IBC
“I’ve done a fair few major events but I’ve never known one
quite like this in terms of challenge,” says Phil Bigwood, Executive Producer,
BBC Sport whose experience includes the London Olympics and three World Cups.
“It’s a crazy situation but with only a few weeks to go neither ourselves nor
Uefa know exactly where we can go.”
It is the uncertainty of travel between and even around
countries as a result of ever changing Covid conditions and regulations which
is the biggest headache. Normally, events of this scale – the Euros is the
second most watched live event on the planet after a Fifa World Cup – are sewn
up in terms of broadcast planning many months in advance.
Going remote at scale
Having planned for some element of remote production since
postponing the event last year, Uefa decided to expand its remote operation
further just six months from the tournament’s start.
To give them more social distancing space and flexibility,
the original model, in which match feeds are switched at a central
International Broadcasting Centre (IBC) near Amsterdam was expanded to run with
a parallel operation at IMG Studios in Stockley Park.
“We’ve been set up for major live remote productions since
Covid started in spring 2020 so we have a highly Covid-safe work environment,”
explains Brian Leonard, Head of Engineering IMG Studios. “Since we would
have had a significant number of UK-based IMG personnel working out of the IBC
it was a sensible decision by UEFA to keep them here where there is
less travel commitment.”
IMG not only has a long-standing
relationship with Uefa, its base at Stockley Park had the necessary resources
and connectivity. 20Gig of Eurovision circuits running between IMG Studios and the
IBC. This connectivity is servicing the migration of the production QCR to IMG,
off-tube commentary as well a data pipe for 40 remote editing workstations.
World feed production from London
At IMG Studios, IMG’s dedicated Uefa facilities
include: a 12 x person production QC room, where each match will be editorially
QC’d and helicopter cameras are coordinated; 15 craft edit suites, 11 graphics
positions and 11 digital editing points, managed by MoovIT.
Furthermore, there are off-tube commentary facilities for
four concurrent matches (using eight booths for commentators and co-comms
in separate booths); four Adobe-based radio pods; two media managers (using
IPDs); two studios for ENG shoots and 80+ production desks.
“We’ll produce a feature for every team ahead of every game,
daily highlights shows, host city features and regular 90-second
news reports plus radio content,” says Nairn Salter, Executive
Producer IMG Productions.
Uefa has also tasked IMG with supplying 24 ENG crews –
one per participating team – consisting of producer, camera-op and media
wrangler to record press conferences, sit-down interviews and training sessions
delivered back to the IBC on a daily basis for Uefa’s rights holder access.
There are also ingest points for direct media uploads at Stockley Park for UK
crews to use.
Since last Summer there’s been a change in the number and
locations of Euros matches. Spain
changed its host city from Bilbao to Seville to allow an audience at games
while Dublin’s Aviva stadium was replaced with St Petersburg’s Krestovsky
Stadium when the Irish government couldn’t guarantee fan attendance.
World feed production from the eleven city venues (including
Baku, Copenhagen and Rome) in eleven countries is native UHD 4K HDR/HLG. Uefa’s
original plan was for a host city pairing concept where match production teams
would move between two venues. Now, these technical and creative teams will
remain in situ.
They are hired from NEP (covering games in Copenhagen,
Munich, Amsterdam, Seville); Euro Media Group (coverage from Bucharest,
Budapest, Baku and Glasgow); Telegenic (London and Rome); and Germany’s TVN (St
Petersburg).
On the technical side, Eurovision’s fibre network is being
used. Gravity Media Group is tasked with implementing and managing these
signals, along with monitoring and Quality Control through a technical
operations center (TOC) at each venue through to the IBC.
Gravity is also supervising distribution for VAR [Video Assistant Referee which
is making its debut at the Euros. It will take select ISOs from the
multilateral and pass them on to the VAR.
The Hive
The IBC is in Vijfhuizen within Expo Haarlemmermeer. This includes the
Hive, a massive EVS-based server system and media asset management system
called Mediabank. This is a repository of thousands of hours of content for
Euro 2020 and from past Euro championships for remote access by rights holders.
“The EVS store has grown and grown,” says Bigwood. “We are
spoilt for choice with the content on there, whether that’s ISOs of team
arrivals during match build up or interviews.”
Uefa also provide programming via the Hive for broadcasters
who aren’t wrapping coverage with their own presentation.
The BBC is not one of those but is more reliant than usual
on Uefa’s material given restrictions in sending camera crew to gather colour
from city venues and team camps.
The majority of its output is produced in MediaCity based
around studio presentation from Dock10.
A massive opening weekend BBC One and BBC iPlayer starts
with the first game of the championship between Turkey and Italy on Friday,
June 11, followed by Wales v Switzerland on the Saturday, England v Croatia on
Sunday and ending with Scotland v Czech Republic and Spain v Sweden on the
Monday. The broadcaster is sharing live rights with ITV, which has a ratings
winner in England v Scotland from Wembley.
BBC goes remote from Salford
“The bulk of our operation is in Salford and we’ll be
looking to see how the June 21 roadmap in the UK impacts us in terms of our
ability to move around Europe or even be onsite at Wembley,” Bigwood says. “Every
country has different rules and we are quite rightly careful and cautious and
de-risking as much of our coverage as possible.”
The virtual set in regular use for Match of the Day
has been given a Euros branding and an upgrade. The backbone of the system
(Zero Density running Unreal Engine, Mo-Sys StarTracker, 360-degree green
screen, graphics by AE Live) remains the same.
“We wrote the original control app for the ZD software to
talk with the graphics in the BBC’s system,” explains
Lewis Phillips, AE’s Production Director. “The Euros is a
continuation of that workflow and model.”
Based on a concept by designer Jens Weber, the set’s
graphics were tested and iterated by AE Live, which has been the BBC’s graphics
supplier since 2017.
“The key is to get the graphics on camera as quickly as
possible and do test events so we can tweak the design,” Phillips says. “We’ve
built 15-20 templates integrating Opta stats which our operators can use
including group tables and VT screens.”
He adds, “The real challenge for everyone is around Covid.
It’s the nature of the beast. The number of variables and late finalising of
decisions, venue changes and multiple production models and how the balance of
that has changed over the last 18 months.”
The set will make use of a 180-degree 4K stadium feed from
Uefa as a way to take the viewer into the match. There is also has the ability
to display live full body 3D interviews with players and coaches from the venue
in the studio. That’s similar to the ‘teleportation’ of interviews used by
Eurosport in its recent coverage of tennis majors. Doing so from Euros venues
depends on facilities onsite, notably lighting and eye-line monitoring.
Timeline supplies BBC OB
The BBC is augmenting host feeds with a number of its own interview
positions in and around games and eight unilateral feeds at most games, working
with Timeline TV to deliver this.
“We are providing three levels of service to the BBC,”
explains Martin Sexton, Outside Broadcast Unit Manager, Timeline. “The
first is a full traditional OB model. Next is a IP-driven remote production
model with presentation on site but with cameras sent back to Salford along
with associated audio over Uefa’s GigE circuits. The third level is where
either for logistic reasons or cost benefits we’ll deliver an OB lite. This
will be a pitch side presentation provided over host circuits to the IBC to and
onto Salford.”
The full OB (presentation and switching) is being lined up
for BBC coverage of live matches including semi-finals and final from
Wembley. The BBC’s remote production will cover Scotland’s games from Glasgow
while Timeline flyaway kits and teams will move from match to match around
Europe.
Timeline will produce UHD 4K from Wembley and HD 1080p from
around Europe due to bandwidth cost. The BBC will be streaming select matches
in 4K over iPlayer.
Ball up in the air
Even this past weekend, just 13 days before the opening
match, Scotland’s Sheffield United midfielder John Fleck returned a positive
Covid test.
This had a knock-on to Uefa/IMG’s ENG crew staying with the
Scotland camp in Middlesbrough. What’s more, both Croatia and the Czech
Republic made last minute changes to their team bases. Planned for Scotland but
as a result of ‘Scottish Covid-19 regulations’ which would mean whole team
isolation even if one player tested positive, those teams have opted to stay
home and fly in to the UK for their matches.
Leonard says, “There are repercussions since the guys with
the Scotland team have to quarantine and we will have to find a way to get crew
to Croatia and Prague, also observing quarantine. That’s a real challenge with
less than 2 weeks to go.”
With 100GB telco pipes opening up between the major venues
in Europe, it’s likely that future events of this scale will be done over IP.
Already Euros 2024 which is hosted in Germany is being talked of a target for
an all IP workflow.
Well before then though is the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 next
summer hosted in England and the Qatar World Cup which, astonishingly, is 18
months away and ticking.
“We jump from the Euros straight into those,” says Bigwood.
According to Uefa, the total cumulative live audience for
the 2016 tournament from France was almost five billion, with 600 million
watching Portugal’s 1-0 extra-time victory against France in the final.
Expanding the teams from 16 to 24 for the 2016 tournament netted another 1.1
billion viewers to the overall television audience.
Uefa earned €1.05bn ($1.1bn) in television rights from 130
broadcast partners for Euro 2016.
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