Carving powder: Austrian broadcaster ORF on the challenges of bringing the Alpine Ski World Cup on the Rettenbach Glacier to viewers
ORF is the host broadcaster for the Alpine Ski World Cup 2024, Sölden, Austria
The winter season is starting once again at Sölden in Austria, where the Fédération Internationale de Ski et de Snowboard (FIS) Alpine Ski World Cup is set to take place for the 30th time on the Rettenbach Glacier for the Alpine Ski Championship Season Opener.
With the women’s giant slalom set to take off down the glacier on Saturday 26 October and the men’s competition on Sunday 27, the athletes will compete against the mountain, the clock and themselves.
Rettenbach Glacier – with one of the steepest pitches on the tour – is one of the select few on the World Cup circuit to hold both the ladies’ and men’s events. Austrian national public broadcaster, ORF, is the host broadcaster for FIS at the Alpine Ski World Cup.
The camera plan for Sölden in Austria, where the Fédération Internationale de Ski et de Snowboard (FIS) Alpine Ski World Cup is set to take place for the 30th time on Rettenbach glacier for the Alpine Ski Championship Season Opener CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE A LARGER VERSION
Moving targets
Unlike any other championship that ORF is the host broadcaster for, the glacier causes issues for the broadcast setup, as it is literally always on the move.
Says Michael Kögler, ORF head of directors: “It’s a really demanding scene as it’s a glacier and the glacier is always moving each year, so we have to adapt our set up there. We have to adapt the positions every year according to the new circumstances. I’m always going there in between to try and gauge what the situation is.”
Kögler comments on other challenges the glacier creates for the broadcast during set up: “For us, the glacier is a real demanding situation for everybody because for the technical crew to build the setup, it can be foggy, it can be really bad circumstances. So it’s always a challenge to be ready in time with all the setup and all the things, because it’s a lot of stuff to bring up to the mountain, a lot of cabling.”
Kögler notes that unlike other mountainous ski events, because of Rettenbach and its annual movement, this is the only one ORF carries out where there is no cabling infrastructure ready to plug into.
He states: “Compared to some other great races like Kitzbühel [the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup race, Hahnenkamm World Cup Races, Austria] where we have a lot of fibre lines already in the mountain, you cannot do that on the glacier.
“Every single cable has to be brought to its position, and this is a lot of work to do,” continues Kögler. “And it’s also challenging because the racecourse is really slippery and icy, and so if the people are not able to walk and to work, especially under this circumstance, it’s difficult. It’s not like the soccer field. Soccer fields, you go in, it’s a plain stadium. You have your outlet there, you have the pre-cabling. So skiing itself, like a biathlon or cross country, is one of those events which are really demanding for the technical staff, especially for the crew to set up. I give them a really big round of applause for what they’re doing, because whatever the wish is, they try to make it possible. So this is the challenge we have there.”
Rettenbach glacier causes issues for the broadcast setup for ORF, as the glacier moves every year so no permanent cabling can be put in place. Everything must be taken up the mountain in the two days prior to the Alpine Ski Championship Season Opener
Austrian enthusiasm
The technical crew will arrive on site for the setup on the Tuesday prior to the event, then they have Wednesday and Thursday to get everything up the mountain and set up on the glacier, with test day on Friday.
Kögler adds: “The positive thing there is that people are enthusiastic – especially in Austria – about these winter sports and alpine races. We have a complete arena in the finish area for the people to watch, which is integrated into the lift station. There are stands, there is a complete setup there; this is really packed and crowded with between 15,000 and 20,000 people in the finish area. And this finish area is on a parking lot, so there is concrete there which makes the situation easier for us to work in, and for fans to congregate in.
“Although this season we have a complete change of the setup from the side where we put the cameras in the finish; we were previously on race’s right side but this year we go back to the race’s left side, which we were doing about 10 years ago, but then for the flow of the audience they had a different concept. But now we are back on the left side, which for us is a big advantage because using a crane camera, we can get a shot like in a soccer stadium with a big crowd in the back.
“This is great for us because now we have the celebrating audience in the back and the athletes in the front, so this is giving another dynamic shot for the audience.”
On site production
Solden is produced entirely on site, with OB 1, ORF’s own truck. Says Kögler. “This has to be an OB event; it doesn’t make sense in this case to say “no, I would go with this or with that remote production, we can save money or whatever,” because you always have to move and adapt on ski. The handheld positions, for example, I go down on each racecourse before the race and according to the setup of the racecourse, I decide where to put the handheld cameras. You always have to renew the plan and you always have to adapt, and actually the second challenge for cameras is also the safety challenge. You are not allowed to go in certain positions due to safety issues, even though you would have a better angle there.
Planning for the Alpine Ski World Cup in Sölden takes time each year as the Rettenbach glacier moves annually
“So you have to take that into consideration, while also finding the correct mix between a wide shot where you see the line of the racers going, and the closeups where you see the fights going on for the athletes, against the mountain and against the course. This is the challenge; to get a good broadcast, and have all the emotion on the other side. These I think are the ingredients to do a proper broadcast on this ski race.”
On cameras, Kögler comments: “We will be using 25 cameras for the whole event. Four of them are hyper slo mo cameras and we are using three cranes and we have a lot of handhelds. We also have Atom 500 mini cameras, which we will put into the snow – one after the start, and the so-called come and go option in the flat part of the race, right before finish line.
“We’ll have a polecam in use at the start heart, which also has an Atom 500 camera, which gives us the possibility to trigger the start action and replay the start action either if it’s a great shot or if something happens to the athlete,” he continues.
The Alpine Ski Championship Season Opener takes place on the weekend of 26 to 27 October on the Rettenbach Glacier in Solden, Austria