It was surprisingly quiet round Emirates Airline Park in Johannesburg when TechCentral arrived 5 hours earlier than kick-off of the Rugby Championship conflict between the Springboks and their outdated rivals, the All Blacks, on 31 August.
We had been there not a lot to observe the conflict between the 2 titans of world rugby – though we did handle to catch the sport – however quite to get an unique behind-the-scenes have a look at what’s concerned in broadcasting a serious worldwide sporting occasion on South African soil.
With a match begin time of 5pm, TechCentral arrived on the 63 000-capacity stadium early to go to to IP1, MultiChoice Group-owned SuperSport’s new flagship exterior broadcast truck – and to interact with individuals who function the technological marvel on wheels on match day.
The truck – SuperSport declined to say how a lot it value, although the determine we heard informally was eyewatering – is able to delivering 4K video feeds of main matches all over the world. The truck, informally (and fondly) nicknamed the Queen by SuperSport staff – is the star within the fleet, kitted out with the very newest in fashionable broadcasting gear.
Your complete truck was designed and constructed to SuperSport engineers’ spec in Germany.
When TechCentral arrived on the stadium, there was already a hive of exercise within the stadium precinct’s south-western nook the place IP1 and an SABC exterior broadcast truck – the general public broadcaster had reached a deal to sublicense the sport from MultiChoice given its historic significance – had been stationed for the match.
On massive match days – just like the Boks vs All Blacks sport – SuperSport has about 100 employees current on the stadium, with one other 30 or so on the studio in Randburg. Smaller matches have about 40 SuperSport employees on the stadium and, if required, round 25 folks in Randburg.
The broadcaster has eight exterior broadcast vans in its fleet, which – relying on the situation of matches – can deal with between 10 and 12 productions per weekend. SuperSport makes use of its exterior broadcast vans for about 680 productions yearly.
Key info in regards to the flagship IP1 exterior broadcast truck embody:
- Timeline to construct was 15 months;
- The system integrator was Broadcast Options of Germany, with the coach construct by Hoffmann Germany;
- It lays the inspiration for 4K/UHD and IP (web protocol)-based workflows at SuperSport;
- It helps native UHD 3 840x 2160p inner workflows;
- It options 24x Sony native UHD cameras – 16x normal body charge, 4x super-slows, 2x ultra-motions and 2x RF UHD cameras;
- 4x robotic cameras, 8x replay servers (wired for 10), 2x audio mixer consoles (launched for a number of language mixing) are additionally a part of the truck’s design;
- Video/audio codecs supported are 4K/UHD and Dolby Atmos/Dolby 5.1
- The truck helps voltage of 240/415V and is fitted with dual-input three-phase 150A Marechal (5-pin) connectors and 8kVA UPS
- About 70sq m of operational workspace;
- About 35t in gross automobile mass;
- 30 workstations for SuperSport employees contained in the automobile; and
- The truck is the primary in Africa (at this magnitude of technical construct) to perform a totally useful IP ST21110 NMOS-capable facility, which boasts an Arista monolithic structure workflow at its coronary heart.
TechCentral was given an in depth tour of IP1 by Palesa Selepe, supervisor of engineering operations (exterior broadcast) at SuperSport. Within the video, Selepe takes viewers by each side of the skin broadcast truck, from audio and video administration to how the broadcaster makes use of a drone on match days.
We additionally witnessed the “go-live” – the beginning of the match day build-up broadcast on SuperSport — and concluded our go to with an interview with SuperSport CEO Rendani Ramovha.
For the file, South Africa beat New Zealand 31-27 in one of many all-time nice encounters between the 2 proud rugby-playing nations. Benefit from the behind-the-scenes look (watch the video above) at what was concerned in bringing the epic conflict to South African audiences and to viewers all over the world. – © 2024 NewsCentral Media
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