FC Red Bull Salzburg delivers FanTV channel with Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design has announced that its range of URSA Mini digital film cameras is being used to produce match day content for FC Red Bull Salzburg, as part of a live OB solution designed around the ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K switcher. 

Mediahaus has been producing content on behalf of FC Red Bull Salzburg since 2005, and the core workflow has evolved from a small portable fly away system into a fully-fledged OB workflow with Blackmagic infrastructure products for acquisition, switching, distribution and monitoring at its very core.

Signal management on board Mediahaus’ Mercedes Sprinter van relies upon the Blackmagic Smart Videohub 40×40 router as well as a whole series of mini converters, also from Blackmagic Design.

“Taking into consideration the distances between camera positions and the OB, and the fact that we were relying on the stadium’s SDI network to bridge those different points, we also installed a Smart Videohub 16×16 matrix into the club’s central technical room. Doing so means we are now able to reclock all of the signals at the halfway point to ensure we don’t compromise signal integrity at any point in the entire chain,” said Wolfgang Angermüller, CEO and founder of Mediahaus.

Central to Mediahaus’ creative workflow is the ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K switcher and accompanying ATEM 2 M/E Broadcast Panel. “We use the Blackmagic switcher to produce two primary feeds for the club. One for the stadium’s big screens and a separate feed for the club’s inhouse television channel, FanTV,” explained Angermüller. “We also produce additional feeds for the club’s analytics team, the stadium’s LED boards and for live streaming purposes.” 

In creating that content, Mediahaus relies on a clean PGM feed and the main camera signal supplied by the host broadcaster, according to Angermüller. “On top of that, we operate between four and five camera positions around the stadium ourselves, including two fixed positions in the players’ tunnel, another on the main gantry as well as a beauty shot under the stadium’s roof.”   

Mediahaus’ URSA Mini 4K and URSA Mini Pro are rigged with the URSA Mini Shoulder Kit and a B4 mount and set to HD 1920×1080 in window mode, outputting a 1080i signal over SDI. Positioned on the main gantry, the URSA Mini Pro is equipped with the URSA Studio Viewfinder and a 16x Fujinon B4 HD lenses, while the URSA Mini 4K is set up pitch side with an 18x Fujinon zoom lens. Both are mounted on Sachtler tripods.

“One of the biggest advantages to introducing the URSA Mini cameras into our workflow is the potential to control them remotely using the ATEM Software Control,” concluded Angermüller. “It represents a significant cost saving on our part as we don’t have to build expensive RCPs and CCUs and reduces the overall cost per camera channel by more than three quarters. Those savings are hard to ignore.”