Host broadcaster Sportcast is a full subsidiary of the Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL), and it is now embarking on its twentieth season of producing all the matches as well as the base signal for the premier men’s game in Germany, the Bundesliga, and the Bundesliga 2 men’s second division, as well as the relegation play-offs and the Supercup for national and international rights holders.

Saturdays in Germany mean a classic Bundesliga matchday with five parallel matches. A new challenge this rights season for Sportcast is that Sky Deutschland and DAZN are now both live pay TV rights holders. While Sky Germany shows all five games live on seperate channels, DAZN now has the rights to do a studio programme of all five games, switching from match to match as goals are scored and key moments happen. Previously, Sky Germany held the rights to both of those packages, for the live games and the studio programme.

Sportcast also has to deal with a flurry of new camera angles and interview positions implemented by the DFL for the start of this rights cycle. These run from a camera on team buses on their way to the stadium for selected matches, to various new positions for broadcasters including interviews at bus arrival, in the cabins, and on the pitch after matches, to managing a first person view drone.

Clear coordination

For Sportcast, alongside the additional positions and camera angles being offered to rights holders as part of the new rights cycle this season, with DAZN onboard as well as Sky Germany, it needs to have a clear coordination on site at each match to aid the production.

“Let’s say the summer for us was pretty intense in preparing for everything!” Seamus Neary, Sportcast’s director of matchday operations, notes.

All the additional cameras and positions have meant that Sportcast spent the summer checking and double checking its infrastructure at the different stadiums to ensure everything would work on matchday.

Neary explains: “For instance, we are providing views of the dressing rooms and surrounding areas to then also give the viewers at home a more unique, closer look at how the players arrive at the stadiums. There are lots of bits and pieces which then had to proceed either from the DFL to clubs, or from us to clubs, and to then assess the infrastructure and really to check how everything is possible in the end for a match day production.”

It has all been worth the effort, says Neary: “The feedback we get from the takers is very good. It all helps us to get more unique views and to provide better perspectives to the viewers at home.”

Ever-evolving formats

The DFL produces its matches in a solid range of formats that is ever-evolving in order to give its rights holders everything they need to get the best coverage. For Sportcast, those formats mean an increasingly complex workflow, but it is always looking at how to push forwards.

The format range that Sportcast needs to produce the matches in is intense, Neary says. “We cover matches in UHD HDR, HD HDR, and HD SDR, and I guess for us the biggest push technology-wise was to arrange the progressive and interlaced formats, and at our central production to do the handover in 2110. So this for us was an important step to know that we want to create the technical basis for any future products especially if you look at the inhouse distribution or inhouse delivery; it’s just so important to just align to that and just to take a futureproof concept forward.”

New this season as well is expanding immersive audio, which Neary refers to as 3D audio. “We’re also doubling the amount of 3D audio, which we are also producing remote. It’s immersive audio we produce for the Saturday evening matches and also for the Friday matches [in the Bundesliga].”

“Now, especially with not only [everything we’re doing] on the visual but also on an audio level, this is providing possibilities for viewers at home to be closer to the game,” continues Neary. “This is something we see our media partners are really looking forward to and technology-wise promises that to its customers.”

“Currently we are providing over 60 productions in 3D audio, over a hundred productions in UHD HDR and over 70 games in HD HDR, so I guess we are kind of shifting between formats now and of course we’re trying to address all the customer’s needs, trying to be as flexible as we can with that. And so far, it helps us to always provide the best quality when it comes to the relevant formats.”

Sportcast has also done a permanent installation of surround microphones in each of the venues to increase the quality of the product, says Neary. He adds: “On the other hand, we are also adding the classic microphones on matchday, which our OB van providers have. We’re doing the whole audio mix in a remote setup to create a well-balanced offering.”

Streaming potential

Another area for this rights cycle that Sportcast is taking a deeper foray into is streaming. Neary says: “We see the possibilities of low latency streaming and an increase in demand. It is also something that is pretty forward.”

“We set up a new low latency streaming for some takers and we are also thinking about going further with it, but I guess it’s always sort of a distinguishment between the current and future setups of media partners and then in the coming years we will see how the requirements will develop. We have to always distinguish what can be standardised in the workflows, and what still has to be addressed. So, streaming as part of the delivery is quite an important issue we are deeply diving into at this moment. And of course, this always helps us to start with the process, try to get the ideas right, and get feedback from customers to the quality of the product.”

Neary concludes that streaming providers are creating interesting opportunities in how the landscape can deliver content going forwards. “I would say that’s the a next shift we see, especially when it comes to automation, and localisation; it’s always big words, but we’ve been really impressed by the streaming solutions we use. It’s also taking things forward for us and seeing how can we align, and how can we have the best setup for the rights holders.”