Broadcast coverage on target for Archery World Cup Final
To close out the World Cup 2013 season the World Archery and the French Archery Federation selected the Trocadero in Paris as the site for the finals. As is the norm, extensive preparations were made to ensure first-class broadcasting coverage of the event.
Like many International Olympic Federations, the World Archery produces its own TV images of competitions. These programmes (encompassing live coverage, highlights and general reporting) are made available free of charge for TV channels who would like to broadcast the event.
“We invest an average of $500,000 annually (i.e. almost 1/6th of the Federation’s budget) in the production of ten events each year. Four stages of the World Cup, the final and the World Championships in particular form part of this package,” explains Didier Mieville, marketing and TV distribution director for the International Archery Federation.
“For the World Cup Final we had 10 cameras available, including a CableCam we built ourselves and a Super Loupe camera system,” explains Cédric Roger, founder of Hit the Roof, which was placed in charge of the executive production for the World Archery event.
In total, five types of cameras were deployed: three BRC-300 robotic video cameras for the close-up shots of the targets and the beauty shots; four Grass Valley studio cameras, plus a heavy-duty one from the same brand with a 72x lens; a wireless RF Super Loupe from DVS; as well as the renowned CableCam developed by Hit the Roof.
The high-speed camera could record up to 2000 frames per second. The frame rate was adjusted to suit the required needs and reduced to 1500 fps.
The CableCam installed about 15 meters above the ground had a 160m-long cable. The solution was to use a Sony HDC P1 camera and change its primary 3D functions.
Archery being a relatively static sport, video production needs to provide some energy and movement. To this end, and in addition to the CableCam, a low-angle shot camera on rails made it possible to move in front of the archers with the Eiffel Tower in the background. Meanwhile, an 8m long Slidecam offered, in a way, low-angle shots but with back views of the archers this time.
The OB unit used for the event came from Switzerland or, to be more precise, from Lugano where the company Exora has its headquarters. Featured onboard were servers and EVS slow-motion replay systems along with a Kahuna vision mixer (production switcher).
The European Broadcasting Union entrusted the satellite broadcasting signal to a French company, Zeppit, who employed a DSNG van. The EBU was also in charge of the video encoding system for the live streaming offered by the World Archery on YouTube.