Superbike – Gravity Media

EMG Italy still alongside Dorna Sports in season 2023 of Superbike World Championship

The 2023 FIM Superbike season and the World Championship is still ongoing: out of eleven competitions, eight were contested before the summer break. The resumption of the championship races, after the last competition held in the Czech Republic in Most, will be in the first week of September with the last four stages. EMG Italy again this year took care of the entire television production of all the competitions.

Moreno Roncon, coordinator and producer of EMG Italy, orchestrates the control of technique, men and materials; we asked him to tell us a few details.

Moreno Roncon EMG Italy Production Manager: “The season and the whole championship”, says Moreno “have been organized with a production structure which, on the one hand, is substantially the same as the last edition; on the other hand, there have been significant technological changes because Dorna, the rights holder, had asked, upon renewal of the contract, to produce feeds with a progressive 4K UHD television signal. Up until the last edition, filming was done in HD 1080i with mixed optics for a total of 21 cameras, three of which in RF located in the pit lane. The configuration of the cameras has remained the same for this season as well, where one of the three is installed on a special Dji Ronin support and 4 cameras are placed on board on the bikes. Even the mobile vehicle used for television production – the Nova 126 – has not changed, but only in appearance. In fact, it has undergone heavy modifications and has been completely updated to house the new technologies necessary to create and manage a progressive 4K and 1080p television signal. The changes required a large investment which included a new video mixer, new EVS, five, each with 12 channels, new signal management, and all 21 cameras are now Sony 4300s with new long lenses (95 and 111). Two Super Slow Motion cameras were employed for the 6X and 8X replays and the choice of which to use varies from race to race (they are all licensed).”

The setup

At each stage, the production is busy for three days of broadcasting starting from Friday, the day of practice, and in the subsequent real races on Saturday and Sunday, which are broadcast on SKY, on Eurosport and on Dorna’s streaming platforms. The two days of live broadcasts start at nine in the morning and continue until late afternoon, 4.30/5 pm, following all the races, the Super Sport, the 300, the Superbike followed by the Yamaha Cup, and a local race.

The itinerant structure of the compound already starts the technical set-ups on Thursday and for all three days EMG Italy creates two different host feeds, one “clean” and one “graphic”. All production is normally done in HD, but this season and for the first three races, tests were carried out – with great success – of the entire production chain with signals entirely produced and processed in UHD. The signals are created on-site on the circuits and then sent on two feeds, one main via satellite and one back up via optical fibre, up to the Dorna headquarters in Barcelona, and then distributed internationally to the various takers from here.

For the connection of the cameras on the track, EMG Italy creates a particular set-up where the signals generated in SMPTE standard arrive at special hubs strategically located and converted, to then travel with dark fibre and arrive at the main control mobile vehicle.

“Some circuits are pre-wired”, underlines Moreno Roncon, “and therefore we can already have many useful points connected in fiber on the track; while, hopefully, the other circuits will also follow this trend. This facilitates the natural evolution which involves the use of electronic flags and remote cameras, useful for the judges of the “race direction”.

Signals and technical team

Both the judges and the race director can see the signals from all the cameras to make the right decisions, even in deferred mode, thanks to a repository of recorded material that EMG Italy makes available. In addition to the wiring of the cameras on the track, the production also carries out all the wiring and setting up of the three commentary stations.

The technical team is made up of 18 people who arrive on site on Monday, start with the cabling and assembly of the cameras the following day, and set up the timing, race direction and commentary stations. The technical alignment tests with Dorna begin on Thursday morning. who is also responsible for the layout of the cameras. Three of these are connected by radio frequency with the direction and take care of carrying out all the interviews in front of the closed park that collects the bikes after the finish. They also capture the celebrations and resume the hot interventions of the first three arrivals.

Before these operations, always on arrival, they are busy recording all the valuable interventions in the pits, such as the opinions of the team managers, in the pit lane, and they also take care of resuming the starting grid. There are three onboard cameras: a front one oriented towards the rider, a rear one to film the pursuers and a front one that shoots the track with the rider’s subjective camera.

From the mobile vehicle, the director can switch in real time between the three on-board cameras which are connected to a Vislink radio frequency bridge and relative antenna, to transfer the selected RF signal.

Moreno Roncon says: “The technical staff is provided by Dorna: 20 camera operators, plus three RF camera operators, six EVS operators, a journalist in the direction, two coordinators in the journalistic area, two graphic designers on board, a camera manager. We at EMG Italy supply as many as 18 people, including two technicians for the camera connection fibre hubs, a chief technician, two camera controls, an audio mixer and two assistant sound engineers, two for filming the on-board cameras, and three stagehands. During the set-up and preparation of the circuit, we also install the receiving equipment for the radio frequency signals, therefore – in total – for each race we take care of four set-ups: the circuit cameras, the race direction, the timing with the commentary and all the on board”.

Davide Furlan, Outdoor Production Director, declares on the project: “The SBK is the most historic production in the EMG Italy portfolio: to give an idea it must be said that the aforementioned was already in the “belly of Global Production” back in 2008, entering that of EMG after the acquisition of the company which took place in 2019. Some internal technicians can count over 160 Grands Prix made in this period of time: certainly an invaluable know-how that has become a real mark of safety and reliability for our customers.

In all these years there has always been a constant search for technical and narrative innovation. With Dorna we have tried to make production ever richer, but at the same time trying to make processes more simplified and reliable, by investing in technology. Our customer’s need is always to try to optimize and make the most of the resources in the field. For this reason, we are in constant and close contact with the Producer, Gonzalo Calvar.

Each Grand Prix becomes a laboratory to test, innovate, and change something and thus make the SBK product ever closer to its DNA, a motorcycle world championship participated by the manufacturers with derivative models of the motorcycles for sale to the public, where love and the passion for motorbikes and speed must find all the space they deserve.

It is not for nothing that in the motorcycle world SBK is considered the most followed competition by those who drive motorcycles. Lastly, I would like to thank all the people at EMG and the freelancers who have enriched this production over the years with their work and professionalism and have been fundamental to the excellent result we have achieved”.

The 2022 WorldSBK season, which started in April and ended in October, involved Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Italy, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, France, Spain, Argentina, Indonesia, Australia. The last three rounds of the WorldSBK have been held outside the European continent.

A very short distance from the end of the 2022 championship with the Australian round won by Ducati, we meet Luca Manfredi, EMG Italy technical manager for the non-European trips of the Superbike World Championship, which has been held since 1988. The Superbike class is the most important championship for motorcycles derived from mass production, i.e. from motorcycles normally made for road use. Luca Manfredi describes the technical set up put on the track by EMG Italy this year.

EMG Italy has been following SuperBike (SBK) and its exciting international competitions for 12 years. What technological innovations have been involved for this edition?

Luca Manfredi: “In the just concluded 2022 season, at least two significant innovations have been introduced: the first, a television production system which, according to the most widespread and recent technical dictates, has abandoned filming in interlaced video to embrace progressive, in HD 1080p SDR, more suitable also in a possible distribution not only traditional television but also OTT. The second novelty involves even more massive use of onboard micro cameras on Dorna’s proprietary bikes”.

The SBK season takes place with tests in Europe and other overseas. Has EMG Italy faced all the races with the same technical structures and configurations?

“EMG Italy generally follows the entire Superbike championship for Dorna with the NOVA 126 ob-truck for the European rounds, while for the overseas ones, such as Argentina and Indonesia, the same technologies on board the mobile unit are inserted in flight cases in a sort of mirroring configuration. In general, the SBK standard includes 20 Sony HDC4300 cameras, two of which work in 8x for HFR slow motion, 5 EVS XT3 systems, 3 XFile3 systems for ingest and playout toward Barcelona tech facilities that handle server streams, and an onboard system that manages up to seven groups of three RF micro cameras on motorcycles, Dorna proprietary cameras. Each bike has three remotely controlled micro cameras on board, the images of which are switched, usually on the straightway of the track, by Dorna operators dedicated to telemetry”.

The fibre cabling of the circuits and all the RF management is usually complex in SBK?

“In all circuits, both European and overseas, EMG Italy carries out all the cabling with fibre backbones of the circuit and also lays an optical fibre ring that covers the entire route with 5 antennas, dedicated to receiving the signals from the onboard micro cameras. Each bike has three cameras on board, a transmitter that multiplexes the signals, and up to seven bikes are controlled by radio. The whole system uses Vislink Gigawave connection devices. The cameras on board the motorbikes are installed exclusively by a special Dorna mechanic, the only one to be authorised, given that there are weights to guarantee and safety in the wiring to be respected. In addition to this, three RF cameras are also set up in the pit lane. Two cameras shoot from the pits with Vislink radio link while a third radio link connects a Fullframe camera mounted on Ronin support for unique stabilized shots”.

Are there more galleries? How are the flight cases and the TV compound organised?

The entire television production system travels protected in seven flight case modules which interconnect, at the destination, to form the main gallery. The central gallery is based on a Kahuna 9600 video mixer and is set up inside the TV compound and IBC of each circuit. The director, the video mixer, the person in charge of switching the onboard cameras and the assistant director work here. The only difference in technical setup is in the matrix: Vega Grass Valley in the flight case gallery, while the one aboard the NOVA 126 truck is by Imagine Communication. Behind the gallery are the marketing and content management departments, as well as the editorial staff with journalists. A second separate gallery is set up in a second container to host EVS operators. This separate solution, created to comply with the anti-covid regulations, is a procedure that has remained operational even afterwards because it is considered convenient and effective. All the telemetry control, which follows the radio frequency connected to the onboard cameras on the bikes, is managed in a special space, in a dedicated container.Also located in the TV compound is the main office, set up to allow for the control and management of streaming to Barcelona and the delivery of signals to the uplinks that deal with the delivery of the main signals. Transmission backup is done via fiber.

I imagine a good team of specialists from EMG Italy is needed, given the complexity and the very high number of circuits. What improvements have been introduced at the technical setup level?

“Fabio Merulla takes care of the technical management of the European SBK competitions, while I take care of the overseas races, with a team of the 18 people of EMG Italy. EMG Italy manages all the techniques, the technical setup, the on-venue cabling, the assembly of all the cameras on the circuit and the certification of the system. Compared to the editions of previous years, architectures with progressive signals have been implemented with EVS and Sony cameras, and all connections are in optical fibre. The rather complex setup includes 20 cameras scattered along the course in the overseas tests and 22 in the European ones. The positioning follows all the way for the continuity of the race from close points of view in the most interesting corners; 8x Supermotion cameras have been installed in the more technical chicanes, which allow for slow motion. All cameras are equipped with Canon 80x long optics and the one installed on the Ronin allows obtaining “portrait” style shots with a more visible subject and a more evident detachment between the frontal image and the background, which appears deliberately more blurred.

The entire communication and signal transport setup is created with fibre optic backbones, including the HF ring dedicated to the radio cameras, and each circuit is wired by interposing six hubs where all the signals converge for sorting. Then, from these locations, the connection to the cameras takes place on SMPTE cables. For a similar commitment, EMG Italy moves the staff on-site starting on Saturday and, after the trip that takes up the whole of Sunday, the setup starts on Monday. The complete system is delivered on Thursday, given that free practice starts on a Friday and the two races take place on Saturday and Sunday. The NOVA 126 mobile unit used for SBK Europe was one of the first to be built with three expansions in Italy and set the pace in terms of the best ratio between performance and size. It is highly appreciated for its qualities of habitability and reliability, for the separate areas, for the presence of the double gallery, the double entrances: excellent in the case of simultaneous double use as host broadcaster and unilateral customization. All communications are handled by Riedel systems with 11 beltpacks via Bolero radios and audio is controlled by a Digico SD7 Broadcast series console. All audio is recorded in stereo with Audio-Tecnica and Sennheiser audio-follow-video microphones, positioned in a double configuration for each camera, and some placed along the straightaways. Each onboard camera has its own internal microphone which picks up very effective sound”.