Full house: Inside production of the European Curling Championships
Curling star Anna Hasselborg letting loose a stone. Pictures: World Curling/Stephen Fisher
The 2024 European Curling Championships are currently underway in the south Finland town of Lohja, bringing together 20 teams from across Europe to compete in a sport that has become more popular in recent years, particularly since the 2022 Winter Olympics. Television coverage has played a part in raising the profile of what was previously regarded as a niche and somewhat arcane game that involves two teams sliding granite ‘stones’ along a lane marked out on ice towards a target known as a house.
Curling is now played in many countries around the world, having spread out over the years following its creation in Scotland during the 16th century. It is a major sport in Canada, where it arrived due to Scottish emigration, and is also popular in the US, Japan and Korea. It is Europe, however, that has the greatest concentration of curling countries, including Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Estonia, Lithuania, Czechia, Austria, England and, of course, Scotland.
For competitions including the European, World and World Mixed Championships, the sport’s governing body, World Curling, distributes both the world feed to national broadcast companies of competing countries that request it and something more basic for the streamed Curling Channel. The distribution and booking manager for World Curling TV (WCTV), Sylvie Aubrit, who deals with rights holders and unilateral activity on- and off-site, explains that three levels of coverage are produced.
“This is because between three and six different matches can be being played on the same sheet of ice during the same session,” she says. “Level 1 coverage will focus on one game but there will be updates on what is happening in the others going on at the same time. And if that game finishes early, we switch to one of those other matches until it is over, while updating the remaining games as well. Level 2 concentrates on only one game, with no updates from any others, and the coverage finishes when it’s over.”
The vision set-ups for both these levels involve moving cameras mounted on trusses above the ice, supported by cameras on tripods controlled by operators on the same level as the players. Level 1, used only for the World Championships, involves more crew and offers features such as commentary, replays, interviews and live graphics. Aubrit describes level 2 as similar but more computer-based, involving fewer people; the European Championships is being covered with two level 2 feeds for broadcasters plus one level 3 production on The Curling Channel. This coverage comprises a static overhead camera looking at either end of a sheet with no commentary.
“Level 3 uses PTZ cameras and is web-only,” Aubrit comments. “Levels 1 and 2 use broadcast-quality cameras and on the Europeans those are Sony HDC-4300s. We don’t always have the same model and even if we’re using the same supplier the cameras can change [from production to production] but they are always broadcast-quality cameras and lenses. Our suppliers know what we need but it’s not as specific as something like the Tour de France.”
The main issue, Aubrit continues, is the workflow, which is “incredibly complicated” due to several games taking place at the same time, with crossovers between different sheets of ice. “Usually the productions are controlled from an OB truck but on this occasion we are using a flyaway kit with all the equipment inside the arena,” she adds. “Sometimes it is easy to send a truck but our suppliers can provide the same equipment in a flyaway kit.” Vision mixers are a 128-input Grass Valley K-Frame for the broadcast coverage and a vMix software switcher on the streaming feed.
Audio expertise
Aubrit describes the video side of covering curling as relatively simple, while the audio is “very complicated”. This is largely because all the players and coaches are miked up with wireless microphones, with other sound sources dedicated to ambience within the arena and the commentator mics. The wireless system for this event is based on 30 Wisycom MTP 41S transmitters working with Dante Audio over IP for networking and control. The mixing consoles used on European productions are Lawo, while Calrec features on North American events.
“The audio mixing requires a lot of expertise and we have two people who work on it for us,” Aubrit says. “There’s also an audio manager and a floor manager who look after the wireless mics. It’s a big thing for us and we can’t mess up on it. If a player goes to the washroom we have to make sure that their mic isn’t left on.”
Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2024
The crew additionally includes production and technical managers, Aubrit comments, with most of those working on at the different competitions coming from Canada, where curling is extremely popular.
Aubrit, who worked previously for FIFA and has a background in transmission, oversees distributing the broadcast coverage, which was recently taken in-house. “It’s something new for us, handling the distribution ourselves,” she says. “Transmission costs a lot and we used to use satellite and then fibre. Now we’ve gone full IP with a software-defined networking system provided by GlobalM in Switzerland. We use their technology to schedule all the transmissions to broadcasters and do not have to involve an intermediately or a production company.”
Like other sports broadcasters, WCTV has been looking into remote production in recent times but it is does not appear to be something the organisation is preparing to adopt any time soon. “Everyone is testing remote production at the moment,” says Aubrit. “We have run tests on smaller events with some success but not enough for us to move to it yet.”
The European Curling Championships began on 16 November, with the men’s and women’s competitions running concurrently. It is available on platforms including Eurosport and BBC iPlayer, as well as The Curling Channel, and concludes on Friday 22 November.