The Palio di Siena: EMG Italy in the saddle for historical horserace
The Palio di Siena is much more than a simple horse race. It is a unique event and a celebration of Sienese identity and historical tradition, an occasion for the city’s contrade, or districts, to display their pride and rivalry, and a way to honour the protectors of Siena, the Madonna of Provenzano and Mary of the Assumption.
The Palio is held twice a year, on 2 July (Palio of Provenzano) and 16 August (Palio of the Assumption), in the city’s Piazza del Campo. It is one of the oldest and most famous events in the country, with a history dating back to the Middle Ages. Today, the race consists of three laps around the shell-shaped Piazza del Campo, with 10 contrade of Siena participating, each represented by a jockey and a horse with their own colours, emblem and motto. The event attracts almost 50,000 spectators to the city.
From medieval history to technological innovation
EMG Italy has been covering the live broadcast of the two races for the Consorzio per la Tutela del Palio di Siena, a consortium made up of the 17 contrade of the city that has the task of protecting everything that is part of the historical heritage of the Palio di Siena, for three years. The event is broadcast live on La7, Canale 3 and Siena TV, and streamed live on Gazzetta dello Sport, via website and app. During the days leading up to the race, Siena comes alive with presentation ceremonies, the setting up of the square, and various test runs with the horses.
Anna Pasculli, sales manager of EMG Italy, says: “Given the layout of the city and the narrow streets of the historic centre around Piazza del Campo, we do not operate with a mobile unit on site but with a control room housed in flight cases, set up inside the foyer of the Teatro dei Rinnovati, with double access from Piazza del Campo. The general setup also includes two stand-up positions for the LA7 journalists who, on the edge of the track, traditionally called the ‘career’, comment on the final moments before the race begins.”
The square was recently wired with fibre optics, making setup and dismantling much easier and more efficient. Given the new arrangement, EMG Italy today only needs to make the connections from the TOC, the operational centre of the broadcasts where signals are monitored and distributed, to the control room and from the fibre points to the cameras, then maximising the directorial and spectacular value of the entire event.
Pasculli continues: “With ten cameras, we cover the entire track, including two in special positions: one mounted in the Sala del Mappamondo and a Jimmy Jib on the terrace of Palazzo Sansedoni, headquarters of the Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena. The crew we deployed to enhance this great event made of tradition, technology, and emotion is composed of 20 people.”
Sienese celebration and television excellence
The Municipality of Siena and the Consorzio per la Tutela del Palio collaborated to install fibre optics in Piazza del Campo to simplify any type of production. Following a non-invasive plan, the administration had already installed corrugated pipes for future use near the public lighting power points and the typical video positions for the Palio filming. This allowed, in a subsequent phase completed a few weeks before the 2 July edition, the project to be implemented.
The project involved the installation of 500m of micro cable with 48 single-mode optical fibres, 200m of micro cable with 24 single-mode optical fibres, six extraction and termination sockets with 12 optical fibres each, and the termination of the two cables in Piazza del Mercato. The new infrastructure has restored the aesthetic of the square, eliminating the unsightly cables that until last year were temporarily fixed to the terrace railings for a total length of about 6km. It also made the laying and removal procedures of these same cables obsolete, ensuring greater safety during the setup of any future event.
The Consorzio per la Tutela del Palio
Fulvio Bruni, CEO of the Consorzio per la Tutela del Palio di Siena, states: “The idea of wiring Piazza del Campo had been conceived a long time ago to solve a problem that was raised every year, namely the laying of about 6km of visible cables that connected the control room to the camera positions following the races. Today, the passage through underground ducts has totally solved these problems and brilliantly respected historical, urban planning and aesthetic constraints, integrating useful technology in an important historical context and in complete safety. This has allowed EMG Italy, chosen for the third consecutive time as the TV producer of the Palio di Siena, to arrive on site this year with the equipment only four days before the event and to connect everything very quickly.”
“As a Consorzio,” he continues, “we can boast an excellent collaboration with the television production structure of EMG Italy. Thanks to their competence and knowledge of our sometimes-stringent needs, we manage to improve the overall result of the product every year. We are very satisfied not only as a Consorzio but also as citizens because the Sienese see the images of the city, as well as the Palio itself, enhanced to the best possible extent.”