Oranje Football Is Back: Fox Sports Netherlands on Robotic Cameras, Drones, and No Remote Production

Oranje football is back: Fox Sports Netherlands on robotic cameras, drones and no remote production By Heather McLean, Editor

Thursday, September 3, 2020 - 14:58

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Football returns to TV screens in the Netherlands thanks to Fox Sports

Coronavirus has been a game-changer for the leagues and the sports broadcasting industry as a whole in the Netherlands. At the beginning of lockdown, the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, took one of the harshest stances on preventing the spread of COVID-19 in Europe, proclaiming there would be no professional football played before 1 September.

Henk van Meerkerk, head of production at Fox Sports Netherlands, states that was a huge blow to the sports broadcasting industry in the country: That was a big, big hit for the entire industry.

Oranje football returns

However, finally, Dutch football is coming back. Says van Meerkerk: The way we broadcast all the Dutch football is from our philosophy. Our directors [work on] all divisions, so the Premier Division, Eredivisie, the second division, Eerste Divisie, and the third division, Tweede Divisie, and we will even start with the women's first division [Eredivisie Vrouwen] in the Netherlands as well, broadcasting as soon as the season starts. So we're the leading broadcaster in [Dutch] football and not only as a broadcaster, but also as a producer.

The football comeback in the Netherlands began on 31 July. Fox Sports is currently broadcasting exhibition games from all divisions after creating a schedule with the Dutch clubs to enable games to be played almost every day, filling the gap for fans still at home.

We knew this summer would be very busy, but it turned out to be even busier because now we have all the Coronavirus issues to deal with. It's a lot of work.

Notes van Meerkerk: It's a combined schedule, so sometimes we have two Premier Division games playing together and sometimes two Second Division games, or sometimes it's a Second Division game with a first; it's a mix up from all the clubs and the two top tier leagues.

That plan took viewers to the start of the second division season which began on 28 August, followed by the Premier Division on 12 September, and then our regular season kicks off again, says van Meerkerk.

Health and safety

Fox Sports has worked with the Dutch FA and the major leagues to create a health and safety protocol, which was sent to the Dutch government for approval. Once confirmed, matches could begin again.

Van Meerkerk states: We knew this summer would be very busy, but it turned out to be even busier because now we have all the Corona issues as well that we have to deal with. So, we've been talking with the Dutch FA, and started with all the clubs, going to all their locations, and making new [health and safety] protocols for every game. So it's a lot of work.

Fox Sports already uses a lean plan for staff on-site at football matches. This meant when the broadcaster submitted its protocol plan for crewing games in the new normal', it did not need to be cut back much further.

Fox Sports Netherlands' new studios in Amsterdam were ripped out and replaced with help from NEP Netherlands during lockdown

Van Meerkerk explains: We already work in a very efficient way, so we don't really have to cut in our crew because even if we can go to a 16 camera configuration, it still fits in our protocol that is approved by our government.

Once approval for the health and safety protocols had been gained, Fox Sports had to go to every football venue for each division to make up separate rules to enforce the protocols in each. This included configuring camera positions, with regard to the number of fans allowed within each stadium.

Meerkerk comments that the return to football has, taken us a little bit more time than the other leagues, but we got there .

Little remote production

Fox Sports is not keen on remote production for the comeback, for various reasons. Van Meerkerk explains: We've been looking at remote production, but to be honest for the productions we have, you create the same problem [of social distancing] in a remote control room somewhere else; you still have to work with people [wherever you're based] and it's easy to find space, so we made all kinds of [safe] set ups in our OB trucks so everybody's safe to work and that's what happens so far.

It looks like we will be on site in OB trucks for most of the [second division and Premier League] games. Just a couple of games in our first division we will operate remotely, but most of them will be done on site, he adds.

Premier division matches, when carried out as remote productions, will be based at the Fox Studio galleries in its revamped Amsterdam-based studios.

He continues: [Remote production] doesn't really make sense for us in the Netherlands. Our [camera] configuration for the production of a game is different from those in the UK for example. First division UK games start at, I think, 11 or 13 cameras, something like that. We started six or eight, and then we add cameras to it [if needed].

We have been looking at the possibility, if for example there was going to be a big match we would use 18 to 20 cameras, but that [wouldn't be] on a regular basis. But if it's going to happen somewhere during the season, then we've got to look at remote production and then probably we do a part remote production, so for our EVS operators, for example, or for shading. So we can still have a small crew on site and have all the other people somewhere else in the Netherlands.

He adds: Our big trucks are big enough to work [with social distancing]. If we need more space we can look at the space around the stadiums, or we can take extra trucks with us.

Additionally, being based in a fairly small country

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