a fascinating ride through a few of the buzzwords and hot topics that are keeping us busy and keeping me awake at night!

Cloud: Everyones got a cloud these days; and weve seen some really clever advances such as cloud-connected IP cameras and that kind of thing, and a lot of companies are doing good work around transcoding and delivering through the cloud. But in the broadcast space, I havent seen a truly killer application, said Ruddell. If youre just taking your application and putting it in your data centre connected to my studios with a big fat pipe, thats not what cloud means. The benefits of cloud come with virtualisation and all of those kind of things. So if it can reside in my data centre just as well as yours, then its not cloud.

IP: the benefits of IP for distribution data


SVG Europe 2015.indd 22 20/08/2015 16:59


SVGEUROPEUPDATE

connection, files, media, pictures I think the benefits of that are pretty well understood. The reliability, scalability, integration with IT infrastructure, a lot of that kit already exists. But the questions that are keeping us busy in terms of IP are, where do you draw the line in the production chain from glass to glass? Can we see a world in the future where a Cat-5 cable comes out of a camera and also goes into your set-top box at home? Probably not for a while, but where do you draw the line between that SDI world and the IP world and in the transitional period do we have to maintain the two things?

Social, second screen and apps: We know the second screen is here to stay, but the challenge is that there are now so many clever apps and things you can do with your iPad and the second screen that its really hard to see the wood from the trees sometimes. There must be a dozen cool new things that come past the desk every day to do with apps and social but at the same time everyone is really keen on engaging a younger audience so apps and social is the way to go.

Remote production: it means many things, he said. It could just mean bringing a few camera feeds from the OB back to base and cutting the feeds remotely. The opposite end of the scale will we get there, maybe we shouldnt is remote cameras and nobody on-site, with a great

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Mike Ruddell, Head of Technology, Sky Sports

big resilient network between the site and base. At Sky weve dabbled a bit with remote production; the first event of any scale we did was Sky Sports News operation at the 2012 Olympics where we built a studio on top of Westfield. The IP connectivity worked better than we hoped, but we werent fully confident so we double-crewed it and worked remotely and on-site.

Weve seen recently some really cool stuff that Pac-12 Networks have been doing out in California with college basketball: it has proven that the technology is there and it works as long as youve got the network between A and B. But depending on what your market is and what country youre in, and depending on the telco environment, its quite hard to make the numbers stack up. You can be sure that if the numbers did stack up already, wed be doing it a lot more than we currently do.

Ultra HD: Skys position on this is fairly clear. Were testing, were learning a great deal. But there has been no commitment to launching a UK service were just

SVG Europe 2015.indd 23 20/08/2015 16:59


SVGEUROPEUPDATE

getting our hands on as much kit as we possibly can and putting it through its paces, so that if the trigger is ever pulled, we know in which direction to head. But for us, fundamentally, the reason that trigger has not been pulled is because the wow factor is not there. Weve ticked the box that says more pixels; we havent yet ticked the box that says high dynamic range, faster pixels, higher frame rate and SMPTE 2020 colour space.

Connectivity: One project were running at Sky is improving our connection to the telco providers, and installing a secure platform between Sky Studios and the outside world. Weve called it the OB Data Gateway. This is Sky-managed IP, so we can effectively buy any IP-delivered service from BT or any other telco around the world, as a managed service with extremely high SLAs which is where we put our premier circuits: we dont put that on a dodgy bit of internet with a five hundred quid video-to-IP encoder. If we can just rent the bandwidth we can just manage all these services ourselves.

We have already saved money here, said Ruddell. Some of the secondary video circuits for Formula 1 the on-boards and so on moving to VOIP comms instead of ISDN is saving cash. Also on F1, remote editing to save us taking huge amounts of storage out on the road. Lower quality reverse feeds to our regional offices. Cellular and

ENG contributions come through this system. Giving staff mobile remote data access saves them buying expensive SIM cards when theyre out of the country. And on the Premier League itself were delivering pan-cams back to the studio, a locked off camera not pointing at the pitch, showing the reaction of fans which is used for our Soccer Saturday production.

In the old world, said Ruddell, if we wanted all our ancillary services at base available to us on a production we had to take them out on the road, meaning bigger OBs and more kit on the trucks. Instead of one centralised system we had to have 20 trucks. So, where were heading now, if we think about it as a very clever firewall, it will enable us to effectively not just connect any computer at Sky Studios to any computer on the road but it will let you connect any service run by any user on any computer in the world to any service on a computer back in Sky Studios.

Its much more grand than an IP address on a box-to-box level, its about services. What it means is that all of that stuff can be running either on the trucks or in Sky Studios in theory, theres no difference. We havent even scratched the surface of what we could do with this. All of the cool buzzword stuff we talked about before, I see as being enabled by this data gateway platform of the future, Ruddell told the Barcelona audience.


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SVGEUROPEUPDATE SVG Europes Football Production Summit

During the wrap-up session at SVG Europes Barcelona football conference Stefan-Eric Wildemann, Manager Sales and Distribution FIFA TV, announced that on the back of the very successful collaboration with NHK for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, NHK will produce ten matches in 8K for the Womens World Cup 2015 in Canada. Its going to be a six-camera production in three venues, and obviously the final is part of that, plus the Japan matches.

NKH will then transfer the signal to two public viewings in the USA, in cooperation with the local media rights licensees, and there will be local streaming at the IBCC or elsewhere in Vancouver, along with some screening in Japan. The distribution of the signal will be done by NHK, Wildemann confirmed.

In terms of the overall broadcast production plan for the FIFA Womens World Cup 2015 in Canada, HBS Head of Production Dan Miodownik said its easily the second biggest production now, after the FIFA World Cup its bigger than the Confederations Cup both in terms of scope of services but also in terms of interest from broadcasters, which is significantly larger than we expected coming out of 2011. The match production plan is, I would say, on a par with big matches at the domestic level, which indicates the interest in this competition.

Canada is obviously a big country, said Miodownkik, and were struggling with both the geography and time zones. So the plan is to have six fixed OB vans; were getting those through Dome Productions who are the biggest producer in Canada. They rank fairly high even in North America, and when they put in a big truck its a big truck!

In terms of specialty companies, he continued,

Broadcast RF will do our RF solution; remote cameras will come from TV Skyline and Plazamedia both of those worked with those in Brazil, as did Fletcher in relation to ultra motion. PMT will provide the Spidercam, and ACS Helicopters [will be involved] as and when we need them the final decision on those games will be taken in the next month or so.

But what this shows you is that we are starting to be able to use this event as a stepping stone, not just coming off the 2014 World Cup but we can also start thinking ahead to what we would want to be doing for the Confederations Cup and World Cup. That has an impact as well on things like digital services and where were going with UHD whether its 4K, 8K or somewhere else, he commented.

It is important that you are offering more than just a match feed, and again thats replicated here. A slight variation on what weve done in having a clips compilation, for Canada we have whats called an Additional Content Channel (ACC). The idea of that is to output as much content as we possibly can pre-match, post match and during the game so that the broadcasters on-site can really take advantage as quickly as possible. Thats replicated by the high-end technical platform we need, both on the trucks at the venues and at the IBCC.

On ENG content: again, another good step in the right direction from FIFA, putting in resources to gather content around the games, said Miodownik. Remember this is now a 24 team competition, with double-headers, so youve got a lot going on on Match Day Minus One. Youve got even more going on on Match Day, with teams arriving while another match is taking place.

Those ENG crews will be working like dogs, gathering content not just in and around the training camps at the hotels, but also on Match Day Minus One and then on Match Days mopping up as much content as possible. This content is cut down and sent back to the IBCC where it is then ingested on the Media Server.

The ENG will be full HD. Everything will be logged. We will have a big post operation: in this case were going to go more for the cut-downs and not finished craft product, though we will produce a little of that. Two types of service in terms of the Media Server access: at the IBCC you can access everything (as has been developed since 2006); and then there will be off-site access, which is news-type not match action, said Miodownik.

Ten-match 8K production for FIFA Womens World Cup

BY FERGAL RINGROSE

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SVGEUROPEUPDATE Paris Marathon & Paris-Roubaix

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France Tlvisions produces and broadcasts the Paris Marathon as well as the Paris-Roubaix cycling race. This year the two events, organised by the ASO Group, took place over the same time period in April. Euro Media, the service provider in charge of the coverage and broadcasting of both, had to juggle the contrasting requirements of these two demanding events.

Bruno Gallais, in charge of wireless production and international business development at Euro Media France, explained: A total of 80 people were assigned to the two races (a staff of 40 for each). The first marathon runners were expected to arrive around 11.30am, whereas the Paris-Roubaix race began at 12.50pm. In both cases we were able to go live on France Tlvisions.

During the Marathon, two pressurised airplanes flew over the skies of Paris; one of these subsequently

continued on to the Paris-Roubaix race, thereby covering both events on the same day.

A portable camera equipped with HD Runner from Livetools Technology and a studio camera were placed at the starting line, with the [entirety] managed by the SNG XS2 van(F188) belonging to our subsidiary S-TV, continued Gallais.

In the France 3 Alsace OB unit situated in Strasbourg, director Christophe Baudoin was able to use the footage recorded by the four motorcycles and a helicopter fitted with a Cineflex camera system, and delivered by the HFi4 unit stationed in Avenue Foch, Paris.

Meanwhile, for the Paris-Roubaix race the team required two relay aircraft, including a pressurised one and two helicopters equipped with Cineflex systems.

With the Paris Marathon and Paris-Roubaix cycling event, the second week of April 2015 was a very busy one

FTV and Euromedia balance demands of marathon weekend in France

BY FABRICE MARINONI

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SVGEUROPEUPDATEParis Marathon & Paris-Roubaix

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for Euro Media GroupOn the ground at the Roubaix Velodrome, the director

Jean Maurice Ooghe (production director of the Tour de France) counted on four trail bikes to record the images and two for the sound recordings. Given the extremely difficult nature of the cobbled areas, these were the only motorbikes that could be used to film the peloton. In addition, for the first time on this event one of the organisations assist motorbikes (the one that supplies wheels to riders in case of a puncture) was fitted with a Toshiba mini-camera in order to provide a fully immersive live broadcasting experience.

The images were very interesting because the bikes engine was turned off so there was no shaking and the sound recording was of a high quality. It was therefore a totally immersive experience [involving] one of the aspects of the event that is rarely covered, i.e. wheel changes when there is a puncture, said Gallais.

Euro Medias HFR41 OB unit received all the RF signals and in turn retransmitted them to the France 3 Nord Pas de Calais OB unit located in Lille. OB units HFi5 and HFi6 situated high up in Mons en Pvle and Meudon (close to Paris) made it possible to cover the entire race without any picture. On bike-cameras were integral to coverage of the 2015 Paris-Roubaix cycling event

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SVGEUROPEUPDATE

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Sheffields iconic Crucible Theatre was once again the venue for, arguably, snookers most prestigious tournament the World Championship. Starting on 18 April, this tournament, which has been running since 1927, was played over 17 days in what has been described as the unique and intense atmosphere of the Crucible.

Alongside coverage shown on BBC, this event is also aired by British Eurosport. In fact, the worldwide audience has been estimated to be around 400 million. Production of the tournament has been provided by IMG for the past 18 years, with OB facilities coming from NEP Visions since 2012.

We normally start planning for the tournament in early February, said executive producer Alison Witkover.

Having said that, as this is now a regular event for us, we have a pretty good idea of what is required. However, what is really good is that the organisers do not just send us the schedule and say thats that. We maintain a close and excellent relationship with the organisers and that means they work with us to ensure match schedules marry with transmission times as much as possible.

Witkover, who has been producing snooker coverage for 15 years, says that her daily schedule during the tournament begins with the creation of a running order the previous evening. This is then emailed to the presenter, Hazel Irvine or Jason Mohammad. I also discuss with the seven feature producers assigned to the championship what material we can create that relates to the players in action the following day. We have two ENG crews, four editors and three FCP edit suites on site that will produce this insert material for us. The feature producers are very pro-active in coming up with ideas for the programmes. I normally allow them freedom to make those features as long as they need to be within reason. If the story is worth two minutes, then well go with that if four minutes then that is the duration we will try to accommodate.

Alongside the material created at the event, a number of short inserts averaging one minute or one minute and a

Cue the OB: How IMG produces snooker coverage for the BBC

For archiving we have now switched to LTO disks because they require less space for storage KEVIN ORWIN, NEP VISIONS

BY PHILIP STEVENS

World Snooker Championship

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SVGEUROPEUPDATE

half are produced in advance, enabling them to be played out between frames, if required.

Each morning at 0900 Witkover has a meeting with the presenter to talk through the schedule for that day. On a daily basis, too, she will liaise with tournament organisers regarding walk-on time for the players, interval durations, gaining player access and so on. Then Witkover, or one of the other programme editors, takes charge of the presentation of each live programme as it is transmitted.

As far as the relationship with British Eurosport is concerned, Witkover says that alongside providing the world feed, there is liaison regarding start time of matches and commentary positions.

During the early stages of the tournament, when two snooker tables are in use, space is limited within The Crucible for a presentation studio. During that period, presenters Irvine or Mohammad and their pundit guests broadcast from the nearby Sheffield Winter Gardens. During the last five days of the event, and with only one table in use, there is room for a glass studio within the auditorium of The Crucible to be constructed. In both cases, however, the production is handled from a scanner within a broadcast compound located at the main venue.

Challenges of the productionNEP Visions provides four trucks for the tournament for production and editing. For the main table coverage, its HD4 double expanding trailer is used, while the slightly smaller Voyager 2 is employed for matches on table two. In both vehicles directors carry out their own vision mixing on Grass Valley units that have been adapted to allow wipe transitions to be carried out easily from aux buttons and for

Doc Directing: Senior Match director Steve Docherty has more than 20 years experience of tournament coverage


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SVGEUROPEUPDATE

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onscreen Vizrt graphics to be inserted each time the main camera 1 is selected. Similarly, the Telestrator can be readily overlaid through a one-button press.

Presentation comes from Visions Horizon vehicle with the director here assisted by a vision mixer. Editing and archive material is handled by Voyager 1 truck.

So, what makes a good snooker director? I really enjoy the game,

states Steve Doc Docherty, the senior table director with more than 20 years experience of the match coverage. I like reading the game and anticipating where the next shot is going to be played. As far as a challenge is concerned, because the sessions can be long, maintaining concentration is vital. Then making sure we get the best shot, replaying where it helps to tell the story and putting in appropriate graphics to enhance the viewers experience.

During the early rounds when twin tables are in use, there are two additional match directors working alongside Docherty.

He goes on to say while delivering the pictures of the game has remained similar over the years, the technology surrounding replays and graphics and, of course, better quality images with High Definition, has

improved. We try to use far more replays from different angles and show essentials such as the spin on the ball. The director decides on the angle of the replay and the EVS operator plays them in as directed.

When two tables are in use, nine cameras are used for each, with a beauty shot offered to both tables. A hot head is used for an overhead shot of table one. For the finals, a Jimmy Jib will be brought in to supplement the coverage.


Pres truck monitors: Presentation from Sheffield is handled from the Visions Horizon truck

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We will have twelve cameras for the final, including one I-Movix Sprintcam hi-motion camera, says Docherty.

He goes on, Covering snooker is quite different to other sports. You are working in an area that is very small and this presents a major challenge for camera operators. There are few sports where they get to stand right next to the athletes.

That close proximity, says Doc, can affect a players performance, their career, and their chances of winning a world championship. The way we prepare is to get the right cameramen out there in the arena who are experienced and who are known and trusted by the players. Camera operators know not to move as the shot is about to be executed. So we tend to use the same people.

Providing the facilitiesThat stability is also a theme for OB provider, NEP Visions. We cover three snooker tournaments a year for IMG and because the set-ups are very similar, we try to keep continuity of trucks, equipment and people, explains Visions engineering manager, Kevin Orwin. There are still challenges and one of the biggest is the sheer scale of this tournament. Coverage starts at 1000 and goes on until the last match has finished. There are four trucks to service, feeds to Eurosport throughout the whole day and there are interactive feeds, as well. And, of course, during the early rounds there is the additional remote venue at the Winter Gardens for which we have to provide connectivity.

Orwin goes on to report that one major innovation for this years

Sheffield event has been in the change of supplier for the review and analysis of predictive shots through the use of virtual technology.

While producer Witkover was in Beijing on another assignment, she was approached by Chinese company, Rigour, about providing replay technology and following an intense evaluation process it was decided to use the system for the 2015 tournament.

The system has two main functions site reset and augmented reality. The site reset function enables a static picture of the table to be captured and displayed on a large screen in the playing arena. This allows the match referee to place the balls back in their original location should re-spotting be needed following a foul stroke.

Augmented reality allows 3D technology to simulate the scene, and within two seconds the table can be viewed from multiple angles allowing viewers to see the various options that might be open to players. We trialled during the earlier Masters snooker tournament and was found to be precise, says Orwin. It is extremely accurate and helps commentators to decide in advance whether a shot is achievable.

He says that another advantage is that the system has the ability to feed an image into a large TV monitor in the venue to enable a referee to precisely re-spot a ball in the event that a foul shot needs to be retaken.

Orwin reports that although some archive material is on tape and can be played into programmes in that format, most of the workflow is tapeless. For archiving we have now switched to LTO disks because they require less space for storage.


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SportTech Europe 2015SVGEUROPEUPDATE

Brian Clark, Commercial and Technical Projects Director at NEP Visions, said: There are technical hurdles, but they are moving hurdles, and its not just a matter of resolution, but also colour, frame rate and dynamic range. Forget pixels. Pixels are easy. Its the other bits that are going to be more difficult, he said.

CTV is also pursuing those moving hurdles. It built a 4K-capable truck in the middle of last year, and things have moved on a tremendous amount since then, said Barry Johnstone, CTV Managing Director. We put everything we could in there

sport tech journal 2015 pr (final)

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