Archive notice: This article was originally published on August 5, 2009. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Full-service provider Media Broadcast will support ARD as an important service provider in the new Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga season. A corresponding contract has just been signed with WDR, which takes the lead on ARD’s Bundesliga coverage. It provides for the transmission of television pictures and sound from 35 Bundesliga stadiums to the WDR broadcasting centre in Cologne. In total, Media Broadcast will transmit pictures and sound from 178 matches in the 1. Bundesliga and 64 summaries from the 2. Bundesliga for ARD’s Sportschau. Through Media Broadcast’s services, WDR/ARD benefits from technically mature and secure transmission platforms such as Broadcast NGN and SNG technology, each with high redundancy; the platforms’ HD capability; flexible use with regard to the short-term provision of additional bandwidth, including for SNG; and, not least, dedicated contacts during provision periods.
Production of the Bundesliga images is handled by Sportcast, a DFL subsidiary, and takes place entirely in HD. During the first half of the season, ARD’s broadcasts of the first division will initially still be in standard definition (SD); after the winter break, in the second half of the 2009/2010 season, they will be in high definition (HD). With ARD’s launch of HDTV, viewers will thus experience sports reports in high-resolution television. To transmit the picture and sound signals, Media Broadcast routes the HD signals, including several discrete audio signals and return channels, to the broadcasting centre over secure paths. Broadcast NGN is used as the transmission platform.
Media Broadcast handles the transmission of SD signals for live match reports from the 2. Bundesliga via satellite. SNG vehicles are deployed in the respective stadiums to transmit the picture and sound signals. These systems offer redundant transmission chains and deliver the reports to the broadcasting centre in encrypted form. The system also receives a production return feed and delivers it to ARD’s outside broadcast vehicle. The transmissions are monitored throughout the entire transmission period via the additionally available return channel.
