2023 Champions League Euroderby: EMG and Mediaset bring the San Siro to life for global viewers

The semi-final second leg of the UEFA Champions League between Inter Milan and AC Milan on 16 May saw international television production by EMG Italy for rightsholder Mediaset.

For the occasion, EMG Group was also present in the TV compound with OB vehicles from EMG Belgium and EMG UK committed to other broadcasters, but in synergy with each other to ensure an efficient and productive process. 

Michele Iorio, OB production manager, EMG Italy, explains: “I am the producer who mainly follows Serie A football in Milan, so all Inter and Milan matches for the championship, the Italian Cup and the Champions League for Mediaset. I follow them through all stages of production and I select the necessary personnel respecting the production budget. I also follow the unilateral integrations, with accreditations, logistics and relations with broadcasters as well as national and international takers.”

Michele Iorio, EMG Italy

A setup of champions

The set-up for the host broadcast production normally begins two days before the match. On ‘match day -1’ the first tests are usually carried out, with away team training plus press conferences and flash station interviews. However, this did not happen during the Champions League Euroderby as the two teams trained at their nearby Milanello and Appiano training centres.

Preliminary tests were, however, carried out on the LED walls inside the stadium and on the entire audio-visual technical circuit. The San Siro facility is semi-permanent and the AV set up is installed at the beginning of the season in August and remains in place until the end of the championship.

The derby

Mediaset broadcast the derby on Canale 5, entrusting the production to two large OB trucks; EMG’s Nova 103 was in charge of the international host production and Nova 128 carried out Mediaset’s customised national production.

The technical team fielded for the host feed was led by Mediaset director Giorgio Galli and his assistant Stefano Schiavinato.  The host director’s technical crew consisted of five camera controls, one video mixer, seven EVS operators, one RVM operator, five audio assistants, two chief technicians, two sound engineers, five machinists and a production manager, plus 21 operators for 22 cameras.

Twenty-three people were hired for the unilateral production, including a producer, a technical chief, two sound engineers, a video technician, three stagehands, a camera control, a video mixer, two EVS operators, four camera operators and five microphone operators, led by Mediaset director Marco Di Francesco.

In the TV compound next to the stadium there were two other large mobile control rooms: the EMG Nova 119 and EMG Nova 102, responsible respectively for the production for Amazon Prime Germany and BT Sport UK.

In addition to the 22 cameras for the host feed, a drone was used, plus two other cameras dedicated to the multi-pitch and flash locations (path 1 and 2). The drone flew in well-defined areas and captured a different perspective from that of the cameras on the pitch.

The two positions on the pitch in the pre-match and in flash post-match were dedicated to international multi-feed customisations and used by numerous overseas TV channels, which carried out 10-minute interviews on rotation.

The TV compound

Among the supports for special filming, two back-of-the-door polecams were used along with two steadycams, to the right and left of the field, which filmed the arrival of the teams and captured the players in the corridors and tunnel. Replays were enriched by five Sony Super Motion cameras.

To involve the public even more, Mediaset set up an RF room outside the stadium to capture the emotion of the fans live.

To further enrich the event and portray the excitement of the stadium to the audience at home, the audio was recorded entirely in Dolby Atmos.

“It was very exciting to see four international production vehicles from the group working together,” adds Iorio, “and to see the football that counts in Milan again, in a very special evening.”