July 2014
www.tvbeurope.com
The world’s fi rst 4K live rugby match — a Saracens versus Gloucester game — was captured in UHD 60p and transmitted from London to Amsterdam during the 2013 IBC
TVBEurope 25 4K: Beyond HD
The possibilities available with Camera 3 located pitch-side for the Cup Final
Producer for that fi rst 4K Rugby coverage was Bill Scanlon. He says 4K images gave the viewer much more ‘onscreen real estate’ to entertain them. “What really excites me as a sports producer about 4K is being able to see all the grunts, expressions and emotions on the faces of the players – something you don’t get with HD picture quality.”
Covering football Just as the rugby match was Inglis’ fi rst HD experience, so director Georg Alberts was in a similar position when he covered the two German football matches.
“I have been working as a director since 2000. It has been mostly sports — not only football, but also handball, basketball, hockey and athletics.”
He continues, “Six UHD cameras were used for the football matches, supported by four HD cameras utilising upconverted signals. When it comes to positioning the 4K cameras we found that to achieve the best result you have to avoid fast horizontal movements — otherwise you will see the motion blur. Therefore, it is important to place the cameras
“Ultra High Defi nition is a beautiful format for live sport. It’s the beginning of the creation of a new language of sports production”
on a high position or low behind the goals.”
As a result of analysing the
fi rst match coverage, changes were made when it came to the Berlin fi nal. Alberts placed the main camera – number 1 — on a very high position to get the best overview of the whole pitch without pivoting the camera. “This enabled the TV viewer to enjoy the feeling of being in a most impressive stadium.”
The principle close up camera — number 2 — was positioned at one level below the main camera. Alberts says that this camera was not required to zoom in, but rather use static framing of two or three players. “In addition, we had two cameras low behind goal left and right, so we could cover both sides of the pitch with the players running towards the camera. We found that slight tilt and zoom movements did not affect the 4K quality. The fi fth camera was high behind
goal right, while camera 6 was located high behind the corner on the left side.”
With those positions in mind, how did directing with a relatively small number of cameras compare with ‘traditional’ coverage? “Directing with six cameras does mean that you are not able to resolve every match situation. Because the framing is always very open, it is diffi cult to show close ups of the players and then to cut back to a wide shot for the next match action. And for that reason we up-converted some cameras from the HD production — like the 16m high cameras for offside decisions, and the steadicam for walk in and celebrations after the match.”
Alberts reveals that his directing technique has changed to accommodate 4K. “As I mentioned earlier, you will get the best 4K results by using wide shots. But football is a dynamic and emotional
often not to zoom in. It is a new experience for all of us to be so wide with our shots.”
Bill Scanlon
sport. So you have to fi nd a compromise between the requirements for 4K and a traditional football production.”
He reports that because 4K is still in its infancy, learning to cover events is still very much a hands-on experience. “Not only for me, but also for the cameramen — especially when they are used to the big lenses. You have to remind them very
Transformation It is a new experience, says Scanlon, that is set to transform the world of live sports
production. “UHD is a beautiful format for live sport. It’s progressive, 60fps, you don’t get motion blur and have incredible image detail. It’s the beginning of the creation of a new language of sports production.” www.fujifi
lm.com www.intelsat.com www.newtec.eu www.pro.sony.com www.sky.de
www.sport.bt.com www.telegenic.co.uk
Director Alberts’ choice of lenses for the German Cup Final
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52