Fast and furious: How Aurora Media Worldwide ran like the wind to make supertri Toulouse come to life

Host broadcaster for triathlon series, supertri, Aurora Media Worldwide, was faced with a challenges in more than one area when it came to supertri Toulouse

Host broadcaster for triathlon series, supertri, Aurora Media Worldwide, was faced with challenges in more than one area when it came to supertri Toulouse. The cobblestones, sharp climbs, fast and windy descents, tall buildings, narrow roads and a river front section produced dramatic footage, yet it was not always easy to capture.

With Vasco Vilaca delivering a great performance in Toulouse on 6 October, claiming his first supertri victory, while Georgia Taylor-Brown continuing her dominance in the women’s field by securing her third consecutive win, getting the battles of the race across in the broadcast had its challenges on this particular course.

“I always say it’s fast and furious and we fly by the seat of our pants”

The whole production is carried out on site in a small footprint within the narrow streets of the city, with Aurora Media Worldwide supported by technical services provider, EMG. Laura Watts, executive producer at Aurora, enjoys working at the Toulouse supertri, despite its challenges.

Read more Pushing boundaries: Capturing the action in narrow winding streets for supertri Toulouse with Aurora Media Worldwide and EMG

She says: “Toulouse is the best one we do by far, and it is good for the same reasons as its challenges. We are surrounded by crowd, which is fantastic, but we are surrounded by crowd who we have to then navigate and not trip up and consider on everything we do. So permissions to fly drones, how close can they be to the crowd, where we can run cables, where people will obscure cameras, are all considerations.

“For example, we have one camera [in an area] that got so busy that it just got blocked by crowd because so many people were there. We don’t have that problem on any other site currently because there’s not such a big crowd so close. But Toulouse do it so well.”

Watts explains where the TV compound is in comparison to the athletes. “We sit in an area right in the thick of the course; effectively the course runs along the front of where we are, up the side of where we are, around the back of where we are, and along the top of where we are. So it kind of goes up from us, around, and then away down the wiggly bit – technical term! – and down through the very old mainly residential area, with sheer buildings and very small sidewalks. That bit is very, very narrow for the bikes and the runners to go haring down it, do a 90 degree turn, do another hairpin turn back under a bridge and along.

“So there’s receiving issues, there’s RF issues, there’s cabling issues,” she continues. “It is a technical challenge, just on how many cameras you have to put in to cover it. There’s so many blind corners.”

At supertri Toulouse, the women make the dive into the Port de la Daurade

Bit of a squash

The TV compound is based in Port de la Daurade, where it is a bit of a squash to get the truck into position and the people into the truck. Watts explains: “It’s a very small site, so logistically we have to get a small truck in because a big truck won’t fit.

“John [Giles, unit manager, EMG UK] manages everything for that. He’s amazing. The truck goes along the waterfront then has to do a 90 degree turn up and into a small square that is a riverfront. But we are working around hundreds of years-old walls in a really beautiful site, so we’re limited on what truck can fit in the space, which means we are limited on how much space we have in the truck.

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“It’s all compact and it makes it quite challenging just working in the gallery itself because the gallery is so much smaller,” she goes on. “There’s fewer seats, there’s less space. It’s just very close working environment. But we get everybody in.”

The TV compound is positioned at the back of the course along with the supertri operational crew. In front of the truck are the team tents where the athletes warm up, and a VIP area. This compact design means, “we’re very, very close to fans who are watching,” notes Watts. “Then there’s the finish line lane, then there’s the transition lane, then there’s VIP tents, then there’s the water. So it’s a really small area.”

The production for supertri Toulouse is difficult because of the proximity of the crowds to the cameras , plus narrow streets and tall buildings, all of which add to the challenges for Aurora

Fast and furious

Aurora is backed up by EMG all the way on supertri Toulouse. Says Watts: “In terms of the setup, it’s an onsite operation, there’s no remote. We have the crew and trucks turn up race day minus two. They start rigging race day minus one, and then finish rigging race day and then go for race. We can’t close the roads until race day.

“So at the Boston supertri for example, we saw all of our cameras 10 minutes before we went on air; the difficulty being with the States was that we had two races, but they both have mass participation events before our race. So it is a combination of not being able to rig because they’re live roads and/or not being able to rig because there are thousands of people running that we have to then see the last person through before we can put our cameras into position. So that’s why that happens.

“For Toulouse on the other hand, Jon Giles is our unit manager [from EMG UK]. He led a great team. EMG has done it before for us [under Giles’ leadership for all supertri events] and they got ahead of the game, so we were able to see some cameras race day minus one in the evening. But on race day, we actually saw all of our cameras in time for bike familiarisation at 10 o’clock. So that was very different to how it’s been previously, with the race starting at 12pm.

“I always say it’s fast and furious and we fly by the seat of our pants,” she laughs.

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But the production works because the team knows what it is doing, from Aurora and EMG. Watts notes: “We have the right people and it’s a really small team. Everyone punches above their weight and probably does more than one job because they always have a lateral vision and always have in mind how [what they do] will impact on somebody else.

“You can’t live in isolation on this job; you have to go, “if this, then that”. So if you do this, what impact does it have on that? The space in the truck is really small, so the team is small,” she continues. “So managing it all means on the one hand, it’s a small team so everyone knows what everyone needs and supports each other, but on the other hand, you move one thing, it affects another.”

supertri Toulouse took place on 6 October 2024 in France

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