Remote production – Gravity Media

The 78th editions of the male Superlega and female Serie A1 volleyball championships, the pinnacle of volleyball in Italy, are both produced for television this year by EMG Italy. The Serie A1 Superlega for males features 14 teams, while the female LVF has 12 teams. Both leagues follow a round-robin format, followed by playoffs and play-outs.

The EMG Italy team, led by Paolo Sassano, coordinator of Sports Productions, manages the entire television coverage for male and female matches in remote production from the Broadcast Center in Cologno Monzese. They ensure quality TV and streaming broadcasts every weekend on VBTV, the official OTT live streaming platform of Volleyball World, including the two flagship matches produced directly by the volleyball leagues. Each match broadcast is enriched with pre-game interviews, providing an engaging and spectacular experience for all fans.

“We are very proud to collaborate with the EMG Italy team in the significant work of promoting volleyball in Italy and worldwide, which we deeply care about. The attention to detail, both technically and editorially, enhances the offering for our viewers, allowing them to have an engaging and spectacular experience and solidifying VBTV as the primary destination for all volleyball enthusiasts,” says Finn Taylor, CEO of Volleyball World.

Filippo Milella, producer at EMG Italy for volleyball, reveals, “The involvement of EMG Italy in managing all matches is both technical and editorial. For all remote productions, EMG Italy handles streaming on Volleyball World platforms, receiving and redistributing signals. Over the weekend, seven matches are played for the female tournament and six for the male tournament. On average, we produce about 4/5 matches in remote production for male volleyball and the same for female volleyball, meaning about ten matches every weekend, totaling almost 300 events in a year.”

Technical Standard

As mentioned, the technical standard for these matches requires all games to be produced remotely, using four cameras: three operator-assisted and one unmanned, positioned at a 90° angle on the short stand to capture a perspective similar to tennis, capturing the field longitudinally. The first and second cameras are centrally located in the stands, capturing overviews and game details, while the third is positioned under the net for closer details.

Filippo Milella emphasizes, “The setup also includes pre-game interviews with coaches, recorded before and replayed just before the match starts, along with other live interviews at the end of the matches. Thanks to the net camera, we can immediately capture the comments of the best player on the winning team and a player from the losing team. The Lega Volley Femminile directly provides us with the graphic package and logos to create live graphics, always remotely from the production center in Cologno Monzese. For male volleyball, the graphic package is created directly by EMG’s graphics department, Boost Graphics. For all matches of male teams, EMG Italy manages both technical and journalistic commentary on-site, entrusted to two specialists from the Volleyball League, while holding overall technical management. The refereeing control, called ‘Video Check’ and similar to VAR in football, is done by framing images projected by the big screen, located on the field and managed by the Lega Pallavolo with dedicated equipment. In fact, the cameras for Video Check are distinct from those feeding the TV broadcast and are all operated on-site.”

Editorial Approach

The EMG Italy team handling both male and female championships operates cohesively, ensuring that all matches have a precise stylistic and editorial identity. All images produced for streaming and television are consistent across all matches. This is possible thanks to a centralized directorial approach entrusted to multiple “directors” who coordinate in advance with specialized directors, ensuring a cohesive editorial line both during normal gameplay and in breaks.

Filippo Milella adds that on each playing field, EMG Italy installs, in addition to the four cameras, a commentary station and a field-side station with specific microphones for interviews. “All cameras,” he says, “are connected to encoders, which transport signals separately in parallel and bidirectionally (audio, video, metadata, and communications) to EMG Italy’s operational center in Cologno Monzese. Here, a series of decoders make the signals available again across the series of control rooms. We have over sixteen dedicated control room stations, thanks to Simply Live equipment, generating ready-to-broadcast programs according to the case’s needs.”

All connections to and from the fields are made via fiber optics, and in the control rooms, directors monitor work on two touch-screen monitors and independently generate replays.

Filippo Milella concludes, “Managing the entire television production of volleyball requires great passion, and to achieve excellent spectacularity, it must include many aspects, such as choosing and managing all technical equipment, positioning, relations with customers and suppliers, and, last but not least, live graphics. Furthermore, we pay great attention to the details and proposed shots, applying a certain discretion, especially in women’s volleyball, to avoid inappropriate shots, particularly for families.”

Francesco Donato, CTO of EMG Italy: “Efficiency exists only if certain conditions are met”

Is it correct to think that there are multiple levels of Remote Production to be put into play in proportion to the budget and importance of the event?

Francesco Donato: “Of course. The conditions of the large television production market have changed a lot today. If we focus only on Remote Production, there are different ways to do this. There is a relatively ‘light’ version, which usually is confined to the use of a maximum of one, two, or three tv cameras managed remotely by the Remote Operation Center, and a more “heavy remote” that can manage up to 5-8 cameras and often requires a Outside Broadcast vehicle at the stadium”.

In the case of “light” remote production, can the mobile van of production always remain “at home”?

F.D.: “In television production, market conditions have changed, and margins are significantly reduced. With a “heavy remote setup” configuration, an OB unit must be at the venue and therefore the costs are higher, while a “light remote setup” configuration requires a lower commitment of resources and, if the editorial plan is designed to adapt to the technique on field, then it is certainly possible to bring the operating margin back within limits that justify the activity. The advantage of the light solution consists, above all, in the efficiency of the production and creation processes as it allows for product uniformity in terms of quality and narrative. It is clear that, the presence and supervision of the editorial team at the “remote center” allows the publisher to have precise and timely control of the entire supply chain, from capture to delivery of the product, including multi-platform”.

What are the general reasons why RP entered the market? And the real advantages?

F.D.: “Many think that Remote Production is born only for an optimization of costs in response to the contraction of the market and investments, and for the interpersonal distancing needs created by the pandemic. For us in Italy who have already been using it for over 5 years, this is not the case, and the use of these recent remote production techniques is above all equivalent to being able to create better production flows, both linear and on demand, to obtain complete product packaging and declinable on different “outputs” as required today by digital markets, which are now consolidated and can no longer be considered as a new market”.

What are the audiovisual markets in Italy that are most interested in your Remote Production?

F.D.: Our solutions for the creation and publication of sporting events, but not only, follow customer requests. For the moment, in Italy we have consolidated ourselves as a leader in the smaller market segments, but we also have solutions that allow you to export the concept of remote realization for Top Tier sport markets. Certainly, in recent years, we have, with gratification, presided over and reached a position of reference in the remote production market and we believe that, with our activity and the trust of broadcasters, we have managed to allow the use of RP in sports disciplines that otherwise would not have had the presence and visibility that is consolidated today. Then, a very growing sector is the corporate market, in which it is necessary to manage more institutional events; and this applies to all sectors, from fashion to banks to all markets in general, to cover the requests for “efficiency” of B2B but also B2C communication.

Is it true that Remote Production allows you to raise the level of efficiency?

F.D.: “In a way it does, but it needs nuance: producing many events does not always mean being efficient. In reality, it is important to understand that efficiency is achieved only when you have the ability to maximize the use of production solutions. In other words, we could say that the greater the investment, the greater the costs, but if this cost is spread more precisely and not only – as often happens – during the typical period of the realization of events, i.e. during the weekend, but even during the week, then you get the great efficiency that everybody will like”.

At the moment, how is the Remote Production line organized and what management capacity does EMG Italy have?

F.D.: “In the case of EMG Italy we have 26 production lines that cover the “traffic” generated in two or three days. This forces us to use a large number of technical and human resources. Our Remote Production Center in Milan is now able to produce almost 2000 events a year just for sport. The ability to manage contemporary events reaches up to 32 events and the productions are normally “light” versions made with single-camera, double-cameras, and tri-cameras. As previously stated, we are able to deliver both linear and typically television content, as well as digital and VOD”.

So, is it correct to think that it is, above all, the calendar of events that determines whether or not the entire system is efficient or not?

F.D.: “The calendar of sporting events is crucial, but it must be said that the programming of events is designed to capture the presence and availability of the public who clearly have different habits, which often do not coincide with our search for efficiency”.

What other advantages can be identified immediately in Remote Production?

F.D.: “RP allows better production flows and, above all, the immediate delivery of both linear, OTT and on demand contents.

Traditional broadcasters maintain their positions, but these have been joined by digital platform broadcasters who have other and very different needs in terms of publication.

From the production center we are able to feed the new platforms adequately, which we could not do from the playing field. The big difference of remote production compared to traditional production is actually in the packaging of the product, because with it we are able to package the contents and distribute them as we could not do before”.

Does Remote Production therefore become decisive in the distribution of digital content on OTT and VOD platforms?

F.D.: “In fact, the big difference resides mainly in the variation of the product being quite different: from linear to VOD, it is only remote production that allows you to manage these processes that otherwise in the field, in a fragmented production regime such as the traditional one, could not be achieved. As per EMG Italy, the factors that decisively influence one choice rather than another concern, first of all, the understanding of the conditions in which the activities are required to be carried out. Moreover, traditional television is not anymore the only way to distribute contents and remote production is the perfect way to deliver on a multi-platform basis. For EMG Italy, remote production is above all a way of maximizing the use of resources against a widespread benefit and creating services and products that were previously not economically conveyable to the public.

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.