
Countdown to kick-off: How Global Production helped Sky Italy move Serie A to native 4K HDR By Roberto Landini, Italian Correspondent
Monday, September 14, 2020 - 18:10
Print This Story
When the 2020-21 Serie A season kicks off this weekend, Sky Italy will be showing seven of the 10 games across each matchday including one per week in native 4K with high dynamic range (HDR).
Viewers in Italy, as long as they have the correct Sky Q box of course, will get to see the games in the Hybrid Log Gamma format, the backwards-compatible HDR standard that was jointly developed by the BBC and NHK.
HDR has been part of the Sky output for Serie A for a couple of seasons. The difference this year is that all the signals are native HDR with BT.2020 colour gamut. There is no upscaling.
The origins of these next generation broadcasts go back to the summer and a game between Torino and Roma on 29 July at the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino.
That was the first Serie A game to air in native 4K with HDR. And the lessons learnt from that match, which also had an HD-SDR simulcast, shaped how all this season's matches will be covered.
The difficulty is twofold. It is not enough to create a technically perfect signal in very high definition UHD-HDR. It is also essential to guarantee quality even on the very popular lower format, HD SDR.
Global Production, part of the Euro Media Group (EMG), was responsible for the match coverage.
The typical complication of a standard football production in Italy involves the use of a large number of sources - and these all had to be updated to native HDR, because the signal entering the mixer must already be native HDR.
This goal was reached after a series of tests carried out last season and many discussions that were aimed at finding a common path for all the actors involved including producers, broadcasters and clubs, from Juventus and Roma to Infront and Sky the Italian football league itself.
In reality, an HDR live broadcast in Italy had never been done before, because the technical problems to be overcome were far from trivial.
The construction of the new workflow was led by Renato Mancini (pictured above), the chief technology officer of Global Production. He worked with Sky and the Italian Football League to decide on how to concretely carry out the entire production process.
In Italy, there is no school and there is no experience, especially in Serie A, an environment where everything is very delicate, on which all eyes are focused, and it is impossible to practice live, he says.
The difficulty is twofold. It is not enough to create a technically perfect signal in very high definition UHD-HDR. It is also essential to guarantee quality even on the very popular lower format, HD-SDR.
This is done in down-conversion from HD HDR and requires a whole series of calibrations which, if they are not perfect due to inexperience, penalise the result a lot .
Furthermore, the various vendors such as Grass Valley and Sony approach the problem from different points of view, given the complexity of the thing.
To make these new broadcasts possible, Global Production, starting in January 2020, invested heavily in not just essential changes to one of its flagship mobile vehicles, OB8, adding a huge amount of conversion and color mapping resources, but in human resources too.
Mancini continues: The problem arises from the fact that HDR is not linear and in the conversion it is not enough to insert a factor that remains constant throughout the range.
And, above all, to create serious problems is the range of brightness of the cameras, therefore the iris control. If we were to work with apertures in the typical SDR range, nothing would be seen in the simulcast in HDR.
Furthermore, the various vendors such as Grass Valley and Sony approach the problem from different points of view, given the complexity of the thing. The internal technical chains of the camera controls, very talented technicians, however, require specific training.
As a result, a new job role has been created: the HDR supervisor . Mancini describes the job as specialized and requiring a lot of preparation. This technician works from a dedicated workstation and has a complete view of both the SDR and the HDR output.
It works in the HDR range of the cameras, in the upper part of the signal, in the super white (over 100% in the SDR), and in the color zone to constantly check both signals.
In reality, in Serie A there are six outputs that must be constantly realigned with experience and sensitivity, returning an artistic range, managing the 16 cameras in native 4K-HDR with incredible nuances and details in colour, coupled with greater brightness.
By embarking on this courageous path, Mancini has made it possible to compose a sort of best practice, a workflow prototype that outlines how to handle the signals. This will be reused by the technical infrastructure in all Serie A matches this season.
The workflow was developed by Global Production in cooperation with the technical management of Sky Italy and delivered to the football league, Infront and to the tv production services, and to all the self-producers operating in Serie A.
He is very grateful to Sky for their help with this assignment.
We have to thank Sky Italy very much. They believed in the project and invested with great availability of means of production and technology at different levels, even in tests, with constant checks and feedback from the central plant.
For the graphics, Netco Sports, another subsidiary of the EMG group in Italy, and ISG, also participated in the tests, producing all the on-screen visuals and virtual mats natively in 4K UHD-HDR, perfectly the process of controlling colors, positioning, and white saturations.
All of the graphic sections had to undergo re-elaborations and adaptations, constitut
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
19/05/2026
Press Release
18 May 2026, Johannesburg South Africa has been selected as the...
19/05/2026
When all companies in the market are allowed to compete under the same set of ru...
19/05/2026
Battle-proven technology withstands electronic warfare threats across air, maritime surface and subsea domains....
19/05/2026
WESCAM MX-Series EO/IR systems provide high-precision targeting across domains, including counter-UAS applications...
19/05/2026
Champaign, IL - March 16, 2026 Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufa...
19/05/2026
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. April 16, 2026 - Cobalt Digital today announced a partnership ...
19/05/2026
Las Vegas - April 18, 2026 Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufactur...
19/05/2026
LAS VEGAS April 18, 2026 - Advanced HDR by Technicolor and Cobalt Digital are ...
19/05/2026
LAS VEGAS - May 4, 2026 - Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing products, and a founding partner in the openGear initiativ...
19/05/2026
London - 11 May 2026 Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufacturer of award-winning signal processing products, and a founding partner in the openGear...
19/05/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
19/05/2026
Celebrating its ability to quickly adapt to changing requirements, Ross Production Services (RPS) has put its flexible infrastructure to good use, switching one...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Grass Valley has entered into a three-year enterprise agreement with Phoenix Broadcast Solutions as the Singapore-based company expands its live production oper...
19/05/2026
Clear-Com supported Musikal Perahu Kertas, a large-scale musical theater production in Indonesia adapted from the acclaimed novel by Dee Lestari, through the d...
19/05/2026
Actus Digital, a LiveU company, and a leading provider of intelligent media monitoring and broadcast compliance platforms, announced today that METEO CONSULT ha...
19/05/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of managed services for the broadcast and media industry, today announced the completion of a major renovation of its Singapore fa...
19/05/2026
Following a major upgrade to its Connecticut remote production centre with the installation of three 60-fader Argo S consoles in 2023, RPS has switched one of t...
19/05/2026
PlayBox Technology today announced the launch of Celebro Play, a browser-based media orchestration platform designed specifically for broadcast facilities and p...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
LYNX Technik, provider of modular signal processing solutions for broadcast, post, and professional AV will showcase its latest signal processing solutions at B...
19/05/2026
Media Links, a leading developer and manufacturer of IP media transport solutions, has announced the integration of its Xscend platform with Skyline Communicat...
19/05/2026
Collaboration expands regional partner ecosystem as Media Links showcases IP media transport solutions on stand 4M4-4 and alongside Clearcast Asia on stand
Me...
19/05/2026
Company Highlights Labor-Saving Control and Custom Branding Opportunities Designed to Increase Integrator Profitability
LynTec, a leading manufacturer of ele...
19/05/2026
Mago Studio Moves AI Video Beyond Prompts with New Production-Focused Tools
Brie Clayton May 18, 2026
0 Comments
New Capabilities Bring Controllable, ...
19/05/2026
It May be Time to Stop and Take an AI Breather
Brie Clayton May 19, 2026
0 Comments
If the rock you stay on starts to roll, jump clean. Or you'll...
19/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils the Trailer for RAFA, the Documentary Series A...
19/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Expands Consumer Products Footprint with Strategic Con...
19/05/2026
Matt Derella Expands Leadership Across LinkedIn Ads and Microsoft Advertising Published on May 19, 2026 Categories: Company News
LinkedIn Corporate Commun...
19/05/2026
Harmonic's SeaStar Optical Node Enables Cost-Effective Broadband Service Expansion in Previously Underserved Brownfield MDU Environments SAN JOSE, Calif. - ...
18/05/2026
Despite a bumpy start to the year, the provider of event-production support and ...
18/05/2026
Daktronics has partnered with the University of North Carolina to manufacture and install 11 LED displays totaling more than 10,000 square feet and more than 14...
18/05/2026
CBS LA has announced a multi-year partnership with the Los Angeles Rams, covering exclusive local broadcasts of Rams preseason games, weekly year-round programm...
18/05/2026
Skyline Communications has announced an integration between its DataMiner xOps p...
18/05/2026
eCLUTCH, the hybrid esports platform powered by iKOMG, has announced an expansion of its distribution across Europe, MENA, Africa, and Asia, along with new cont...
18/05/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
18/05/2026
With 22 games this season, the production team looks forward to tweaking and enhancing the coverage
After 8,660 days off the air, the WNBA returned to NBC yest...
18/05/2026
(L-R) Midori Francis and Natalie Erika James attend the Saccharine premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre on January 22, 2026, in ...
18/05/2026
Last night, the Spotify Podcast Awards in Mexico returned to the country's capital. Now in its second year, the evening honors creators whose voices are hel...
18/05/2026
ZEN-Core synth goes mobile
Roland's powerful ZEN-Core software synthesizer has just been introduced to the iPad, offering a convenient entry point into ...
18/05/2026
Versatile new limiter plug-in announced
Based in Sheffield, UK, fedDSP offer a range of plug-ins that span the music production, live sound and high-end med...
18/05/2026
A new use for convolution?
Viiri Audio's debut plug-in aims to do something a little different with convolution processing, allowing users to adjust all...