MCR – Gravity Media

*English version below

Van ‘bezemkast’ naar 24/7 sportknooppunt

In nog geen tien jaar tijd is het Livecentre van Gravity Media NL getransformeerd van een ‘bijzaak’ in een donkere hoek van het gebouw op het Hilversumse Media Park tot een internationaal sportknooppunt. Met eerst Ziggo Sport en nu ESPN als voorhoedespelers, een 24/7-operatie en een infrastructuur klaar voor de volgende stap in remote productie, is Livecentre stevig verbonden met de sportwereld – letterlijk én figuurlijk.

Tom Eshuis en Jasper Jurgens, respectievelijk manager Technology en projectmanager Livecentre, zijn beiden al bijna 25 jaar actief bij Gravity Media NL, voorheen EMG Nederland. Tom en Jasper werken onder andere veel samen op satellietterrein en weten nog goed hoe het allemaal begon: “In een soort bezemkast, met een halve edit set en een multiviewer voor als we keer wat live moesten doen in onze eigen studio’s of in postproductie, dan konden we dat zelf bemannen. Maar na 2019, in de coronatijd, is het echt gaan vliegen: veel livestreams gedaan, kleine remote producties en webinars, in samenwerking met Quadia toen nog (nu Motionmakers).”
“Vervolgens kwam Talpa erbij met dagelijkse programma’s, gingen we dat ook voor RTL doen en werd extra ruimte ingericht op onze Postplaza. Toen ook die te klein werd, hebben we nu misschien wel de fijnste plek van het pand. Onze mensen kunnen werken bij daglicht en hebben zicht op het weer en de schotels, altijd handig bij satellietverbindingen.”

Stepping stone

Niet lang na die verplaatsing wordt de eerste grote klant gecontracteerd: Ziggo Sport. “Dat is wel de stepping stone voor ons huidige trackrecord geweest”, beseft Jurgens. “Tot dan toe deden we voornamelijk de routering van studioproducties zoals de dagelijkse RTL Boulevard-uitzendingen en ondersteuning van file based workflows voor ENG-klanten, maar een groot contract voor sourcing, het binnenhalen van live feeds, was nieuw en onze eerste stap naar continuïteit en 24/7 bezetting. Toen we bewezen dat ook machtig te zijn, kregen we de kans om serieus mee te doen aan de ESPN-tender.”

Het binnenhalen van dat (meerjarige) contract betekent letterlijk een verdubbeling van de werkzaamheden, zowel qua mensen als middelen – onder andere driehonderd ‘afkijkplaatjes’ aan de wand. Een investering van een paar miljoen euro. Eshuis: “Ook voor ESPN zijn we de MCR en doen we de sourcing, maar dan voor alle kanalen; negen in Nederland. Veel feeds worden in Nederland geproduceerd maar zijn eigenlijk internationaal, zoals ESPN Afrika en Star Channel in China.”

Connectiviteit

De infrastructuur is hybride: satelliet én glasvezel. Livecentre is gekoppeld aan internationale knooppunten zoals BT Tower in Londen en grote MCR’s in de VS, maar dat niet alleen. Jurgens: “De connectiviteit in fiber is enorm gegroeid, ook met partijen die produceren voor ESPN én, wat het echt wel uniek maakt, we doen ook de verbindingen voor de Eredivisie en een groot deel van de KKD; dus alle stadionbeelden komen ook hier binnen.”

”Nieuwe compressietechnieken zorgen voor forse efficiëntieslag”

Binnen Gravity Media vormt Hilversum een driehoek met Gravity Media België en Londen (Westworks). Eshuis: “Zware onweersbuien bijvoorbeeld kunnen downlinks verstoren, maar dan kan een feed elders worden binnengehaald en via fiber worden doorgestuurd.” Daarnaast maken nieuwe compressietechnieken het mogelijk meerdere lijnen over één verbinding te sturen zonder zichtbaar kwaliteitsverlies – een forse efficiëntieslag. “Dat hebben we samen met ESPN uitgedacht”, aldus Jurgens. “De klant is technisch goed onderlegd en wij konden duidelijk maken hoe we het wilden doen en zij konden dat zeer waarderen.”

HDR

Met de start van het ESPN-contract gaat de zender in één klap volledig over op High Dynamic Range (HDR). Niet een paar programma’s, maar álles: studio, instarts, postproductie en distributie. Jurgens: “Voor ons was 1 juli spannend, maar voor ESPN helemaal.” Eshuis: “Wereldwijd zijn er niet veel broadcasters die zo’n ingrijpende verandering van SDR naar HDR, zonder uitzonderingen, aandurven; erg ambitieus en stoer vind ik. En dat zie je ook, de kwaliteit spat van het scherm.”
Voor de kijker betekent het levendigere kleuren en meer detail. Fluorescerende shirts zijn ook écht fel, contrastverschillen blijven zichtbaar, ook in de schaduw blijft detail behouden. “ESPN besteedt ook veel aandacht aan quality control, er zijn daadwerkelijk HDR supervisors die remote met de voetbalwedstrijden meekijken om te zorgen dat het allemaal matcht”, vult Eshuis aan. Sport die nog niet in HDR wordt aangeleverd, zoals Amerikaans honkbal, wordt in Hilversum realtime geconverteerd, compleet met correcte metadata.

diPloy

Technisch draait het Livecentre volledig op SMPTE ST 2110: gescheiden transport van video, audio en metadata over IP, met perfecte synchronisatie. Ideaal voor schaalbaarheid, maar in een 24/7-omgeving vraagt het om redundantie en slimme workflows. Daarvoor is er diPloy: een in-house ontwikkeld modulair, IP-based systeem waarin control, audio, video, intercom, monitoring en data samenkomen. Een vijfkoppig diPloy-team werkt letterlijk onder het Livecentre en levert maatwerktools en dagelijks support.

“Binnen Gravity Media is de koers duidelijk: steeds minder grote regiewagens op locatie”

Gravity Media NL beheert ook de volledige intercomstructuur tussen ESPN en de eindregie. Live commentaar uit binnen- en buitenland – of dat nu een Engelse voice-over is of een Franse veldrijcommentator – wordt via low-delay monitoring en strakke synchronisatie in de uitzending gebracht. Die mix van video, audio en communicatie maakt het Livecentre tot een breed inzetbare hub, zowel voor bestaande klanten als voor toekomstige remote producties.

Remote productie

Want dat is de toekomst, beseffen ook Jurgens en Eshuis: “Binnen Gravity Media is de koers duidelijk: steeds minder grote regiewagens op locatie. Dus steeds meer centrale regies via stabiele verbindingen, om zo alle locaties in de landen aangesloten te krijgen zodat we moeiteloos remote producties kunnen faciliteren in heel Europa of uiteindelijk wereldwijd als dat nodig is. We kunnen dat uncompressed met de hoogste kwaliteit feeds, maar ook via gecomprimeerde verbindingen voor bijvoorbeeld kleinere sporten.”

Livecentre speelt daarin een grote rol en die zal alleen maar crucialer worden, beseffen beiden. “Onze ruimte is modulair ingericht: alles kan verplaatst of verwijderd worden om ruimte te maken voor uitbreiding. En dat is waarschijnlijk geen overbodige luxe. De vraag groeit en de kans is groot dat we in de komende jaren opnieuw moeten opschalen.”

Tekst: Jeroen te Nuijl // Fotografie: Studio Kastermans

ENGLISH VERSION BELOW

From “broom closet” to 24/7 sports hub

In just under ten years, Gravity Media NL’s Livecentre has transformed from a side project in a dark corner of the building at Hilversum’s Media Park into an international sports hub. With first Ziggo Sport and now ESPN as frontrunners, a 24/7 operation, and an infrastructure ready for the next step in remote production, Livecentre is firmly connected to the sports world, literally and figuratively.

Tom Eshuis and Jasper Jurgens, respectively Manager Technology and Project Manager Livecentre, have both been active at Gravity Media NL, formerly EMG Nederland, for almost 25 years. Tom and Jasper work together often on satellite matters and remember well how it all started: “In a kind of broom closet, with half an edit set and a multiviewer for those times when we needed to do something live in our own studios or in post production, we could staff that ourselves. After 2019, during the COVID period, it really took off, many livestreams, small remote productions and webinars, in cooperation with Quadia back then, now Motionmakers.”

“Then Talpa came in with daily shows, we started doing that for RTL as well, and extra space was set up in our Postplaza. When that also became too small, we moved to what might be the nicest spot in the building. Our people can work in daylight and see the weather and the dishes, always useful with satellite links.”

Stepping stone

Not long after that move, the first major client was signed, Ziggo Sport. “That has been the stepping stone to our current track record,” Jurgens acknowledges. “Until then we mainly handled routing for studio productions like the daily RTL Boulevard broadcasts and supported file based workflows for ENG clients, but a large contract for sourcing, bringing in live feeds, was new and our first step toward continuity and a 24/7 staffing model. When we proved we could handle that, we got the chance to seriously compete in the ESPN tender.”

Winning that multi-year contract literally doubled the workload, in people and in equipment, including about three hundred monitoring tiles on the wall. An investment of a few million euros. Eshuis: “For ESPN we are also the MCR and we handle the sourcing, but then for all channels, nine in the Netherlands. Many feeds are produced in the Netherlands but are actually international, like ESPN Africa and Star Channel in China.”

Connectivity

The infrastructure is hybrid, satellite and fiber. Livecentre is connected to international nodes such as BT Tower in London and large MCRs in the United States, but not only that. Jurgens: “Connectivity over fiber has grown enormously, also with parties producing for ESPN and, which is quite unique, we also do the links for the Eredivisie and a large part of the KKD, so all stadium feeds come in here as well.”

”New compression techniques deliver a major efficiency gain”

Within Gravity Media, Hilversum forms a triangle with Gravity Media Belgium and London, Westworks. Eshuis: “Severe thunderstorms, for example, can disrupt downlinks, but then a feed can be brought in elsewhere and forwarded over fiber.” New compression techniques also make it possible to send multiple lines over a single connection without visible loss of quality, a major efficiency gain. “We worked that out together with ESPN,” says Jurgens. “The client is technically well versed, and we could clearly explain how we wanted to do it, which they appreciated.”

HDR

With the start of the ESPN contract, the broadcaster switched to High Dynamic Range in one go. Not a few programs, but everything, studio, inserts, post production and distribution. Jurgens: “July 1 was exciting for us, even more so for ESPN.” Eshuis: “Worldwide there are not many broadcasters who dare to make such a far-reaching change from SDR to HDR without exceptions. Very ambitious and bold, I think. And you can see it, the quality jumps off the screen.”

For viewers it means more vivid colors and more detail. Fluorescent shirts are truly bright, contrast differences remain visible, and detail is preserved in the shadows. “ESPN also pays a lot of attention to quality control, there are actual HDR supervisors who watch the football matches remotely to ensure everything matches,” Eshuis adds. Sports that are not yet delivered in HDR, such as American baseball, are converted in real time in Hilversum, complete with correct metadata.

diPloy

Technically, the Livecentre runs entirely on SMPTE ST 2110, separate transport of video, audio and metadata over IP with perfect synchronization. Ideal for scalability, yet in a 24/7 environment it requires redundancy and smart workflows. That is where diPloy comes in, an in-house developed modular, IP based system that brings control, audio, video, intercom, monitoring and data together. A five person diPloy team literally works beneath the Livecentre and delivers custom tools and daily support.

“Within Gravity Media the course is clear, fewer and fewer large OB trucks on site”

Gravity Media NL also manages the full intercom structure between ESPN and the final control room. Live commentary from home and abroad, whether that is an English voice-over or a French cyclo-cross commentator, is brought into the broadcast with low delay monitoring and tight synchronization. That mix of video, audio and communications makes the Livecentre a broadly deployable hub, for existing clients and for future remote productions.

Remote production

Because that is the future, Jurgens and Eshuis agree. “Within Gravity Media the course is clear, fewer large OB trucks on location. So increasingly central galleries via stable connections, so we can connect all locations in the countries and effortlessly facilitate remote productions across Europe or eventually worldwide if needed. We can do that uncompressed with the highest quality feeds, but also via compressed links for smaller sports, for example.”

Livecentre plays a major role in this, and that will only become more crucial, they realize. “Our space is modular by design, everything can be moved or removed to make room for expansion. That probably will not be a luxury. Demand is growing, and there is a good chance we will need to scale up again in the coming years.”

Following the activities carried out for the Winter World University Games held in Lake Placid in January 2023, EMG Italy continued its collaboration with FISU by also orchestrating the distribution of international signals for the Summer World University Games.

At the heart of the coverage activities for the event, which saw 6,500 athletes from 113 nations around the world competing to win the 269 gold medals up for grabs, was the innovative control room, or Master Control Room, inside the Cologno Monzese production center, designed and built to cover the needs of FISU in addition to the traffic generated for the national market. This concentration of latest-generation technologies for the management and sorting of television signal distribution was created by EMG Italy, a benchmark in global connectivity solutions.

Double signals

The first important difference to point out in this edition was the provision of the service by EMG Italy with double the number of signals received from the FISU World University Games production site in Chengdu, with a greater number, therefore, of equipment involved.

The international rights holders who received and redistributed the signals on their respective territories were also significantly higher in number than in the previous edition. Overall, 8 incoming and 16 outgoing streaming flows were managed, for a total of more than a hundred outputs to the takers, with 2 Gbps connectivity.

Coordinating Operations

Irene Migliorini followed the coordination of the operational production on this project for EMG Italy from Friday 28 July to Tuesday 8 August, while the technical coordination was carried out by Luca Bertoldi and Daniele Blandini, with the supervision of CTO Francesco Donato.

“My work was of an organizational nature”, says Irene Migliorini, “following the coordination and planning of all the operations during this 31st summer edition of the Universiade in Chengdu, China. In our office, a person appointed by FISU had the task of managing the booking of all the rights holders, therefore receiving the requests of the various international broadcasters, which were personalized based on the content that they had to receive and retransmit. After this information gathering, I came into play, with the task of passing precise requests to the technical department and the operators in charge of the MRC: they were the real interpreters, responsible for opening and closing the necessary channels at the right time”.

FISU TV, the official FISU live streaming channel

This great event dedicated to youth sports, in fact very similar to the Olympics, involved a series of important competitions, which took place over eleven days and awarded 269 titles.

All the live television broadcasts of the competitions were visible in streaming on the FISU.tv channel and on the channels of the respective takers worldwide. The numerous competitions involved the television coverage of various disciplines, including: Archery, water polo, basketball, judo, shooting, rifle and pistol, taekwondo poomsae, men’s WUSHU Nanquan, women’s Nandao, men’s taijijian, tennis, table tennis, rhythmic gymnastics, artistic gymnastics, volleyball, badminton, diving, swimming, synchronized swimming, 400m athletics, shot put, decathlon, triple jump, pole vault, hurdles, fencing.

In China and in each “venue” where the various competitions were held, a production team created a complete television program that was then sent to the central IBC (International Broadcasting Centre). From there, all the always-on signals, eight program signal feeds plus two backups, were transported to the Cologno Monzese production center of EMG Italy and the aforementioned MCR.

The television producer on the field in China created a total stream schedule of his program already complete with graphics and shared it, indicating perfectly the incoming content that obviously varied according to the various sports and according to the times. The same stream schedule was shared with the international rights holders, so that they could choose which content to request and then consequently use it in their broadcasts. In the EMG Italy production center, the huge and dedicated Master Control Room then received all the feeds and sorted them according to needs, acting as a signal distribution center.

News Access

Another service guaranteed by the EMG Italy production center in Cologno involved the creation of international news: a dedicated editor, within the production center, worked in a special editing suite on Adobe Premiere, supported by two other EVS operators (appointed by FISU). Apart from this section dedicated to news that required deferred editing, everything was done live and all the feeds were live.

New coders

“Compared to the previous winter edition of the university games,” says Daniele Blandini, MCR operator for EMG Italy, “where the feeds of the competitions were arriving from the United States, the signals arriving from China in this summer edition were coded according to new procedures, so as to further avoid any possible reception issues. Also in this edition all the signals were managed by Eurovision in HD and EMG Italy distributed about 400 hours of live programs in total, spread over 165 events, for an average coverage of 18 hours daily. Compared to Lake Placid, which saw the reception of 4 live feed signals, for this edition in China the signals received in feed increased significantly, even doubled to eight (plus 4 backups)”.

International takers and a dedicated team

The takers, or rights holders, have also grown in number and among them: Discovery, SES / EVS, Olympic Channel, ELTA (Taipei), TVRI (Indonesia), CBC (Azerbaijan), JOJ (Slovakia), TRT (Turkey), IRIB (Iran).

For the sorting of all the signals, EMG Italy involved over 10 professionals working in the MCR on the various shifts, with the producer Irene Migliorini assisted by Simone Marino, Luca Bertoldi as IT and Broadcast manager, Enrica Busin as MCR manager, and Daniele Blandini as MCR supervisor. The recording was carried out in two modes, on EVS and on the Synegy software, creating two complete pairs.

New deliveries

“From a technical point of view,” says Francesco Donato, CTO of EMG Italy, “we created the event using exactly double the resources compared to the winter edition: while in the previous event in Lake Placid the number of signals was exactly half, for Chengdu we controlled 8 input signals (8+2) and distributed 8 output signals plus another 8 backup signals to the takers worldwide. The distribution was done with multiple protocols; first of all the SRT, which proved to be very robust and efficient, consolidating a new distribution method on public band, which was very successful, certified by all the takers who did not report any problems.
This solution, which we preferred also given the success of the previous edition, has become a habit for us. In addition to the SRT, we also carried out the delivery on other protocols, using RTMP to satisfy some requests and also delivered via fiber, therefore following different directions to distribute the program signals. We also had an additional connection available to other providers with a possible distribution via satellite, which but it was not used. In practice, the great effort compared to the previous edition, in addition to what has already been underlined, namely the number of signals involved and the number of hours of product delivered, concerned the constant monitoring of all the processes over a 24-hour period for all the days of the event”.

Other technological plus

At the Cologno Monzese center, EMG Italy hosted FISU personnel who created the entire News Access feed. So the work was carried out both in reception and retransmission but also on the front of the preparation of the packages for the News Access, which, during the previous winter games, had not been requested. A cloud platform was also powered to guarantee possible remote editing: connected via SRT protocol, it allowed various takers to access and package highlights and services.

The International Federation of University Sports chooses EMG Italy for the live distribution of its upcoming events

Founded in 1949, FISU, the International Federation of University Sports, was created to spread the values of sport in the university world. The belief that health and well-being are closely related to the practice of sport has inspired so far students who tomorrow will be active members of our global society. The occasion of these sporting and educational events is also to provide the opportunity to connect and exchange experiences with other students from all over the world, in an environment that is both collaborative and competitive, as life teaches us.

The winter edition of the FISU World University Games once called the Universiade, took place in America in Lake Placid, New York State, and involved over 2500 athletes, coaches, judges and referees from 50 countries for 11 days. 12 sports are on the field in this event which combines high-level sports with educational and cultural moments on 10 different sites and almost 100 competitions and exhibitions.

A collaborative project

EMG Italy has designed and implemented an innovative Master Control Room inside the Cologno Monzese production centre, entirely dedicated to FISU, in technical-operational collaboration with SES, a leader in global connectivity solutions, and EVS for the international distribution of signals. The new Master Control Room is in fact at the forefront in terms of technical configuration; thanks to these partnerships, it allows the control and distribution of live channel streaming and also the management and creation of content on a cloud platform for rights holders and takers from all over the world.

“We are very pleased with the results of this project,” says Dominique Curchod, Head of Television at FISU, “when you are responsible for distributing an event, you tend to favour security over technological evolution: moving from a full satellite to an entirely SRT one was a complex challenge. Three factors drove us to go ahead: first of all, the SRT system has more advantageous costs than the satellite; then, after using the RTMP system for almost six years, we have verified and tested the stability of the public Internet around the world, especially the crucial points of the outgoing and incoming connections. Finally, the existing technology at EMG Italy, which has also been in operation for several years, and the conditions offered were more than enough to convince us”.

Lake Placid, FISU World University Games 2023

Starting from the various sites of the Lake Placid event where the various sporting competitions were held, four international host broadcasting feeds and related backup feeds were “packaged” and then sent via the Internet via SRT protocol to the production center by EMG Italy. The operations centre on the outskirts of Milan and the dedicated MCR, therefore, acted as a hub for the reception and subsequent distribution of all signals to Europe, the countries of East Asia, China, South America, Africa and Oceania.

“On this occasion”, says Luca Bertoldi, Technical Department Manager of EMG Italy for the FISU project, “we were asked to manage 4 redundant program signals, together with 4 other backup feeds, but we are suitably oversized and therefore ready to handle even many more. All the signals have travelled from the US production up to us on the public internet, through two different service providers and through the SRT protocol which carries signals in H264 and H265. All this has allowed us to receive an excellent low-latency compressed stream that we have easily conveyed over the internet. We chose the SRT protocol because it was created to convey quality feeds on the public internet and in this case, it would have been impossible for us to use dedicated fibre optic lines directly from Lake Placid. Otherwise, we would have had to use satellite links with certainly higher costs”.

Live distribution and content management

The EMG Italy production centre has a series of master control rooms of different sizes given its specialization in the management of television signals: the configuration flexibility makes it possible to manage contributions and distribute them in any television signal and makes it practically ideal for all sporting events. On the occasion of the FISU Games, the four signals arriving from the USA convey images of four different disciplines taking place at the same time and enter a matrix which allows switching them in order to decide what to broadcast. An hour before the broadcast, the MCR receives some special alignment signals that allow to verify the synchronism between the audio and video and to be ready for the next broadcast.

The signal is also recorded simultaneously on EVS MediaHub devices which make it possible to upload live video streams to the cloud. These contributions are made instantly available to rights-holding takers as the signals themselves are recorded, while the ‘Near Live’ mode allows editing stations to package the highlights without delay. EMG Italy’s MCR directly provides for the delivery and distribution of the “live” signals and, again using the SRT protocol, allows you to reach multiple destinations simultaneously by relying on a cloud platform.

“More in detail”, continues Luca Bertoldi, “the 4 signals arriving from Lake Placid enter 4 SRT decoder receivers which take care of the conversion towards SDI, then they continue in the matrix and at the same time they are displayed on multiview screens. This visual check allows one to choose which signals to send to the two main destinations: one is the delivery platform to EVS MediaHub, created using a special encoder, where SES has supplied the system that allows sending streaming flows to the EVS platform; the other destination is delivery to the takers which is managed through various coding systems: a first main coding generates a flow, thanks to the encoders, which allow the signal to be delivered to a cloud platform. From here the signal is forwarded to all destinations and without limiting the number of flows we can send. Therefore, the choice of cloud operation is linked to scalability which in this case becomes practically infinite. If we had had to carry out the distribution directly from the production centre, it would have been essential to have sufficient bandwidth to manage all the flows and dedicate many high-performance encoders. The cloud platform allows us to generate a main and a backup stream which we then distribute to all takers, while still maintaining control over every single connection.Such an operation allows us to have a dedicated profile for each taker user, with its own IP address and with the same encryption”.

A versatile Master Control Room

The MCR that EMG Italy has dedicated to FISU has been designed and perfected precisely to be versatile and easily adaptable to every need that will arise in the live events organized by the Federation in the coming years. In addition to already being complete with distributed coordination systems useful in real-time interactions with event venues, it can be easily integrated with commentary booths for localization in various languages, and in-situ workstations for highlight editing, which in this case they weren’t necessary. “Furthermore, distribution on the public internet” concludes Luca Bertoldi, “allows the entire process of managing contributions and distribution to be more efficient. The SRT we chose is an open source standard protocol that allows creating low latency video streams with good error correction.”

The Indoor Technical Operation of EMG Italy is the department that deals, among other things, with “Remote Production” or “tv production from a remote venue”, a practice that involves personnel in the field, commensurate with the production plan, and technical equipments connected in a bidirectional way to remote operational structures already existing in the broadcast production center.

This procedure is nothing new for EMG: it started several years ago as pioneers, long before the pandemic, thanks to cutting-edge technical structures, today it is considered as consolidated also for Italy and perfect for television production, especially in sports and in different disciplines.

Expressed in this way, this concept is however very reductive, given that, in fact, RP has much wider possibilities and, despite having started in the broadcast and media area, especially television and video, today it involves many other markets.

The demand for remote production is stable and growing from adjacent sectors such as corporate, educational, industrial, cultural, where different workflows that started in a pandemic, today more modern and more in step with the times, must respond to new needs for flexibility and commitment, truly commensurate with resources.

Broadcast center and production site

The Remote Production theme really allows you to change the way content is produced and distributed and is particularly valid for OTT digital distribution platforms.

Even yesterday’s problems in the evolution of this model, such as the availability of bandwidth and the obligatorily low latency, are now worries of the past. IP networks today are efficient, cost-effective for the production model and allow even complex production models to be carried out.

The same troupe can easily move between different locations in a short time (also due to the very short setup times and use of small mobile vehicles) and therefore optimize logistics; the final product still enjoys all the quality guaranteed by the same production center that uses centralized broadcast equipment capable of managing high-level and cost-effective productions.

REMI

Remote production or “REMI”, Remote Infrastructure, today also known with different meanings and variants, such as Remote Operation, Remote Distributed Operation and others, is made possible by the latency, now very low and by the availability on the market of equipment of adequate cost, as complete mini-control rooms and high quality H265 encoders operating on optical fiber, on Wi-Fi and on telephone radio links.

In addition to the ability to perfectly adapt the technical structures used based on the real scope of the event, there is an increase in the production workflow, which is much more streamlined, and therefore the possibility of producing more monetizable content on today’s multi-platforms.

Born for minor events, today the RP is really adequate for any meeting and level of production; therefore, from the “covid context”, many variants have evolved today with many advantages, also thanks to new levels of security, content encryption, latency and bandwidth availability through optical fiber and radio frequency on 4G and 5G.

EMG Italy has been on the market for years with many remote productions in Italian Serie C Football that we deal with in these pages, but also in Volleyball, Beach Volleyball and Basketball and more that we will address in a future study, shortly.

Speaking of basket and remote production, EMG Italy has recently won an important contract for the next three years.

Enrica Busin, Head of MCR & Playout, tells some details about Lega Pro Calcio Serie C: “The Italian Serie C football championship involves 60 teams with as many as 30 matches every weekend for round matches. EMG Italy takes care of all these productions remotely and, depending on the standard that is required, the commitment can be single-camera, double or tri-camera. The connections between the production “venue” and the broadcast center are certainly crucial in this configuration and the various crews use a large number of equipment. These are devices known as “backpacks” which, connected to the cameras, use a proprietary protocol to transfer high quality signals. The signals are transported simultaneously using 4G and, where present, the IP network.”

Mono and bi-camera

EMG Italy, for several years, has been using a wide range of equipment for transmission and reception of signals. The backpacks for the acquisition and transport of live signals, which have been in operation for years, now include the newer models in the Pro version, which can use up to 8 internal SIMs from different telephone operators.

Every weekend over 30 of these backpacks are hired on the field in all of the three production standards. On the playing field, in addition to the cameramen, there is always at least one commentator, usually placed in the stands. All the video signals, the audio of each camera, and the audio of the journalistic commentary arrive at the MCR of EMG Italy in Cologno Monzese.

The layout of the cameras is quite static and provides, in the mono-camera, a camera that takes wide-angle shots of the whole field, positioned in the stands. In the bi-camera configuration, both cameras are on the stands at the top: the first takes wide-angle shots with wide fields, while the second deals with narrow fields and game details.

Tri-camera

In the tri-camera configuration, the third camera moves on the sidelines; therefore, he adds even more engaging images and often also deals with the integration of additional clips captured in the pre and post game.

The commentator journalist is usually placed in the press area or in a special commentary booth, where available, depending on the configuration of the stadiums which, of course, are much simpler than those of the A and B series. Its set usually includes only a headset with a headset microphone and the dedicated audio coder.

Sometimes in tri-camera configurations, and at least once every weekend, a double audio commentary with the second pitchside commentator is also required. In the integration, there are 2 commentators in position plus a third on the sidelines. This complicates the setup a little, which also requires the presence of a special sound engineer, with an audio mixer.

The set-up

Convened about two hours before the match, the operators take care of the assembly of the stands and cameras, the set-up of the commentary station, make the fiber connections on pre-existing cables that allow a backup link (the network connection is carried out on the backpack with Ethernet cables) and start the backpacks with the main 4G connections.

The signals arrive at the MCR in one of the two EMG Italy offices (the one in Cologno Monzese, the other is in Milan) where the video and audio integrity is checked and the colorimetry is checked and corrected in the bi and tri-camera setups.

In the headquarters of the production center, for each game, a special dedicated “producer” directs each event thanks to a system that takes care of the audio and video mixing functions and integrates the graphics signals. At the same time, it allows you to broadcast the highlights of the game through live replays, using the same signal being recorded. In the tri-camera configuration at the stadium are created: 1 video signal with 2 ambient audio signals + comment (single or double). All these signals are carried by the backpacks and received by other devices called Stream Hubs.

Grafica e MCR

Serie C is broadcast on Eleven Sports’ OTT, with 8 games per weekend three and two-camera. All the graphics, created internally by the Boost Graphics specialists of EMG Italy, are integrated into the live from each of the 25 control stations that deal with the C Series.

Every weekend about ten matches are held on Saturdays and twenty on Sundays, so in addition to the staff in the MCR room, 10 “video mixer” specialists are hired on Saturdays and 20 on Sundays in the various control stations.

Stefano Branduardi part of the Indoor Technical Operation team declares: “I take care of the MCR which involves the preparation of the various equipments that allow you to import the required contributions and mix them, to set the effects in the cuts, to check that the graphics signal arrives in the machine and that everything works correctly first, and then go in production. In the field, backpacks are used which, thanks to the possibility of using 2 different transmission systems (mobile + Ethernet network), guarantee the possibility of having a back-up on the transmission. This translates into a guarantee of reliability in any context of live sports production”.

In a future article on Remote Production we will report the point of view of the technical director Francesco Donato and how EMG Italy applies this production procedure in other sports: volleyball, beach volleyball and now also basketball over the next three seasons.