Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

EXCLUSIVE: Home match for MagentaTV

24/09/2021

EXCLUSIVE: Home match for MagentaTV posted: 18/10/2021

by Bernhard Herrmann, Kevin Reimuth

If you wanted to watch all 51 matches of the UEFA EURO 2020 on screen this summer, in Germany you had to turn to MagentaTV. All matches were offered there in UHD and Dolby 5.1. As the service provider, Plazamedia was responsible for the studio production. Bernhard Herrmann was there for our issue 9.2021 in the nerve-racking 2-2 between Germany and Hungary.

The German national soccer team met the team from Hungary in their last preliminary round match of the UEFA EURO 2020 in the arena in Munich on June 23, 2021. They needed at least a draw to advance to the round of 16.

Around noon, the Plazamedia studio complex in Ismaning, Bavaria, just outside the city limits of Munich, is covered in summery sunshine. At the compound of Plazamedia, a company of Sport1 Medien AG, three Covid-19 test stations have been set up at the main entrance to the building. Each of the up to 120 employees who are present every day must undergo a PCR or rapid test according to a scenario agreed with the health department. Anyone who has completed their test and received the negative result will receive a colored bracelet for that day, which allows access to certain studios.

Plazamedia was commissioned by Deutsche Telekom as the general contractor. A total of three studios with an area of around 2,600 square meters, four playouts and a content center are used for MagentaTV. The technical production of all 51 games took place on 22 live production days between June 11 and July 11 on two HD and two UHD channels. As a content-related program service provider, thinXpool TV GmbH was responsible for all editorial aspects of the project. Hardy Steinweg, COO of Plazamedia GmbH, welcomes us and we take a seat at a beer table set in the shady courtyard. He explains the workflows, the technology used and what Plazamedia has set up for a month on the occasion of the production for MagentaTV for EURO 2020.

Live production area in the Plazamedia-Compound in Ismaning

The arena in Munich-Fr ttmaning, where the team's last preliminary round match will take place that day, is less than three kilometers away from the studios. Unfortunately, the German Weather Service has already issued a severe weather warning with thunderstorms and heavy rain for the kick-off of the game, which is nowhere to be suspected with the Bavarian white-blue sky still prevailing. Gradually, the employees from the various trades arrive at Plazamedia.

Augmented Reality and 3D graphics in the studio

In Plazamedia Studio M, a 250 square meter action area was available for MagentaTV programs. A 60 square meter LED video wall in 32: 9 format served as backdrop and was feeded with a Pandoras box system from Christie as a media server. The curved, black presenters desk in front of the video wall with monitors embedded in a semicircle was based on the Telekom logo.

The U-shaped, light gray and silver-colored wall elements with various large curves at the corners were mainly kept in Deutsche Telekoms CI color magenta. Two white circumferential light strips indirectly illuminate the rear and side walls above and below. In addition to around two dozen spotlights, points the size of a tennis ball made of reflective film stand out on the ceiling of the studio. These belong to the Mo-Sys StarTracker system, where an LED sensor is attached to each of three studio cameras. This is used to calibrate the position and orientation of the camera. Rotation and lens data are determined exactly. This data is sent to a rendering engine so that a virtual 3D graphic can be integrated into the 2D TV image as an augmented reality element.

The central equipment room was housed in an external container

With the help of this system, VIZRT graphics could be faded into the TV image as an animated steel frame of the roof of the Munich arena in the studio image, giving the impression that you were actually there. The transition from the real studio wall to the virtual roof consisted of the familiar real, but now virtual, wall elements in magenta color. In some scenes of the program, the graphic designers had pushed the high-contrast combination of studio colors in the virtual representation a little too far, so that the complementary colors no longer matched each other. The reflection of the color yellow from the virtual German flag even gave the presenter and an expert a yellowish color in the TV picture.

All of UEFAs on-air graphics were produced by Deltatre in UHD, assigned to the live stadium feed and made available to broadcasters for their own superimpositions. The respective statistic datas were recorded and distributed by Deltatre in the stadiums.

Five cameras for MagentaTV

Five UHD-capable Sony HDC 3500 with Fujinon HD Boxed 24x and Fujinon EFP wide-angle 14x lenses were used in the MagentaTV studio. Three cameras were on pump tripods. This setup was supplemented by a camera crane and a steadicam. The moderators were equipped with headband microphones and in-ears.

The LED screen and AR control were particularly important for additional information and the virtual extension of the studio.

For the MagentaTV analysis on the Magic Wall , expert Jan Henkel used a 100-inch UHD touchscreen with a Piero Sport graphics analysis system from Ross Video. He used various graphic 3D elements and markings to explain game- and goal-deciding scenes with routes and positions on the field that had previously been selected for analysis from the live stadium feed and saved locally. This enabled for instance goals to be explained at half-time on a sport-professional level (that did not require a trainer seminar for viewers, as was sometimes necessary for other TV stations). The sports graphics and analysis engine also offered everything to display the actions in video scenes frame by frame
LINK: https://www.live-production.tv/news/sports/exclusive-home-match-magent...
See more stories from liveproduction

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

10/07/2026

SVG GameDay, Ep. 23: Nashville Predators Teri Johnson - Throwing a Bash on Broadway

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

10/07/2026

Fujifilm Announces FUJINON GF19-35mmT3.5 PZ OIS WR Cinema Power Zoom Lens

FUJIFILM North America Corporation has announced the FUJINON GF19-35mmT3.5 PZ OIS WR, a cinema power zoom lens for the GFX System with native G Mount. The lens ...

10/07/2026

Dalet Releases Long-Term Supported Update to Dalet Flex

Dalet has announced a new Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex, expanding AI capabilities, workflow automation, and integration with Dalia, Dalet'...

10/07/2026

Blackmagic Design Releases Fairlight Live Audio Mixer Software

Blackmagic Design has released Fairlight Live, a free software-based broadcast audio mixer for Mac and Windows, available for download now. Simultaneously, the ...

10/07/2026

FloSports and USA South Athletic Conference Announce Exclusive Media Rights Partnership

FloSports and the USA South Athletic Conference have announced an exclusive medi...

10/07/2026

Daktronics Installs LED Video Board at Field of Dreams Ballpark in Dyersville, Iowa

Daktronics has manufactured and installed an LED video display at Field of Dream...

10/07/2026

Registration Opens for NAB Show New York 2026, October 21-22 at the Javits Center

Registration is now open for NAB Show New York 2026, taking place October 21-22 ...

10/07/2026

Sphere and Formula 1 Heineken Las Vegas Grand Prix Announce Five-Year Partnership Extension

Sphere Entertainment Co. and the Formula 1 Heineken Las Vegas Grand Prix have an...

10/07/2026

CBS Sports and Asian Football Confederation Announce U.S. Media Rights Agreement

CBS Sports and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have announced a media rights partnership covering the AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027 and the AFC U23 Asi...

10/07/2026

Sony Electronics Announces RX10 V with AI Autofocus and 4K 120p Video

Sony Electronics has announced the RX10 V, the fifth generation of its RX10 all-in-one camera series. The camera will be available in August 2026 at a suggested...

10/07/2026

Chyron Releases PRIME 5.4 with Newsroom Workflow Expansion and New Playout Options

Chyron has announced PRIME 5.4, an update to its unified graphics, playout, and ...

10/07/2026

Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Gene Mikell Dies at 87

The nine-time Emmy Award-winning video engineer was a pioneer of NASCAR in-car cameras and a longtime fixture in FOX Sports' video-control operation...

10/07/2026

Fubo Appoints Alisa Bowen as Chief Executive Officer

FuboTV Inc. has announced the appointment of Alisa Bowen as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 10. Bowen succeeds David Gandler, who co-founded the company...

10/07/2026

Ratings Roundup: USMNT-Belgium on FOX Top Soccer Telecast in U.S. History; Mexico-England on Telemundo Sets Spanish-Language Record

Every entry on Nielsen's Top 25 Live Sports Events Telecasts for the week of...

10/07/2026

BravesVision GM Jeff Cravens on Launching MLBs Newest Team-Owned Network in 35 Days

The Braves opted to keep production in-house rather than hand it off to MLB...

10/07/2026

PBR Teams Ready To Roll at CSU for Opening Weekend 2026

Drones, jibs, robos are part of the expanded camera complement for the Professional Bull Riders series PBR Teams' 2026 season, with a 10-team field competi...

10/07/2026

20 Years Later, We're All Still Part of the Little Miss Sunshine Family

(L-R) Michael Arndt, Paul Dano, Toni Collette, Valerie Faris, Abigail Breslin, Jonathan Dayton, and Greg Kinnear attend the Park City Legacy program screening o...

10/07/2026

AES Show Nashville: Early Bird registration opens

Discounted rates available through 27 August 2026 The Audio Engineering Society (AES) have announced that Early Bird registration is now open for the AES Sh...

10/07/2026

Sony introduce the IER-M500

New in-ear monitors to launch in August 2026 Sony have announced the upcoming launch of a new pair of in-ear monitors that promise to deliver a secure, stab...

10/07/2026

Apogee CRAS Symphony Mkii Upgrade Case Study

Why CRAS Upgraded to Symphony I/O MK II When an audio school runs studios all day, every day, gear doesn't just need to sound good , it needs to survive rea...

10/07/2026

FreeCast Cities To Stream Local TV, Premium Channels

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

10/07/2026

Hey Man, Cheech & Chong's Last Movie Rolls With SNS EVO

Hey Man, Cheech & Chong's Last Movie Rolls With SNS EVO Melanie Ciotti July 10, 2026 0 Comments Richard Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong have long b...

10/07/2026

Alex Zarfati's Fail Safe Shot with Blackmagic PYXIS 12K

Alex Zarfati's Fail Safe Shot with Blackmagic PYXIS 12K Brie Clayton July 10, 2026 0 Comments Camera's full frame sensor supports anamorphic s...

10/07/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ing...

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

10/07/2026

N.Y. State Broadcasters Association Selects Hall of Fame Class of 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

10/07/2026

Chyron's PRIME 5.4 Brings Template Experience to More Newsrooms

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

10/07/2026

Registration Opens for 2026 NAB Show New York

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

10/07/2026

IAB Releases Redefining Media Types' Standard for Public Comment

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

10/07/2026

Wedotv FAST Channels Launch on TiVo Platforms in Europe

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

10/07/2026

Sage Offers Guidance on EAS Password Changes

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

10/07/2026

Media Organizations Are Data-Rich but Data-Fragmented - Is This You?

Data has always been central to media operations. Every ad that airs, every campaign that delivers, and every audience that's measured- all of it generates ...

10/07/2026

New RT documentary explores Irish-led efforts to build bridges

New RT documentary explores Irish-led efforts to build bridges in divided Cyprus More than a Game: From D1 to Pyla airs Monday 13 July More Than a Game: Fro...

09/07/2026

Omaha Productions Goes All-In as World Series of Poker Main Event Returns to ESPN

With 50+ cameras, three trucks, 60+ EVS channels, RFID hole-card workflows, and ...

09/07/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Dana Shearer, Syracuse University

A recent graduate from Westchester, NY, this experienced technician has already started her first gig in the industry, as a REMI A2 Comms Specialist at ESPN In...

09/07/2026

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Lightcasts Andreas Kisslinger on the Role of Automation, Cloud-Based Workflows in Streaming

Live sports production is a fast-paced industry with no signs of slowing down. W...

09/07/2026

TV Skyline, thinXpool, DMC Production Collaborate on Deutsche Telekom's World Cup From NYC

From a rooftop studio in Manhattan, multiple Germany-based companies share respo...

09/07/2026

FOX One and Overtime Announce Creator Series Race to Glory for FIFA World Cup 2026

Overtime has announced a content partnership with FOX One to produce Race to Glo...

09/07/2026

Ross Production Services Standardizes on Clear-Com Intercom Across Mobile Production Fleet

Clear-Com has announced that Ross Production Services (RPS) has standardized on ...

09/07/2026

NetApp Returns as Presenting Partner of 2026 NFL Madrid Game

The NFL has announced that NetApp will return as Presenting Partner of the NFL Madrid Game, featuring the Atlanta Falcons against the Cincinnati Bengals at the ...

09/07/2026

The R&A and Cisco Announce Multi-Year Network Infrastructure Partnership

The R&A and Cisco have announced a multi-year partnership making Cisco the Official Network Supplier of The R&A and its Championships. Cisco will deploy AI-read...

09/07/2026

Fox Television Stations, Extreme Reach, and LTN Complete Live Syndication of 25 Words or Less LIVE

Fox Television Stations, Extreme Reach (XR), and LTN have announced the completi...

09/07/2026

Wynn Records Launches Direct-to-Consumer Streaming Platform Powered by Kiswe

Kiswe has announced a partnership with Wynn Records to launch the Wynn Records Network streaming platform, debuting Saturday, July 11 with a Salita Promotions b...

09/07/2026

NEP Europe Announces Multi-Year Agreement as Wimbledon Broadcast Services Provider

NEP Europe has announced a new multi-year agreement with Wimbledon Broadcast Ser...

09/07/2026

Thropic Games Raises Pre-Seed Round Led by The Famous Group

Thropic Games, a company offering casual mobile games tied to fan fundraising for sports programs, has announced a pre-seed funding round led by The Famous Grou...

09/07/2026

Game Creek Video Purchases 10 Grass Valley K-Frame Switchers for Fleet Expansion

Game Creek Video has reached an agreement with Grass Valley to purchase 10 K-Frame production switchers as part of a two-year fleet expansion. Two systems have ...

09/07/2026

Gravity Media Powers ITVs FIFA World Cup Coverage with Three-Hub Remote Production

Gravity Media is delivering a three-hub remote production workflow for ITV's...

09/07/2026

Report: North American Broadcast Journalists Spend Up to 75% of Time on Technical Workflows

A new report from Quickplay and Caretta Research, The Broadcaster Revolution Wi...