Live from London: EPCR takes over Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for European rugby finals weekend By Fergal Ringrose
Tuesday, May 28, 2024 - 09:46
Print This Story
Matthis Lebel scores what proved to be Stade Toulousain's match-winning try during last Saturday's epic final against Leinster Rugby [photo: EPCR]
The Hollywoodbets Sharks from Durban overcame Gloucester Rugby to take the Challenge Cup on Friday evening (May 24) and Stade Toulousain edged out Leinster Rugby after extra time on Saturday afternoon (May 25) to lift the Champions Cup at the European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) Finals Weekend in Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
In my eyes this is the best stadium in Europe today, EPCR head of broadcast and media rights Carl Bengtsson told SVG Europe on Friday morning. We were supposed to come here some years ago and then COVID hit. The stadium then was brand new, and that would have been an event in itself as people would have come out of curiosity to see the stadium.
But operationally speaking maybe it's a good thing because the stadium team know their stadium a lot better now, they know what they can and cannot do, and I realise now that going to a brand new stadium would probably have been a bit challenging. We had this situation in Lyon a couple of years ago, when the football stadium was brand new; it's complicated to go to a new stadium.
So we were lucky in a way, and it's still the top stadium in Europe. All the facilities for hospitality are top of the line. It's quite easy for broadcasters to rig camera positions as the stadium had been designed with TV in mind. All the camera positions are catered for - obviously for football but we can still use them for rugby. You have a lot of positions on the gantry, commentators have a lot of space, it's completely pre-cabled as well which makes such a difference to older venues where you have to cable everything.
It's a very easy stadium to use, and the local team here is fantastic. They know how to host events outside of their own football team. We know it's an NFL stadium, and they're really working to be a great venue for anyone to come here and play.
The NFL have helped us as well as the team here is used to different requirements and routines. Sometimes you go to football stadiums and they say this is the way we've always done it' and they're not willing to change. Here they are happy to give us a hand and facilitate.
Carl Bengtsson, head of broadcast and media rights, European Professional Club Rugby
Buzz 16 leads production effort for EPCR host
Last year in Dublin saw a a complex production facilities situation with two separate host broadcasters, BT Sport and RT , for the Challenge Cup and Champions Cup finals on consecutive days. This year TNT Sports - the successor to BT Sport and Eurosport UK following the former's acquisition by Warner Bros. Discovery in 2022 - was EPCR's host broadcaster for both finals in London, with Buzz 16 providing the production team.
This time around TNT Sports is hosting both finals, which makes things a lot easier as they are in charge, said Bengtsson. And then we have add-ons, obviously, for the five other broadcasters present. On the English-speaking side we have RT and ITV for free-to-air in Ireland and the UK. And then we have France T l visions for French free-to-air and BeIN Sports for pay TV.
We also have ESPN for LATAM, who are here mostly to do interviews with the Argentinians playing for Gloucester and Toulouse. There's a huge interest in our competition in Latin America, and they have come to the quarter finals, the semi-finals and now to both finals this weekend. That's the general set-up, so it's quite busy.
The Buzz 16 team has been here already this season, covering the Saracens v Harlequins game in the Premiership in March. Obviously it's a bigger operation this time around, and they have gone with a very good camera plan for both games so we're well covered. We never take it less seriously for the Challenge Cup; we respect both competitions in the same way.
Before the merger Sunset+Vine provided the BT Sport production for our games and the Premiership as well. Then it changed to Buzz 16 and a lot of Sunset+Vine staff went over to Buzz 16, so it's familiar ground for us. They're still contracting EMG for facilities so it was extremely reassuring to know that we were dealing with people we knew with EMG behind them and we knew for sure they would do a great job.
ITV Sport and TNT Sports are working with EMG. RT only have a small add-on so they use facilities through EMG as well, and then both French broadcasters have a historical relationship with NEP Ireland, working with them for many years - and this makes things a lot easier here on-site as you basically have two facilities teams in EMG and NEP.
Richard Wright was unit manager for EMG and Jonathan Endley for NEP Ireland. NEP had two trucks on-site, one each for France T l visions and BeIN Sports, with seven iso cameras for each broadcaster pitch-side (one a radio camera for France TV) enabling pre-, half-time and post-game unilateral show presentation.
Gari Jenkins is executive producer for Buzz 16 and Dom McGuire is the production manager, continued Bengtsson. He's been the one coordinating these finals since we first came here almost a year ago, working on this project and the main man overseeing all the different needs from all broadcasters. It's a lot of responsibility, and he has done an incredible job.
You know what it's like; broadcasters all have their needs and they change their minds last-minute on everything from camera positions to commentary positions, catering, partner accreditation it's not an easy job to coordinate all this. And meanwhile Dom has to take care of his ma
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
21/10/2025
Indigenous storytelling has been at the heart of the work of the Sundance Instit...
21/10/2025
Top L-R: Mysterious Skin, American Dream Second Row L-R: Little Miss Sunshine, D...
21/10/2025
Last week, Spotify and Columbia Records transformed Pier 4 at the Brooklyn Army ...
21/10/2025
SBS Learn's Dharug Ngurra resource empowers classrooms to meaningfully celeb...
21/10/2025
As global operators simplify and evolve their digital platforms, NPS improvement...
21/10/2025
Critical Design Review completion is a key milestone on the path toward Wideband Global Satellite Communications certification for the network in 2026, opening ...
21/10/2025
New Australian undersea training range to implement and improve warfighting tactics, proficiency and safety; enable joint/allied training that contributes to pr...
21/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
21/10/2025
September, the beginning of autumn, brought an expected revival to the TV market, largely due to the new fall TV schedules. The time spent in front of the TV sc...
21/10/2025
Broadcast Booms with 20% Uptick vs. August, Achieving Largest Monthly
Increase ...
21/10/2025
During September, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.5%, a marginal shift of -0.5 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YU...
21/10/2025
RENNES, France BBright and GlobalM have conducted a technical trial validating Ultra HD interoperability across the entire contribution chain in the cloud, achi...
21/10/2025
Kokusai Denki Electric America will mark the U.S. debut of a new 4K camera at the 2025 NAB New York, Oct. 22-23. Now available, the Z-HD6500-S1 UHD/HD productio...
21/10/2025
Triveni Digital, a trusted leader in ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 service delivery, data broadcasting, and quality assurance solutions, will showcase its entire NEXTGEN TV ...
21/10/2025
Radio Azzurra FM, longest-running radio station in the province of Novara, northwest Italy, has invested in an DHD SX2 audio routing and mixing console for inte...
21/10/2025
Globecast, the leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, has announced the appointment of G Morgan as Executive Vice President of...
21/10/2025
Visual Data announces the appointment of Maz Al-Jumaili as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Localization, to advance client engagement, strategic partnerships, ...
21/10/2025
As Amazon's Prime Video prepares to launch its coverage of NBA basketball under a major new deal, Grup Mediapro has announced that it is working with the st...
21/10/2025
ATLANTA Good news for consumers using an Atlanta DTH receiver to watch ATSC 3.0: with a new software update, they will be able to blanket their homes with Wi-Fi...
21/10/2025
While recent news has been heavily focused on Hispanic migration into the U.S., The 2025 Hispanic Market Report from Claritas highlights the fact that this gr...
21/10/2025
MAIDENHEAD, UK RWS has hired Michael Wayne as its head of media and entertainment in Los Angeles where he will lead the company's media localization busines...
21/10/2025
Imagine Communications and Rohde & Schwarz today announced a definitive agreement under which Imagine will acquire Pixel Power Limited, a wholly owned subsidiar...
21/10/2025
Atlanta DTH (ADTH) today announced a major update that will expand the functionality of its NEXTGEN TV receiver by enabling gateway capabilities allowing viewer...
21/10/2025
Heartland Video Systems, Inc. (HVS), a premier video systems integration, consulting, and expert ATSC 3.0 implementation firm announces that it has partnered wi...
21/10/2025
QuickLink, the leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest integration solutions, today announced the appointment of Austin Hinton as it...
Live from London: EPCR takes over Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for European rugby finals weekend By Fergal Ringrose 
