Grande partita! EMG’s Fabio Guadagnini on an intense start to the football season in Italy

EMG Italia is active in multiple sports, such as cycling, skiing, basketball, volleyball and mountain biking, as well as football

To help DAZN and Amazon with their Serie A and Champions League coverage, EMG Italia has put in place new studios and facilities – and that is just the tip of the iceberg in what has been a hectic few months, writes Roberto Landini. 

3Zero2TV, Global Production and Netco Sports are continuing the process of internal harmonisation under the EMG Italia umbrella.

Recent enhancements include a central and dynamic booking structure, investments in personnel, consolidation and enhancement of the roles of existing team members, new production areas and cutting-edge technologies, all designed to create an approach that is even more oriented towards the market.

Fabio Guadagnini, CCO at EMG Italia, explains: “It’s been a really intense period because, in addition to our harmonisation process and the activities with the group at European level, already very demanding by themselves, most of the production activities and the related contracts had reached their natural expiration: we enthusiastically faced a renewal cycle that went in parallel with the world of football, Serie A and Serie B in particular.

“We have found ourselves operating on many fronts, with Serie A, Serie B, Lega Pro, Champions League, with Amazon and DAZN, partnerships of which we are proud.”

He continues: “We are active in various sports: cycling, skiing, basketball, volleyball, mountain biking, superbike, so it was really very intense. But we are satisfied and we know that we are only at the start of a journey with our customers who will always have the maximum commitment from us.

“We’ve had excellent results, with a group of great quality, both at the company level as a whole and in the top management, by CEO Claudio Cavallotti, CTO Francesco Donato, CBO Davide Furlan and COO Stefano Nicoletti. A nice mix of experience, modernity and a sense of innovation.”

Football

In addition to all the live graphics for Serie A, dedicated spaces – studios and galleries – have been created for three very important organisations at Italian and international level, Lega Serie A, DAZN and Amazon, enhanced with the latest technologies. These have been integrated into the original spaces of 3Zero2TV in Cologno Monzese.

Serie B matches now utilise a minimum of eight cameras following

Guadagnini continues: “In football, we have just finalised a new studio for DAZN, flanked by two very modern control rooms with HD and 4K HDR technology.

“And, on the subject of partnerships with broadcasters, we must mention the one with Amazon, with Eurosport, in addition to the consolidated relationships with Sky. All this is obviously a source of great satisfaction, for the trust that such important players in sports entertainment are giving us.

“For Amazon, we will produce Champions League matches at the stadium and we have created dedicated spaces within Studio 2 in Cologno, from which all content related to the Champions League will be produced. We shot the European Super Cup as a test, and the first full production was the Europa League Champions League group draw.”

DAZN has become the most important player in Serie A and behind this success, there is a considerable production effort to which we have contributed. Sky continues to maintain its centrality in sport at 360-degrees and we are also happy for the projects underway with Mediaset on the entertainment front.”

New studios finalised

Inside the historic 3Zero2TV headquarters, the new studio dedicated to DAZN offers different shooting sets and various options to make it dynamic and able to interact as needed. It also features two contiguous, high-tech galleries, which are able to operate simultaneously.

All studios, including the Eurosport production spaces, are scalable to operate in 4K UHD HDR, as well as HD.

Still on Serie A, on the league side, EMG Italia is dealing with the 4K production of six clubs: AC Milan, Inter Milan, Atalanta, Empoli, Genoa and Sampdoria. For this, it uses its largest OB trucks derived from the fleet of Global Production, including Nova 103, which was created specifically for European football teams and which will be dedicated to the San Siro stadium.

Also for Serie A, EMG Italia saw the renewal of the agreement for all graphics production, as well as three-year contracts for Inter TV and Milan TV, which amount to a very important presence in Milan.

Serie B

“On Serie B,” Guadagnini says, “agreements have been signed that guarantee all graphics production for another three years, and we take care of all television production in partnership with Sky, which has acquired the rights.

“So, in addition to carrying out all the booking and planning activities, we provide three areas of activity, reporting, administration and production.

“It should be noted that in Serie B the quality standard has been high and has risen to a minimum of eight cameras following Standard A.”

The novelty is that they will no longer be made in a single camera configuration but in bi-tri-camera or penta-camera for Rai Sport, and on at least four games per weekend in tri-camera for Sky.

All the production and the organisational aspects are the prerogatives of EMG Italia which, in partnership with the president of Lega Pro Francesco Ghirelli and the new vice president Marcel Vulpis, is trying to further raise the quality output and bring a greater number of cameras to the championship.

Wider portfolio

In addition to football, EMG’s commitment in Italy continues with the Superbike World Championship and cycling is added with the Mountain Bike World Championships in Val di Sole and the European Road Cycling Championships in Trento.

Guadagnini concludes: “This is an excellent order obtained by working at a European group level with EMG which allowed us to win the production of the European Road Cycling Championships held in Trento.

 “We are exhausted but satisfied, in a period in which we are already in action with the European Volleyball Championships, the ski season will soon begin where – as always – we are very strong with the production of the World Cup races and for the other disciplines.”