Live From the FIFA World Cup: HBS CEO Dan Miodownik, CTO Christian Gobbel Reflect on Efforts Thus Far Enabling new workflows and flexibility, IP tops the list of innovations deployed By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Wednesday, December 7, 2022 - 7:00 am
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It's the first rest day at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and HBS CEO Dan Miodownik has one goal for everyone involved in producing the World Cup coverage: rest. We talk about FIFA World Cups and the intensity of the games, he explains. With the way the quarterfinals are lining up, everyone has to refocus because every single match becomes more important every single day.
Christian Gobbel (left) and Dan Miodownik of HBS inside the main equipment room at the 2022 World Cup IBC in Doha
HBS is at the center of the production efforts, a role it has performed since 2002. The company coordinates the technical facilities, technology providers, production personnel, and much more. And it produces not only the live coverage of the match but creates thousands of hours of content around the event: multi-feeds offering various clips around a match to scenics, social-media and digital content, and much more. HBS also manages the IBC and fulfills requests from rightsholders for everything from ENG needs to studio space to commentary positions and, of course, IBC operations.
This year's FIFA World Cup has introduced more innovation than any previous Cup: the move to IP, a single-layer production standard based on HDR, and, of course, new digital services and feeds like the Fan Feed, which have been big hits. As with any event, though, innovation comes with challenges. Topping that list this year is the move to IP, which has opened up new workflows and flexibility.
IP is making a difference, enabling remote production for match-day-minus-one operations, 32 cameras providing four-camera coverage of eight team training sessions per day across 32 training sites, and 24 fully remote-controlled cameras for unilateral services around live match coverage. In addition, all cameras with remote heads (two tactical cameras and the beauty and the tunnel cameras) at each match are operated from the IBC.
That's a perfect example of what it will be in the future, says HBS CTO Christian Gobbel. You will only deploy cameras; you compress them and have a center where you have shaders and, then you have virtualized galleries.
Most important, creation of the multi-feed offering, which complements the main live match feed, can be handled at the IBC instead of having to be deployed at each venue. For example, a multifunctional gallery handles training-ground and press- conference coverage, and four galleries are focused on creating the multi-feed offering.
We have 14 galleries at the IBC sharing three Grass Valley K-Frame switchers, says Gobbel. We have up to 14 hardware or virtual panels on those three K-Frames. And then we kind of virtualized the whole operation and utilize the hardware in a more efficient way.
Adds Miodownik, Technically, that's really impressive and truly multifunctional as we are utilizing our infrastructure in a way that is as flexible as possible. From a product point of view, we have greater consistency because we have the same team working consistently [as opposed to different teams at each venue].
The coverage from the 32 training grounds also benefits because there are just two technicians with four cameras who can drive around Doha without the need for a production truck.
Having multi-feeds is allowing us to be much more focused on editorial matters, says Gobbel. For instance, [with] our new clips-compilation workflows, we can connect the venue network back to the IBC so the operators at the IBC are working on the same network. In the past, they had to mark clips and push them via file transfer; that meant a delay of two minutes. Now they have access to everything, and they can prioritize the best angles and push them forward on the playlist.
Rightsholders also benefit in a variety of ways. For one thing, a unilateral service offering allows them to hire a technician and one or two cameras and move them between locations, providing only talent and a camera operator.
The move to IP has created lots of new ways to work, but the road has had its share of nerve-wracking bumps.
Some of the technical suppliers have done a fantastic job and are moving IP forward in a meaningful way, says Miodownik. But there are areas that they would admit simply weren't managed as well as they would want, and that presented us with some challenges we did not expect. Also, some persevered longer than we anticipated. It was the butterfly effect at a reasonably large level and is something I don't think we've been used to in the past with the older technology.
As for solving some of the issues, Gobbel says there needs to be more work on standards and interoperability, not only between manufacturers but sometimes among their own products.
I think interoperability is the key thing in a real-world ST 2110 and 2022-7 implementation, he adds. The standard needs to mature to operate equipment over a more standardized SDN control and having it control not only flows but also the endpoints. NMOS clearly has its limitations in a large facility like the one we have built. There are a lot of customized work-arounds required at the moment, when there is no real solution to specific problems.
The Evolving Compound The shift of unilateral and multi-feed operations from the venue to the IBC has meant that the compound and space for HBS operations are a little bit leaner.
Basically, says Gobbel, we have a main gallery, audio gallery, the shader room, graphics, and slo-mo replay, and that's about it. Rightsholders just turn up with a flight case and get a 1- or 10-GB connection for their un
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Live From the FIFA World Cup: HBS CEO Dan Miodownik, CTO Christian Gobbel Reflect on Efforts Thus Far Enabling new workflows and flexibility, IP tops the list of innovations deployed By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
