Allianz embraces HDCAM and HDCAM SR for production, post production and archiving

Boris Becker has described the Allianz Arena as looking like "a UFO that has landed on the outskirts of Munich". Designed by the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, it has a striking oval façade and it's no wonder that the 69,000 capacity stadium is hosting many of the matches in this year's World football finals, including the opening game on 9 June 2006, when Germany play Costa Rica.

One of Europe's biggest insurance companies, Allianz, has paid for the right to name the stadium the Allianz Arena for the next 30 years. The company has also used Sony HD equipment to make a 50-minute documentary about the stadium's construction.

The public - including many eager football fans, of course - can buy it on DVD from the stadium's shop, but that's not the only outlet for the company's coverage of the site's creation. "We also shot footage for the TV stations," says Allianz head of broadcast production, Bernhard Haerter, "and another part of the content is a very short film - I think it's three minutes - to show while travelling into the arena.

"We filmed the complete construction from the beginning," he adds. That started back in October 2002, while the stadium opened in May 2005.

The build included 120,000m3 of concrete, and 22,000 metric tons of steel. But perhaps its most distinctive feature is its exterior, which is made up of panels that are permanently inflated with dry air, and can be lit with white, red or blue light.

This means that the stadium can change its colour to complement the football strips of Germany's national team, as well as FC Bayern München and TSV 1860 München, who play their home games there.

"The Schlauchboot"

Given its unique architecture, it's not surprising to learn that within a few months of opening, the arena acquired the nickname, "the schlauchboot", which is German for inflatable raft.

It's obviously a major part of Munich's landscape, and Haerter felt that the story of its construction would be best told using HDCAM technology.

"We chose HDCAM partly for the format: 16:9 instead of 4:3. The second reason is the resolution of HDCAM - it's the resolution of the day," he says. "In relation to SD, we know that video is right for computers and the internet, but it's not the right resolution to capture this stadium and the architecture."

As a result, the footage was shot entirely on HDCAM, apart from aerial shots from two mini helicopters. "We had to shoot flights over the stadium," says Haerter, "and that had to be done on 35mm film." The reason was because the HDCAM recorder they had wasn't a suitable size for the mini-helicopters they used. "We had to fly very low over the stadium," adds Haerter.

Archiving with HDCAM SR

The company has also found HD to be an invaluable tool for archiving purposes, and is currently in the process of transferring old footage onto HDCAM SR.

"We have very big archives from around 1940 onwards," says Haerter. "It includes black and white and 35 mm films of constructions of many of our buildings in Germany."

Other old formats being archived include Digital Betacam and video tapes from the Seventies and Eighties. "We're transferring everything on to HDCAM SR, which is the best way for now," he says.

Once again, the appeal of HDCAM SR is the quality of the resolution. "My choice in the resolution world is HDCAM SR and I hope it's a very short time before we buy another HDCAM SR recorder."

HDCAM SR uses a higher particle density tape and is capable of recording in RGB 4:4:4 with a bit rate of 440 and 880 Mbps.

Putting on a show for shareholders

Another main application of HD has been found in Allianz's presentation of its annual shareholders' meeting, as well as other conferences.

"The reason is because we have great shows for shareholders. Actually, we've recently had an extraordinary shareholder's meeting in Düsseldorf. It was held in a very big hall - 116 metres long and 17 metres wide - and we had a very large screen, which was 11 metres wide, with two large beamers," says Haerter.

"We must take into account the cost of everything, including the catering and so on, but the cost difference between SD and HD is not so much for these big meetings," he says.

And it's evident that Allianz is not alone in its endorsement of the technology. Other large companies, such as the car manufacturer BMW, have also embraced the benefits of using HD as an invaluable marketing tool, which allows a company to showcase its good work with the best quality images.