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
Print This Story
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
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils the First Look for Land of Sin' - Premier...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
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 
