Mediapro will produce the UEFA Champions League final with a large deployment of special cameras

Three mobile units, more than 150 professionals and 42 cameras will allow you to follow every detail of one of the sporting events with the greatest television impact and a potential audience of 400 million viewers.

On behalf of UEFA, Mediapro will produce and distribute once again the host signal of the Champions League final who will face Tottenham and Liverpool on this occasion next Saturday, June 1, at the Metropolitano stadium in Madrid.

A potential audience of 400 million viewers They will be able to follow every last detail of the match thanks to three mobile units, more than 150 professionals y 42 cameras, including 8 Super Slow, 2 Ultra Slow, 2 tracking behind the goals, 2 Ultra Slow Polecams, Aerial Cam, 5 Tactical Replay, 3 Beautys, 2 Net Cameras, 2 amateur cameras, 7 cameras for the arrival of the teams and 5 cameras in the tunnel during the players' departure. State-of-the-art technological devices to guarantee the highest image quality distributed internationally.

The match will take place in 4K and HD quality in simulcast, the second final along with the one in kyiv that is made with simultaneous broadcast in these two image qualities. The match will be carried out by Òscar Lago, one of the most reputable sports directors with the most experience in the competition. Lago was already responsible for the 2010 UEFA Champions League final in Madrid.

Mediapro was also in charge of producing the international signal for the 2010 UFA Champions League final that was held at the Santiago Bernabéu and was contracted by Sport TV for the production and distribution of the host signal for the UEFA Champions Final. League that took place at the Da Luz Stadium in Lisbon in 2014.

Bird's eye view

For this occasion, together with the cameras UHD Sony 4300 of Mediapro's main mobile unit, the group will have a significant number of special cameras, under the technical direction of Diego Miralles, which will allow the spectator to follow what happens on and off the field of play.

All these signals will be mixed in the main mobile unit in one SAM Kahuna Maverick de Grass Valley and a digital console Theirs for audio. Regarding optics, Mediapro will work with the latest in glasses of Fujinon y Canon.

In its efforts to always offer the best plan, in 2008 the group acquired the Portuguese company Omnicam4Sky from which it develops special systems with remote control for cameras that provide movement, emotion and realism to a broadcast of this level.

In just a few years, and thanks to the know-how that Mediapro provides with the production of hundreds of sporting events at the highest level each year, Omnicam4Sky has managed to become a reference in tracking systems, mini pole cameras and suspended cameras.

Precisely, your skycam system It has been a revolution in the market since, thanks to four cable winches, the gyrostabilized camera can move in any direction throughout the entire playing field.

The four motorized winches work together controlling the winding and unwinding of the cables and the coordinated controls drive the system, making it fast and agile, allowing the 4Sky system to fly or hold the camera in the desired position throughout the space within the four points Anchor.

A dedicated processor controls each winch while the motor drive is commanded and controlled by a microcontroller which in turn receives commands from a central control computer. Inside two of these cables are houses a single-mode optical fiber (main and backup) that allows the camera to send a video signal, position, telemetry and at the same time receive parameters such as diaphragm control, movement of the head axes as commanded by the joystick... The control software also allows preprogramming flights and setting Custom reference positions within the flight space to aid navigation and simplify common or repetitive actions.
To use the Omnicam4Sky you only need two professionals. While a specially trained operator flies the system through space with the help of two joysticks, the second operates the camera by framing and focusing to control camera functions such as pan, tilt, zoom, iris and focus.

Along with the camera, which in the case of the Champions final will be a Panasonic AK-UB300, the suspended equipment features a remote head that provides pan, tilt and roll movement and includes all servo remote controls, it also houses fiber optic communication components and local processing boards, sensors to stabilize and control the camera. At the top, there are the batteries (with an autonomy of 4 hours) and the light gyroscopic stabilization mechanics that achieve a more stable movement and a more stable image during movement.

To guarantee the maximum security, especially when the “skycam” flies over the public, the system has two independent operating circuits: primary and secondary. In the event of a primary system failure, the secondary system would take control of the system, stopping all components at the same time automatically in a matter of milliseconds. Furthermore, as the braking force is applied by means of steel springs on the cables, in the event of a power failure, the brakes would be applied automatically without the need for external power.

The AK-UB300 housed in the Omnicam4Sky system is a box camera with 1” sensor with 2/3” mount that offers simultaneous UHD (4x 3G-SDI) and HD (1x 3G-SDI and 1x HD-SDI) outputs, with direct HDR output, whose signals “travel” through the fiber housed inside the steel cables . Another advantage of using this type of camera in suspended systems is its low weight since it barely reaches 1.6 kilos. Furthermore, in the case of the Panasonic camera, its high sensitivity (F11/2000 lx) and low noise (with a signal-to-noise ratio of 60 dB) makes it ideal for flying over a playing field bathed in twilight and the stadium's LED spotlights. In addition, it allows you to automatically correct the image level and color temperature according to the changes that occur.

Mini cameras

Mediapro will count behind each goal with a mini camera with pole and a “railcam” with high speed cameras. In the case of the poles, it is also a proposal resulting from Mediapro's R&D that uses mini cameras Antelope Pico and that allows us to capture slow motions up to 350 fps. in native HD (simultaneously in 1080P50/60). The system that barely measures 176x40x45mm is based on a chip CMOS 2K de 2/3″ and guarantees a high level of detail and unsurpassed sensitivity to light with automatic white balance and flicker correction (in the case of the Wanda Metropolitano, having LED lighting eliminates this annoying effect).

Panasonic has worked closely with Mediapro and the German company Antelope to use its popular control remoto (AK-HRP1005) that facilitates its operation. In addition to replay control, the camera's own CCU records and sends live and replay signals through a fiber system developed together with Panasonic that also provides video return, intercom and control data.

In the changing room tunnels, the production will have the nPanasonic PTZ AW-UE150 glasses, the only PTZ in the world that ofrece 4K 50p HDA. These cameras will also be under the control of the panel AW-RP150. Its joystick allows the user to operate PTZ or focus functions with one hand while accessing monitoring and selecting menu settings from a large LCD touch screen. A joystick-mounted rocker lever controls pan and tilt movements for greater focus and zoom control.

As CCU, the panels AK-HRP1005 from Panasonic that with PoE+ and IP control allows you to economically configure a broadcast camera system.

During the Champions League final, Mediapro will have a helicopter and a good number of beauties that will offer plans from the most interesting perspectives. For these beauties the Panasonic AK-UC4000, whose signals output directly to the camera head in 4K 12G SDI (with the option of HDR).

The popular ones will be used as ultra-high-speed cameras. FT-One de For-A capable of capture between 24 and 860 fps, with a 12-bit CMOS global shutter sensor (4096 x 2304 resolution).

It should be noted, on the other hand, that to link both the signal from the helicopter and the beauties, in this match RD links from the British company will be used. Vislink and from Biscay SVP, integrating 4K encoders from BWS.

Finally, it should be noted that Mediapro has provided a dozen of XT3 servers EVS, plus six servers for high-speed cameras (super slow motion). On this occasion, the director Javier Robledo will be in charge of selecting and mixing the repetitions in a Kahuna before reaching the main table under the direction of Óscar Lago.

Gallery

(click on any photo to start the carousel - move left and right by clicking on the arrow)

Other articles on Antelope, BWS, Canon, EVS, For-A, Fuji, Grass Valley, Theirs, Mediapro, Panasonic, Sony, SVP, Vislink