Peak Performance at the Finals (Part 2)

The position was in use on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday and Sunday, a presenter platform in the Landschaftspark Duisburg was used, which was set up on a terrace in the steel structure of the former foundry hall 2. Here too, four 2-kW fresnel spotlights with daylight and barn doors on rolling stands were ready to illuminate the scene against the sun. The technology here came from ZDF HDSNG 2, which was positioned at ground level in a shelter along with WDR Ü2, equipment van, and other production vehicles.

"The camera and microphone signals were individually transmitted to Cologne and thus the platform was 'remote' connected to the direction in Cologne," explains Clemens Dieckmann. "The color matching and the sound level adjustment happened on site at the SNG. The camera operators and the recording management were directly connected to Control Room B in Cologne via command connections. This had the advantage that the platform could be controlled centrally from there and it was not necessary to send additional direction and vision mixers to the respective presenter venue."

On Saturday morning, the ZDF broadcast day began with bouldering, produced by NDR Ü1 from Hamburg, which was positioned together with the equipment van in a small TV compound next to the hall of the former power plant. Inside, two camera scaffolds were set up. Each had a camera with a Fujinon DigiPower 101 box lens. Below, in front of the wall, two camera operators with wireless cameras were in shoulder operation.

On the over four meters high wall, which partly consisted of overhanging parts, differently sized and artificial boulders were screwed to form a route. The athletes in the men's final climbed without rope and harness to the top. The representation of the overhanging wall parts with the boulders was mostly only recognizable in the lateral shots of the camera operators in the two-dimensional TV image.

Clemens Dieckmann, the technical director of the National Broadcast Center, summarizes the challenges of the planning and the past four production days: "The many broadcasting and return lines to the venues had to be accepted alongside the 'normal' business, synchronized with the in-house clock, and distributed and recorded at WDR. In addition, each venue had to be supplied with communication and internet. It helped that other sports events, such as the Bundesliga, were in the summer break and no other major event was running in parallel. Organizationally, the workflows of ARD and ZDF had to be adapted to each other. For example, a ZDF IT structure had to be connected to WDR and two editorial planning tools had to be provided for the direction. Also, the workflows and templates for editing on the Quantel server platform had to be adapted, as ZDF produces exclusively on Avid. From my side, everything worked as it should."

"The fourth edition of this multi-sport event found a good response on TV and online," concludes ZDF sports director Yorck Polus. "Broadcasting the diversity of summer sports in this attractive mix of sports such as pole vaulting, triathlon, and gymnastics, as well as modern disciplines like BMX, 3x3 basketball, or breaking on ARD and ZDF, gave the viewers an Olympic feeling – one year before the Olympic Games in Paris."

With the TV broadcast of the program and the live streams in the media libraries, where all sports events are still presented in full length, the television audience at ARD and ZDF could sit in the front row and was well informed and entertained with the four-day sports program about the 18 German championships. For this, not only the athletes, but also the TV production staff performed at their best at outdoor temperatures up to 35°C.