Spin shot: How Infront Productions is producing coverage of the Women’s European Handball Federation Euro 2024

With the help of host broadcast HBS, the EHF js making this Women’s Euro bigger and better than ever before [Source:EHF/kolektiff]

With the help of Infront Productions, which selected Host Broadcast Services (HBS) to run the project, the EHF is making this Women’s Euro bigger and better than ever before. When it comes to planning and strategy, the Women’s EHF Euro will for the second time be as big in terms of production as the Men’s EHF Euro 2024, which took place in January 2024.

Innovations introduced in Germany for the men, such as the change in format from interlaced to progressive (1080p 50), as well as the use of a cine-style camera for the final weekend, are being carried over to the Women’s EHF Euro. Additionally, the final weekend itself will be captured by 21 cameras.

The Women’s EHF Euro 2024 will be produced in progressive this year, as the men’s was in January [Source:EHF/kolektiff]

SVG Europe spoke to Thomas Schöneich, EHF director of media and communications, and Lou Oppenheim, production manager at Infront Productions and the person responsible for the Women’s EHF Euro host broadcast, about how the two weeks of the Women’s Euro were going to be produced.

Comments Schöneich on the move to equalise the men’s and women’s productions in 2022: “We made the deliberate decision that both the men’s Euro and the women’s Euro would be treated equally; we wanted to give it the same exposure. We don’t want to reduce cameras if we’re talking camera planning from one event to the other. Back then when we started, we said that both events should enjoy our defined gold standard of TV production.”

The women’s event will be produced in progressive this year, as the men’s was in January. Comments Oppenheim: “Now more and more broadcasters are using progressive rather than interlaced and because as well on big events we do progressive, we just want the EHF to follow that path because it’s a big production, a lot of cameras and now [produced to a] high standard.”

For the technical side of the production, using progressive has meant a few tweaks have had to be made, says Oppenheim. In Hungary, Infront Productions works with technical services provider Antenna, while in Innsbruck and Vienna in Austria and Basel, Switzerland, it works with Media Luso from Portugal.

She comments on the men’s Euro in January: “Actually in Germany, we had a couple of challenges, just because we needed to adapt all the equipment coming from the broadcasters, even for everything replay related, for example, that all machines have to be able to work with the progressive format, which with some technical providers is not the case with all the machines. So we had to adapt a bit. It all went fine.”

The bandwidth required for the production when using progressive is also increased, she notes: “It just uses more bandwidth and capacity. And all of that has an impact on the organising committee (OC) for internet lines, for example; as soon as you start pushing progressive, it takes much more [capacity], especially if you want the turnaround to be as quick as possible and then it’s money on OC’s and all of that. But in the end it worked all fine and as Thomas said, we want the same thing on the woman’s, and it’s all agreed with the OC and technical providers, so it should be fine and for the best.”

Camera plan for the final of the Women’s EHF Euro 2024 (click on the image to see a larger version)

Cine cam magic

Infront Productions is using the Sony FX6 cine cam for the EHF women’s final. It is being used to capture off-court images, explains Oppenheim. “We are using it before, at halftime, and after [the matches] to provide more beautiful pictures, or cinematic pictures. So it’ll be from players in the dressing room if they allow us to enter with this one, otherwise we’ll be waiting to enter the court, lining up during the anthem, on the bench, and then at the end, some emotions on the court. Just to tell the story a bit more. And our friends from digital have asked us to film the last player of each team when they enter the court, that we follow them from the back; that will be used on different platforms.”

Schöneich explains why the EHF found it necessary to introduce cine cameras. “Obviously it’s always our goal to enhance the viewing experience. I’m not going to say we were late to the party, but obviously back in January, cine style cameras had become much wider used in world feed productions, at least from my point of view. And this is the next step that we wanted to take as well, from a European Handball Federation and innovation point of view. It was an ‘on top’ investment, so to say that we deliberately made [it in addition] to the existing camera plan.

“There’s always financial thoughts that come into these discussions and we looked at the feasibility, of when can we use it?” Schöneich goes on. “The final weekend is kind of a given because it’s obviously the highlight matches of the tournament. In Germany [at the men’s Euros], we had the particular situation that the opening game was a world record-breaking game in terms of audience, because we played in a football stadium in front of 53,000 fans for the first time for handball. So we wanted to have that additional camera to capture the drama and the excitement. And again, as I said, because we really work under the direction to offer the same standard for both the men and the women. Therefore, it was without a question that we would carry this on also for the women’s event.”

Added beauty

On what cinematic cameras will this add to this championship from an editorial and creative perspective, Oppenheim says: “For us it’s different pictures, more cinematic and beautiful. We could do it with another camera, but the quality will be a bit less beautiful. It’s clearly an additional camera because otherwise we wouldn’t have any other camera [doing this job]. So this is really one that we want for that purpose and also to give us more possibilities on creating different packages to offer to broadcasters that they can play and they can put in their show and in their social media. It’s just providing more content.”

Adds Schöneich: “It’s not offering more of the same, but offering more of something specific, peculiar. In an ideal world, obviously outstanding in terms of pictures that we can deliver. And I think it’s always important to say, it’s not just about having it for an additional overall 30 or 40 seconds on the world feed as such, but having that footage available for a variety of post-production purposes. We can offer different or enhanced packages to our broadcast partners, and also because we can use it in our post-production processes, whether it’s just a short 15-second reel for Instagram or actually something broader in terms of mini-documentary.”

The camera is on a gimble as well, notes Oppenheim, which provides added stability for the handheld. She adds: “It provides really stable content and you can come really close to players, to teams, and then you really have faces, emotions, and this is finally what the viewers want to access more and more. This is the type of content we are looking for with that camera. And it’s kind of small, so you are not really entering the privacy of people, but you’re still really around and close, which is really easy to work with.”

HBS is using the Sony FX6 cine cam for the EHF women’s final [Source:EHF/kolektiff]

On the content side, The EHF has partnered with HBS to launch an athlete-led content creation project for the first time. This is aimed at bringing the players to the forefront when it comes to content production, therefore enabling the EHF to offer an additional and unique perspective on this championship.

Comments Schöneich: “This is a different direction that we are taking here. The reason why we’re doing this is we want to bring athletes to the forefront, and obviously they are in places where we cannot go, whether it’s the hotel or whether it’s their room or whether it’s the training centre, so we want to turn those athletes into creators, which offers a very, very unique perspective to this championship. Obviously the key message is that it all needs to happen with a minimum distraction because we all know these players are there to perform, they’re not there to become content creators.

“We’ve partnered with HBS’ digital unit, because they’ve been delivering similar programmes at the Rugby World Cup for women and also the FIFA Women’s World Cup. The athletes provide raw content according to some very basic instructions – do this, do that – then it’s our task to produce the finished product.

“And then this content bridges again to the whole broadcast partner ecosystem. This content produced not only goes onto the federation’s channels, but is also played back to the broadcast partners so that they can enhance their digital coverage and their promotion of the matches. We’ve been reaching out to the broadcast partners [prior to these championships] and we’ve immediately had six or seven coming back to us saying, “oh, that’s great, how can we get this content?” and that it would a be really good to compliment their coverage.”

Broad exposure

Infront, the exclusive media and marketing partner of the European Handball Federation (EHF), has surpassed its marketing expectations for both the Men’s and Women’s EHF Euro’s 2024 by nearly 50%, continuing to drive the sport through its commercial efforts.

Viewers will enjoy broad exposure to the women’s Euro through broadcast agreements covering over 110 territories, up from 80 in 2022. This includes free-to-air coverage across host nations via SRG in Switzerland, ORF in Austria and MTVA in Hungary, as well as significant reach in markets such as Norway, Spain, France, Denmark and many more.

A shift to free-to-air coverage in Norway, via a sublicensing deal from Viaplay to TV2 Norway, will enable broader fan engagement in one of the world’s leading handball nations.

The EHF Women’s Euro 2024 continues until 15 December in Austria, Hungary and Switzerland.