A year like no other for OBs

Broadcast 

The unprecedented scale of live events in the summer made it a bumper year for outside broadcast firms. Just as well, reports Adrian Pennington, as 2013 is looking much leaner. http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/in-depth/a-year-like-no-other-for-obs/5049917.article

Almost the entire fleet of the UK’s outside broadcast trucks was called on to cover June’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations– “the equivalent of three royal weddings shot back to back in different locations,” recalls BBC executive editor Ben Weston. But even this once in- a-lifetime state occasion only acted as curtain-raiser to the Olympics a few weeks later.

“The industry demonstrated its incredible capability to the rest of the world at London 2012, which we should all be proud of,” says SIS Live commercial director Phil Aspden. “Perversely, because it was such a massive event, absorbing airtime and budgets, the ad-hoc work we would normally have seen during that time of year wasn’t there. I do have some concern that could extend into the next financial year.”

While 2012 was “a springtide of work and far and away our biggest year ever,” Aspden predicts 2013 will prove “particularly harsh.”

For CTV managing director Barry Johnstone, 2012 was the best year yet. “We’ve had a sixth successive year of growing revenues. There’s no recession in outside broadcasting.” Standout work included dominant provision to the Olympic Opening Ceremony, and the Ryder Cup for regular client European Tour Productions.

Arena also recorded a bumper year, with sales up 17%. “We’d expect 8-9% growth,” reports managing director Richard Yeowart. He attributes this to a summer of non-stop work and new contracts, notably an expanded deal to deliver all ITV Sport’s live football coverage, including the Uefa Champions League, Europa League, FA Cup and Community Shield, alongside England Internationals.

Glastonbury, a fixture on the BBC’s summer calender and a regular gig for Arena, took a break in 2012 due to the lack of Portaloos and drains on police caused by London 2012, but will return in 2013.

The market is on the verge of a considerable shake-up as a plethora of juicy contracts come up for grabs. Among them is business for new entrant BT Vision, which “will be particularly beneficial if it brings more sport into the market rather than just shifting chairs,” says Johnstone.

BT Vision swooped to take 38 Premier League football matches a year from ESPN for 2013/14 and acquired Premiership rugby rights – with which it can launch at least one sport channel. Though the £100m-plus production contract has yet to be awarded, OB firms are jockeying for position. Sky is likely to frown on suppliers that also work for BT, making CTV, Arena and SIS Live the most likely candidates.

Sporting chances

Meanwhile, BBC Sport contracts, including Wimbledon, RBS Six Nations and Open golf, are up for tender from mid-2013, when its five-year deal with SIS expires. The £19.3m deal was drawn up when the BBC offloaded its OB arm in 2008, to ensure it had sufficient coverage for London 2012. In return, SIS “guaranteed a significant discount on its normal rate card”, former director general Mark Thompson told a 2010 Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee.

Arena’s Yeowart believes that as much as half of SIS Live’s BBC Sport contracts could now go elsewhere as part of the new round of procurement. “We all want a slice of the pie,” he says. “I can’t see the BBC being able to justify keeping it all with one supplier.” He expects there will be fierce competition for tenders.

For Telegenic commercial manager Eamonn Curtin, the coming year is “all about building for 2014”. Along with its rivals, Telegenic is eyeing tenders for the next tranche of major international events: in Sochi for the Winter Olympics, in Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games, and in Brazil, where it hopes to be shooting 3D World Cup matches for Fifa. Nor is it too soon to begin planning for the Rugby 2015 World Cup hosted by England and Wales.

Preparing for 4K

Outside broadcasts are a largely fixed-cost business, with companies doing well when they can keep trucks busy. Yeowart reckons Arena has to invest £5m a year “just to stand still”; for 2012, that meant the 3G 30-camera double expanding OB11. Wired by Sony and out of the doors in October to service the ITV contracts, Arena is weighing up two further additions to its fl eet in 2013. One will likely be a similar articulated model and the other a smaller, 15-20 camera unit.

SIS Live debuted OB14 to cater for MOTD, and NEP Visions unleashed Atlantic, a triple-expander bristling with 3G equipment. 3G provides not only the technical base for 1080p 50 broadcasts, but is also the routing infrastructure on which future 4K trucks are planned.

There are contrasting views on the imminence of a 4K live production model. SIS Live, which supported the Super Hi-Vision BBC/ NHK 8K trials during London 2012, says it has had no interest in 4K. NEP Visions, on the other hand, is actively looking at how it can accommodate 4K, believing that multi-camera 4K OB production is less than three years away.

“4K is on our radar,” says NEP Visions commercial and technical projects director Brian Clark. “Although the next leap in resolution was expected to be 1080p 50, we’ve reached a point where the market might skip that and go straight to 4K.”

Johnstone is monitoring developments and expects CTV’s next new vehicle, due in 15 months, to take 4K into account. First to pin its colours to its mast, though, is Telegenic, which is building a 4K-ready £5m scanner, due in May next year.

There are warnings for those who don’t keep pace with investment, or over-stretch themselves in the process. In August, Arqiva abandoned outside broadcasts and put its fleet up for sale, with Arqiva Broadcast & Media managing director Steve Holebrook citing “insufficient scale to compete in a market dominated by a couple of large OB players”.

Meanwhile, Belgian supplier Alfacam remains mired in £47m of debt and has an uncertain future following an ambitious attempt to extend its business into South America and India. Although expected to have no direct impact on bread-and-butter UK business, Alfacam’s surplus of facilities made it a fixture at major international events, leaving the field wide open for events in 2014 and beyond.

A YEAR IN OUTSIDE BROADCAST

February
SIS Live sends trucks to all six countries competing in rugby’s Six Nations for the BBC

March
Sky Sports F1 HD launches to air all F1 races using fl yaway server and edit pods built by Gearhouse Broadcast

June
Telegenic and Arena station mobile units in Poland and Ukraine for Uefa’s host coverage of Euro 2012. SIS Live provides ITV’s location facilities

Kit and crew supplied by Arena, Arqiva, CTV and Visions supports BBC-led coverage of the royal flotilla, with SIS Live managing satellite links. Visions supplies Gemini trucks for the Diamond Jubilee Concert

July
The IOC’s Olympic Broadcasting Services tasks Telegenic with recording key athletics events plus opening and closing ceremonies in 3D, and Arena to service OBs at various venues

September
NEP Visions launches Atlantic, housing a Grass Valley Kayenne mixer, 48 EVS channels and support for 30 LDK8000 cameras

SIS Live debuts OB14 – a 3G-capable 12-camera facility with three EVS, a Sony MVS7000X vision mixer and a Calrec Omega Bluefin audio desk

October
ITV airs an hour-long live Emmerdale (below), supported by SIS Live, which previously catered for live episodes of EastEnders and Coronation Street

Alfacam files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

November

Arqiva’s fleet of OB facilities, up for sale since August, is acquired by NEP Visions and Cloudbass