Live From FIFA World Cup: Timeline TV on Providing Groundbreaking Joint Facilities for ITV Sport, BBC Sport By Heather McLean, SVG Europe Editor
Thursday, December 15, 2022 - 12:07 pm
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Timeline TV is trailblazing with the provision of joint facilities and services for both ITV Sport and BBC Sport at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, delivering a more sustainable approach to the tournament, as well as providing cost savings for both broadcasters. While BBC Sport and ITV Sport share the rights to the FIFA World Cup in the UK, this is the first time they have also shared the facilities across their IBC and venue facilities, which is causing something of a stir at the IBC in Doha.
This is one of our biggest and most complex projects to date, says Quinn Cowper, Timeline TV's head of engineering. Timeline are providing end to end facilities for both the BBC and ITV Sport, as a joint operation for both broadcasters.
Sustainable goals One of the eight Studio set ups for the World Cup in Qatar, this one at Khalifa International Stadium, showing the BBC set. [Credit: Duncan Bromley]
Speaking to SVG Europe from the Timeline office deep in the IBC in Qatar, Cowper goes into the details behind the relationship between Timeline TV and its joint clients. It's caused a lot of interest here at the IBC because it's unusual that a technical provider delivers facilities for two rival broadcasters at the same time.
Other countries are also now interested because they've seen here that shared facilities work well and deliver significant cost savings.
Sustainability was a key driver for the broadcaster's decision to join forces in Doha. Cowper says: The BBC and ITV Sport were clear in their goal that a shared remote production model was required to reduce travel as much as possible and to minimize freight shipping.
By sharing everything from a core video matrix, UPS system, talkback and venue cameras, we have drastically reduced the equipment the broadcasters are sending out. This not only cuts costs but also significantly reduces the environmental impact overall.
Timeline has sent a team of around 50 people to Qatar to run this complex project, compared to technical teams over three times that for previous tournaments. This delivers a huge benefit for the sustainability goals of both Timeline TV and the two broadcasters it is working for, alongside making the operational logistics much easier for an event where hotels and venue travel are a significant challenge.
Further savings are delivered as the broadcasters are sharing international connectivity back to the UK. As host broadcaster, FIFA has provided the match feeds and multiple angles per match. These feeds only need to be encoded once and sent back to the UK via diverse fibre routes, which then arrive at both Timeline's Ealing Broadcast Centre where ITV Sport has based its operations for the tournament, and Dock10 in Salford where BBC Sport is based.
The operation is based around remote production with the majority of the technical and production staff in the UK. All the sound, replays, post production and graphics are remote, giving the comfort of working in purpose-built facilities as opposed to porta-cabins.
Quinn Cowper, head of engineering, is the lead engineer for Timeline at Qatar 2022.
There's another step to this, which is that each broadcaster has remoted the vision mixer surface back to Qatar from the UK. This enables a small production team to direct the match from Qatar, adds Quinn.
This is a key part of the operation that enables the production teams to still have a presence on site with their presentation teams, which greatly aids communication across the project.
Cowper explains: The main galleries are remoted back to the IBC where production [staff] cut on the vision mixer surface, remotely controlling the vision mixer frames that are based in the UK.
In Ealing ITV Sport has two galleries, and in Salford BBC has one gallery in Dock10 and its second gallery in Timeline TV's UHD2 OB truck parked at the BBC. Each broadcaster has one gallery controlled in the UK and one remotely controlled from Qatar.
Cowper continues: We're using Kahuna vision mixers, with the frames based in the UK but the surfaces are remoted. The team at Grass Valley have developed the system so the control surfaces can cope with the delay response across the continents to get the communication working.
He goes on: It's a very strange feeling because when I worked on the World Cup four years ago, the IBC was absolutely jam-packed with people, but that's not something we see now. It's a much smaller operation at the IBC.
The Timeline TV operational crew at the IBC. From left to right: Roy Harbour, Quinn Cowper, Lee Russell, Matt Carter, Dan Regan, Oli Barman, Dan Storr, Oli Johnston
Complex planning Timeline has provided identical venue kits for each of the eight stadiums in Qatar that were built and tested in the UK before shipping. Quinn notes: Each venue has its own CAR based in a cabin that is centered around a Ross Video Ultrix Matrix and a Riedel Artist1024 Talkback Matrix. We then have equipment racks located in the studio position and at a pitch-side presentation position.
The studio and pitch-side presentation positions are shared by both broadcasters, says Cowper: So if ITV is presenting a live match, they will rig their set in the main studio. The BBC may also be at the same match to produce highlights and would present from the pitch side position. We can provide facilities for both broadcasters at the same time from every venue.
Our EVS cerebrum control system enables the BBC or ITV's MCRs at the IBC to remotely switch cameras from any of these eight venues down circuits to either Salford, where the BBC are based, or to Timelines Ealing Broadcast Centre,
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Live From FIFA World Cup: Timeline TV on Providing Groundbreaking Joint Facilities for ITV Sport, BBC Sport By Heather McLean, SVG Europe Editor 
