European First for DAZN: Cloudbass on Delivering the First Ever Full Cinematic Live Boxing Production in Europe for the Joshua v Dubios Fight

European first for DAZN: Cloudbass on delivering the first ever full cinematic live boxing production in Europe for the Joshua v Dubios fight By Heather McLean

Monday, September 23, 2024 - 13:32

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Working on behalf of DAZN for the Anthony Joshua versus Daniel Dubois match for the IBF world heavyweight title at Wembley Stadium, Cloudbass toed the line with a world first as the entire match was broadcast using cinematic cameras

Technical services provider Cloudbass took on the host broadcast of the Anthony Joshua versus Daniel Dubois match for the IBF world heavyweight title at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 21 September.

Working on behalf of DAZN for the pay-per-view fight, which was won by Dubois in the fifth round after he rocked Joshua repeatedly from the word go, Cloudbass toed the line with a European first as the entire match was broadcast using cinematic cameras.

This broadcast was the biggest use of Sony F5500 cameras in live boxing in Europe since a trial of a single F5500 camera during a fight in 2022, and it is also the first full cinematic production in boxing for the region.

Says Steve Knee, Cloudbass owner and managing director: The idea is actually doing the whole production to get this cinematic look. I think it's going to be quite disruptive in terms of the technology that people want to see. People will look at the broadcast and go, that looks amazing, we want that all the time . So that's a shift in technology that will drive consumer engagement.

Cloudbass provided the host facilities for the fight for DAZN at Wembley Stadium. It also provided presentation coverage for DAZN, and a separate music truck to cover the Liam Gallagher performance before the main fight. Also onsite taking Cloudbass' feeds was Timeline for Sky Sports, and EMG for TNT Sports.

Cloudbass used the Sony F5500 camera, and the Sony HDC-3500V cinematic cameras to fit the brief for the Anthony Joshua versus Daniel Dubois fight at Wembley

Cinematic ambitions

A major contributor to the event costs was Turki Al-Sheikh, the chair of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority which staged the fight, who requested that DAZN capture the fight with a cinematic look in UHD HDR. To fulfil that request, Cloudbass used the Sony F5500 camera, and the Sony HDC-3500V cinematic cameras to fit the brief.

The Sony HDC-F5500 Super 35mm 4K CMOS camera system launched in December 2021. Building on the success of Sony's popular HDC-5500, the HDC-F5500's Super 35mm 4K CMOS sensor delivers more clarity, realism and shallow depth of field with every scene, from wide beauty shots to tight close ups.

It was used by BT Sport with technical services provider EMG on 23 April 2022 at Wembley Stadium for the Tyson Fury versus Dillian Whyte fight. The camera was then used as Camera One out of a further 25 Sony HDC cameras. However last weekend eight HDC-F5500's were used, marking the biggest use of the F5500 camera in a live boxing broadcast in Europe.

Michael Beaumont, technical director of Cloudbass, says: This was trialled on the Fury fight three years ago, but we're the first on boxing going full live with it. We used the F5500 cinematic camera, and then also the 3500V to give that variable ND for the shallow depth of field, to get a nice cinematic look, but also allow us to use the 4 x superslow function for replays.

Additionally, seven Sony HDC-3500V cameras first announced at NAB 2023 - were used, which have a built-in optical variable ND filter that allows the user to adjust the brightness of an image without changing the iris value. This gives the user more control over the camera's depth of field and allows for smooth exposure adjustments without affecting the image quality.

Cameras and kit used at Wembley by Cloudbass

HDC-F5500 x 8

HDC-3500V x 7

RF Cameras x 2

Sony FR7 PTZ for the overhead truss shot

Plus a whole host of wirecams, Batcams and minicams

EVS Via servers for replay x 7

Adds Beaumont: We used 18 cameras for the fight truck, five cameras for the presentation truck, and another nine cameras for the music truck giving us a total of 32 cameras. The F5500 camera was used for all the main camera shots, including three in the studio for that cinematic look.

At Wembley the Camera One and Camera Two were a very long way from the ring, so we chose the Fuji HZK Duvo 25-1000m Lens, which is the largest box-type zoom lens available for the super 35mm sensor of the F5500. This worked well and gave stunning images especially over such a long distance.

We also used a F5500 on the jib, and on the Steadicam for the walk-ons using a Fuji HZK DUVO 14-100mm Lens, which gave a stunning shallow depth of field for the walk-on shots. The 3500V cameras were used mostly on the ringside cameras where we also needed superslow capabilities, continues Beaumont.

The TV compound at Wembley for the Anthony Joshua versus Daniel Dubois match was tight, with Cloudbass, EMG and Timeline TV all taking up space

Toeing the line

One stumbling block that the Cloudbass team faced was the lenses required for the cinematic cameras, which posed a challenge for the camera operators. Beaumont explains: Picking the lenses for the F5500 was a challenge because they use different types of lenses to what we're used to, working in live sport. They have much more cinematic focus ranges, and not such large zoom lengths.

To get the shallow depth of field did add a challenge for our camera operators with focus, but they quickly got the hang of it as they're professionals, and the end result was pretty amazing actually, continues Beaumont.

Knee adds an additional challenge in tandem with the cinematic cameras was the need to provide the feeds in UHD HDR. It's not just the cinematic, it's the UHD, it's the HDR. It's bringing it all together in one thi

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