In Broadcast - July 2014 - 46

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 33 - JULY 2014

N E W S

InSTUDIO

World Cup - A Broadcast Extravaganza

The greatest show on earth is being delivered in HD, 4K live and on-demand to multiscreens by a welloiled machine orchestrated by FIFA's technical partners including Sony, Gearhouse, EVS and Deltatre...

By Adrian Pennington
Contributing Editor

a r i s - h e a d q u a r te re d H o s t
Broadcast Services (HBS)
d e s i g n s a n d r u n s F I FA's
broadcast operations, including
the production and integration of
services, since 2000.
In Brazil this summer it will provide
the broadcast feed from the 12 event
venues, covering 64 matches. The
infrastructure comprises three key
workﬂows: live production at the
venues; a centralised broadcast
media server and ﬁle-based media
sharing system; and a multimedia
distribution platform.
Despite the increasing feasibility
of remote hosted production,
where a broadcaster could route
the multilateral feeds from the
IBC for presentation overlay in a
home studio, at least 83 rights
holders have opted for an onsite
presence in Rio.
The IBC complex is 20 km from
Rio's Maracana venue and is set
to be used as a competition venue
for the 2016 Olympic Games. There
are also 120 commentary positions
booked for the opening match -
illustrating the onsite intent of
broadcasters for this event.
Similarly, with the world feed
uplink (provided by Eurovision and
Globecast) there are 120 takers
excluding unilateral signals. The
largest footprint in the IBC itself is
taken by German broadcast joint
operation ARD and ZDF.

Fixed Rigs

HBS has moved from an OB truck
set up in Germany 2006 to using a
ﬁxed rig installation for South Africa,
an approach modelled for Brazil. In
part this is because the sheer size
of the country renders travel times
between venues impractical for
mission-critical technical facilities

Gearhouse Broadcast has provided
a range of kit, including a studio
located on Copacabana beach for ITV

but also the number of cameras
used at each venue by the host is
around 40, typically more than a
single OB van can provide.
Gearhouse Broadcast built the 12
Technical Operations Centres (TOCs)
to HBS speciﬁcations, including
comms systems from Riedel. These
provide essential links at the stadia
and the routing of feeds back to
the IBC. Alongside the TOCs is an
editorial facility outﬁtted by Sony
and systems installed by SonoVTS
in Munich (which also reassembled
them on the ground in Brazil).

Over 200 LiveU units were deployed in
Brazil's 12 host cities by broadcasters

These consist of a large
containerised kit room split into
nine areas including main gallery,
infotainment area and audio room
with Lawo/ABS supplying audio
mixing consoles, Sony supplying
48 MVS switchers and 816 monitors.
Around 16 XT3 servers will be used
for replays, highlight edits, graphic
insertion, clip creation and content
management. Sub-contracted by
Sony to provide technical crew to
each production area are AMP, CTV,
Outside Broadcast and Studio Berlin.
Presteigne Charter has special
responsibility for 36 RF camera
systems while HBS provides the
editorial team.
Importantly, the broadcast
equipment and layout of each TOC
and production area is the same so
that technical and editorial teams
only have to familiarise themselves
with one set-up regardless of the
venue. Match directors, though, can
select certain preferences such as
where they want the vision mixer;
how the EVS replays and monitor
stack are arranged; or how audio
is configured.
Acquisition is based on Sony
HDcams, of which there are 268
plus 72 Supermotions. In addition

FIFA/HBS and Sony are collaborating on 4K coverage

at each stadia there are a number
will be able to browse, access
of speciality cameras ranging from
and download the content made
overhead cable cams, box cams,
available to them using EVS'
POV goal cams, crane mounted
IPBrowse and IPWeb tools.
units, ultra slow-mos and aerial
On the broadcast graphics
shots from helicopters.
side, deltatre's graphics engine is
HBS is also fielding 43 ENG
being employed by HBS as part
crews, one of which is permanently
of its catalogue of services for
stationed with each team. They are
broadcasters looking to create preusing Panasonic P2 and EVS Xedio
match programme or post-match
dispatch. A separate crew based
studio analysis and news with
at the IBC is using a Canon C300
ofﬁcial FIFA World Cup templates.
and another is wielding a F55 for
This service also enables a
mixing into an ofﬁcial FIFA ﬁlm of
customised version of the Extended
the tournament to be ﬁlmed and
Stadium Feed with TV graphics in
released in 4K.
any language for rights owners. For
The technical heart of the IBC is the
virtual graphics, the deltatre system
FIFA Media Asset Exchange (FIFA
syncs with Piero from Red Bee
MAX) server, an EVS-stronghold
Media and Viz Libero.
which ﬁrst began in 2006. Twelve
Additionally, deltatre's Magma
XT3 servers will handle 4,500 hours
Football software production
of content located on an EVS XStore
tool allows operators to quickly
SAN. More than 100 EVS IPDirector
browse and extract data from the
suites will be used to manage the
ofﬁcial FIFA Competition Results
ingest of live incoming feeds as
System (including player tracking)
well as access to the centralised
to populate TV graphic templates
server. It will store match feeds, clips,
using a dedicated or broadcaster's
existing graphic engine.
highlights, pre-recorded content
(city proﬁles, etc.) and other relevant
data. The IPDirector suites will also
4K Coverage
be used for the live logging of events.
This year also sees the next
Replacing Final Cut Pro as the
evolution in sports broadcasting
craft edit software are 36 Adobe
with the ﬁrst ever 4K World Cup
Premiere suites. These, along with
coverage. A possible gameEVS' IPLink plugin panel, will be
changer for live sports production,
used to create ﬁnal edits of updates,
three matches - including one
promos, behind the scenes footage
of the Quarter Final rounds and
and multimedia packages. The
the Final - will be captured and
Epsio FX system will be deployed
probably broadcast in live 4K in
for on air graphic insertion.
The FIFA Max server and EVSCONTINUED ON PAGE 48
e n a b l e d
file-based
media sharing
s y s t e m s
will
allow
production
teams at the
IBC, as well
as in their
home-country
headquarters,
to
access
content for
further editing
and broadcast.
Rights holders Sony 4K equipment will be used throughout the event

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