Euro 2024: Inside UEFA's International Broadcast Centre By George Bevir
Friday, July 12, 2024 - 08:00
Print This Story
The IBC in Leipzig, Germany (Photo by Tullio Puglia UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
Just before the quarter-finals of Euro 2024 took place, SVG Europe took a tour of the UEFA's International Broadcast Centre (IBC) in Leipzig, Germany. Located in hall 4 of the Leipziger Messe exhibition building, the IBC serves as the hub of UEFA's host broadcast operations and a base for 27 of UEFA's broadcast partners.
At the heart of the 21,000 square metre IBC are the Master Control Room (MCR) and the Quality Control Rooms (QCR), which ensure the seamless broadcast and quality control of live feeds. It also hosts a range of operations and services, including Digital Broadcaster Services, Fan Zone TV, UEFA's ICT services operation, and is a hub for UEFA Editorial Content Services.
The IBC is also the central hub for UEFA's Broadcaster Services team for the tournament who employ over 100 staff members across the ten venues and IBC, all focused on providing support to more than 130 broadcast partners operating in over 200 territories worldwide, supported by CAA Eleven, UEFA's partner agency.
Read more Euro 2024: UEFA's technical broadcast plans
Additionally, it is the centre for Video Assistant Referee (VAR) operations for all 51 matches of the tournament. The Football Technology (FTECH) Hub is where VARs and Assistant Video Assistant Referees (AVARs) operate from four dedicated rooms to oversee all tournament matches.
The FTECH Hub also processes data from various technologies, including goal-line technology and electronic performance tracking systems, as well as sensors embedded in Kinexon's connected balls. This data is quality controlled in real time and distributed to UEFA's applications, such as the new semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) and the performance analyst portal.
Hawk-Eye supplies the technology for goal-line technology, VAR, SAOT, and Electronic Performance and Tracking Systems (EPTS) and medical and tactical video review systems.
Enhancing coverage: UEFA's Editorial Content Services
UEFA's Editorial Content Services (ECS) offers comprehensive content support to broadcast partners. With 108 people based in London at the headquarters of supplier Whisper, it provides a more sustainable approach to producing non-live content and is a continuation of the model adopted during the Covid-restricted Euro 2020 tournament, which took place in 2021.
Pre-Euro 2024 coverage provided by ECS included the Road to UEFA Euro 2024' magazine show, access days with teams, and host city content. During the tournament, ECS has delivered highlights, review shows, curated ISO compilations, and a daily Euro bulletin.
In London, the ECS team operates 14 edit suites, with 30 producers and APs, 22 editors, 13 production managers, eight graphic designers, and seven engineers and tech support personnel. They are supported by a few staff in Leipzig overseeing a KVM setup that allows for a remote operation with workstations in London editing via a 50-gig connection content that resides in Leipzig.
Live production and content acquisition
The OB operation is a pan-European affair, with five companies supporting UEFA's host broadcast operation at the 10 venues used throughout the tournament, including Germany's TVN (responsible for the final in Berlin and matches at Hamburg), plus Mediapro's trucks from its Spain and Portugal operations (based at Frankfurt and Leipzig), as well as EMG UK (Dusseldorf and Cologne), AMP Visual from France (Gelsenkirchen and Dortmund) and NEP from both Germany and Italy (Munich and Stuttgart).
A UEFA spokesperson explained: We're acquiring everything in 1080p 50 HDR, bringing it back to the IBC and then converting to 1080p50 SDR and 1080i50 SDR before we send the signals back to the venue. The low latency to do all conversions here at the IBC gives up a lot more control.
Virtual Board Replacement
UEFA Euro 2024 marks the first time a Euro has utilised virtual board replacement (VBR), a process that replaces in-stadium LED advertisements with targeted ads for specific regions: China, Germany, and the US.
VBR is only active during live play on the main broadcast camera, providing tailored advertising without disrupting the viewer experience. AIM Sport supplies VBR operations from the IBC, ensuring reliability and signal continuity.
A dedicated production Quality Control (QC) team is responsible for monitoring the consistency and quality of all multilateral feeds from all venues. The QC team is in communication with the UEFA production teams on-site at the venues on match day (MD) and match day-1 (MD-1). They monitor consistency of coverage, ensure the principles set out in the TV Directors Guidelines are adhered to and review broadcast partner feedback.
A dedicated audio expert, also based in the production quality control room, listens to all audio components and liaises with the stadiums to ensure the highest audio quality and consistency. A team of specialists monitor and control all aspects of picture quality from the dedicated HDR quality control room. In addition, there are dedicated MD-1 and FANTV quality control rooms.
Each broadcast venue team, led by the broadcast venue manager and broadcast engineering manager also includes a UEFA live producer, reporting to the IBC QC team, who works closely with the TV match director at their respective venue. The UEFA live producer is responsible for quality control on-site, ensuring that all feeds meet the standards, guidelines and requirements laid down by UEFA.
With a 50-gigabit connection to Whisper and a 200-gigabit diverse connection to each venue, the IBC handles approximately 5TB of data. The Telco Interface Room (TIR), deli
North America Stories
23/12/2025
How guilas Cibae as Dominican Winter League Games Are Locally Produced for Glob...
23/12/2025
BitFire's Jim Akimchuk on Supplying Scalability and Customization in the Clo...
23/12/2025
CAMB.AI Enables European Athletics to Offer Multi-Language SupportPlan is to eventually offer translation into all languages spoken in EuropeBy Ken Kerschbaumer...
23/12/2025
Analysis: As sports media values trend negative, scarcity and quality are king By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Monday, December 22, 2025 - 14:08
Print ...
23/12/2025
ESPN, Disney, and NBA Return to the Animated Altcast Fray With Second Edition of...
23/12/2025
End the Year on a High Note and Donate to the Sports Broadcasting Fund Today! By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, December 23, 2025 - 12:25 pm
...
23/12/2025
A Zeus motor is hot fire tested at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, solid rocket ...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Lightware will exhibit several major product innovations at ISE 2026, including the new USB-C BOOSTER-V1, Google Meet. integration for various Taurus UCX models...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Taking the Stage at Carnegie Hall-On a Global Scale Boston Conservatory Orchestra students reflect on their epic concert marking the 80th session of the UN Gene...
23/12/2025
Experience the power of WO Automation for Radio's newest service, the System Effectiveness Review. Designed to help you achieve more, a System Effectiveness...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
How Steamy Can It Get? Single's Inferno' Season 5 Pre...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
33 Million Global Viewers on Netflix Watched Jake Paul vs. Ant...
23/12/2025
New technique lights up where drugs go in the body, cell by cell Scripps Research scientists developed a technique that maps drug binding in individual cells th...
22/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
22/12/2025
Hitting the bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts ...
22/12/2025
Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with...
22/12/2025
Gravity Media prepares for a flight of fancy with the PDC World Darts Championsh...
22/12/2025
One hundred and eighty: Gravity Media on hitting the production bullseye at the ...
22/12/2025
The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content...
22/12/2025
ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Spo...
22/12/2025
ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next ...
22/12/2025
Paramount Scores Largest Share Increase Among Distributors as Paramount and CBS...
22/12/2025
New multi-year deal integrates Roku's data to fuel Nielsen's measurement suite
Roku gains access to Nielsen's streaming ratings, showing The Roku C...
22/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
22/12/2025
Berklee Wrapped 2025: Our Top News and Stories A look back at a year highlighted by faculty milestones, major film and television projects, Bob Dylan's ho...
22/12/2025
The works of Plato state that when humans have an experience, some level of change occurs in their brain, which is powered by memory - specifically long-term me...
22/12/2025
Workflows allow you to create a sequence of planned events which may be added to your template(s) or inserted directly into your sequential or background playli...
22/12/2025
Back to All News
Global Anime Hits and New Releases Take Center Stage at Jump Festa 2026
Entertainment
22 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to clipboar...
21/12/2025
Back to All News
Legoshi and Haru's Story Reaches Its Finale: BEASTARS Fin...
20/12/2025
Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking ProRes RAW recording from the...
20/12/2025
CJP Broadcast has completed the digitisation of the European Gymnastics tape archive, converting 328 tapes containing more than forty years of recorded material...
20/12/2025
Bitmovin, the leading provider of video streaming solutions, today announced the launch of the Stream Lab MCP Server, to give AI agents and large language model...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Barack Obama Includes Laufey on His 2025 Favorite Music List The former presidents roundup of books, music, and movies includes a song from the Berklee alums ...
20/12/2025
Study reveals a key hormonal circuit in the kidneys Scripps Research scientists identify the protein that helps kidney cells regulate renin, providing foundatio...
19/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Diversified's Jared Timmins on AI for Broadcast Sports and Cre...
19/12/2025
2025 SVG Summit Audio Recap: Say What?The Audio Production and Distribution Workshop at the SVG Summit 20 took on issues including speech intelligibility, Next-...
Euro 2024: Inside UEFA's International Broadcast Centre By George Bevir 
