Drones, FPV technology, and highly specialized professionals enhance the Audi FIS Ski World Cup 2024.

This season of the Ski World Cup, broadcasted by RAI in Italy and worldwide by Eurosport, has been a tour de force for EMG Italy tasked with television production by Infront, the rights holder. Between December, January, and February, 28 productions were realized, with 11 concurrent races in December alone, involving 265 people simultaneously in various locations and employing 11 mobile units.

“This commitment has driven EMG Italy,” says Davide Furlan, Outdoor Production Director, “to modify the Production Department to adequately respond to the numerous and demanding productions that, by corporate choice, must be coordinated and supervised on-site by prepared and trained personnel under every aspect. These include basic technical skills to understand and comply with technical specifications, relational skills with clients, and ultimately, the ability for problem-solving to address needs arising during on-site production days. These choices demonstrate an adaptability and orientation towards innovation and reflect the dynamism and competence of the entire EMG/Gravity Media group. Additionally, the current season has witnessed a significant turning point in how we narrate and experience some of the most fascinating winter sports, including alpine skiing within the World Cup context.”

Four locations were involved in this narrative innovation revolution of the Alpine Ski World Cup: Gardena, Cortina, Val di Fassa in Italy, and Val d’Isère in France. At the center of this narrative revolution of the Alpine Ski World Cup is the extensive use of footage captured by drones during the “fast” races. This marks a significant change from their previous limited usage, which was restricted to specific events with “significant” budgets, such as the World Championships or, in the production of the most iconic Downhill race, the one in Kitzbühel.

In this new season, thanks to a significant investment by Infront, which has always sought to enhance the storytelling quality of these events, drones made their debut in some of the most iconic races of Italian and French alpine skiing, also thanks to the spectacular television production technically managed by EMG Italy. The downhill races in Val Gardena and Val-d’Isère, as well as the women’s downhill in Cortina, saw the use of this technology, opening new horizons in how we, as spectators, experience skiing competitions, bringing viewers closer to a more immersive perspective with a spectacular view for the dynamics and the proximity to the athletes along exciting sections of the track.

The shots in this style, resembling the perspective of first-person video games, were unthinkable just a few years ago and are now a reality thanks to the evolution in drone technology. The models used offer top-level performance and boast resilient and reliable radio transmission systems onboard. This ensures a quality of footage acceptable to be paired with that obtained with traditional broadcast cameras. Due to the speed at which the drone follows its target, the images, albeit less detailed and informative, are so impactful that the eye and perception of the image are not of lesser quality compared to a broadcast camera mounted on the side of the track, thus the final result does not show aesthetic discontinuities.

“In more technical disciplines,” specifies Furlan, “such as Giant Slalom and Slalom, where the narrative requires more details to make the athletes’ lines evident, the use of drones is currently more limited. In these circumstances, the focus is more on athletic performance, downhill trajectories, and any errors on the gates.”

The first massive use of drones starts from appreciated experiences a few years ago in Kitzbühel; today, we are seeing a more numerous and prolonged involvement compared to the past, thanks surely to the great technical changes of the aircraft that have made them smaller, safer, and more performant. Moreover, it should be noted that federations, but especially producers and directors, are always looking for visual strategies to increase viewer interest, and in this case, having this unique perspective flying a few meters from the athlete is certainly exciting and winning.

Middle position

EMG Italy directors, also paying attention to safety, before the technical setup of the cameras along the track, select a portion of the track where the audience is adequately distant. From this strategic point, a carefully chosen sector, the drone flies along the track and covers approximately 400-500 meters of descent, flying over the skiers. In Kitzbühel this season, two drones were even used in two different sectors. The models used are all state-of-the-art FPV type, which offers an immersive flight experience. The pilot, through an FPV visor (e.g., Goggles V2), can see what the drone sees, offering a sharp and fluid image at 120 fps. This technology has made huge strides in miniaturizing the drone itself, greatly improving the quality of the sensor and the subsequent data transmission, making the drone practically an extension of the traditional broadcast system. The pilot, strategically positioned on the track in a specific location, uses the visor to have an immersive view, as if he were actually on board the drone. Two operators are involved in these special shots, one manages the flight movement, while the other takes care of the shots and the camera. Through transponders and progressive HD video carriers, telemetry data and images reach the intermediate position mentioned via RF, and from there they are transmitted to the OB truck through fiber optics.

With this innovative impulse, the entire television production calendar was carried out. The OB Truck Nova 126 unit was the protagonist with 28 cameras on the downhill. In Nordic skiing, the races in Dobbiaco and Fiemme imposed an extraordinary technical commitment for the World Cup, using additional resources such as two live snowmobiles, a cable-cam, a drone, and a helicopter, for a total of 32 cameras. The complexity of alpine skiing tracks also required a significant effort for pre-race movements and structure assembly; nothing would have been possible without the experience of the Infront and EMG Italy staff.

The new operating model

The Production structure of EMG Italy has been substantially transformed, as part of the transformation process of the structure undertaken last year. New people have been hired, and the search for these professions continues, mainly looking for young people eager to learn a trade that will make them protagonists and central in the dynamics of television production.

Davide Furlan concludes: “We have aligned ourselves with the European model of the EMG/Gravity Media Group: the producers have significantly increased in number because the presence of an EMG Italy producer has become indispensable for each race. By precise corporate will, constant and punctual control over each individual production has been organized, at every step of the various projects, it has been required that there be supervision of the voices that make up the work, also on-site, of course, so the Production figures have become the first link in the chain, or at least the one to which the others refer to have details and, obviously, results. These new production figures, evolved and specialized for sports, ensure that the very soul of the event and the contract are respected on top-level events based on customer requests and, of course, the allocated budget. Only in this way can we guarantee the best on every aspect of the project, both technically and organizationally and productively. This responds to a more international organizational profile that mirrors the group’s model and that from this year we have also begun to adopt in skiing, which has many specificities related to the variables of a sport that takes place in extreme conditions in a period concentrated in three months of the year.”

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The winter season of ski competitions has ended, with the awarding of the cups for specialities in Soldeu. The five days of competitions on the Plic de l’Aliga and on the Avet, in the beautiful town of Andorra, were the backdrop for the latest snow races, held between 15 and 19 March 2023.

“Alpine skiing closes the year of ski competitions and television productions”, says Davide Furlan Outdoor Production Director of EMG Italy, the service in charge of television production by Infront, holder of the rights to the Alpine Ski World Cup.

“It hasn’t been an easy year, thanks to the weather conditions, with a dry climate stingy with precipitation, but, even more, with temperatures that are too high for the snow and above all for keeping the snow frozen. These are, in fact, the prerogatives that a World Cup track must be able to guarantee to all the participating athletes, i.e. the same competition conditions. Many have been defections by some organizing committees of skicross and snowboard competitions. The uncertainty of the weather that forced the cancellation of the event made “the committees sit on the chair of prudence”.

It was a necessary choice – it must be said – in order not to see all the economic efforts invested for the necessary return of image, the real propellant for the winter tourism engine of the organizing resorts, melt like snow in the sun.

The production calendar by numbers

This year’s productive calendar of EMG Italy ski races counted 27 World Cup events, Alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, Nordic combined, ski cross and snowboarding in the most evocative and demanding slopes of the Italian and French Alps.

All the mobile television production units have been involved in various competitions, also thanks to a “fixed football championship” triggered by the Qatar World Cup. The ob-truck units NOVA 103, NOVA 126, NOVA 128, NOVA 150 and Orion 209 literally littered the numerous tracks of the different disciplines with cameras.

To give a connotation of the commitment addressed, below are some numbers that summarize the work of the EMG teams in the months of December, January, and February and the finals in March.

Experience: you can’t improvise on the track

“The experience of 15 years of World Cup productions of the technical teams, continues Furlan, “of the Production and of the Booking department, allow us to face this period of strong productivity in a structured and coordinated way. Every single role is covered thanks to the teams of internal employees and above all specialized freelancers, who are selected and hired by EMG’s expert producers. EMG has always pushed for safety in the workplace and has found in Infront a very attentive and sensitive customer on this matter. Over the years, the work of raising awareness towards the organizing committees has led to remarkable results in terms of the safety of the infrastructure on the track. We can say that today the standard achieved to be proud of corresponds to a high level of awareness on the part of the workers, achieved thanks to training courses organized by EMG and those self-managed by individual professionals: who wants to be part of these highly specialized teams is aware that he cannot improvise as a cameraman or technician on the track; certifications for work at height and adequate PPE are required”.

The storytelling

The television production of skiing this year has seen the inclusion of some innovative technological aspects to enhance the narration and others have been confirmed after the experiences of the past year.

Perhaps the most evident was the use of the FPV Drone which was engaged in various disciplines of Alpine skiing, ski-cross and snowboard-cross: this is a DJI drone (model varies) with POV vision employed by the operator who achieved aerobatic certifications. The transmission system was based on microwaves, in the 2.4/2.5 band for the video signal and in the 5.7/5.8 band for the commands.

This type of shooting made it possible – practically – to bring the viewer directly onto the track, making him descend with the athletes, and thus giving the viewer the place that gamers have when they operate the joysticks of the controllers in a video game: the result was certainly of great empathic and innovative effect for the point of view.

Other production innovation was the insertion of numerous HFR cameras along the slopes, useful for reviewing the acrobatics of the athletes who whiz across the ice of breathtaking slopes in a slowed down manner. The replay of an HFR camera is decidedly exciting for the viewer and is decidedly functional for the marketing side, where all the logos remain on the air for many seconds.

Live from the slopes

Flavio Baggio, Producer and Technical set-up track coordinator of EMG Italy, says:

“This year we did a great job in every production, even if, as always, there were difficulties. The environment in which we moved and in which we worked, with techniques based on complex electronic circuits, has unique specificities. In skiing, first of all, the danger is the cold; but, absurdly, even the heat, or the wind and the fog, are harmful and constantly changing conditions. Knowing how to constantly adapt and know how to react immediately are essential conditions to be able to guarantee the proper functioning of all the electronics set up along the slopes. The men who work with EMG Italy are mountain experts, they have great experience, a spirit of adaptation and sacrifice: without them any production would be impossible to achieve. We went through heavy and abundant snowfalls that covered all the fiber sections. The very strong wind could have knocked down structures and anchored scaffolding. And then, the high temperatures have melted the snow and transformed those canals where the camera cables passed into rivers. Only thanks to the foresight of experience have we always managed to go on the air correctly, without any technical shortcomings or flaws: I must say thanks to my teams, true professionals”.

Soldeu, Season Finals of the World Cup

As for Soldeu, the final stage of the Alpine World Cup, two XXL vehicles were used for the production of all Alpine disciplines, the DH, IL SG, the SG, the SL and the Mix Team Parallel Event.

The OB van NOVA 126 was used for the workflow of fast disciplines, with 28 cameras, 5 EVS XT3 ChannelMAX. The crew consisted of 52 technicians, together with the Infront team, led by Daniela Calandra, Head of Winter Sports of Infront Productions Italy.

This major event and the entire set-up of the El Tarter track in Soldeu was designed by the technical and production crew of EMG Italy. The facility had to take into account the daily change of configuration between the men’s race in the first part of the morning and the women’s race in the second. The change of configuration forced new camera positions to resume the start, at another point, and different camera positions in the first part of the race.

The configuration change work, which was done for all the disciplines between the men’s and women’s races, was a great commitment of professionals and resources and involved all the men on the track, with camera shifts and double/triple wiring. On the Grandvalira slope in Soldeu, on the other hand, we produced the footage of the technical disciplines, the giant slalom, the special and the team parallel. Here we placed 26 cameras along the track and here too the configuration change took place 4 times a day, with about 15 minutes available between one race and the next. It was an immense commitment which, without precise coordination, would never have worked. The Soldeu event involved a total of 64 technicians with two large OB vans, 15 days of production on two different tracks about 4 km apart.

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