At the start of the 2013-14 season Eredivisie launched an ambitious project aimed at improving the quality, consistency and commercial value of television coverage of Dutch football. A central broadcast hub at the Amsterdam headquarters of its chosen production company, Endemol, was constructed to deliver core functions such as on-air graphics operations, content management, storage and logging in conjunction with a play-out centre 17 kilometres away. RCS is responsible for providing a comprehensive match graphics service using custom-built software, flexible data management applications and powerful Vizrt graphics engines. At the heart of the system is a bespoke RCS application with an intuitive, easy-to-use operator interface and automated data-handing developed to meet the client’s demand that the service be operable by staff with no previous television or graphics experience.
In contrast to the simplicity of the application, the service it helps deliver is sophisticated and powerful: each control PC sends commands to two dual-channel Viz engines thereby generating four distinct outputs. The engines, based at the play-out facility in Hilversum, are fed with clean pictures (provided via fibre infrastructure direct from the OB units) and deliver outputs for domestic and international live broadcast, a clock-only edit feed and a dirty feed for archive and repeat use.Meticulously structured control software ensures certain graphics are tailored for specific feeds – a branding watermark is kept off the edit feed to present it intruding on highlights packages and ephemeral graphics such as interactive polls and comments from social media only go to the live domestic feed. The system can easily be expanded to add other outputs – such as multiple language feeds – should the opportunity arise.[/column]
The ‘keying’ of graphics is done within each Viz engine itself and audio – including sound effects attached to the graphics – is embedded on the Viz HD-SDI outputs. The central graphics control hub removes the need for OB graphics operators, associated personnel, hardware and all related logistical costs – and an accelerated training programme ensured Endemol’s novice operators were performing with aplomb with just a few days’ experience. Eredivisie’s broadcast partner, Fox Sports, launched five new sports channels in August 2013 and RCS extended its commitment to include servicing some of the graphics requirements of four new studios. A separate studio infrastructure including a new Viz graphics hub, four dual-channel Viz engines and accompanying Trio workstations was installed to provide graphics on studio programming including live Eredivisie, Premier League, Serie A and other European football, a weekly review and analysis programme and Fox Sport Centraal, a 25-minute newscast shown thrice-nightly every weekday.
As with the core graphics package, the design was supplied by Fox Sports but implemented by RCS’s Viz artists and a package of Trio scenes was provided to mirror the match graphics portfolio. The result of the RCS graphics implementation is that a consistent, cost-efficient and robust look-and-feel is being delivered across all Eredivisie and televised Jupiler League matches. RCS believes the solution developed for Eredivisie will be of interest to other federations and broadcasters looking to generate multiple feeds and make best use of the latest in broadcast graphics innovation while at the same time reducing expenditure on staff and logistics.