2023 FIFA Women's World Cup: Production Teams To Work From Sydney Hub; Social-Media Plans Expand FIFA and HBS will create more than 3,000 hours of content to meet rightsholders' demands By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Monday, July 17, 2023 - 11:30 am
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The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup begins in earnest on Thursday, July 20 when New Zealand kicks things off against Norway, With it begins a new era in World Cup production: HBS, host broadcaster for FIFA, will deploy five production teams, including directors and producers, to handle all matches remotely out of a production hub in Sydney.
The FIFA Women's World Cup IBC in Sydney will shift into overdrive once play starts on July 20.
With matches played in 10 stadiums (six in Australia, four in New Zealand), the advantages of keeping the production teams in one location are numerous. Topping the list: teams won't have to crisscross the continent, saving costs, time, and energy (both the human kind and the fossil kind).
The Sydney production hub will be connected to IP trucks in Melbourne Rectangular Stadium and Stadium Sydney Australia; the other eight stadiums hosting matches will have IP flypacks. There will be nine stadium-based production teams, comprising camera operators and floor manager, at the venues (one team will handle the two stadiums in Sydney).
The host-broadcast production format is HD 1080p/50 HDR with 21-25 cameras in use for each match, depending on the phase of the tournament. Specialty cameras will include ultra-motions, super-slow-motions, cable cams, pole cams, and heli cams. In addition, following successful deployment for FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, cine-style cameras will be in operation at every match.
As usual, a stellar lineup of directors has been assembled: Jamie Oakford and Gemma Knight from the UK, Angus Millar from Australia, Danny Melger from Netherlands, and Sebastian Von Freyberg from Germany.
The HBS camera plan for the FIFA Women's World Cup matches
The remote-production model relies on a dedicated fiber Broadcast Contribution Network (BCN), which connects each stadium to the central hub in Sydney over 40G redundant links. The hub is connected to the IBC, located at Sydney Olympic Park, over 400G redundant links. The IBC itself will be home for five rightsholders: Fox Sports U.S., Telemundo, Channel Seven Australia, Australia's Optus Sports digital service, and TSN Canada. Those rightsholders (and all others) will have access to feeds in the following formats: HD 1080p/50 HDR, HD 1080p/50 SDR format (Rec. 709), HD 1080i/50 with embedded audio.
The HBS microphone plan for the FIFA Women's World Cup
Also at the hub, four teams dedicated to additional content and four slo-mo teams will produce four match feeds: the basic international feed (BIF), a clean international feed (CIF), the world feed (WF), and an additional content channel (ACC). A fifth feed, Matchday-1 press conferences, will also be live and offered as a separate isolated feed.
Over the years, the content provided by FIFA and HBS for rightsholders has ballooned significantly. As digital delivery has expanded, so has rightsholders' desire for content that goes well beyond the action on the pitch. They seek more scenic shots, more features that bring viewers closer to the host country and host cities, reports from practices and press conferences, and much more. To meet the demands, FIFA and HBS will create more than 3,000 hours of content designed to bring fans closer to what is happening in Australia and New Zealand (more on that later). Most postproduction operations (short-form match highlights and 24-minute daily highlights programs, amongst others) will be housed at a non-live hub in Greater London, UK.
Next-Gen Graphics Following the successful introduction of enhanced graphics at the FIFA World Cup 2022, the increase in the number of data points available from each match naturally lends itself to increased opportunities to pass the most relevant information to the viewer. The goal is to offer viewers data that is understandable, editorially interesting, and supportive of the story of the match.
The data, provided centrally by the FIFA High Performance Programme Department, is picked up by the graphics teams, which for each match consists of a coordinating producer, graphics producer, and graphics operator. The teams will follow the story of the match and provide graphics that support the narrative to the events unfolding on the pitch.
In-match enhanced graphics are usually lower-thirds or found in the corner of the screen to ensure that the information does not detract from the match itself. Full-frame graphics are used at halftime and full time; these graphics are often on screen for longer as there is time to get into more detail about how a specific piece of data analysis is impacting the match. The graphics shown at halftime and full time are also useful for broadcasters, who look to use them either as in-studio analysis or as digital assets on their social-media platforms.
VAR Coverage VAR (Video Assistant Referee) graphics were a big hit in Qatar last year, and a series of informative graphics will provide viewers this year with a clear and transparent overview of the VAR process. A specifically developed animation will clarify the offside situations.
On-field reviews are covered in a picture-in-picture (PIP) format, with the main window replicating the images that the referee is offered for review by the VAR. In addition, the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 will continue FIFA's trial with broadcasting VAR review decisions in-stadium and live to the television audience.
Non-Live Production The FIFA TV Team Crew (FTTC) project will be in operation for the FIFA Women's World Cup, providing Media Rights Licensees (MRLs)
