EMG’s female-led team delivers UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 tournament

Left to right: Rosanne Elzinga, UEFA broadcast venue manager, Chrissie Collins, EMG UK client manager and Reda Smeleviciute-Law, UEFA broadcast venue manager

EMG has successfully delivered broadcast facilities for UEFA across all 31 matches of the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 football championships, culminating in the final between England and Germany at a sold-out Wembley Stadium on Sunday 31 July.

The EMG delivery team was led by client manager Chrissie Collins, while 50% of the directors and unit managers were female, which EMG said reflected the Group’s commitment to diversity and championing the need for gender balance in technical roles with a focus on encouraging female crew to work at the matches.

Collins, who is a mentor with the RISE group for gender diversity within the industry, oversaw a total of 464 crew, including 126 from Sunset & Vine and 336 from EMG.

Collins said: “The Women’s Euros is a huge operation to plan for logistically. It’s tough for our production services team to look at all the information and plot how this going to work into a schedule.

“We studied the distance between grounds and the time it takes to get there, how many people we’d need on the team, reflecting the right gender balance within the crew and all the tasks that need to be completed.

“It’s been fantastic, and everyone has really enjoyed it. Once we were underway, with the strength and depth in our team, we got into a smooth rhythm in no time.”

EMG said that considerable effort was applied to ensure staff could work at games held near to their homes, which helped to reduce the time spent travelling and support EMG’s sustainability goals.

Read more Women’s Euro 2022: Facts and figures for the host broadcast match coverage

EMG had a fleet of five Nova OB trucks for 31 matches in ten stadiums spread across England, including Wembley Stadium and Old Trafford. The distance between these stadiums, driving times, where team members were located, time to rig, de-rig and transmit, all had to be factored in and calculated by the EMG team in producing a sustainable and environmentally friendly crew schedule for the tournament.

Sunset + Vine provided the full production team to deliver the tournament, including a creative team of directors, production managers, floor managers and world feed producers.

EMG subsidiaries were also involved in the production; ACS supplied minicams and the ACS SMARTgrip, while Broadcast RF supplied RF cameras and Boost Graphics provided graphics and data processing.

UHD native graphics were managed with NEXT, the EMG graphics solution, and coupled to the UEFA data feed to automatically capture live statistics, team line-ups and VAR decisions.

EMG chief executive Shaun Gregory added: “It’s been a privilege to work for our friends at UEFA and help to deliver yet another successful international football tournament. This is a watershed moment for women in football. The game continues to grow, capturing the interest of supporters and exposure is a key part of that, we all have our part to play. EMG is proud to be involved in the coverage of this tournament and support the growth of women’s sport.”