Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

To 4G, or Not To 4G: EMG on Bringing the Iconic 2024 London Marathon to Viewers Globally

22/04/2024

To 4G, or not to 4G: EMG on bringing the iconic 2024 London Marathon to viewers globally By Heather McLean

Friday, April 19, 2024 - 09:09

Print This Story

EMG is deploying four bikes in a 4G transmission backup test using LiveU units for the London Marathon 2024

This weekend nearly 66,000 people will don their favourite trainers, liberally apply a layer of lubricant to body parts that are likely to chafe, and pin on their numbers for the iconic London Marathon.

Being brought to TV screens around the world in its entirety by host broadcaster, the BBC, the broadcast of this 43 year old race is being carried out by technical services provider, EMG.

The London Marathon first took place in 1981 and has become one of the most popular marathons in the world. The route takes in many of London's best landmarks including Buckingham Palace, The Cutty Sark, Tower Bridge and Canary Wharf, and bringing it all to life is EMG.

We do have an enhanced RF system that gives us diversity across that section of the marathon and coverage through the tunnels. And we're going to monitor the 4G [on bikes] and see what it does in those tunnels

This year the marathon has a reduced OB setup compared to previous years, with four rather than the previous six OBs along the route. Livermore explains: The marathon is a multi-site event. This year we have large outside broadcast units at the start in Blackheath, at Cutty Sark in Greenwich, at Tower Bridge and then at the finish line on Canada Gate. EMG Connectivity is deploying single camera 4G LiveU units and interview positions out across the marathon, which should give it a different feel to previous years.

Those units will be at Limehouse, where there will also be roving reporters, and at Blackfriars. Says Livermore: Depending on the success of those sites, and additional tests that we are doing this year, it has the potential to grow.

EMG's Mark Houghton and James Halliday testing RF connectivity prior to the 2024 London Marathon

To 4G or not to 4G

Those other tests are into the reliability of bonded 4G units, he notes. The issue that we've always had with any 4G or LiveU kits is the only time to test their viability for the London Marathon is at the London Marathon. At no other time do you have that number of people moving around in a cluster. The time that you want to film them is when there's a huge mass of people that arrive in that exact location. We are testing bikes [with LiveU units] this year, as a backup to the traditional [RF] links to the aeroplane.

In total, four bikes will be involved in the 4G backup test, which says Livermore, will give us a good indication of how well they work. EMG Connectivity has worked hard in integrating the systems into the existing bike setup, with bespoke mounting and switchable comms.

The most challenging aspect of the route is along the Blackfriars section of the marathon, where, there's a lot of tunnels and underpasses, notes Livermore. We do have an enhanced RF system that gives us diversity across that section of the marathon and coverage through the tunnels. And we're going to monitor the 4G [on bikes] and see what it does in those tunnels.

We know that [4G] works in a quiet London in our tests outside of the London Marathon, but we're looking at what it does when [the city is] loaded with people and how the bikes perform through those sections. We're all looking forward to seeing the results.

Drone perspectives

New for the London Marathon in 2024 is the use of drones. There will be one at the start and one at the finish, providing those first and last mile shots to bring a new perspective to the footage, between the helicopter view and the jibs.

The drones are a new thing for the marathon; it hasn't been done before. There's one at the start on Blackheath and then one in the Queen Elizabeth Gardens at Canada Gate. We've had hoists in those positions in previous years, but we're hoping for a bit more movement from the drone, and they can get higher to give a more aerial shot. It's that nice in-between the hoist and the heli, that's what the drone gives you. And if we have some fine weather, it's going to look spectacular.

The drones will add to that sense of place for viewers at home watching the marathon, giving a view of the race itself and also spectacular glimpses of central London with its iconic buildings and bridges.

At the London Marathon, Aerial Camera Systems (ACS) will provide the helicopters and aeroplane with EMG Connectivity on the transmissions and ground links and BT on the backhaul connectivity

Connecting cameras

The cameras being used are Sony HDC 4300's as standard and some Sony HDC 3500's. Meanwhile, Aerial Camera Systems (ACS) will provide the helicopters and aeroplane with EMG Connectivity on the transmissions and ground links and BT on the backhaul connectivity.

RF equipment on board the RF relay aircraft for the London Marathon 2024

All of the inter-site feeds this year are being done as usual via satellite at BT's main satellite earth station, Madley Communications Centre, where over 65 giant satellite dishes dominate the 63-acre site in Herefordshire.

Says Livermore: We downlink them at Madeley, not at the finish line, because it's just more resilient to bring those feeds down to a large dish than it is to bring them down onto another satellite truck with a small dish; it's more resilient in terms of weather.

Then we bring those feeds back via BT Tower and get them to Canada Gate at the finish line where the presentation scanner is. This truck brings all of those feeds together, including the bikes, the helis, any of the live view kits that are out. Its where the final programme is made.

Meanwhile, the international feed is done at the BBC's base in Salford.
LINK: https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/to-4g-or-not-to-4g-emg-on-bri...
See more stories from svg

North America Stories

02/07/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Abby Finke, University of Dayton

Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD In the live-sports...

02/07/2026

SVG GameDay, Ep. 22: Winnipeg Jets Kyle Balharry - Going to Work in the Great White North

In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...

02/07/2026

BLAST Reports $133 Million in 2025 Revenue, Opens New York Headquarters

BLAST, a competitive entertainment company focused on esports, has announced more than $133 million in revenue for 2025, representing more than 40% year-over-ye...

02/07/2026

Riedel and SKAARHOJ Expand Collaboration with SimplyLive Integration

Riedel Communications has announced official SKAARHOJ panel support for SimplyLive production workflows, enabled through the SimplyLive 2.1 release. The integra...

02/07/2026

Czech Fire Rescue Service Deploys LiveU Video Transmission for Emergency Operations

The Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic has deployed LiveU video-over-bond...

02/07/2026

Gravity Media USA Appoints Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development

Gravity Media USA has announced the appointment of Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development, effective July 1, 2026. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Bosto...

02/07/2026

TwelveLabs Raises $100 Million in Series B Funding

TwelveLabs, a video intelligence company, has announced $100 million in Series B funding co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with participation from Amazon, Radic...

02/07/2026

Pro Padel League Announces Broadcast Partnership With USA Sports for 2026 Season

The Pro Padel League (PPL) has announced a broadcast partnership with USA Sports that will air five PPL championship matches on CNBC during the 2026 season, the...

02/07/2026

LiveLike Powers Eight FIFA World Cup 2026 Fan Engagement Activations Across Five Continents

LiveLike, a digital fan engagement platform, has announced eight confirmed FIFA ...

02/07/2026

InfoComm 2026: Cobalt Digitals blueCORE Wins Futures Best of Show Award

Cobalt Digital has received Future's Best of Show Award, presented by AV Technology at InfoComm 2026, for its blueCORE family of standalone signal processor...

02/07/2026

Synamedia Appoints Dr. Tzvi Gerstl as CEO

Synamedia has announced the appointment of Dr. Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transition...

02/07/2026

Esports World Cup 2026 Announces Expanded Sony Partnership for Paris Event

The Esports Foundation (EF) and Sony Group Corporation have announced an expanded collaboration for the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC), taking place in Paris, Fra...

02/07/2026

Zee Entertainment Secures Exclusive Bundesliga Rights in India for Five Years

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. ( Z') has announced exclusive broadcast and digital rights for the Bundesliga in India for five years, beginning with the...

02/07/2026

All Hands on Deck: NBCU Comes Together to Produce Ultra-Complex Sail4th 250 Broadcast on July 4

NBCU brings together News, Sports, Local, and Telemundo for a 50+ camera live pr...

02/07/2026

Release Rundown: What to Watch in July, From Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass to Murder 101

Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Ben Wang appe...

02/07/2026

Imagine Communications Acquired by Lumine Group

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/07/2026

Rise AV APAC Brings Mentoring Conversation to InfoComm As...

Following the successful launch of its inaugural APAC Mentoring Programme last month, the Rise AV APAC Regional Council will bring the conversation around mento...

02/07/2026

Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out

Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out Brie Clayton July 2, 2026 0 Comments Highly mobile camera supports tense and de...

02/07/2026

Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, media and communications infrastructure

Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, medi...

02/07/2026

Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversary Celebration of the Declaration of Independence

Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversar...

02/07/2026

Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE

Broadcast Solutions GmbH, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is acquiring BFE Studio und Medien...

02/07/2026

LiveMode builds agile content ingest with Cinegy

Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has extended the ingest facility at leading Brazilian sports company LiveMode, work...

02/07/2026

Synamedia Appoints Dr Tzvi Gerstl CEO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/07/2026

Cobalt Digitals blueCORE Wins Futures Best of Show Award...

Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...

02/07/2026

Synamedia Appoints Dr Tzvi Gerstl as CEO as Company Enter...

Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...

02/07/2026

Maxon Autograph: Introduction to working with Tables

Maxon Autograph: Introduction to working with Tables Simon Ubsdell July 1, 2026 0 Comments An overview of Autograph's ridiculously powerful tables...

02/07/2026

Boston Conservatory's Soire Breaks Records to Fund Student Scholarships

Boston Conservatory's Soir e Breaks Records to Fund Student Scholarships The event achieved 127 percent of its fundraising goal in an evening celebrating ...

02/07/2026

How Adam Rosenwach Pivoted from Music to Med Tech Without Missing a Beat

How Adam Rosenwach Pivoted from Music to Med Tech Without Missing a Beat What do the rehearsal room and the boardroom have in common? More than you might thin...

02/07/2026

Warner Bros. Discovery UK & Ireland backs Unacceptable for a second series on TLC ahead of Sunday's premiere

Warner Bros. Discovery UK & Ireland backs Unacceptable for a second series on TL...

02/07/2026

Joyride Through July With 12 Games Coming to GeForce NOW

Summer is heating up - and GeForce NOW is taking players along for the ride. Start the month with Monopoly: Star Wars Heroes vs. Villains, bringing a galaxy fa...

01/07/2026

Broadcast Management Group Appoints Kathy Samuels as Director of Creative Services

Broadcast Management Group (BMG) has announced the appointment of Kathy Samuels ...

01/07/2026

Shade Launches Custom Objects and Automations

Shade has announced Custom Objects and Automations, a platform expansion releasing June 29, 2026, that adds database and workflow automation capabilities direct...

01/07/2026

FOR-A America Adds Two Regional Sales Leaders

FOR-A America has announced the addition of Jaz Wray and Fernando Cruz to its U.S. sales team. Both report to Ernie Leon, Senior VP and Head of Sales and Strate...

01/07/2026

NBC Sports To Present All 15 MLB Games Nationally on July 4 Weekend Star-Spangled Sunday'

NBC Sports will air all 15 MLB games nationally on Sunday, July 5, across NBC, P...

01/07/2026

Clear-Com Upgrades Wireless Communications for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune

Clear-Com has announced a wireless communications upgrade for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, deploying FreeSpeak II and FreeSpeak Icon systems across both prod...

01/07/2026

England Deploys Sony STATSports Live GPS Tracking at FIFA World Cup 2026

England's performance team will use Sony's STATSports APEX GPS tracking system to monitor player physical data in real time during FIFA World Cup 2026 m...

01/07/2026

Adder Technology Appoints Neil Hillier as CEO

Adder Technology has announced the appointment of Neil Hillier as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2026. Hillier succeeds Adrian Dickens, who transiti...

01/07/2026

Bitcentral Splits Into Two Companies: Bitcentral and ViewNexa

Bitcentral, Inc. has announced a strategic transaction creating two separate companies. The Production and Playout business will continue as Bitcentral, now own...

01/07/2026

DAZN48 Creator Initiative Draws Global Participation for FIFA World Cup 2026

DAZN has announced results from DAZN48, its creator initiative for the FIFA World Cup 2026. Launched in April 2026, the program received thousands of applicatio...

01/07/2026

IDEA To Induct Daktronics Sarah Rose Into Hall of Fame

Sarah Rose, VP, global services, Daktronics (NASDAQ: DAKT), will be inducted into the Information Display and Entertainment Association (IDEA) Hall of Fame at t...

01/07/2026

Gravity Media Delivers Distribution and Streaming Services for World Economic Forum in Dalian

Gravity Media and the World Economic Forum's production team provided broadc...

01/07/2026

Insight Productions Launches Insight Storm, a 53-Foot Esports Broadcast Truck

Insight Productions has announced the launch of Insight Storm, a 53-foot mobile broadcast unit built for esports production. The truck is built around a Ross Vi...

01/07/2026

ESPN Announces America 250 Content Initiatives Across Platforms

ESPN has announced several content initiatives marking America's 250th anniversary, as part of The Walt Disney Company's Disney Celebrates America pro...

01/07/2026

At Cosm, FIFA World Cup 2026 Is a Coming-of-Age Moment as Shared Reality Becomes Bucket-List Entertainment

Eleven production kits, REMI workflows, and cloud distribution bring 40 World Cu...

01/07/2026

SVG Regional Sports Production Summit Draws Industry Leaders to Denver for Deep Dive on Evolving RSN Landscape

The conference also discussed the opportunities offered an industry that is endu...

01/07/2026

Mountain West Launches MW+ Streaming Platform Powered by Kiswe

The Mountain West Conference has announced the launch of MW , a direct-to-consumer streaming platform powered by Kiswe. The platform will carry live Mountain We...

01/07/2026

FCC Plans to Auction 160 MHZ of Midband Spectrum

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

CBS Miami Launches Hope 4 Venezuela' Relief Effort

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

Riedel, SKAARHOJ Expand Collaboration With SimplyLive Integration

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

Gray Media to Buy American Spirit Media's TV Stations

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...