Top Hat and Tails: NEP Uncovers the Drama and Excitement Behind the Production of ITV Racing's Royal Ascot

Top hat and tails: NEP uncovers the drama and excitement behind the production of ITV Racing's Royal Ascot By Heather McLean, Editor

Friday, June 24, 2022 - 12:19

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NEP worked with ITV Racing once again to bring all the drama and excitement of Royal Ascot to viewers

Ascot is probably the most prestigious horse racing venue. It's owned by the Queen and it is just onto a different level; it's the most sophisticated race event you could go to, says Jon Harris, technical projects manager at NEP UK and Ascot expert. It's all high-end racing, attracts horses from across the world to compete for the big prize money, and it's a massive event.

Harris is something of a horseracing guru. In 2001 he started working on horseracing, and this is his tenth Royal Ascot in his capacity as technical projects manager. He notes: I know the ins and outs of horseracing TV coverage pretty well now.

NEP and Harris work at Ascot to provide ITV Racing with all the camera angles it needs to give viewers an in-depth experience of each race all the drama and excitement and analytics plus everything else going on around the event, with the coverage bridging both sport and entertainment.

ITV very much want to engage with the viewers, make them feel part of the event, and give them that Royal Ascot experience

The technical services specialist works alongside RaceTech, which covers the integrity coverage for the core angles of each race as they happen, as well as providing stewards with various replays. They're your nuts and bolts, if you like, of the horseracing coverage, says Harris.

What we do at NEP with ITV is we work alongside [RaceTech], he goes on. We'll take those race cameras from them because if they've got a camera at the far end of the course on a cherry picker watching the horses go past, there's absolutely no point in us putting one alongside it we may as well just have a feed from it and that's part of the deal, they are obliged to give us those camera feeds but what ITV do is they put the fancier cameras in. They put the stuff in that the viewers want to see the lower angles, the high motion replays the stuff that's less fundamental to the coverage, but they give the artistic view of what goes on.

Those beauty shots and replays are what provides the broadcaster with its main content, as most races take only one minute to a minute and a half from start to finish. Notes Harris: The actual racing bit is really short, so it's the bit in between you've got to fill. So ultimately, for ITV's approach, they have a big presentation team, with around 18 presenters at Ascot in total across the course. It becomes like an entertainment programme almost; you're interviewing the winning jockey, showing replays of what's gone on, giving some analysis on the racing of what's gone on, and that's where the digital camera angles that we've put in decorate and tell the story.

All NEP crew have to be wedding-outfit-ready to make the grade and blend in with the crowds at Royal Ascot

Huge presentation team

NEP supplied two large production trucks for Royal Ascot 2022, with over 50 camera sources, which are split across the two trucks. Out of those 50 camera sources, over 20 of them were wirelessly linked, which, says Harris, enables us to have flexibility to move across the site because, as well as capturing the racing action, we've also got to capture the event because the race is only a couple minutes long .

We see a lot of the footage from these stalls cameras being used in the social media strands that ITV do because, whilst we'll cut to them briefly in the build ups of the race, they're all recorded independently back at the truck and you can get a really interesting insight if you can see the whole clip of the horses being loaded

He adds: ITV very much want to engage with the viewers, make them feel part of the event, and give them that Royal Ascot experience. So from the royal procession arrival that starts at two o'clock at the beginning of the day through to the end of the day, when we're around Ascot's bandstand with the communal singing that goes on there, they want to give a flavour of all of that. Ultimately, it's a massive course and site and we need to have maximum flexibility so the reliance on the RF cameras is really important for us.

ITV has a large presentation team covering the show, all headed by Ed Chamberlain. He's our lead presenter on this, continues Harris. Ed is based in the middle of the parade ring where we have our presentation set up, and he's joined by a number of racing experts and, over the five days, the whole show is anchored from there in the middle of the parade ring, amongst the owners, trainers, jockeys, and horses, so really bringing the viewers into the hub of the whole event. Outside of the parade ring, we have a weather position, so another presentation position that, if it starts to rain or even if you need shade, Ed and his team can move during an ad break from one press area to the other, and we can pick up the presentation from that side.

Says Chamberlain: NEP's efficient work covering a huge event, spread over one of the world's biggest sporting arenas in extreme heat makes my life easier and the viewers experience one to remember!

Outside of the key presenters in the parade ring, there are a number of roaming presenters with radio cameras working across the site, covering aspects such as looking at horses for the next upcoming race and talking about their picks for that particular race, and others talking about lifestyle elements of the event, such as fashion and food.

Mini cams and stalled horses

This year NEP increased its mini cam technology that it fits inside the horse starting

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