Each FIFA World Cup™ brings new developments and innova­tions in the broadcast industry, and for Serbia’s public broad­caster RTS the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ will offer the chance to utilise SmartJog technology to aid their transmissions.

As one of the first Media Rights Licensees to arrive at the IBC, TV Azteca were clearly eager to get involved in the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. Picking up the keys to their unit on May 10 – a full 32 days before the tournament kicks off – the Mexican broadcasters have been able to quickly set up their facility and familiarise themselves with the IBC in plenty of time before the action begins.

Danmon Systems Group (DSG) has completed and delivered a pre-built Master Control Room system in flyaway cases for use at the World Cup football series in South Africa which commenced on June 11. The system was designed and produced for TV 2|DANMARK which has undertaken to operate the shared MCR setup on behalf of Scandinavian broadcasters during the tournament.

One of the hardest challenges facing a broadcaster at an event like the FIFA World Cup™ is the organisation and lo­gistics. Fortunately for the members of Japan Consortium-Operations (JC-OPS) all that hard work is done on their behalf. Comprised of one national broadcaster – NHK – and five commercial networks, as well as 76 commercial radio broadcast­ers, JC-OPS purchased the rights for the tournament from FIFA and then distrib­uted them amongst their members.

“We have a very good team, we have very experienced players but in a World Cup you have no margin for error,” says Jose Carlos da Silveira Junior, or ‘Juca’ as he is affectionately known, of the Brazilian national team’s chances at the FIFA World Cup™. The same can be said of the TV Bandeirantes team, given that they will be debuting eye-catching HD coverage of the event for Seleção fans.

Football fans around the world are able to enjoy unsurpassed coverage of the 2010 South African international tournament (June 11 to July 11) thanks to Camera Corps' new Net-Cam. Developed specifically for this event, Net-Cam is a miniature HD camera with a high-quality ultra-wide-angle lens, designed specifically to capture the entire goal-mouth from the rear corner of the net.

Not every MRL has brought a large team to South Africa: for Dutch broadcaster NOS there are under 30 staff on site. That would mean a fast and furious chase around the country for their four ENG crews if they were to get all the footage they needed – thankfully the FIFA Max Server is there to help.

“It’s good to be back!” That is the message from Slovakian broadcast­er STV, who are on site at the FIFA World Cup™ IBC for the first time since 1998. “Since [Slovakia’s] inde­pendence in 1994, STV has broad­cast every FIFA World Cup™, but the last two we did not attend,” explained Team Leader Marcel Merciak. “We are here thanks to the national team, with no qualifi­cation we would have broadcast from a studio.”

“Our slogan for this World Cup is ‘Feel it, it is here!’,” explains Diane Stanton-Lourens, Head of Produc­tion for SABC Sport. It is hard to disagree with this sentiment. SABC will be broadcasting all 64 matches in SD, across three channels, as well as “simulcasting” across 18 radio stations in all eleven of the officially recognised South African languag­es. Diane, working on her sixth FIFA World Cup™, has 22 years of experience in televised sporting events, having worked her way up from her start as a production assistant to her current position.

More than 50 Lawo systems, used by numerous national broadcasters and for the production of international audio feeds, are in use at the World Cup in South Africa. Audio feeds from all the commentators are sent digitally from the stadiums to the International Broadcast Center (IBC) via a Lawo Nova73 HD routing matrix, and are available directly from the IBC or via ISDN for use in home country broadcasts.

The International Broadcast Centre (IBC) is the technical lynchpin of the international match transmissions. In the IBC the signals from all ten World Cup stadiums are received, processed and finally sent off around the world in High Definition quality using glass fibre cable.

Over 25,000 spectators have been treated to a spectacular new event hitting summer’s social calendar. MINT Polo in the Park brought the sport of royals to London’s Hurlingham Park over three days this month, with a new format to the game making for a faster and more exciting experience forTV and event spectators.

“This is the first World Cup that we have been present at in 24 years,” explains Abdelha­kim Djama, News and Sports Programme Coordinator for ENTV Algeria. “As the team here were too young back then to take part, that makes this a first event for most of us!”

Practice makes perfect – certainly for RTV Slovenija, who are broadcasting the FIFA World Cup™ in full HD for the first time after fine-tuning the process at the Beijing Olympic Games and at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. “Beijing was a test event for us in HD and then Vancouver was the first major project where we relayed everything to our viewers in HD – it gave us great experience for this event,” explained Producer Mateja Mir.

Austria’s Hannes Arch qualified fastest for the first-ever Red Bull Air Race in New York on Saturday and collected one championship point that cut Paul Bonhomme‘s lead at the top to just one point before Sunday’s race. Canada's Pete McLeod took a remarkable third place on the turn-filled track on the Hudson River, between the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan skyscrapers. Americans Kirby Chambliss and Michael Goulian were in strong position for Sunday in fourth and fifth place, respectively.