Raising profiles: Sunset Vine delivers comprehensive World Indoor Bowls Championships coverage By Kevin Hilton
Friday, January 24, 2025 - 14:13
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The World Indoor Bowls Championships took place at the Potters Resorts venue in the seaside village of Hopton-on-Sea on England's Norfolk coast (10-26 January 2025). While based on outdoor lawn bowls, which is played and followed mostly by older age groups, the inside version has gained massive popularity among people of all ages and has become a competitive sport with a worldwide following.
As with many other less mainstream sports, indoor bowl's profile has been raised considerably by comprehensive broadcast coverage. As in past years, host coverage for the 2025 World Championships is from BBC Sport, working in conjunction with production company Sunset Vine, with daily live programmes on BBC Two as well as full matches and highlights on BBC iPlayer and Red Button and the World Bowls Tour YouTube channel.
Grant Philips, executive producer for S V, explains that the Red Button option on digital TVs offers additional programming to the main BBC Two afternoon coverage between 1pm and 5.15pm. We're on the Red Button in the mornings from 10:00-11.35am and in the evenings 7.30-9.30pm, he says. It's a compelling game to watch and a compelling one to work on as well. Because of that we've been able to gather a consistent team that enjoys coming back every time.
Among the technology and equipment suppliers working with S V on the championships are OB truck and camera hire company Cloudbass, graphics developer MOOV TV and specialist rental house Rugged Earth, which provided the Piero 3D analysis system. The production scanner is Cloudbass's OB1, a 24-camera, double-expanding vehicle featuring a Sony MVS 7000X 80-input vision miser, Calrec Audio Alpha mixing console and an Evertz 1080i/50 576 576 hybrid embedding router.
The playing area, or rink', being used is a long rectangle bounded by a gully known as the ditch, with the audience behind that on all sides. Bowlers toss a coin to decide who plays first, with the resultant lead player rolling a small target ball, the jack, from one end of the rink towards the other. Each player then takes turns to send their bowls down the rink with the intention of landing as close to the jack as possible or bowling faster and harder to knock a competitor's bowl out of the way. When all bowls have been played the competitors switch ends and start again.
The rink at this year's championships is covered by 11 cameras, with two set-ups for each end. We've got a couple of jibs, which are very important cameras as they provide the overhead shots, comments Philips. That's because it's a portable rink, not a permanent one and it would take a lot more rigging to put up a wire system. But for our purposes the jibs are absolutely perfect. There are also two low end cameras and two high end cameras, mounted on Sheffield plates, along with handhelds around the venue and a couple of mini-cams in the ditch. They're all standard models but have been positioned very carefully to maximise the visual impact of the sport and ensure we can tell the story of the game. Cameras include a mixture of Sony HDC-2500s and HDC-1700s fitted with a variety of lenses, including HJ 14s, HJ 22s, HJ 40s and UJ 90s
Miked up
Indoor bowls has also embraced the trend for bowlers and officials to wear radio microphones, particularly, Philips says, for the pairs competitions. The players are all miked up, but they do have the chance to either leave the mic on or turn it off if that's their choice, he explains. But the effects mics around the rink do pick up a lot of the chatter because the players talk to each other at either end and if they raise their voices we pick that up as well.
Both the commentary position and the main presentation studio are close to the rink but isolated so neither the players nor the spectators can hear what is being said. We've got an enclosed commentary booth and the commentators are behind glass, Philips says. But the great benefit of having them on-site and close to the action is that their expertise can be used within the punditry segments of the show. They can open the coverage with our presenter, Rishi Persad, and then pop up through the day. Having the presentation studio rink-side means it is at the heart of the action and we're rubbing shoulders with the players.
The commentary team for this year is led by former player David Corkill alongside current bowler and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Sian Honnor. Their expertise and knowledge of the sport is augmented by graphical tools, primarily Ross Video's Piero analytical system. This works in conjunction with the jib cameras, which provide overhead shots of the playing area. They can determine which bowls are closest to the jack and the Piero can be used by the experts to anticipate visually where a shot might end up, Philips comments.
The live broadcasts and highlights packages, which are edited on-site, are distributed back to the BBC over satellite uplink as the main connection, with a LiveU IP video over bonded cellular circuit via the BT Tower as backup.
Now nearing its conclusion, the World Indoor Bowls Championship began on 10 January and has already seen Scotland's Julie Forrest beat fellow Scot Beth Riva to win her third women's singles title. The men's singles will round off the competition on Sunday 26 January.
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Raising profiles: Sunset Vine delivers comprehensive World Indoor Bowls Championships coverage By Kevin Hilton 
