Twists and turns: How technology helped to tell the story of the European Luge Championships By Kevin Hilton Friday, February 14, 2025 - 08:03
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The 56th FIL (International Luge Federation) European Luge Championships took place at the Veltins Eisarena in Winterberg, Germany, over the weekend of 18-19 January. The event not only crowned new luge champions for Europe - Germany's Julia Taubitz won gold in the women's singles, while Jonas M ller of Austria retained the men's singles title but it also gave competitors, including many non-Europeans (who did not take part in the main competition), the opportunity to amass Luge World Cup points.
Luge (which means small coasting sled') has been growing in popularity since the 1950s, perhaps because it is the fastest and even more dynamic of the three sliding' winter sports (the others being bobsleigh and skeleton), with racers reaching speeds in excess of 140km per hour. There is also a keen international TV viewing audience, with coverage carried on the FIL YouTube channel in addition to licensed broadcast partners in countries where the sport has a following. These include public broadcasters ARD and ZDF in Germany, with ARD on site during the European Championships, ORF (Austria), TV3 (Latvia) and CBC (Canada).
Broadcast rights for all European luge events are held by Sport A, which has delegated the FIL to produce coverage. Production responsibilities for artificial track luge competitions - as opposed to those on natural tracks', in other words through existing mountain pathways and roads - including the European Championships and World Cup are headed by freelance director and TV coordinator Vera Bichler. Broadcast facilities for the Winterberg meet were provided by Mainz-based TV Skyline.
Bichler comments that she assembled a core crew comprising vision mixer, head camera operator, floor manager and production manager, with up to 15 operators for the cameras, which all had microphones fitted. There was a good mix between handhelds with standard lenses, 86x box lenses, super slow motion, mini cameras, PTZs and a gimbal at the finish line, she says. On some tracks [during the season] we are using remote hot heads as well.
TV Skyline supplied 30 to 35 cameras, including Grass Valley LDX, with ten to 12 CCUs, 15 to 18 point of view, three to four PTZ, one wireless unit and a Dream Chip Atom one waterproof camera. The company also sent its 12UHD articulated outside broadcast truck, which is used to produce all luge World Cup events in Germany and Austria. This vehicle features a Ross Video Acuity production switcher, 32-fader Lawo mc 36 audio console, a Grass Valley Sirius 830 3G/HD/SD hybrid video-audio 288 428 router and two EVS XTA servers with space for three 12-channel EVS slo-mo machines.
The tracks were built way before television transmission was even a consideration, which is why most of them are rather contorted and it's not easy to position the cameras in good spots
The speed of the lugers - who lie face-up and feet-first on the sled, controlling it with their calf muscles and shoulders - travelling on often twisting tracks cut into a mountain or hill side (in the case of artificial track events) means TV coverage of this sport can be challenging but, says Bichler, ultimately satisfying. What makes luge coverage so special is to actually show the challenges for the athletes, who race on these tracks at way over 120km/h, while also giving the spectator at home a good overview of the track itself, she comments. The tracks were built way before television transmission was even a consideration, which is why most of them are rather contorted and it's not easy to position the cameras in good spots.
Live action camera shots and slo-mo replays are supported by graphics to show not only the course and speeds of the racers - who, as with bobsleigh and skeleton, compete against each other in a series of time trials - but also what it is like to go down a luge track. This PoV presentation is produced by Chyron, which became official live graphics provider for FIL competitions in October last year, in collaboration with former luger Julian von Schleinitz, who raced for Germany and now works as a data scientist for the BMW Group, which is a FIL technical partner.
We are airing pre-produced PoV camera runs, which show interesting data, measured from a custom-built sled, explains Bichler. Viewers are getting into the perspective of a luge athlete and can gain a better understanding of what it looks like to be on a sled and what forces - g-force, maximum speed are affecting their bodies. The footage and data files that form the basis of these sequences are supplied by von Schleinitz and are, naturally, different for each individual event and course.
This material, including the track map overview, is then loaded into the Chyron Prime live production engine. We produce the animated maps in pre-production with our creative services team, explains Mark Friedman, vice president of sales for strategic accounts at Chyron. These are customised for each track with the pertinent information each week. The Prime software has made the PoV segment significantly easier for FIL to produce. Previously they recorded the PoV and put together a graphic over the video in After Effects, using a plug-in to work out all of the data points based on camera data. With Prime they are able to load the data file from the camera along with the video and play back the video with data visualisation overlay designed by Chyron in real time, which takes only minutes and can be done on the day of the race.
Friedman describes the luge as very fast and reliant on fast data integration and visualisation . This, he adds, has to cope with and present individual stats for all competitors: Each r
