Live From Women s World Cup: Fox Sports Gs Big

Vizrt graphics and analysis systems will be used by Fox Sports in their live coverage of the Womens World Cup.

The following is an excerpt of the original article by Sports Video Group.

Every great studio set also needs a great technical facility and team to keep it looking great both on and off air. More than 150 people are involved with the production work, and the set at Jack Poole Plaza is connected to a 7,500-sq.-ft. facility inside the Vancouver Convention Centre, mere steps from the Plaza.

The convention center was home to the 2010 Winter Olympics International Broadcast Center, so it is no stranger to having broadcasters within its walls. But only Fox is calling it home for this event; the World Cup IBC is located next to BC Place Stadium, a little less than 2 km from the Plaza.

The Fox production facility space features floor-to-ceiling glass walls looking out over the harbor and also was a completely open space because it hadn't been used since the Olympics.

When we moved in on May 1, it had completely bare walls and was just an empty shell, says Callahan. Construction began on May 4, and it was handed over to us on May 21 with VER bringing in equipment on May 22.

The facilities onsite include production offices; a central equipment room with EVS servers and an Nvision router; an audio-playback-control room based on a Calrec audio console; video control to shade the Sony cameras up on the set; a room for rules analyst Dr. Joe Machnik complete with a remotely controlled Sony ENG camera; and a 500-sq.-ft. master-control room.

We started with a blank canvas, Callahan notes. The production team wanted three rows for five people each, and it worked out well. Everyone fits comfortably, and we have had as many as 27 people in the control room.

One challenge in the construction was that, because of fire codes, no temporary ceilings could be installed above the temporary walls because they would be below the fire sprinklers. As a result, piping and drapes were installed to minimize natural light and reduce noise. Also, the facility is operating completely off an uninterruptible 375-kVA power supply from CAT.

The CAT generator is the only part of the Fox Sports production plan at Jack Poole Plaza that involved wheels.

It didn't make sense to operate out of a truck financially, says Callahan, adding, More important, there wasn't a place where we could put a truck.

VER is providing the technical equipment for the production areas as well as the LED wall and tickers on the set. A Green Hippo media server maps images from the control room out to the LED screen and tickers.

It can take multiple images and map them across the screen properly, says Callahan. It's the best system out there right now.

Vizrt graphics gear also has a large presence, being used for lower-third graphics, the two touchscreens, the LED screen and ticker, virtual camera shots, a Viz Libero analysis system, and the Fox Box.

The Jack Poole production facility also handles video captured via AVS wireless RF cameras, which can move around town.

What AVS has done has far surpassed what we requested, says Callahan. In the specification, we wanted to shoot anywhere along the sea wall and then out to the sea planes, but, the other day, they had a shot from 10 blocks away, which was mind-blowing.

Read the full article.

LINK:	http://www.vizrt.com/news/newsgrid/45651/Live_From_Women's_World_C...
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