European first for DAZN: Cloudbass on delivering the first ever full cinematic live boxing production in Europe for the Joshua v Dubois fight

Working on behalf of DAZN for the Anthony Joshua versus Daniel Dubois match for the IBF world heavyweight title at Wembley Stadium, Cloudbass toed the line with a world first as the entire match was broadcast using cinematic cameras

Technical services provider Cloudbass took on the host broadcast of the Anthony Joshua versus Daniel Dubois match for the IBF world heavyweight title at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 21 September.

Working on behalf of DAZN for the pay-per-view fight, which was won by Dubois in the fifth round after he rocked Joshua repeatedly from the word go, Cloudbass toed the line with a European first as the entire match was broadcast using cinematic cameras.

This broadcast was the biggest use of Sony F5500 cameras in live boxing in Europe since a trial of a single F5500 camera during a fight in 2022, and it is also the first full cinematic production in boxing for the region.

Says Steve Knee, Cloudbass owner and managing director: “The idea is actually doing the whole production to get this cinematic look. I think it’s going to be quite disruptive in terms of the technology that people want to see. People will look at the broadcast and go, “that looks amazing, we want that all the time”. So that’s a shift in technology that will drive consumer engagement.”

Cloudbass provided the host facilities for the fight for DAZN at Wembley Stadium. It also provided presentation coverage for DAZN, and a separate music truck to cover the Liam Gallagher performance before the main fight. Also onsite taking Cloudbass’ feeds was Timeline for Sky Sports, and EMG for TNT Sports.

Cloudbass used the Sony F5500 camera, and the Sony HDC-3500V cinematic cameras to fit the brief for the Anthony Joshua versus Daniel Dubois fight at Wembley

Cinematic ambitions

A major contributor to the event costs was Turki Al-Sheikh, the chair of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority which staged the fight, who requested that DAZN capture the fight with a cinematic look in UHD HDR. To fulfil that request, Cloudbass used the Sony F5500 camera, and the Sony HDC-3500V cinematic cameras to fit the brief.

The Sony HDC-F5500 Super 35mm 4K CMOS camera system launched in December 2021. Building on the success of Sony’s popular HDC-5500, the HDC-F5500’s Super 35mm 4K CMOS sensor delivers more clarity, realism and shallow depth of field with every scene, from wide beauty shots to tight close ups.

It was used by BT Sport with technical services provider EMG on 23 April 2022 at Wembley Stadium for the Tyson Fury versus Dillian Whyte fight. The camera was then used as Camera One out of a further 25 Sony HDC cameras. However last weekend eight HDC-F5500’s were used, marking the biggest use of the F5500 camera in a live boxing broadcast in Europe.

Michael Beaumont, technical director of Cloudbass, says: “This was trialled on the Fury fight three years ago, but we’re the first on boxing going full live with it. We used the F5500 cinematic camera, and then also the 3500V to give that variable ND for the shallow depth of field, to get a nice cinematic look, but also allow us to use the 4 x superslow function for replays.”

Additionally, seven Sony HDC-3500V cameras – first announced at NAB 2023 – were used, which have a built-in optical variable ND filter that allows the user to adjust the brightness of an image without changing the iris value. This gives the user more control over the camera’s depth of field and allows for smooth exposure adjustments without affecting the image quality.

Cameras and kit used at Wembley by Cloudbass

HDC-F5500 x 8
HDC-3500V x 7
RF Cameras x 2
Sony FR7 PTZ for the overhead truss shot
Plus a whole host of wirecams, Batcams and minicams
EVS Via servers for replay x 7

Adds Beaumont: “We used 18 cameras for the fight truck, five cameras for the presentation truck, and another nine cameras for the music truck giving us a total of 32 cameras. The F5500 camera was used for all the main camera shots, including three in the studio for that cinematic look.

“At Wembley the Camera One and Camera Two were a very long way from the ring, so we chose the Fuji HZK Duvo 25-1000m Lens, which is the largest box-type zoom lens available for the super 35mm sensor of the F5500. This worked well and gave stunning images especially over such a long distance.
“We also used a F5500 on the jib, and on the Steadicam for the walk-ons using a Fuji HZK DUVO 14-100mm Lens, which gave a stunning shallow depth of field for the walk-on shots. The 3500V cameras were used mostly on the ringside cameras where we also needed superslow capabilities,” continues Beaumont.

The TV compound at Wembley for the Anthony Joshua versus Daniel Dubois match was tight, with Cloudbass, EMG and Timeline TV all taking up space

Toeing the line

One stumbling block that the Cloudbass team faced was the lenses required for the cinematic cameras, which posed a challenge for the camera operators. Beaumont explains: “Picking the lenses for the F5500 was a challenge because they use different types of lenses to what we’re used to, working in live sport. They have much more cinematic focus ranges, and not such large zoom lengths.

“To get the shallow depth of field did add a challenge for our camera operators with focus, but they quickly got the hang of it as they’re professionals, and the end result was pretty amazing actually,” continues Beaumont.

Knee adds an additional challenge in tandem with the cinematic cameras was the need to provide the feeds in UHD HDR. “It’s not just the cinematic, it’s the UHD, it’s the HDR. It’s bringing it all together in one thing.”

Knee says a further challenge on the weekend was that Wembley was jampacked, both of spectators and broadcasters. He elaborates: “We had three trucks there plus tenders and what have you, so the compound at Wembley was a tight squeeze.

“The rigs are always a challenge in boxing because you don’t want to obstruct any views, and set up is tight,” he goes on. “Always the challenge on boxing is when the ring goes in and when the truss goes up and what have you. With doing things that are new, we want to get it in, we want to look at it, and people want to rehearse. So that’s a challenge. The schedule’s a challenge because of all these different stakeholders, the conversion of feeds as well; it was massive.”

Beaumont adds: “The complexity of managing the quantity of feeds in the various formats is an added challenge, so there’s a lot of conversion required for that, for which we use the EVS Neuron platform, which we’re big fans of. That’s very high density conversion so that gives us plenty of conversion power to cope.”

Adds Knee: “Michael has been developing the firmware with Axon, and now with EVS, to get all this conversion working, and actually get the LUT’s right to get a consistent look all down the chain in the different formats. By having a product that is quite agnostic in what it can be used for, you can change the firmware and you can do all this processing – so not having to take boxes out and put new boxes in and connect BNC’s – it’s all in an IP domain. That means we can repurpose equipment and use it in different ways, which is really important for converting these signals and getting them out to the different takers.”

Cloudbass rocked the Anthony Joshua versus Daniel Dubois fight at Wembley, which also saw Liam Gallagher perform before the main fight

Top of the game

On site at the weekend was the IP-based EVS Neuron truck OB9, OB8 working on the Liam Gallagher section of the entertainment which also has Neuron, and OB10 as the fight truck, which is a Riedel Mediornet truck, but with EVS Neuron used with SDI firmware for all the format conversion. OB10, OB9 and OB8 use Grass Valley Kahuna multi format switchers.

Comments Knee: “We’ve kind of gone down two paths for our truck routers, so we’ve gone Riedel MediorNet for OB10 and our OB12, which has just recently come on the road, so we’ve got both approaches of IP with OB9 and OB8 using Grass Valley Kahuna; both current leading technologies working together to make this work. ”

Knee adds that the weekend was, “a Bolero fest,” referring to Riedel’s Bolero wireless intercom. He says: “So normally we would normally provide 30-odd-max Boleros, but for this fight it’s at 160. Obviously there’s real challenges in terms of a venue like Wembley and actually how much bandwidth you can have for each Bolero setup. So that’s taking some managing in terms of managing everyone on site.”

Knee adds that Cloudbass was more than up for every trial that this event posed for the host broadcaster: “I think coming off of our production of Glastonbury for the BBC we’re really at the top of our game in terms of these new formats and getting this kind of challenging production right. So it’s another step change in terms of what we’re doing technically to make the coverage look better. ”

Knee concludes: “When we started Cloudbass 25 years ago, being involved in the very biggest events was our long term goal and they don’t come much bigger than a huge pay per view boxing event at Wembley Stadium. The fact that technically we are at the top of the game delivering for multiple broadcasters in the very latest formats fills us with pride. Thank you to all involved – top work!”