Inside the Production of the 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship

Inside the production of the 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship By George Bevir

Friday, May 26, 2023 - 08:30

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Latvia v Norway at the 2023 World Championship. Credit: IIHF

The 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship features several cutting-edge innovations, including immersive replay technology, new ice rink level microphones, bench cameras and a red line camera to offer an additional perspective plus a 35-camera setup for the Semi-Finals and Medal Games this weekend. Infront Productions' Peer Seitz explains all about the production of the tournament.

The Ice Hockey World Championship reaches its climax this weekend, with semi-finals between Canada v Latvia and USA v Germany on Saturday, ahead of the Gold Medal game on Sunday.

Co-hosted by Finland and Latvia, some 80 broadcasters across 150 territories have been broadcasting the 2023 IIHF WM, which began on Friday 12 May with 16 teams taking part. Infront, the International Ice Hockey Federation's (IIHF) exclusive media and marketing rights partner, has also been tasked with host broadcaster duties for some 45 live TV broadcasters, 30 news and highlights broadcasters, and four radio partners. Fans in territories without a broadcast partner have been able to stream all games live on the IIHF's official YouTube channel.

Infront took over full host broadcast duties in 2018, and since then it has introduced a raft of innovations and new technology to improve coverage of the fast-paced sport.

Hockey is very much a camera 1 sport, says head of Infront Productions Peer Seitz. You cut to the close ups and to the two handheld cameras in the corners when the action is there and when somebody gets checked into the plexiglass, but the percentage of time spent on camera 1 is even higher in hockey than football because of the speed of the game; the time the puck needs to cross the entire ice rink is rather short.

Peer Seitz, Infront Productions

When Infront took over host broadcast duties in 2018 it added two super motion cameras behind the goals, replacing the single speed cameras that were mounted above the plexiglass that surrounds the rink.

We changed them to super motions in order to really be able to see in the replays what happened to the puck, because a lot of time it may have been deflected or there may be a very close save, so the super motions are essential to the live coverage. Infront Productions also switched from 1080i to 1080p to boost the quality of images and future proof the content that was captured.

Camera plans and audio enhancements

With the 16 teams split into two groups, games are being played at the Arena Riga in Latvia and the Nokia Arena in Tampere, which will also host the semi-finals, the bronze medal game and the gold medal game.

In terms of the camera plan, we treat both venues exactly the same, says Seitz. We don't make a distinction between the main and secondary venue, which is only called secondary' because it's active until the quarter-finals. The only changes to the camera plan are some add-ons to the production plan for the semi-finals and the finals.

Each venue has 31 camera signals, ranging from main cameras to super motions, robotics to handhelds and also 4G-enabled cameras for bus arrivals and fan coverage. That coverage will be topped up for the final weekend with five additional cameras, one of which one is an ultra-motion, plus an additional robotic super motion on the centre line just above the plexiglass. In addition, there will be a 2D cable camera system for the final weekend plus two locked off shots of the team benches this year to capture the reactions of players and coaches.

Bartlett TM125 Boundary microphones have also been added to the production setup for this year's Ice Hockey World Championship. The standard is to put lapel mics on the ice rink, but the quality is not great for atmosphere and the sound of the ice, so we have new microphones which we hang on to the plexi around the rink, which really pick up the sound mainly from the ice rink.

They are much better quality and range and our audio guys are super excited about them, says Seitz. At the source, we hope for a much better sound, and I would hope that that translates also to the viewers at home. And we also have the Dolby microphone above camera one, as well as associated mics with the handheld cameras plus more to capture crowd noise.

Signals are exchanged between the two venues (which are some 580km apart) including the dirty and clean version of the world feed plus a couple of isolated feeds, via distribution partner Globecast. They have set up a complete ring infrastructure, so in case of a loss of connectivity from Riga to the distribution hub, all the feeds go via Tampere to another distribution hub. So that's the safety we have two physically independent fibre routes to the distribution hub for Globecast.

Infront is working closely with NEP Sweden, which has recruited most of the production personnel. NEP Sweden knows hockey inside out which is a big help, says Seitz. For most of our other productions, we try to be as local as possible, which provides some obvious benefits in terms of sustainability. We also produce the two tournaments below the top division, and for those we always produce coverage with local providers.

For this tournament, Infront decided not to pursue a remote production model. Seitz explains: Remote production for reoccurring events and venues makes a lot of sense. But we have such a tight schedule that I think in terms of atmosphere and for the sake of our directors and our teams we all benefit from being in the arena rather than working remotely.

That said, there are some elements being produced off site. Each venue has its own ENG team for capturing content for post-produced items, such as lineups where

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