Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Serie A Takes a Technical Leap Forward With New Production Center in Lissone to Centralize Broadcast Activities

14/09/2021

Serie A takes a technical leap forward with new production centre in Lissone to centralise broadcast activities By Roberto Landini, Italian Correspondent

Tuesday, September 14, 2021 - 08:00

Print This Story

Luisella Fusco, head of media operations and broadcast, Lega Serie A

The new Serie A football season began in Italy in late August accompanied by major changes to the way the TV coverage of matches is produced, including the radical step of cutting out the middlemen in the production chain, a new centralised management of signal transport from the stadiums, improvements in signal quality, and much more.

To find out more, SVG Europe caught up with Luisella Fusco, head of media operations and broadcast, Lega Serie A, for a two-part interview.

What is the latest news on a technical level? There is talk of a great leap forward on several levels.

The process undertaken by the Lega Serie A this year at a technical level is significantly new in the sense that, first of all, it was decided to carry out all the matches in UHD, for the 380-match Championship, more for the Italian Cup, 42 matches, including the Italian Super Cup. The overall total amounts to 422 matches all produced in UHD. The signal is also made available in 1080p, so all productions are made with a progressive signal that is centrally transported from the Serie A League to the new production centre built at the Lissone headquarters, with technical partner EI Towers.

Can we therefore say that the new Lissone production centre will allow Lega Serie A to centralise a whole series of production activities that were previously outsourced?

Yes, absolutely. This season, the League has decided to internalise a whole series of services that were previously based on intermediaries or in any case outsourced with third parties, directly producing, on delegation from the clubs, the stadium matches of 14 teams (six are self-produced).

For the distribution of the signals, both the transport from the stadium and those up to the rightsholders at national, local and international level, are centralised by the League for all matches regardless of the producer.

From April to August we worked day and night to complete the centre, which is expected to officially inaugurate at the beginning of October

In addition to this, the other big news is that all the signals are processed centrally in the Lissone production centre, so they are ingested and, from there, almost all the activities that were previously carried out in situ at the stadium, are carried out remotely.

At the stadium remain the goal line technology (GLT), rendered through Hawk Eye, while the VAR, which was previously managed in the stadium, has now been centralised in Lissone; referees go to the production centre in Lissone and are able to operate the VAR service remotely, without having to physically attend all the stadiums. This makes it possible to avoid sending a special vehicle to each stage that deals with VAR and, by managing everything remotely in a centralised mode, an evident efficiency is obtained above all in the travel costs of the referees.

At the new Serie A MCR in Lissone

How did you organise the new media operations and broadcast spaces in the production centre with technical partner EI Towers, and how long did it take to create it?

First of all we had to structure ourselves internally at Lega Serie A level to complete this new great adventure that serves to manage services and content.

From April to August we worked day and night to complete the centre, which is expected to officially inaugurate at the beginning of October.

We have concentrated the process of placing the referees and their activities and operations in a new building that has two floors: on the ground floor is an area entirely dedicated to the Serie A League, the FIGC/AIA (the area that hosts the referees) with the various VAR rooms.

The VARs of Serie B are on the same floor, ready to pass remotely too. Currently Serie B still operates locally due to the lack of fibre links from around 50% of the stadiums, links which are, of course, indispensable for the centralised and remotely controlled VAR.

The second floor houses all the centralised services previously managed at the stadiums, starting with the graphics, which are partly packaged in the stadium and partly remotely from here.

Graphics are partly packaged in the stadium and partly remotely from Lissone

The same applies to virtualisation graphics for national and international customisation and for the differentiated distribution of signals, including betting streaming, as well as for all post production and centralised distribution of content; there really is a lot of news!

At the time of writing, you have faced the first days of operations from the new centre: how have you found it?

We are overall satisfied with the outcome of the first two days. There have been some flaws that we have already corrected, but overall nothing so impactful, we are really in the bubble with services.

Speaking about COVID, despite some easing, are there still limitations in television production and for the public?

We have not returned to complete normality in the sense that both from a sporting point of view and from that of the activities that usually took place on site at the stadiums, there are still limitations. In fact, from the point of view of the opening of facilities, the public still has limited access and there is a presence of no more than 50% only with a Green Pass.

With regards to the access of spectators to stadiums, typical distances are used.

From a production point of view, there is a precise protocol issued by the CTS [scientific technical committee] and the FIGC [Italian Football Federation] implemented by the Serie A League, so not all editorial activities can be exercised.

In addition, we have n
LINK: https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/luisella-fusco-interview-part...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

12/08/2026

Op-Ed: The Versioning Playbook - How Rights Holders are Getting More From Live Events

Traditional live sports production has focused on creating the best possible pro...

12/08/2026

IBC 2026: FOR-A to Demonstrate Production and Processing Solutions

FOR-A will showcase a range of broadcast and production products at IBC2026 (Stand 2.B53, Amsterdam RAI, September 11-14), including software-based switching, A...

12/08/2026

IBC 2026: AMWA and EBU to Demo NMOS BCP-008 Multi-Vendor IP Status Reporting

The Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and EBU will host live demonstrations of NMOS BCP-008 Minimum Status Reporting at IBC2026 (September 11-14) on th...

12/08/2026

IBC 2026: Dalet Launches Solution Suites for Media Production and Archive Management

Dalet has announced Dalet Solution Suites, a portfolio of cloud-native solutions...

12/08/2026

Net Insight Enables Centralized Remote Production of Blinkfestivalen 2026 for NRK

Net Insight has announced that DMC Production Norway has selected its Open Live ...

12/08/2026

Zixi Appoints Alyson Stewart as Senior Director of Sales

Zixi has appointed Alyson Stewart as Senior Director of Sales. Stewart will be responsible for direct sales and partnerships, with a focus on broadcasters, medi...

12/08/2026

LiveU Powers Host Broadcast Operations at 2026 Glasgow Games

LiveU's LU900Q intelligent production unit was deployed as part of the host broadcast operation for the Games in Glasgow (July 23-August 2, 2026). Host broa...

12/08/2026

Disney+ and ESPN Acquire Multi-Year Formula E Rights Beginning 2026/27 Season

Disney , ESPN, and Formula E have announced a multi-year deal bringing all Formula E races to Disney and ESPN in the U.S. and to Disney in most international...

12/08/2026

PSSI Launches X-LIVE Managed Service for Live Event Transmission

PSSI has launched X-LIVE, a managed service offering dedicated engineering resources and Appear encoding infrastructure for live event signal processing and tra...

12/08/2026

MoonPay X Games League Draws 18.3 Million Viewers in Inaugural Summer Season

The inaugural MoonPay X Games League Summer Season reached 18.3 million unique live viewers across three stops on ABC and ESPN, a 78.5% increase compared to the...

12/08/2026

IBC 2026: BBright Adds RIST Support to IP-Gateway

BBright will showcase an expanded IP-Gateway at IBC2026, adding support for all RIST profiles to its existing support for MPEG Transport Stream over IP with SMP...

12/08/2026

IBC 2026: BBright Adds EBU OGraf Graphics Support to UHD and ST 2110 Playout Platform

BBright will demonstrate EBU OGraf animated graphics support in its software-bas...

12/08/2026

Interra Systems to Showcase QC and Monitoring Solutions at SET Expo 2026

Interra Systems will demonstrate its ORION, BATON, BATON Captions, and VEGA solutions at SET Expo 2026 (August 17-20, Distrito Anhembi, S o Paulo) at partner Li...

12/08/2026

DPA Microphones Appoints Raul Contreras as West Coast Regional Sales Manager

DPA Microphones has appointed Raul Contreras as West Coast Regional Sales Manager. In the role, Contreras will oversee sales and customer relationships througho...

12/08/2026

Save the Date: SVG LIVE! Returns to LA Nov. 10 to Spotlight Sports & Entertainment Production

Live spectacles ranging from the Super Bowl and FIFA World Cup to the Oscars and...

12/08/2026

Love, Separation, and the Cost of Comfort in How to Divorce During the War

Writer-Director Andrius Bla evi ius and crew attend the premiere of How to Divorce During the War at The Ray Theatre on January 26, 2026, in Park City, UT. (P...

12/08/2026

SSL 360 gets a major update

Enhanced DAW & plug-in control for the UC1, UF8 and UF1 The software that powers SSL's range of control surfaces has just received a major update that d...

12/08/2026

Triton Audio launch the Tilt EQ

In-line preamp features one-knob EQ In addition to their range of in-line preamps, Triton Audio recently managed to squeeze a compressor into an enclosure t...

12/08/2026

AudioRoute from Arvital Audio

Captures system audio with or without a DAW Depending on your setup, capturing system audio in a DAW can be a tedious process, so much so that Arvital Audio...

12/08/2026

2026 NATIONAL NAIDOC AWARDS TO BROADCAST ON NITV LIVE AND DIRECT FROM MPARNTWE

2026 NATIONAL NAIDOC AWARDS TO BROADCAST ON NITV LIVE AND DIRECT FROM MPARNTWE 12 August, 2026 Media releases First Nations excellence will be celebrated l...

12/08/2026

More than six million sports fans stay with SBS for Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift

More than six million sports fans stay with SBS for Tour de France and Tour de F...

12/08/2026

Nielsen Introduces Groundbreaking Streaming Ad Measurement in Brazil

Nielsen is cementing Digital Ad Intel as the new go-to currency for digital ad intelligence in Brazil-now with streaming monitoring in the mix. S o Paulo, Augu...

12/08/2026

LPTV Advocates Petition FCC for Voluntary 5G Broadcasts

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/08/2026

Tubi Media Group Inks Content Discovery Deal with Gracenote

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/08/2026

Matrox Video Showcases IP-Based and Software-Defined Tech...

As Matrox Video celebrates 50 years of trusted innovation, the company will showcase its portfolio of interoperable IP technologies and software-defined innovat...

12/08/2026

SMPTE Showcases AI and Open Media Workflows and Industry...

SMPTE, the home of media professionals, technologists and engineers, today announced a program of expert-led sessions, professional workshops and networking eve...

12/08/2026

Berklee Announces Full Details for Inaugural Block Party, a Music Festival Next to Fenway Park

Berklee Announces Full Details for Inaugural Block Party, a Music Festival Next ...

12/08/2026

ACLU Requests ABC Station Probe Documents from FCC

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/08/2026

Roger Keating To Retire from Hearst Television

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/08/2026

Netflix Closes U.S. Upfronts, Nearly Doubles Ad Commitments

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/08/2026

CBS Pittsburgh Debuts New AR/VR News Studio

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/08/2026

Matthews Intros T-Go Extreme Rigging Solutions

Matthews Studio Equipment introduces T-Go Mounting Solutions extreme camera rigging systems, engineered for the most demanding environments in motion picture pr...

12/08/2026

Anton Bauers EDEN Becomes Only Mobile Power Station in it...

Anton/Bauer, a Videndum brand and the industry leader in mobile power solutions for broadcast and cinematic production, announces that the EDEN Mobile Power Sta...

12/08/2026

TAG Video Systems Cuts Hardware Costs for Customers with...

TAG Video Systems, the global leader in software-based IP monitoring and multiviewer solutions, today announced a memory usage optimization that lowers the tota...

12/08/2026

Unified Streaming Launches Trusted Media - C2PA in Dynami...

Unified Streaming announces Trusted Media, a new solution that enables broadcasters, streaming platforms, and premium content owners to attach verifiable authen...

12/08/2026

Tedial Powers the AI-Driven Media Supply Chain at IBC 202...

Combining intelligent automation, composable business services and user-centric experiences The media industry is entering a new phase where AI intelligence is...

12/08/2026

DPA Microphones Appoints Raul Contreras as West Coast Reg...

DPA Microphones welcomes Raul Contreras as its new West Coast Regional Sales Manager. In this role, Contreras will oversee sales and customer relationships thro...

12/08/2026

Weather is Not a Factor for Marshall Electronics New CV57...

Marshall Electronics' first all-weather, all-IP 4K POV camera, the CV574-WP, makes its European debut at IBC 2026 (Stand 10.C11). Built for the elements, th...

12/08/2026

A double off-switch helps cells respond to stress

LA JOLLA, CA-Scientists at Scripps Research have discovered that two seemingly unrelated cellular enzymes become locked together during times of stress, simulta...

12/08/2026

New Bookshop opening in London that offers new identities, not books, with free cover stories for all

NEW BOOKSHOP OPENING IN LONDON THAT OFFERS NEW IDENTITIES, NOT BOOKS, WITH FREE ...

12/08/2026

Live from London, its Saturday night! Saturday Night Live UK returns on 12 September

Brand-new trailer unveiled as Sky announces SNL UK ticket ballot will open on 14...

12/08/2026

Sky Sports agrees deal to show Laver Cup from Londons O2

Wednesday 12 August 2026 Sky Sports agrees deal to show Laver Cup from London's O2 Sky Sports has agreed a deal with Trident8 to show all three days of th...

12/08/2026

Pre-order the new Google Pixel 11 range from today and save up to 937 on Sky Mobile

Wednesday 12 August 2026 Pre-order the new Google Pixel 11 range from today and...

12/08/2026

NVIDIA CEO Tops Glassdoor's 2026 List of Best CEOs

NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang is ranked No. 1 on Glassdoor's Best CEOs list for 2026. In the just-released ranking, recognition is earned directly fr...

11/08/2026

Apple To Bring Friday Night Baseball Live to Apple Immersive on Vision Pro Beginning Aug. 28

Weekly immersive broadcasts will feature 8K 3D video, a 180-degree field of view...

11/08/2026

Looking for a New Cameraperson? ProductionHUB Guide Lays Out Considerations, Pitfalls

By Briana Brady, Social Media Manager, Production Hub Sports content is having ...

11/08/2026

SVG Sit-Down: Backlight CEO Kathleen Barrett on Building Media Infrastructure for a Global, AI-Driven Sports Landscape

She addresses why media organizations need more than asset storage, how sports t...