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THE FINAL SCORE
One evening, after 2 hours of
trying to solve problems with
our broadcast feed on several
channels, we still had RF issues
that we could not resolve. We
did everything we could. We
recycled the camera system
and RF units in the helicopter,
and at the stadium RF receive
point. We also changed the
RF frequencies, but nothing
could help.
We eventually discovered
that there was a nondescript
white van jamming our radio
signal! South African secret
service agents subsequently
traced this back to a foreign
security agency during the
England vs. USA match.
Such interruptions are
actually very typical at large
international events like this,
and as a supplier, we have to
make sure the broadcaster is
aware of the possibility. For
example, we experienced the
same thing when covering
the sailing competition at the
2004 Olympics in Athens.
Another of the many challenges
we had to meet was dealing with language barriers across all our
production crews, whose members spoke languages including French,
German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. One of our crew members also
only narrowly avoided a highway carjacking.
As we look back at our coverage, we find that solid state hard drive
recorders such as the AJA Ki Pro, which can deal with the high and low frequency
vibration environment of the helicopter, are very advantageous.
The Pro Res 422HQ format allows seamless integration for editing with
Final Cut Pro. It also allows the operator to quickly review footage, as well
as an editor to select clips easily as they ingest in these fast paced, nearlive
edit environments.
With the improvements in footage codecs, and the ability to immediately
edit or ingest, we are also finding that we may require data wranglers
in the near future. This will allow easier immediate access to our footage,
which can often be lost among a very large team in a broadcast production.
It can also give wide access to departments which previously have
not imagined that they could incorporate this into their deliverables.
Speaking of our work on the World Cup, “It’s true,” said Geoffrey Mason,
Head of Production Planning for ESPN. “The aerial coverage is the
best I’ve ever seen — at any event, worldwide.”
As you can imagine, this was quite an exciting experience to coordinate
and manage. Despite the atmospheric, logistical, and linguistic
challenges with such a large scale international event, the coverage was
ultimately a great success.
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The Asset Management and Digital Distribution Issue — Creative COW Magazine
Available Now Online at www.creativecowtraining.net