ONE NIGHT IN QUALITY CONTROL - 10/02/2014 As part of its contract with the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP), HBS is among others responsible for the quality control of all Ligue 1, Ligue 2 and Coupe de la Ligue (French League Cup) feeds. But what exactly does quality control entail? The best way to find out was to spend a shift with the people in charge of it.
As detailed in a previous article, the hub for all incoming and outgoing feeds relating to LFP matches (as well as literally hundreds of other programmes) is the SERTE, located in central Paris. This is where quality control is carried out, far away from the stadium's bright lights and roaring crowds, in front of a bank of monitors and computer screens.
Tuesday's Coupe de la Ligue semi-final pitted Nantes against defending Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain, which was the match we sat in on, in company of Thierry May. Thierry has been an HBS staff member for the past four years, most of which he has spent on the LFP project. He, like a few other members of the team, alternates between working at the stadiums as a Media Manager and doing quality control at the SERTE. On Tuesday he was doing the latter.
The most basic aspect of the job, Thierry explained, is to verify that the director and his production team follow the running order. But we also need to check that the various directorial and graphic guidelines are respected, and keep an eye out for any technical or human errors, or any transmission issues.
At its most elemental, the running order for a sporting event indicates what should be on screen when. That description, though, does not do justice to the level of detail the running order goes into. Every element of the match coverage, including pre-match, half-time and full-time is covered; when the running order indicates the weather conditions graphics should be shown after ten minutes, this does not mean any time between nine or eleven minutes. (Allowances are nonetheless made for slight alterations in timing if the action on the pitch is particularly intense.) Even the coin toss is expected to be covered in a specific way.
The goal of having such a detailed running order is to provide a measure of consistency in coverage from one match to another and from one production team to another. The running order was issued by the LFP, with HBS providing input and consultancy.
Inside the SERTE during the Coupe de la Ligue semi-final
Tonight is pretty simple, commented Thierry, since there's only one match. [The second semi-final was held on Wednesday night.] On some Ligue 1 days we have up to ten matches being played simultaneously and everything gets a lot trickier, especially if we encounter any issues. If it's something minor, or something that happened but is already over, we put it in our match report. If it's something ongoing we get in touch with our counterpart at the stadium, the Media Manager, who contacts the appropriate personnel in order to resolve the problem.
There were no such issues on Tuesday - graphics and statistics appeared on schedule, the production team maintained the proper emphasis on live coverage over replays, the VIPs shown in the stands fell into the proper categories ( they come from the world of football, we're not supposed to focus on random celebrities ) and the match came to an orderly end (a 2-1 win for PSG). But the quality control mission doesn't end at the final whistle, it extends to all post-match unilateral interviews as well as the various clips play-outs. The post-match coverage went on for some time, with players shaking hands, exchanging jerseys, etc. Thirty or so minutes later, once the final interview was conducted and the last package was played out, Thierry sat down to take care of the last part of the quality control process: filling in his match report.
After each Coupe de la Ligue round (and every Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 match day), HBS' LFP team sends such a report to the LFP itself and conducts debriefings with the relevant broadcasters (in this case France T l visions) in order to follow up and address any issues, whether isolated or repeated. These reports have been produced for every match day since HBS began its association with the LFP almost six years ago and have proven to be a hugely valuable working tool. The number of avoidable incidents - for instance related to power or telecommunications - has declined from year to year as the various stakeholders (HBS and the LFP, but also broadcasters, producers and directors, clubs and/or stadium staff, etc.) continue to refine and perfect their procedures in order to put on the best show possible. In this case Thierry noted a few minor deviations from the running order ( nothing problematic ) and sent the report on to his colleague who would be working at the SERTE for the following night's remaining semi-final.
It's an interesting and quite satisfying job, Thierry concluded as he packed up his supplies. You get to see the other side of everything you work to achieve at the match itself and, ultimately, you get to see that your colleagues and partners have done a good job.
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ONE NIGHT IN QUALITY CONTROL - 10/02/2014 As part of its contract with the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP), HBS is among others responsible for the quality control of all Ligue 1, Ligue 2 and Coupe de la Ligue (French League Cup) feeds. But what exactly does quality control entail? The best way to find out was to spend a shift with the people in charge of it. 
