Euro 2024: Inside UEFA’s International Broadcast Centre

The IBC in Leipzig, Germany (Photo by Tullio Puglia – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

Just before the quarter-finals of Euro 2024 took place, SVG Europe took a tour of the UEFA’s International Broadcast Centre (IBC) in Leipzig, Germany. Located in hall 4 of the Leipziger Messe exhibition building, the IBC serves as the hub of UEFA’s host broadcast operations and a base for 27 of UEFA’s broadcast partners.

At the heart of the 21,000 square metre IBC are the Master Control Room (MCR) and the Quality Control Rooms (QCR), which ensure the seamless broadcast and quality control of live feeds. It also hosts a range of operations and services, including Digital Broadcaster Services, Fan Zone TV, UEFA’s ICT services operation, and is a hub for UEFA Editorial Content Services.

The IBC is also the central hub for UEFA’s Broadcaster Services team for the tournament who employ over 100 staff members across the ten venues and IBC, all focused on providing support to more than 130 broadcast partners operating in over 200 territories worldwide, supported by CAA Eleven, UEFA’s partner agency.

Read more Euro 2024: UEFA’s technical broadcast plans

Additionally, it is the centre for Video Assistant Referee (VAR) operations for all 51 matches of the tournament. The Football Technology (FTECH) Hub is where VARs and Assistant Video Assistant Referees (AVARs) operate from four dedicated rooms to oversee all tournament matches.

The FTECH Hub also processes data from various technologies, including goal-line technology and electronic performance tracking systems, as well as sensors embedded in Kinexon’s connected balls. This data is quality controlled in real time and distributed to UEFA’s applications, such as the new semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) and the performance analyst portal.

Hawk-Eye supplies the technology for goal-line technology, VAR, SAOT, and Electronic Performance and Tracking Systems (EPTS) and medical and tactical video review systems.

Enhancing coverage: UEFA’s Editorial Content Services

UEFA’s Editorial Content Services (ECS) offers comprehensive content support to broadcast partners. With 108 people based in London at the headquarters of supplier Whisper, it provides a more sustainable approach to producing non-live content and is a continuation of the model adopted during the Covid-restricted Euro 2020 tournament, which took place in 2021.

Pre-Euro 2024 coverage provided by ECS included the ‘Road to UEFA Euro 2024’ magazine show, access days with teams, and host city content. During the tournament, ECS has delivered highlights, review shows, curated ISO compilations, and a daily Euro bulletin.

In London, the ECS team operates 14 edit suites, with 30 producers and APs, 22 editors, 13 production managers, eight graphic designers, and seven engineers and tech support personnel. They are supported by a few staff in Leipzig overseeing a KVM setup that allows for a remote operation with workstations in London editing via a 50-gig connection content that resides in Leipzig.

Live production and content acquisition

The OB operation is a pan-European affair, with five companies supporting UEFA’s host broadcast operation at the 10 venues used throughout the tournament, including Germany’s TVN (responsible for the final in Berlin and matches at Hamburg), plus Mediapro’s trucks from its Spain and Portugal operations (based at Frankfurt and Leipzig), as well as EMG UK (Dusseldorf and Cologne), AMP Visual from France (Gelsenkirchen and Dortmund) and NEP from both Germany and Italy (Munich and Stuttgart).

A UEFA spokesperson explained: “We’re acquiring everything in 1080p 50 HDR, bringing it back to the IBC and then converting to 1080p50 SDR and 1080i50 SDR before we send the signals back to the venue. The low latency to do all conversions here at the IBC gives up a lot more control.”

Virtual Board Replacement

UEFA Euro 2024 marks the first time a Euro has utilised virtual board replacement (VBR), a process that replaces in-stadium LED advertisements with targeted ads for specific regions: China, Germany, and the US.

VBR is only active during live play on the main broadcast camera, providing tailored advertising without disrupting the viewer experience. AIM Sport supplies VBR operations from the IBC, ensuring reliability and signal continuity.

A dedicated production Quality Control (QC) team is responsible for monitoring the consistency and quality of all multilateral feeds from all venues. The QC team is in communication with the UEFA production teams on-site at the venues on match day (MD) and match day-1 (MD-1). They monitor consistency of coverage, ensure the principles set out in the TV Directors Guidelines are adhered to and review broadcast partner feedback.

A dedicated audio expert, also based in the production quality control room, listens to all audio components and liaises with the stadiums to ensure the highest audio quality and consistency. A team of specialists monitor and control all aspects of picture quality from the dedicated HDR quality control room. In addition, there are dedicated MD-1 and FANTV quality control rooms.

Each broadcast venue team, led by the broadcast venue manager and broadcast engineering manager also includes a UEFA live producer, reporting to the IBC QC team, who works closely with the TV match director at their respective venue. The UEFA live producer is responsible for quality control on-site, ensuring that all feeds meet the standards, guidelines and requirements laid down by UEFA.

With a 50-gigabit connection to Whisper and a 200-gigabit diverse connection to each venue, the IBC handles approximately 5TB of data. The Telco Interface Room (TIR), delivered in partnership with Deutsche Telekom, Eurovision Services, and HBS, manages the incoming data flow. Eurovision Services also oversees the distribution of signals to broadcasters via the Content Hub, while NEP hosts the Hive media server for retrieving clips and footage.

Many of UEFA’s broadcast partners, including ARD and ZDF in Germany, are taking their feeds via the Content Hub, a live event content management service provided by Eurovision Services. Using the service, UEFA delivers the feeds to Frankfurt which is one of five POPs – along with Amsterdam, London, a second in Frankfurt and New York – where broadcast partners can receive their content.

A UEFA spokesperson said: “[Broadcasters] can put encoders there, and we send SPTS streams. They have a virtual router panel on a on a tablet or laptop, and then they can route the signals they want to those encoders. We send about 220 different signals across the Content Hub that they can then connect to. So far, we’ve had very positive feedback on the service.”