Sony supplies cameras, IP production systems to TV 2 post-match show

A Monday night post-football sports show broadcast by TV 2 from an Oslo sports bar incorporates IP live production systems and cameras from Sony – a manufacturer which has enjoyed a long and distinguished association with the Norwegian state broadcaster.

Formerly broadcast from an arena setting, the late Monday night show, Match Ball, relocated to O’Leary’s Sportsbar from the 18 March transmission. Produced as a weekly DOB (distant outside broadcast), the show utilises a fiber connection from a TV 2 Oslo control room to the downtown sports bar location.

Sony – one of the key suppliers of the show – has had a long association with TV 2 Sports via the broadcaster’s facilities house, OBTeam. “The Sony HDC [portable camera] became the workhorse in the migration of production to HD, whilst HD3 – the third OB truck to be built in Basingstoke for OBTeam – was built with 3D capabilities and covered the first-ever 3D live football production in Scandinavia. This was an international game, produced in 3D by TV 2,” recalls Michael Sheehan from Sony Business Europe.

For the Monday show, Sony is providing two NXL-IP55 IP live production systems, which it first brought to the attention of TV 2 Norway when the unit was in prototype form. Match Ball, he says, he has brought “this from pilot [stage] to reality with a weekly three-camera production”.

Speaking of which, the cameras are all HDC-P1 full HD units. Remarks Sheehan: “The P1 is the perfect combination [with the NXL-IP55s], with IP connectivity from the RCP via the network. Using [this solution] results in the minimum amount of equipment having to be delivered, rigged, then de-rigged from the bar.”