TV Skyline is on site in Toruń, Poland, in a big way for this weekend’s World Athletics Indoor Championships. As service provider to host broadcast partners Tata Communications and HBS, the company has a team of 25 on site at the Kujawsko-Pomorska Arena operating four galleries and producing around 12 hours of content per day from two main trucks.
“The first gallery is for the integrated feed, including the track feed, then we have a gallery for horizontal jumps, one for high jumps, and the fourth gallery is for shot put and pole vault. It’s basically one gallery for two competitions,” explains TV Skyline’s René Meixelsberger.
Each gallery has its own team, meaning four directors, four TDs and four audio engineers. For the audio element of the production, this created a challenge.
“The four galleries are in two trucks, and therefore we only have two audio consoles permanently installed in the trucks, but each audio engineer requested their own audio desk. To achieve this, we have set up two additional desks in the trucks and this was, audio-wise, the main challenge,” he explains.
The microphone set-up also provided a challenge, but for aesthetic rather than technical reasons. In total there are 64 non-camera mounted mics in the arena, something that required an extensive amount of cabling.
“HBS mentioned in the run up to the event that they wanted to have a clean look in the arena, so we’ve worked to make sure everything is covered,” he adds. “We had the camera cables in position perfectly and the LOC-provided carpets, so you can’t see any cable in the infield. I was a bit worried about this, but it was much easier than I thought, and it looks really good.”
The camera set-up added to the cabling complexity. “There are 38 cameras, which is quite a lot in a small venue like this, so the first challenge was getting cables in. We have 10 different camera positions, so that, combined with the number of cameras, led to us bringing around 80 SMPTE drums with us, and almost all of them are in use now. It’s quite something.”
In terms of camera tech, each of the four galleries has a high-speed camera meaning four operators on site. “We just saw some of the high speeds played out for the horizontal jumps and it looks really amazing,” says Meixelsberger. A cine-camera is also in use and, new for this year, is a Hikvision 5G camera, which is being used in the warm-up area to capture footage of athletes preparing for their events.
TV Skyline also has seven RF camera systems in use, which is particularly significant given the limited frequency band available in Poland. “We barely managed to get all seven cameras in the available frequency band,” Meixelsberger says. “Fortunately, no one else required a wireless camera and we noticed early in the planning that this might be a challenge. Luckily it worked out, and the frequency coordination with HBS and the LOC is doing a good job ensuring that these frequencies are all available.”
As there are so many RF cameras in use, TV Skyline’s R10 truck, which is usually a tender truck, is being used as a central base where all the receivers are located. Also on site are OB11 and OB12, with G10 and G2 acting as additional galleries.
Given the global nature of the event, with 670 athletes from 113 countries competing across the three days of the championship, commentary positions are in high demand. There are 21 commentary desks available for rights holders. “We prepared 20 monitors for them, each switchable in real time for all four feeds. Then we have six fully equipped commentary positions with commentary units, three of them are for the HB. The HB commentators are used in the galleries. Each gallery can choose the commentator and use it for the feed, so it changes. We only have one commentator assigned to the track feed, while the other two can switch between the galleries, so depending on that we have to route the right commentator to the right gallery.”
TV Skyline has been working closely with HBS for the past few months, in preparation for this event. “We completed the tender in September/October and had a site visit towards the end of last year, and from that point on, we also had regular meetings to go through all the technical details, together with [HBS’ production partner] NCP,” says Julian Reeh, project manager for TV Skyline.
As with many sports, getting fans closer to the action, whether in the stadium or at home, and providing additional content outside of the main broadcast is a key aim for HBS with this championship, something TV Skyline is also involved with.
“We have a large integration of our EVS’ with HBS’ digital media hub,” continues Meixelsberger. “We have 11 EVS’ here in position for all the cameras, and they have access with four IPDirectors to them all. We have one IPDirector in the venue for event presentation that can access all 11 EVS’ and pick their own highlight clips and show them on the screens in the stadium. We also have quite a large edit infrastructure in place for HBS and they can edit and upload clips for rights holders. It’s quite a large instalment for EVS and content wise.”
The championships come at a busy time for TV Skyline, which is now heavily active in winter sports due to its work with the German Ski Association (DSV), but it’s a project the team relishes. “It’s a very big production for us, but it’s running very smoothly. If there’s any challenge, the solution is never too far away,” concludes Reeh.
