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About Sony
FIFA is bringing TV viewers thousands of hours of HD footage from twelve venues this summer’s 2014 FIFA World Cup™ with the help of Sony and key partners including SonoVTS, Presteigne Charter, CTV Outside Broadcast, AMP Visual TV, Outside Broadcast NV, Broadcast RF and Studio Berlin. Discover the planet’s biggest, toughest live production challenge.
Delivering High Definition TV coverage of every minute of every match at this summer’s 2014 FIFA World Cup™ takes some serious planning. And when you’ve got 64 games being played in sweltering heat at twelve venues – separated by thousands of kilometres and two time zones – things get even more interesting.
In Sony’s biggest ever managed services contract, we’re supporting FIFA and Host Broadcast Services (HBS) to provide HD venue facilities and technical operations crews in Brazil for the month-long tournament.
It’s the greatest show on earth, and stakes couldn’t be higher in Brazil this summer. With no re-takes and no second chances, this isn’t the place or time to risk missing a second of the on-pitch action.
Sony Professional’s Head of Live Production Business Development, Mark Grinyer has seen it all when it comes to capturing live pictures under pressure, often in some pretty extreme environments.
“In Brazil we’re using dependable hardware from Sony and third parties,” notes Grinyer, “plus a trusted HD workflow that’s already been proven at dozens of international sporting and other live events. What we are achieving is remarkable for its sheer scale, and the conditions we’re doing it in.”
Powering the enterprise is the largest fleet of Sony products marshalled for a sporting event. Best-of-breed HD products from Sony are combined with hardware elements from other vendors.
Kit list highlights include 288 HD cameras, 38 video switchers and over 800 monitors – all connected by half a million metres of cabling. At each of the 64 matches, a standardised plan includes 31 Sony cameras alongside Ultra Motion and Cablecam cameras, plus roving cameras for interviews.
Deploying such a huge inventory in Brazil is on an appropriately epic scale. HBS Logistics specially chartered a fleet of Boeing 737 cargo planes from carrier GOL to be loaded with 4.5 tonnes of equipment per aircraft. Weighing 200kg each, hundreds of equipment cases are being shuttled to the twelve venues, clocking up over 50,000 air miles in the process.
As the world’s fifth largest country, Brazil’s twelve match venues – in four regional clusters each comprising three venues – are separated by distances measuring hundreds or thousands of kilometres. For HBS Senior Engineering Manager Christian Gobell, transportation logistics are compounded by other challenges at each game.
"This project involved building twelve containerised Equipment Rooms, with nine production rooms attached to each. Alongside the ERC we have 12 sets of Permanent Camera equipment. On top of the permanent equipment, there is also 8 sets of moving equipment and Tech Op’s crews travelling across Brazil based on the match schedule."
Mark Grinyer - Head of Live Production Business Development (4K and 3D Live Sports) Sony Professional
"Our operation has become so big because of multi-feed programming that we can’t do it in one truck”, explains Christian. “We would end up with at least two trucks plus an external replay room.
So instead we decided to think about a fixed installation – more or less an OB van without wheels
In a FIFA World Cup first, fleets of vehicles normally needed to cover such a massive event are replaced by a dozen purpose-built Equipment Room Containers (ERC) with the technical hardware to support live production facilities at each of the match venues
Designed by HBS/Sony/SonoVTS and constructed by Sony/SonoVTS, each 12m container sits on a concrete hard standing where it’s linked to nine temporary cabins serving as production rooms for audio mixing, shading and slo-mo.
Reliability and resilience are designed into technical systems to an almost obsessive degree. Video switchers are powered by no less than six independent supplies, while system controllers and all other key system components are duplicated.
"The FIFA World Cup is the biggest sporting event, and I think the world deserves to get the best programming and the best footage.
Why shouldn’t we challenge ourselves and do something we haven't done before? We’re proud about what we do because this is such a big project.
Empathy and excitement are the basis of delivering the best result. If I wasn’t proud of what I do then I’d be doing something else."
Christian Gobell, HBS Senior Engineering Manager
Designed and refined by HBS, an impressively-scaled HD production plan calls for production staff, technical and support crews totalling well over 280 people during the month-long tournament.
Each match sees team members embedded within the host broadcast facility, from directors through to CCU and audio operators. This includes 22 people in the slow-motion unit and five operators for Infotainment. An additional 30 camera operators include one aboard a helicopter and two using remote controls within the OB facility.
Space limitations inside each production area have led to some elegant engineering solutions that simplify logistics while cutting costs.
Cooler ambient air sucked from outdoors into each ERC dissipates heat produced by 17 equipment racks. Standard air conditioning systems are rented locally at each venue. It’s cheaper and more practical than transporting bulky aircon systems around the world – and it works.
Conventional hardware control surfaces are replaced by virtual, instantly reconfigurable control panels running on low-cost touchscreen tablets.
Directors and production crews can fly in, sit down, touch a screen and instantly start working in an environment that’s identical from venue to venue. Whether you’re by the coast in Rio or deep in the Amazonian rainforest, everything’s exactly where you expect it to be.
4K StoryFor more information on the vast scale of the HD broadcast operation at the 2014 World Cup, including the video production plan, camera positions and key operational roles, download our free 14-page White Paper.
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