Broadcasting the World Cup
Published: MEA
SOUTH AFRICA: A huge amount of equipment has been shipped to South Africa as broadcasters start filling airwaves across the globe with content from the FIFA World Cup.
Host Broadcasting Services (HBS) is responsible for producing the coverage and providing unilateral production, transmission, commentary facilities and associated services for broadcasters. To achieve this, it has designed, built, installed and manages an International Broadcast Centre (IBC) and the multilateral and unilateral broadcast facilities at every venue in South Africa. The master control room for the IBC was officially opened at the start of June to make the centre fully operational.
The stadia have been kitted out with a large amount of equipment from various manufacturers to enable the broadcasts. Schoeps has been selected by HBS to provide the equipment for some of the key live sound tasks. The four-channel Schoeps ORTF Surround setup serves as the main microphone and the basis for the surround mix. Several two-channel ORTF Outdoor Sets have been used for stereo spot mics in front of the supporters. Finally, the SuperCMIT digital DSP shotgun will be used for pickup of ball sounds.
DTS is providing its DTS Neural Surround surround sound technology. ESPN and other broadcasters will provide fans in the US and Brazil the ability to enjoy the games in 5.1 surround sound. Hardware integrated on-site includes the DTS Neural Surround Sound Encoders and Decoders as well as the Mono2Stereo four-channel stereo synthesiser built by hardware partner and licensee DaySequerra.
For cameras, Sony has teamed up with FIFA to film some of the matches in 3D. The manufacturer has shipped its 3D cameras out to the country to provide coverage of up to 25 tournament matches to fan parks around the world.
Riedel is also heavily involved. It has supplied 80 RiFace radio interfaces, 700 Sprechstellen intercom stations, 2000 Matrix Ports, 300 Beltpacks, 100 RockNet Frames, 20 MediorNet Frames, 10 Helicopter Wireless Video Links and 40 venue based HD over Fibre links.
Media Logic has supplied two integrated HD-ready workstations for audio processing in the broadcasting centre. The system integration of the audio editing onto the Avid Unity ISIS - Interplay Network and Content Management System was developed by Media Logic and partners. The sound editing is based on current surround-capable Fairlight Systems that also allow for native HD image reproduction from the Avid ISIS system. More than 20 Avid-Media-Composer video-editing-systems and the Avid-Broadcast-Server have been installed.
OB vans have been a good source of business with a number being equipped for the tournament. Alfacam, which is in charge of the world feed production at the venues in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Port Elizabeth as well as the German public broadcasting, has equipped five HD OB trucks with a comprehensive MediorNet installation from Riedel. It has sent a total of eight OB trucks, 80 cameras and about 35 technicians to South Africa. The company is responsible for about 45 per cent of the tournament host feeds and will deploy in total 170 cameras and 155 technicians.
The MediorNet mainframes link Alfacam’s trucks with the technical operation centres (TOC) in the stadia, delivering 16 HD-SDI signals including the world feed to the trucks and four back from the OB van to the TOC. MediorNet de-embeds the audio and delivers the signals via Madi to the trucks’ Lawo audio consoles. Framestore is used to synchronise the video signals to the truck’s internal clock, while the audio signals are synchronised via MediorNet’s Sample Rate Converter (SRC). After editing, the final HD video and audio stream is sent back to the TOC, from where it is forwarded to the IBC for the world broadcast of the event.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has also opted for Riedel, selecting its digital Artist matrix intercom technology for its four new HD OB vans. All four vans feature 15 HD cameras (wired for 24) and three Super Slow HD cameras, one Artist 32 and one Artist 128 mainframe provide the intercom ports. Madi client cards integrate the Lawo mc²56 console into the intercom system. In total 32 Artist 1000 series rack-mount and desktop control panels are installed in each of the HD OB vans. Riedel fibre modules provide fibre connection for the Artist intercom in all four trucks.
On the studio side, Presteigne Charter is providing technical facilities to a number of international broadcasters. It is also supplying semi-permanent, fully integrated studio setup installations for locations in Cape Town and in the IBC in Johannesburg. Production control rooms, post production and edit suites, audio control rooms, remote studios and stand up positions will all receive Presteigne Charter’s equipment.
Equipment supplied includes EVS Server Systems running in different Codecs and integrated with Avid and Final Cut Pro. Red mini-cams are also to be provided in addition to Sony HDC 1500 cameras in studios and JIX jibs. On the audio side, Lawo mc2 audio mixers, working in conjunction with Grass Valley and Harris routers to provide embedded audio solutions. The 4HM Sam64 will also be provided, to work in tandem with the Lawo and routers.
Aggreko and its joint venture partner Shanduka Group will provide temporary power and temperature control for the broadcast and technical services. It will provide broadcasting power in all 10 venues, the IBC and FIFA headquarters, as well as temperature control at the IBC. It will involve the installation of 300km of cable and 30MW of generating capacity.