Small Van, Big Story: Changing the Game in Sports Broadcasting with Obvious C

Small Van, Big Story: Changing the Game in Sports Broadcasting with Obvious C By SVG Staff

Monday, April 28, 2025 - 10:51 am

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Story Highlights

Working with Montreal-based video production company Obvious C is an adventure but one in which its clients always have complete confidence in achieving their goals. As specialists in mobile production and sports broadcasting, Obvious C's area of expertise is adventured-based sports, such as skiing, snowboarding and mountain biking.

Photo credit: Obvious C and Guillaume Milette

Obvious C is the result of two of my biggest passions, adventure and filmmaking, explains Founder and Technology Producer Alexandre Casabon. What started as a hobby creating personal projects gradually evolved into a job in corporate video production, while maintaining the same creative vision. I've always loved pushing the limits of science and technology, and that led me to experiment with live streaming, back when it was still in its early days. Over the years, Obvious C has become known for leveraging technology in creative ways.

Creativity is paramount when executing international broadcasts and live streams for FIS (International Ski and Snowboard Federation) events and World Cups. With clients such as Canada Snowboard and Freestyle Canada, Obvious C produces numerous skiing and snowboarding events, including a NorAm Cup, five World Cups and more during the 2024/2025 winter season.

Photo credit: Obvious C and Guillaume Milette

Outdoor winter events often mean unpredictable weather, long days and constant changes, not to mention the added pressure of seamlessly delivering a live sporting event. However, Obvious C is always up for the challenge thanks to its team's passion for sports and adventure, as well as its customizable and flexible mobile production unit.

At Obvious C, we're changing the game in sports broadcasting by blending innovation, technology, and storytelling into an unmatched viewing experience. Starting from scratch, we reimagined the traditional OB van into a custom-built production vehicle inspired by Van Life principles, says Casabon. Using the latest technology, cinema cameras, and a cutting-edge workflow, our team delivers stunning visuals with a cinematic look, optimized for reliability and ease of use as much as we can. It's an evolving process.

Crew, Van, Technology

Photo credit: Obvious C and Guillaume Milette

According to Casabon, compelling storytelling starts with the crew. First, we're all passionate about sports and adventure, both professionally and in our personal lives. This gives us a deep understanding of the events we cover, allowing us to capture the essence of the moment, he says. We love what we do. It's pure fun. Every project feels like an adventure, and our clients feed off that energy.

Another philosophy Casabon subscribes to is Van Life principles. It's about being able to achieve so many high-quality experiences by keeping everything simple and meaningful. It's optimizing space, objects, clothes, food and travel. It's meeting people and discovering new territories. Bringing everything back to basics while maintaining the end result, he explains.

On the technology side, Casabon maintains simplicity and high quality in his workflows. When it comes to achieving a cinematic look, Obvious C uses digital film cameras as its main cameras, pairing URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2s with Canon Cine-Servo broadcast lenses.

Traditionally, broadcast and cinema cameras have always lived in two different worlds. Broadcast cameras have all the components built in and are easy to focus with their 2/3 sensor. Cinema cameras need to be built from the ground up and give you much better creative flexibility, but you need to take more time configuring them, he said. It took me some time to test cameras to find a happy medium, but in the end, I've found a much better picture quality paired with broadcast features, such as communication, in-camera CCU, and more.

Photo credit: Obvious C and Guillaume Milette

Every client we worked with this winter season was blown away by the image quality, especially the depth of field and color rendition, which stood out from what they were used to seeing, which was a more traditional broadcast look, Casabon adds. Even the live' cameras that we do use, such as Blackmagic Studio and Micro Studio Camera 4K G2s, still have cinematic color science, the same that you would find in a digital film camera.

Obvious C also stands out in the mobile production space because it customizes and integrates new technologies to achieve a level of flexibility that traditional methods either can't match or make prohibitively expensive.

A lot of the gear we use has an open API or an access to CL requests. This gives us flexibility to program our own tools, notes Casabon. Also, one of the biggest surprises this year was how well our gear held up against extreme conditions, such as -30 C temperatures, heavy snowstorms, and strong winds. We are often pushed to our limits and trust that our gear will help us deliver regardless of what's thrown at us.

Thinking Bigger, Helping Smaller

Looking to the future, Obvious C is doubling down on sports productions

Right now, we're building a bigger mobile unit that will be cutting edge but also robust, flexible, and user friendly. We are exploring 2110 IP systems to have the flexibility of networking, a little bit like DANTE has. SRT streaming might also help us get remote camera feeds or easily stream to other equipment, Casabon concludes. Most importantly, we want to help smaller events get the coverage they deserve. A big part of our mission is making high quality broadcasting accessible, using our expertise and technology to keep costs as low as possible for them.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2025/04/28/small-van-big-story-changing-th...
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