Blackmagic Design routers help steer SVT for annual orienteering competition

The 10MILA is an annual orienteering competition, which this year attracted more than 900 competitors. Held in Sweden, the Tiomilakavlen Association has lately had ambitions to improve the experience for participants and spectators alike and turned to production partner TVPRO.

David Thåst, who oversaw the production as technical director, was tasked with creating a more spectator-friendly arena featuring two giant 56sqm screens and a live stream of the full competition. TVPRO also produced a two-day broadcast programme for Swedish Television (SVT).

SDI video routers from Blackmagic Design underpinned the entire production. “For signal distribution we used a pair of 40×40 Compact Videohub routers,” reveals Thåst. “With space at a premium I liked that we could route cross points from a series of iPads running the Videohub Software Control software.”

The production had nine camera chains, including three triax camera channels and a further six wireless IP camera positions outside of the main arena. These were routed via a series of Compact Videohubs to a temporary Studio Control Room and a programme output was mixed on an ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K.

“A groundbreaking feature for us is the ability to control the six auxiliary output sources using a touch panel keypad and screen on the front of the ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K,” says Thåst. “In the past we would normally have to provide the technical operations manager with dedicated matrix output, however now they can simply use a single AUX to monitor, and if necessary live AUX switch, during a production.”

In some instances there was a need to colour match the wireless IP camera feeds during the competition. “Teranex gave us three channels of primary colour correction. And in instances where the arena lighting didn’t allow us to work in progressive mode, we also used it to down scale our triax camera chains.”

For graphics playout TVPRO used a fill and key solution developed by Caspar CG. Four physical servers from Caspar CG in total were used, one as a VT playout server and the remainder as character generators.

There were three streams produced in all. A live two day pay-per-view stream in HD and a separate stream optimised for mobile devices while a third stream offered a free four day programme of beauty shots and CG from the main arena.