SVG Europe Women to focus on the ‘new normal’ at LaLiga, Premier League and Royal Ascot during 16 July virtual event
Speakers from MediaPro, Sky Sports News and Telegenic to feature
Some of the members of the SVG Europe Women Advisory Board present at the Winter Networking Event 2020, alongside winner of the SVG Europe Women Achievement Award 2020, Barbara Slater, BBC Sport director [foreground, and left to right: Roisin McKeniry, Timeline TV; Heather McLean, SVG Europe; Anna Lockwood, Telstra; Lise Cosimi, industry consultant; Paula Rigby, Noah Media Group; and Jennifer Angell, industry consultant]
Guest speakers will be sharing their experiences of what it is like to be back to work in sports TV production in the stadiums and race tracks of Europe. The speakers are MediaPro’s Katarzyna Humska, production coordinator, on LaLiga’s return in Spain, Sky Sports News’ production manager, Victoria Rudling, on horse racing at Royal Ascot in the UK, and Telegenic unit manager, Chrissie Collins, on the return of Premier League football for BT Sport, BBC Sport and Amazon.
During the session titled, “Back to work: What the ‘new normal’ is really like in live sports production”, Humska, Rudling and Collins will each discuss in an informal panel what happened to them over lockdown, how they have been bought back to work, the preparations they were involved in as part of the return to sport TV production, and what it is like right now to be working on live sport broadcasts.
Following the panel, there will be a Q&A with questions posted by viewers live during the session.
Networking hangout
Once the formal part of the event is over, all participants will get to experience the first SVG Europe Women ‘hangout’, where all viewer’s cameras will be turned on, allowing them to see each other, use chat tools to connect to each other privately, and also pose questions to the group.
Commented Heather McLean, SVG Europe editor and internal head of SVG Europe Women: “Our speakers are going to provide us with a really great insight into what it has been like in terms of both the preparations for the return of live sport for crew to be able to get back on location, and also what it really feels like working at those events with health and safety rules. I hope this will give you the much-missed and much-needed ability to network and reconnect with friends and colleagues during this time when many of us are still unable to be in the same room together.”
Humska at LaLiga
Humska’s professional career has always been attached to MediaPro and specifically to football. She has been part of some of the company’s major projects including Al Jazeera for BeIN Sports, and producing special coverage for long-term MediaPro client at LaLiga, plus UEFA Champions League matches.
In 2015 she became part of MediaPro’s Nodal Audiovisual Sport team, which is dedicated to LaLiga match production where she supervises the coordination of logistical and technical information both for the Clubs and technical providers. The team coordinates around 1,000 different productions each season. She also coordinates on-site producers around the country.
Humska has been a key part of creating the ‘new normal’ within stadiums in terms of health and safety protocols for LaLiga and MediaPro crew since lockdown restrictions eased in Spain. She also tested and introduced VIZ Arena virtual fans into LaLiga transmissions.
Rudling at Royal Ascot
Rudling has been at Sky for 20 years. She worked her way though from a runner at Sky News to ingest and floor managing. After film school she returned to Sky to join the then-new channel, Sky Sports News, where she worked as a runner before moving out to the field as a sound recordist, then on to being a production manager.
She has travelled the world from Russia to Equatorial Guinea for all major sports both as rights and non-rights holder from golf, football World Cups, to the Olympics and even the Oscars.
During the lockdown, she helped launch the Vmix system that the broadcaster is using for both live and pre-recorded shows, with cricket and golf watch-a-longs as well as a football show. She was also responsible for all feeds and crew at this year’s Royal Ascot for Sky Racing.
Collins at Premier League
Collins has been working at Telegenic for 14 years, and during that time has unit-manged for most sports, including recently the 2018 World Cup, the Euros 2016 France, and the Women’s World Cup 2019.
Collins was working on the Liverpool versus Athletico Madrid game as sporting events began to get cancelled due to the spread of COVID-19. She then went to Cardiff, Wales to start the build for the 6Nations Rugby when one day later decisions were made to cancel the OBs and send personnel home.
She was furloughed until 8 June, when she was bought back to work to help prepare health and safety guidelines for outside broadcasts for BT Sport live Premier League matches. While she had been at home, Telegenic had been working with BT Sport to create the EMG UK ROC; Telegenic, owned by Euro Media Group (EMG), had rapidly created a remote operations centre to allow BT Sport and other broadcasters to produce live sporting events, with minimal staff on location.
Her remit, working alongside fellow EMG company, CTV Outside Broadcast, was to ensure minimal staff were needed on site. She has helped make that happen, as well as plan all the BT Sport and BBC Sport live games and unit manage on the ground within stadiums as these games have been played thick and fast, for BT Sport as well as BBC Sport and Amazon Prime.
The SVG Europe Women virtual ‘hangout’ will again be delivered through Zoom.
Don’t miss out – register for this event here