HBS and F d ration Fran aise de Tennis bring the score to deuce for Roland Garros 2021 By Heather McLean, Editor
Monday, June 21, 2021 - 09:31
Print This Story
2021 at Roland Garros marked the first time in 30 years that French incumbent, France T l visions, had not held the reigns over the production, instead with F d ration Fran aise de Tennis with host broadcaster, HBS, setting a new standard
Host Broadcast Services (HBS) has just completed its first Grand Slam at Roland Garros as the new host broadcaster alongside partner, F d ration Fran aise de Tennis (FFT), managing the first event of the three year agreement with confidence.
This year the FFT put itself in control of the broadcast of the event, ramping up both the production quality and what it provides for rights holding broadcasters. For HBS, this has meant working hard to fulfil the dreams and desires of its new partner to push the French Open onwards and upwards.
The FFT aimed high for 2021, marking the first time in 30 years that French incumbent, France T l visions, had not held the reigns over the production. To make the FFT's ambitions come true, HBS bought in approximately 740 staff for the host broadcast operation. They worked tirelessly to produce over 800 tennis matches during the course of the three week tournament.
High production quality
On the production workflow, Philippe Oziol, HBS project director for Roland Garros tells SVG Europe: The production of the main courts is natively in UHD (HDR and SDR) with native UHD main cameras and upconverted/upmapped sources for additional shots and GFX. The rest of the productions is 1080p. Delivery to broadcasters is proposed in UHD HDR, UHD SDR, 1080p SDR and 1080i.
For rights holders we have a media server providing access to all the content generated around the event, offering differing standards based on the rights holders' needs whether premium or standard subscriptions - and offering on or off-site access
He goes on: Production is UHD HDR native on the Philippe-Chatrier court, UHD SDR on Suzanne-Lenglen, Simonne-Mathieu and court 14, and 1080p50 for all others production. The action is covered by 116 wired cameras (42 UHD natives), 15 RF cameras and seven ENG crews. Distribution is centralised at the MCR/CIR for on-site delivery with Eurovision delivering the worldwide transmission.
The FFT has created a new TV compound for 2021 based on temporary cabins, which will be fine-tuned year on year going forwards to the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics, when Roland Garros will host the tennis for both events.
Oziol explains the details of the new compound: The set up at the compound is structured around cabin-based galleries working with flyaway kits. The global workflow for the event is designed around 20 galleries: six main court galleries (UHD HDR/UHD SDR/3G); and 10 ViBox galleries for the outside courts. In addition, four galleries are available for additional content delivery (international super signals, FFT studio and stadium giant screen playout).
Everything is networked through the EVS system, which is based on a global workflow of 20 XT-VIA and 21 LSM-VIA remotes, sharing 168 sources between live replay operators, highlights and editing teams, he adds.
The operation is almost completely based on site, with match production, GFX, editing, and ENG crews all working from the Roland Garros complex. Notes Oziol: The only element we have off-site is the logging operation and media asset management, where we have 24 loggers based off-site at the HBS HQ in Boulogne-Billancourt, a few minutes' walk from the stadium. The logging operators are all connected into the same network as those working on site via the server we have based at the HB House, accessible through the cloud off-site.
Media server first
This year marks the first time Roland Garros has sported a media server for rights holders, which actually makes the French Open the first Grand Slam to provide this service for its broadcasters, greatly enriching the offering and therefore its coverage globally.
For rights holders we have a media server providing access to all the content generated around the event, offering differing standards based on the rights holders' needs whether premium or standard subscriptions - and offering on or off-site access, says Oziol.
The vision switchers used are mainly Grass Valley KFrame X, says Oziol. He adds: The Philippe-Chatrier vision mixer is a Sony XVS8000. Cameras are Sony HDC-3500, HDC-5500 (SSM and Ultra Motion), and Panasonic UE-150.
On whether HBS had decided to use IP or base band, Oziol says: The initial plan was a fully IP-based solution, [but] due to the change in dates of the event there had to be some adaptation to the set up. The IP-based solution was conserved for the central core audio and video resource sharing and distribution, while the production aspect has been handled with legacy core equipment linked via SDI<>IP gateways Imagine Selenio network processor.
Roland Garros took place from 24 May to 13 June 2021.
North America Stories
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
Before a healthcare robot can be useful in the real world, it has to learn how the physical world pushes back. Anatomy varies. Instruments bend, press, slip and...
21/07/2026
With winners Spain having already paraded the World Cup trophy through Madrid in front of millions of fans and the dust now settling on an epic tournament of th...
21/07/2026
In a time of disarray in regional sports broadcasting, the league will provide c...
21/07/2026
When NEP designed one of its largest recurring mobile production unit fleets for PGA TOUR
coverage, the leading media services provider faced a familiar challe...
21/07/2026
Warner Bros. Discovery's unbroken lead is interrupted as sports and live mus...
21/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/07/2026
Across the TV and streaming ecosystem, industry players face mounting pressure to do more with less. They must simplify operations, protect premium content and ...
21/07/2026
Tuxera, a leading prover of quality-assured file systems and networking technologies, is bringing its latest advances in connectivity performance to the media w...
21/07/2026
COW Jobs: Apple Motion Expert for Custom FCP Rigged Graphics Package
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
HIRING: Apple Motion Expert for Custom FCP ...
21/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, will use its presence at IBC2026 (stand 7.A01, Amsterdam RAI, 11 14 September) to...
21/07/2026
Calrec will be located in Hall 8, on Stand C47
Beyond bigger
For years, broadcast facilities were built around one assumption: provision for the biggest pro...
21/07/2026
Pebble, the leading automation, content management and integrated channel specialist, will discuss its future-facing developments for the new generation of medi...
21/07/2026
nxtedition returns to IBC2026 with its consolidated production platform, showing how scripting, editing, graphics, AI-assisted tools and automation can work wit...
21/07/2026
C2PA content signing helps broadcasters, public institutions, and publishers give audiences a verifiable record of where their video content came from and how i...
21/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
HBS and F d ration Fran aise de Tennis bring the score to deuce for Roland Garros 2021 By Heather McLean, Editor 
