Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

FIFA Women's World Cup: Telemundo Deportes Enhances 4K HDR Coverage With 5.1 Audio, Virtual Studio

17/08/2023

FIFA Women's World Cup: Telemundo Deportes Enhances 4K HDR Coverage With 5.1 Audio, Virtual Studio Operation relies on improved connection between facility in Miami and the IBC in Sydney By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor

Thursday, August 17, 2023 - 10:47 am

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

Heading into a tantalizing 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup Final between Spain and England, Telemundo Deportes is nearing the conclusion of a month-long stretch of native-HDR productions from its base in Telemundo Center. Besides deploying 5.1 audio as well as programming with an updated virtual studio, the broadcaster's engineering team has done an impressive job seamlessly connecting their Miami-based facility and their setup in the IBC in Australia.

Our biggest driver was to treat the IBC as an extension of Miami, says Jorge Duarte, senior director, production engineering, Telemundo Deportes. It's a small yet efficient footprint, so we've kept the workflows as straightforward as possible since a 14-hour time difference and being halfway around the world has its own challenges that we've had to overcome.

Football in HDR: Telemundo's First Women's World Cup in Native High Dynamic Range After debuting HDR productions for two opening matches - New Zealand vs. Norway and Australia vs. Ireland - on July 20, Telemundo Deportes has refined its new technological workflow. Prior to the start of the tournament, Duarte and his crew - Senior Engineer, Production Engineering, Rene Rattia; Manager, Production Engineering, Luis Schneider; Architect, Production Engineering, Ricardo Novas; Director, Post-Production Engineering, Joel Rulan; and Senior Network Architect Ramon Munoz - used other international and large-scale competitions to test out this production wrinkle, including the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics and the 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup in Qatar. The team was supported by Director, Control Room Operations, Rey Carrasquillo; Manager, Control Room Operations, George Rodriguez; and Technical Project Manager Odair Auger.

From left: Telemundo Deportes' Rene Rattia, Luis Schneider, Jorge Duarte, and Ricardo Novas produce the FIFA Women's World Cup from Telemundo Center in Miami.

Over the past month, Duarte's staff working in Miami has teamed with SVP, Content Operations, Chris Suarez-Meyers and the crew at the IBC to receive the necessary video feeds from HBS and send out the finished product. This comprises nearly 30 live game feeds as well as various signals captured around the two host nations via LiveU and sent directly to Miami. The game feeds are natively produced in the HLG HDR format and distributed as 4K PQ/HDR. In the control room, the feeds are managed by Technical Directors Red Osejo and Adrian Izquierdo, with the assistance of Manager, Technical Operations, John Moneyhun and Senior Network Operations Coordinator Yerica Areas in the Telemundo Technical Operations Center coordinating all feeds originating in Australia and New Zealand.

Although the Women's World Cup is one of the main priorities, Telemundo Center is always producing other news, sports, and entertainment. Since all other Telemundo programming is sent out in standard 1080i SDR format, one of the biggest challenges has been to retrofit the live-production infrastructure to seamlessly support the two production formats on demand.

Being able to keep our standard 1080i SDR workflows in place when we're not doing Women's World Cup was very important, says Duarte. After working overnight for eight to 10 hours and two games, we needed a reliable method of switching between HDR and SDR productions easily. That meant having the production team do it themselves in 15 minutes rather than four hours.

Nearly 30 live game feeds are sent to Telemundo Center from HBS in Sydney.

This 4K HDR operation is raising the visual quality of Telemundo Deportes' World Cup coverage overall.

We've taken notice that our downconverted 1080i SDR has also looked much better, says Duarte. He credits NBCU Operations and Technology Director, Advanced Content Production, Chris Seeger: We've relied on Chris's expertise in live HDR production workflows to optimize our HDR and SDR production paths and conversions between those formats.

Immersive Audio: 5.1 Brings Sounds of the Game Closer to Viewers It's a treat for supporters at each venue to hear the chants, the sound of the ball being kicked, the roar when a country scores. For fans watching from home, Telemundo Deportes is capturing and reproducing that live in-venue experience with 5.1 immersive sound. This aspect of the production is led by Manager, Audio Operations, Pedro Hernandez and Audio Specialists Manuel Funcia and Luis Diaz. The 5.1 surround sound is mixed at Telemundo Center and sent to all local networks and to Peacock, which is setting daily streaming records with the Women's World Cup.

Telemundo Deportes sibling NBC Sports has supplied 5.1 sound and Dolby Atmos audio to viewers for multiple events. One of the most recent global events under the NBC Sports umbrella, the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, was a master class in audio production. It was so well-received and applauded by the sports-broadcasting industry that the broadcaster brought home the 2023 Sports Emmy for Outstanding Audio/Sound - Live Event. Coming off this win and another successful execution of this strategy, Telemundo Deportes tapped the expertise of NBC Sports Senior Director, Audio Engineering, Karl Malone.

We kicked [this idea] off internally, says Duarte, but, since we're a big company, we try to leverage each other. We leaned on Karl quite a bit. He came down in February (with NBC Sports A1s Mike DiCrescenzo and Rick Bernier) to meet with our audio team.

Most of the games produced by Telemundo Deportes rely on
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2023/08/17/fifa-womens-world-cup-telemundo...
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...

20/08/2026

MS Now to Launch $7.99 DTC Service

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/08/2026

Nielsen Details Improvements to Audience Measurement Capabilities

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/08/2026

Study: 174 Billion Illegal Streams During FIFA World Cup 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/08/2026

Prasad Opens New 8K/4K Film Preservation & Restoration Center

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/08/2026

IPC Expands Brazilian Presence with New Channel Partner C...

IPC Expands Brazilian Presence with New Channel Partner CCATech Industry veterans Carlos Abrah o and Bruno Lopes strengthen local support and expand IPCs prese...

20/08/2026

Zixi Enters Mauritius Market Through Strategic Deployment...

Zixi Enters Mauritius Market Through Strategic Deployment with MTC Jockey Club Worlds Oldest Horse Racing Club in the Southern Hemisphere Selects Zixis Softwar...

20/08/2026

Scripps Research scientist to receive $2.76 million NIAID New Innovators Award

LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research assistant professor Tiantian Liu has received a five-year NIAID DP2 award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Di...

20/08/2026

Audiences reveal appetite for multicultural Australia on-screen

Audiences reveal appetite for multicultural Australia on-screen 20 August 2026 Dr Georgie McClean, Dr Rebecca Huntley (L-R) By Dr Georgie McClean and Dr Rebec...

20/08/2026

How Mavis Studio Is Expanding Live Production Teaching at Sussex

How Mavis Studio Is Expanding Live Production Teaching at Sussex Brie Clayton August 19, 2026 0 Comments Hero image displays a student about to mix be...

20/08/2026

Vertical Unscripted Series Legal Queens Captured with Blackmagic Design

Vertical Unscripted Series Legal Queens Captured with Blackmagic Design Brie Clayton August 19, 2026 0 Comments Reality TV veteran Eric Gardner create...

19/08/2026

Imagine Communications Steve Reynolds on Kaseya Centers Hybrid IP Build and the Growth of ST 2110

As the cost of IP nears price parity with traditional SDI, Reynolds argues that ...

19/08/2026

European Athletics Championships 2026: BBC, Event Organizers Bring Birmingham Action to Viewers in Style

A private 5G bubble was chosen instead of traditional broadcast RF for the race ...

19/08/2026

Filipiana Sets the Class Divide on a Golf Course in the Philippines

(L-R) Rafael Manuel and Isabel Sicat attend the Filipi ana premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre on January 23, 2026, in Park Cit...

19/08/2026

MPG launch Save Our Studios survey

Studio owners invited to have their say on rates cuts The Music Producers Guild (MPG) are inviting UK-based studios to take part in an in-depth survey that ...

19/08/2026

Harrison unveil the Flex-10

Vintage-inspired desktop interface revealed Harrison's latest hardware offering sees them head into the world of audio interfaces, delivering a 10-in/12...

19/08/2026

Minimal Audio release Lucid

Granular effect remains locked to scale and tempo Described as your dream granular effect , Minimal Audio's latest creation is capable of turning any s...

19/08/2026

Audio Modeling open PolySWAM pre-orders

First polyphonic SWAM instrument incoming Audio Modeling's latest physical-modelling orchestral instrument is just around the corner, and is now availab...

19/08/2026

FOX and NBCUniversal Score with FIFA World Cup 2026 Success in Nielsen's June Gauge Reports

World Cup Games Generate 84 Billion Minutes Across FOX, Fox Sports 1 and NBCU...

19/08/2026

The Gauge: Poland | July 2026

July brought typical peak-holiday drops in viewership, driven primarily by viewers stepping away from screens and a visible decline in reach across both traditi...

19/08/2026

Carr Calls ABC Suit 'Meritless

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

19/08/2026

Henry Alexander Joins BCE as Sales Director

Henry joins BCE as the company accelerates its commercial strategy and expands its international presence across the media, broadcast and technology markets. He...

19/08/2026

iWedia Announces Advanced Android DRAM Optimisation Proce...

iWedia, a leading provider of software solutions for connected TV devices, today announced a major milestone in Android platform optimization with the successfu...

19/08/2026

NTP Technology announces ST 2110-30-RAVENNA 128-channel A...

NTP Technology announces that ST 2110-30 audio-over-IP connectivity with AES67 and RAVENNA capabilities is now available for the brand's world-class audio i...

19/08/2026

ORF goes full IP with Net Insight in nationwide network o...

Net Insight has been selected to provide its Nimbra platform by the service provider Big Blue Marble, formerly ORS Group, as the core media transport solution f...

19/08/2026

Coventry City Trophy Parade Extends LiveU LIQ Beyond the...

LiveU has supported Coventry City FC and several other top-flight UK football clubs through one of their most demanding live production challenges of the year, ...

19/08/2026

Nature Seekers Documentary Shot with Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF

Nature Seekers Documentary Shot with Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF Brie Clayton August 18, 2026 0 Comments Filming endangered turtles required camera...

19/08/2026

Neyrinck Brings D-Control Consoles Back to Life on Apple Silicon with D-Control Basic

Neyrinck Brings D-Control Consoles Back to Life on Apple Silicon with D-Control ...

19/08/2026

ABC Files First Amendment Lawsuit Against FCC

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

19/08/2026

Nielsen: Fox and NBCUniversal Score with FIFA World Cup 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

19/08/2026

ESPN Co-Founder Bill Rasmussen Dies At 93

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

19/08/2026

Study: NBA Ad Revenue Hit $2.1 Billion Last Season

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

19/08/2026

Nexstar's WNCN Donates ENG Van for Training

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

19/08/2026

Riedel Brings Professional Live Production Into the Class...

Riedel Communications today announced that Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Perth, Australia, implemented a comprehensive communications infrastructure that brin...

19/08/2026

QuickLink Showcases New 4K Capabilities Across StudioEdge...

QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest contribution solutions, will spotlight a major leap forward in remote guest con...

19/08/2026

EMAM together with PlayBox Neo and SNEWS launch combined...

Integrated platform melds media asset management, playout automation and newsroom workflows EMAM, PlayBox Neo and SNEWS have officially launched Nuvex, a conne...

19/08/2026

Screen Australia releases the Private Investment Toolkit to strengthen screen industry financing pathways

Screen Australia releases the Private Investment Toolkit to strengthen screen in...

19/08/2026

Do Aussies truly value local content? Unpacking Screen Currency 2026 with Deirdre Brennan

Do Aussies truly value local content? Unpacking Screen Currency 2026 with Deirdr...

19/08/2026

U&alibi re-commissions Bookish for Christmas Special and Series 3

There's an early Christmas gift for Bookish fans, as UKTV confirms the re-commission of the hit U&alibi drama, created by and starring Mark Gatiss. Viewers ...

19/08/2026

Sky gives sports fans the chance to watch multiple live sports events simultaneously on the big screen for the first time

Wednesday 19 August 2026 Sky gives sports fans the chance to watch multiple liv...

19/08/2026

RT TO AIR HISTORIC KATIE TAYLOR FIGHT IN CROKE PARK

On Saturday September 5 Katie Taylor will step into the ring for the fight of her life against Flora Pili in front of 80,000 fans in Croke Park. A legendary fig...

18/08/2026

SportStream 2026 Virtual Event Set for September 15-17

SportStream 2026, a free three-day virtual event, will take place September 15-17. One registration provides access to all three days of live programming and on...

18/08/2026

IBC 2026: BeckTV to Debut BeckFlow Documentation Platform

BeckTV will introduce BeckFlow to the European market at IBC2026, demonstrated on the Providius stand (10.F53). BeckFlow is a web-based schematic documentation...

18/08/2026

IBC 2026: Boland Communications to Introduce ST 2110 Option for 4K Monitors

Boland Communications will introduce a SMPTE ST 2110 input option for its 4K monitors at IBC2026, along with a new 55-inch super-narrow bezel display for video ...

18/08/2026

Seattle Seahawks Integrate Dolby OptiView with Dolby Vision for Fan Streaming

Dolby Laboratories and the Seattle Seahawks have announced a partnership integrating Dolby OptiView into the Seahawks' live streaming coverage, making the S...

18/08/2026

Insights from BMG's Graham Taylor on the Role of a Sports Producer in Live Broadcast Production

For BMG Executive Producer of Sports Production, Graham Taylor, producing live s...

18/08/2026

TMRW Sports Names Rufus Hack as President of Golf

TMRW Sports has appointed Rufus Hack as President of Golf, a newly created role in which he will lead the company's golf businesses including TGL presented ...