Broadcast RF are exclusive RF suppliers to NEP Visions for the Channel 4 horseracing coverage which since the new deal was established in 2013, now includes events such as The Grand National, The Epsom Derby and Royal Ascot. These Crown Jewel' events have been broadcast on the BBC for over 50 years, so all eyes were focussed on Channel 4's inaugural delivery of the recent Grand National at Aintree.
The fundamental requirement of the new Channel 4 setup is to cover the races and provide background stories, which is very similar to that of the BBC, but Channel 4 have expanded the scale of the background stories by sending radio cameras to more diverse locations, stretching the boundaries at Aintree.
The size of the Aintree Racecourse combined with the intention to broaden the amount of background information proved a great challenge for us, with the Grandstands over 1km away from the far side of the course. This combined with the diverse areas mentioned above meant that we have had to engineer a receive antenna infrastructure to cope with this. We made extensive use of fibre optic cables, a new permanent installation supplemented by a temporary rig, to bring the received signals back to a central control point to feed the receiver/decoders for the 13 radio cameras that were provided.
The wireless cameras provided consisted of 2 steadicams, 2 tracking vehicles (equipped with gyro stabilised cameras), 5 roving reporter cameras, 1 Camcat wirecam, 1 helicopter camera and a roving super slow motion camera.
This roving super slow motion camera required a special remote control system to allow the VT (EVS) operator to recall the slow motion recorded packages, over the RF link, that the camera operator had captured. We have developed, in house, a Broadcast RF bespoke remote control system to provide the recall control in addition to the usual camera paint functions.
The use of the various frequency bands available to broadcasters for radio cameras was carefully managed, and because half of 2.5GHz band was recently lost to 4G cellphone operators, we had to use alternative additional frequency bands to provide all the facilities, increasing the complexity and size of the receiver infrastructure even more.
Denise Large, Programme Director, Channel 4 Racing stated:
It was an excellent 3 day meeting at Aintree, where everything worked outstandingly. Technically it was brilliant and was organised with great precision. The wireless cameras went into areas never covered by the BBC, namely the stables. The performance of the tracking cameras, helicopter, hand helds were a credit to Broadcast RF both at the Cheltenham Festival and Aintree. Wonderful guys, thank you very much.
The favourite to win ahead of the race was Seabass, the 2012 winner, but early stages of the race suggested that Teaforthree and Cappa Bleu would battle it out head to head for the victory. It wasn't until the final jump though, that Teaforthree started to fall behind, and Auroras Encore took the lead. The run-in of 494 yards is one of the longest of any steeplechase, and this part of the race was dominated by Auroras Encore, gaining eight lengths, and cruising to victory. Cappa Bleu finished second, and after leading for the majority of the race, Teaforthree finished third.
As expected on the race day, many news crews arrived, deploying their usual wireless camera systems. Thankfully, we predicted that this would happen, and took this into account during the planning stages in order to avoid any interference problems.
Channel 4 announced that the number of viewers for the Grand National this year was in the region of roughly 8.9 million, representing 61% of the UK television at 4.15PM. Overall, judging from social media networks, the audience were more than happy with the Channel 4 coverage this year as were production and all of the technical facilities providers.
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Broadcast RF are exclusive RF suppliers to NEP Visions for the Channel 4 horseracing coverage which since the new deal was established in 2013, now includes events such as The Grand National, The Epsom Derby and Royal Ascot. These Crown Jewel' events have been broadcast on the BBC for over 50 years, so all eyes were focussed on Channel 4's inaugural delivery of the recent Grand National at Aintree.
