Limitless innovation powers Premiership Women’s Rugby for new season
Limitless Broadcast has kicked off the new Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) season with production company Buzz 16, showcasing a raft of innovations that elevate the coverage to new heights and supporting the new PWR vision to highlight how their athletes are ‘powered differently’.
Building on the success of last season, Limitless manages the delivery of both the PWR multilateral world feed and domestic unilateral feed for TNT Sports remotely from its newly expanded state-of-the-art Remote Production Hub (RPH) in Woking, utilising two large Production Control Rooms (PCRs) and one Multi-Function Room (MFR) that houses the remote Television Match Official (TMO).
Throughout the 2024/25 season, Limitless and Buzz 16 will deliver weekly multi-camera coverage from major venues across the UK, along with single-camera coverage for every other match. Gloucester’s Kingsholm Stadium was the venue for Round 1’s opening coverage last Sunday, with a thrilling result seeing home-team Gloucester-Hartpury lead away guests Leicester Tigers to a 57-29 win.
The Limitless workflow has been designed to be agile, resilient and efficient, without compromising facilities, yet championing sustainability in featuring a completely generator-free delivery. On-site, only a minimal crew is required, with a small tender and ‘uplink’ connectivity vehicle equipped with two Limitless Connect Modules (LCMs). Each LCM handles up to four cameras, delivering full shading, tallies, return vision and comms, while an additional LCM pair is dedicated to managing the presentation and commentary, supporting the 1+3 presentation position and on-site commentator facilities respectively.
Limitless has also premiered the EVS XtraMotion system for the first time in professional rugby. This innovative AI-powered service enables any and every camera angle to be transformed into super-slow-motion on demand, enabling producers to deliver stunning replays for detailed insight and analysis including RF cameras. Paired alongside two EVS XT-VIA servers and X-File integration, XtraMotion will be a game-changer for replay operators, offering an unprecedented level of detail and flexibility, and delivering fans unique storytelling with emotion like never before.
Also new for this season, Limitless has launched a pioneering new ultra-low latency return vision solution. This technology was developed in-house and provides a near real-time return vision to presentation and commentary monitors on-site with a delay under 100ms glass-to-glass. This eliminates the common round trip loop delays often seen with traditional remote production solutions, and ensures that presenters, commentators and camera operators can see exactly what’s going on without any delays.
Carina Filiali, head of production for Buzz 16, said: “At Buzz 16, we are always looking for ways to push the boundaries of production to bring the viewer closer to the action, and partnering with Limitless Broadcast allows us to do just that. Their innovative approach not only enhances the quality of our coverage but also ensures we can work more sustainably and efficiently. Limitless ultra-low latency monitoring solution has been transformational for our production and presentation teams on site, removing the delays commonly incurred in remote production. And the introduction of exciting new AI-powered tools like EVS XtraMotion has opened new creative possibilities, enabling us to deliver dynamic and engaging content to viewers. It’s an exciting time for both the sports and production industries as we continue to evolve.”
Limitless CTO, Ben Harper, added: “We’re thrilled to deliver the Premiership Women’s Rugby for another season, offering our cutting-edge capabilities and new technology that will elevate the viewing experience and drive increased exposure to the women’s game. Traditional productions rely on one or two slow-motion cameras, forcing producers to compromise on camera angles and restricting choice. With EVS XtraMotion, this is no longer a limitation. Any angle capturing the action can now be played back in stunning 3x, 9x or 27x slow motion, whatever is required to tell the story in the best way. For Limitless to provide this within our approach is a no brainer.”