Clever with cameras: Bringing the drama of the 2026 ISU European Figure Skating Championships to viewers with Sunset Vine By Heather McLean Monday, January 12, 2026 - 16:43
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Taking place in Sheffield, UK from 13 to 18 January, the 2026 ISU European Figure Skating Championships on behalf of British Ice Skating (BIS) is returning to Britain for the first time in over a decade where it is serving as a pivotal moment on the road to Milano Cortina 2026
With the 2026 ISU European Figure Skating Championships on behalf of British Ice Skating (BIS) hitting Sheffield Arena in the UK on 13 January, host broadcaster for BIS, Sunset Vine, is poised for action.
Bringing together Europe's elite figure skaters for four days of world-class competition plus a bonus day showcasing the sport, 160 athletes from 35 countries will take to the ice across four disciplines: men's, women's, pairs, and ice dance.
Delivering that world class coverage for the BIS, capturing both the technical brilliance and the emotion of the sport moments before the spotlight turns to the Winter Olympics in Italy next month, is Sunset Vine.
There is no permanent infrastructure for broadcast purposes at the at the Sheffield Arena, so Sunset Vine is having to squeeze its kit in for the production of the 2026 ISU European Figure Skating Championships on behalf of British Ice Skating (BIS)
Clever with cameras
The biggest challenge for this event is that the stadium is not set up for ice skating coverage.
Speaking to SVG Europe, Mark Dennis, Sunset Vine technical producer for the event, says: The Sheffield Arena is where they film Gladiators not on ice! and on ice it's also the home of the Sheffield Steelers [ice hockey team]. It obviously does host bigger skating events as well, but I guess as we all know, once you put the word European Championships and broadcast onto a venue, size instantly becomes an issue because of our slightly larger footprint and everything that needs to go into the venue, and the number of athletes involved. The venue team have been excellent, British ice skating have been excellent, but we are trying to fit a lot into the venue.
There's no permanent infrastructure in for camera platforms, commentary positions, mixed zones. So we're having to find space and then utilise the spaces we've got and try and turn that into the back of house broadcasting infrastructure we need.
We've had to be very clever with where we put cameras, where we've put commentary. There's a lot of infrastructure to go in, and as always, you don't have an awful lot of time to put it in either due to the venue being busy and budget constraints as well. So we've worked closely with the event organisers and the venue themselves to try and squeeze our footprint in.
Sunset vine has contracted SoundCredit as the dedicated commentary control room provider for the five commentary positions booked by Sunset Vine as the host broadcaster on behalf of Infront, plus the BBC, France TV, Rai and SSG SSR.
Tracy Van Ross, Sunset Vine event production manager, points out another challenge, albeit a positive one: More challenging I suppose is we've had quite a lot of interest from other broadcasters coming to this event; we've got six broadcasters coming along. Obviously they all want facilities, so commentary positions and dedicated mixed zone areas. So again, it's putting that infrastructure in to be able to facilitate all their requests [which is the challenge], and we might have lots of ad hoc requests on the days of the event too. I suppose it all depends who's doing well on the skating and how long everyone stays [in the competition].
Those rights holding broadcasters are the BBC, France TV, Rai Sport from Italy, Eurosport, Yle from Finland and SRG SSR from Switzerland.
Van Ross adds: At the minute people are bringing along ENG cameras for ENG positions. Some of the broadcasters will have presenting teams; instead of using dedicated studio spaces they will present rink-side.
Sunset Vine's kit list for the 2026 ISU European Figure Skating Championships:
Technical services provider Timeline TV with OB7
Cameras - Sony 4300
Lenses - Canon CJ12 / HJ14 / HJ22 / Digisuper 111
VT - EVS XT VIA
Vision Mixer - Sony XVS 8000
Audio Mixer - Calrec Artemis
Commentary Control Supplier - Sound Credit
Commentary Units - Glensound Paradiso
Atmos and emotion
Sunset Vine will produce the world feed using a sophisticated camera plan focused on not only every technical element on the ice, but also the atmosphere and emotion off the ice, from backstage warm ups to score reveals, leader changes, and behind-the-scenes moments that bring the drama of the Championships to life.
Sunset Vine has followed the ISU technical guidelines on expected camera plans, and has enhanced that with the help of director for the Championships, Helen Kutner.
Adds Dennis: Like always, you're always trying to look to improve. Obviously every venue offers different challenges or different opportunities to put some cameras into some unique places. We've also got three cameras that can be quite flexible, so we will put camera cable drops around the venue and move those cameras around accordingly as well, just to try and turn an 11 camera OB into a 15 camera OB, because you move them around and offer up different shots. So I think flexibility is the key.
Obviously you have to offer core coverage that the traditionalists expect to see, but we're always looking to try and offer unique angles and try and find a new way to cover sports, but whilst keeping the core sport coverage as you would expect to see.
Inside Timeline TV's OB7 during set up at the Sheffield Arena for the 2026 ISU European Figure Skating Championships
Behind the scenes
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