Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 7, 2010. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
During the 2008 European Football Championship, German football fans were still denied the full visual television experience. Although the public-service broadcasters were already producing HD-capable material here, it was broadcast exclusively in the SD standard. This will now change with the forthcoming Football World Cup in South Africa. Since beginning regular HDTV operation with the Winter Olympics at the start of this year, ARD and ZDF will naturally also broadcast the number-one national sport simultaneously in HD and SD. This is also made possible by the commitment of Cologne-based systems house Wellen+Nöthen, which is assembling decisive components of the tapeless high-definition production and broadcast technology jointly used by ARD and ZDF in South Africa.
Tapeless Editing and Storage
The Cologne systems house is providing the broadcasters with a total of 16 nonlinear Avid Media Composer Nitris DX systems and three Media Composer software workstations for tapeless production. To meet the high storage requirements, Wellen+Nöthen is expanding the Avid Unity ISIS system from ZDF’s Mobile Production Unit (MPE) with 192 TB of Avid storage for the duration of the Football World Cup. This large-format system allows the production area to store and process around 1,300 hours of material in HD quality. A total of 14 Avid AirSpeed platforms, including DNxchange boxes for HD-SDI, handle ingest and playout. Because of the high volume of data transfer between the EVS and Avid systems, three additional Avid Interplay Transfer Engines are being integrated into the IT environment.
Close to the Players and Fans
To record the matches from the stadiums and impressions surrounding the Football World Cup, Wellen+Nöthen is providing ZDF with around 20 HD VTR devices from its rental portfolio, including fully equipped Sony SRW-5800, Sony DVW-M2000P, six PDW-HD1500 with SDI/O board, and ten Panasonic AJ-HD1800 and AJ-SD965 SDI devices.
For conversion of the world-feed signal, the Mainz broadcaster is also relying on the qualities of Wellen+Nöthen’s equipment. For HD format conversion from 1080i/50 to 720p/50, the broadcaster is using three Alchemist Ph.C HD and seven Mach HD systems from Snell. Various routers from Harris also handle signal processing.
Everything in View
Graphics put the finishing touch to every sports broadcast by providing viewers with the necessary overview of the current World Cup standings, team positions, player information or team line-ups. Several Viz Trio systems from Vizrt are therefore available for 3D graphics preparation, complemented by a two-channel Inscriber from Harris as the character generator for on-air design.
Last but not least, Wellen+Nöthen is delivering extensive monitoring, control-room and studio equipment to South Africa. Around 180 monitors and nine multiviewer systems ensure, among other things, that the control room and master control retain an overview at all times and remain close to the action during gripping tackles. For this purpose, 40 20-inch monitors from EIZO, 65 Sony LMD displays from 9 to 24 inches, and 20 32-inch Full HD displays from Panasonic are available. Various Evertz multiviewer systems with around 400 input signals handle the organisational distribution of image signals. In addition, Fig HD colour correctors from TCube ensure uniform colour reproduction across the different display types.
A Riedel Matrix 128×128 with 59 intercom stations, including expansion panels, ensures smooth communication. Vinten Quattro camera pedestals from Wellen+Nöthen’s rental pool are also used in the ZDF World Cup studio.
At the beginning of May, the preconfigured equipment will be shipped by air freight to the Broadcast Center in Johannesburg, installed on site and put into operation in time for kick-off of the opening match between South Africa and Mexico on June 11.
