Mediapro tackles the new LaLiga season with enhanced camera set ups, workflow innovations and more By Heather McLean, Editor Monday, September 13, 2021 - 15:19
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Mediapro is up and running for the new LaLiga 2021/22 season with added cameras, drones and a lot more
As Lionel Messi unpacks his bags at France's Paris Saint-Germain after leaving his beloved FC Barcelona, the top flight Spanish league is set for something of an open competition for the 2021/22 season. Literally, anything could happen.
Bringing this exciting league to screens of all sizes around the world is Mediapro, the production partner of LaLiga. While LaLiga is set to announce its new season's technical broadcast innovations towards the end of September, Emili Planas Quintana, chief technology officer and operations manager at Mediapro, says: Unfortunately, I cannot yet reveal what innovations we will be introducing for this season as yet. Some of them concern only technological developments and others will be more visible to the viewers.
However, there is still a lot going on for Mediapro in bringing this new season to viewers' screens. Mediapro is the official production partner for LaLiga and as such it produces and distributes the signal of all matches of the competition to broadcasters and rights holders.
It is our responsibility to work hand in hand with LaLiga and national and international broadcasters to guarantee the best quality standards and improve the audio visual experience of LaLiga fans around the world, season on season, says Quintana, speaking to SVG Europe.
Yet it is not set to be all smooth sailing this season, with kick off times creating technical and logistical challenges for Mediapro as the competition tightens up. Quintana says: The simultaneous kick off times in the final weeks of the season pose a technical challenge for us, where we will need to produce more than 57 hours of live match coverage in a single day.
Every season we incorporate new features in production, both in the number of cameras, the type of support and also in the virtual graphics with tracking. For example, in this season we shall be able to see more drones, more cinecam's and new AR graphics
Mediapro produces 2,250 hours of live footage for LaLiga per season, between the LaLiga Santander 380 matches and LaLiga Smartbank matches - 468 games. Quintana adds: In a normal weekend shift we can produce between 27 and 30 hours a day, live.
Drone cameras are an added feature for those exciting shots of the LaLiga action this season
Playing with new kit
This season Mediapro is working with some new kit, explains scar Lago, head of LaLiga Mmtch production at Mediapro: As for the cameras, we have definitively incorporated four film cameras on Steady support each match week, of which two are new this season. We have also incorporated the use of drones in six games per match week (four of them are new this season). To this we can add the use of an aerial camera in the majority of LaLiga matches since we have 16 stadiums with permanent installation of the Omni4Sky aerial camera system, and two of these cameras are new in two stadiums this season.
Mediapro runs three types of different camera configurations for its production of LaLiga matches. Type C has 18 cameras, type B has 20, and type A has 24. However, for some special matches, such as El Cl sico or the Madrid Derby, this number increases to 34 cameras.
We've just finished a season in which we had to innovate, adding a different virtual audio in each LaLiga stadium, with realistic reactions from the public in real time. This season, we are reverting to the traditional 5.1 set up and are focused on improving the timing systems of the different commentators, who remotely commentate and broadcast so that fans can select it on their receivers
Notes Lago: Every season we incorporate new features in production, both in the number of cameras, the type of support and also in the virtual graphics with tracking. For example, in this season we shall be able to see more drones, more cinecam's and new augmented reality (AR) graphics. This AR graphics can be inserted on the Omni4Sky (aerial camera), the drones, as well as the usual camera 1.
On workflow innovations, Quintana says that this season Mediapro has added, more streams of video-live and files over the IP network, both to obtain the best quality of signals in the centralised production of the new multi-cam feed, and to be able to optimise the use of footage from film cameras in near-live videos .
RF is the technology of choice to get camera feeds back to the TV compound, but 5G and more are on the way, notes Quintana. We use RF to receive wireless cameras such as Cinecam, Steady, drone, helicopter and other specialty cameras on site, although we are already working to combine them with 5G and Wifi-6 links as soon as regulations and manufacturers allow.
Mediapro is using four film cameras on Steady support each LaLiga match week, two of which are new for this season
Doubling up on remote production
Mediapro is using two versions of remote production, says Quintana. He explains: We have two different remote production workflows: the one we call remote production' (REMI) and the one we call remotely operated production' (producci n operada remotamente POR). We have been operating the REMI model since 2013, which has made it extremely easy to work remotely during restrictions. We are about to celebrate the 2000th remote production for LaLiga. Our REMI model was innovative in 2013; now it is a highly optimised model at the organisational level, since it is necessary to coordinate broadcast crews working remotely and in several matches each matchweek.
The POR model allows us to operate EVS and camera control posts from our production centers in
