Canada has secured distribution deals with a range of broadcasters around the world, bringing coverage of the Island Games Canadian Premier League 2020 Final between Forge FC and HFX Wanderers to close to 135 million television households in 65 territories. The global exposure is remarkable for a league in only its second season and is a testament to the superb quality of play on the pitch and the world-renowned production values of MEDIAPRO, which will have a crew of 25 professionals onsite at the tournament’s hub in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, to cover the final with 11 cameras, including four super slo-mo cameras. Four broadcasters are airing all 35 games in the 2020 season, led by Fox Sports in the US, which will show a total of 18 matches (37.5 hours of live coverage) on its FS2 linear channel, with the remaining 17 on its dedicated soccer service Fox Soccer Plus (24.5 hours of live coverage). The first match aired on FS2, Pacific FC v York9, earned the highest audience of the day on the channel.

Riedel’s Bolero wireless intercom and Artist digital matrix intercom solutions are providing an extensive communications backbone for the 2020 NBA Bubble in Orlando, Florida. Located within Walt Disney World, the NBA Bubble is a strict isolation zone created to allow the 2019-2020 basketball season to continue while protecting NBA players from COVID-19.   Firehouse Productions deployed the landmark Riedel solution, which enables officials, coaches, and production personnel to communicate safely during NBA games played in the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. 

Gravity Media, the leading global provider of complex live broadcast facilities and production services to content owners, creators and distributors, is delivering a brand new women’s football offering for Atalanta Media. The partnership with Atalanta, the women’s football company devoted to elevating the sport and its players, expands the global audience for the women’s game and brings together the best action from across Europe. Atalanta Media is supported with seed capital and technology resources by Miami-based investment firm 777 Partners and joins their growing portfolio of media and sports entertainment properties.

When it comes to the global distribution of Bundesliga broadcasts, DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga GmbH is breaking the technical mould. For the first time, the live programmes of the International Product Portfolio of the DFL will also be available as streams from the 2020/21 season onwards. Bundesliga’s official technology provider, Amazon Web Services (AWS), is powering the implementation. Additionally, the DFL will provide the media rights holders around the world via satellite and fibre, as in the years before.

Bolero S is a fail-safe intercom system built around Riedel’s Artist communications infrastructure that provides an individualized, voice-activated, Bolero-based wireless device, with remote support delivered by NEP from SFL’s Technical Operation Center in Hegnau, Switzerland. Bolero S pairs industry-leading intercom technology with custom engineering and hands-on support by Riedel-qualified engineers. The result is clear, reliable, and seamless communications that can be applied in any sport and for any crew members, including officiators and coaches.

Euro Media Group, one of Europe’s leading provider of broadcast facilities and services and active in 10 countries, was commissioned by UEFA to supply the host broadcast production of the UEFA Super Cup in Budapest on September 24th with its next generation truck Nova 103. This UHD/HDR truck is one of the brand-new twin trucks Nova 103 & Nova 104 built by Euro Media Group this year. While the truck has been touring a lot around France on major events over the summer for Canal+, the event was the Nova 103 truck’s first venture outside of the French borders.

Belgian media networking and storage company SDNsquare has collaborated with UK-based  CTV Outside Broadcasts (CTV OB), one of the largest and well-respected OB companies in Europe, to entirely upgrade their latest OB Unit to a fully modular ST2110 IP-based infrastructure. The refurbished and IP-based OB12 truck hit the road in September 2020. When CTV OB needed to re-equip two of its trucks to meet the broadcast challenges of the foreseeable future, the company turned to SDNsquare and its unique GRID providing software-based IP network management and enabling a full non-blocking of converged IP networks with guaranteed, predictable and reliable QoS.

Virtual Eye is the sports division of New Zealand-based Animation Research, LTD, which is one of Australasia’s leading 3D computer graphics production houses. For more than 25 years, Emmy® Award-winning Virtual Eye has specialized in 3D TV graphics that revolutionize the way fans watch high-profile sports, and has delivered those experiences on multiple platforms for events such as the Ryder Cup, The The Open Championship (The British Open), the US Open, the America’s Cup, Formula 1, The Olympics, World Rally, Red Bull Freeride Tour, The Ashes, and both the PGA and European golf tours.

Nikon Inc. recently partnered with professional baseball team the Boston Red Sox to install a state-of-the-art Robotic Pod camera system throughout iconic Fenway Park to capture action-packed still images and full HD video. In the era of social distancing and COVID-19 related constraints, the remote system from automated capture experts MRMC, a Nikon group company, is the solution that minimizes risk and offers operators and photographers a safe way to remotely control cameras to capture amazing content -- with the added benefit of more creative options than ever before.

For four-wheel motorsports fans in Malaysia, Malaysian National Independence Day signals the start of the local racing season as drivers rev up their engines to compete in the annual Merdeka Race at the Sepang International Circuit. Though circumstances prevented spectators from cheering on their favorite drivers in the stands this past August, the event organizers developed a plan to ensure no one would miss out on the high-stakes action. Enlisting the help of TWMR Productions and Blonde Robot, they produced and delivered comprehensive coverage of the two-day event via local satellite TV channel Astro Arena, as well as a Facebook Live stream, which was powered by an AJA HELO H.264 streaming, encoding and recording device. The event drew in more than 100,000 viewers.

North America’s National Hockey League (NHL) spectacularly returned to play – without live audiences but with massive enthusiasm, determination and impressive TV and online followings – for the 2020 Stanley Cup playoff series which had been suspended in April during the Coronavirus pandemic. Lighting equipment was supplied by Solotech and included over 200 Robe moving lights – a mix of Pointes, Spiiders and Tarrantulas used by lighting designer Tom Kenny.

multiCAM systems is helping France Télévisions deliver high-quality video coverage of the 2020 French Open, taking place at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, Sept. 27–Oct. 11.
Originally slated for May 24–June 7, organizers pushed the event back to October due to the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis. Besides being an unusual year for the athletes as well as for the few — distanced — spectators in the crowd, the 124th edition has reserved a host of memorable moments.

In mid-August, Matchroom Boxing and sports streaming service DAZN placed a boxing ring in the middle of the street in downtown Tulsa for a night of fighting action that gave a whole new meaning to street fighting. Omni Lighting in Tulsa was called on to light the event for co-producers Matchroom and DAZN and chose to support the action using an adaptable rig of Elation lights. Holden Productions promoted the event locally.

Thoroughbred Racing Productions (TRP), a leading provider of production services for the Australian thoroughbred horse racing industry, has migrated its communications and signal routing infrastructure to Riedel Communications’ Artist digital matrix intercom, Bolero wireless intercom, and MediorNet real-time network. The centerpiece of the Riedel installation is TRP’s largest OB vehicle, HDOB1, which has undergone a modernization to Bolero from its previous two-way radio intercom system.

Last weekend, the MEDIAPRO Group produced 119 football matches spread over 11 countries around the world, providing logistical coverage and a major technical challenge, being the first and only production company in the world to do so. For this, MEDIAPRO deployed more than 3,500 professionals and 70 Outside Broadcast units, with backing from the technical support of Overon, at football stadiums to broadcast the signals and face the production challenge.