Blackmagic Design supports Sky TV’s 2012 USA Water Polo Junior Olympics broadcast
Sky TV is using a number of Blackmagic Design products for their exclusive live broadcast of the 2012 USA Water Polo Junior Olympics taking place at California’s Stanford University on July 31 and August 5. Blackmagic Design’s ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher, ATEM Television Studio, Intensity Shuttle capture and playback cards, HyperDeck Shuttle field recorder and Battery Converters HDMI to SDI will be used to switch, capture and stream all of the action live for this year’s championship games.
The Gold and Platinum Division Championship games will be aired live from two separate pools in Stanford’s Avery Aquatics Center, where the USA’s national water polo team plays. Spectators will be able to see all the action streamed live on various screens and a jumbotron throughout the Stanford facility, and remote viewers can view the games as they happen via Sky TV’s online portal.
Sky TV will be filming each championship game in its entirety in HD, with each camera equipped with Blackmagic Design Battery Converters and connected to Intensity Shuttles to capture ingested video feeds. An ATEM Television Studio will be used to broadcast and stream the Gold Division games taking place in the smaller of the two pools live to the Internet. Sky TV will also use the ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher to broadcast the Platinum Division games, adding time and player statistics graphics, in addition to picture in picture close ups of fast break action and live shots of the crowd’s reaction. Both ATEM switchers will be used to patch play by play commentary into the broadcast.
Sky TV is recording both games in HD with the HyperDeck Shuttle in order to create Blu-ray and DVD discs. Derek Byrd, Sky TV’s Founder and President, shares his enthusiasm about the upcoming games: “As a 17 year water polo veteran, I could not be more excited about Sky TV’s role as the official webcasting channel for the 2012 USA Water Polo Junior Olympics. We look forward to increasing awareness of the increasingly popular sport, in a way we did not think possible before adding the Blackmagic Design products.”
Byrd continues, “The ATEM Production Switchers provide us with everything we need to create a full on sports broadcast, and the Intensity Shuttles, Battery Converters and HyperDeck Shuttle give us a rugged, compact and portable setup ideal for this type of application. With our Blackmagic workflow, we are confident that the live broadcast will go off without a hitch.”