Europe, Gearhouse Broadcast, Customer Driven, Technology Focused, Best of Breed
Project: Football World Cup 2002
Client: Host Broadcast Services (HBS)
Gearhouse Broadcast provided production facilities each of the 10 venues in Korea for the 2002 Football World Cup for client HBS, the host broadcaster. Covering more venues than any other single supplier, the requirement was technically and logistically complex due to the time scales involved with 32 matches to be covered in just 30 days. Each of the digital modular fly-away systems supplied were able to accommodate the 24 cameras and 12 EVS machines needed by production to generate the high standard of coverage achieved.
Technology
The project had a sophisticated audio plan, Gearhouse Broadcast invested in 5 Soundcraft B800 multi-bus broadcast mixing consoles and 10 BSS 9088 Soundwebs to provide five flyaway systems to achieve the HBS audio broadcast plan in Korea. More than 30 microphones were used at each match to fulfil HBS's requirement for "unrivalled immediacy and involvement in the event". As well as audio, the digital flyaway systems incorporated state of the art camera control units, video distribution, video routers, camera control units and comms systems. The systems were assembled by Gearhouse Broadcast in London and air freighted to Korea, where they were transported between matches by truck.
Production
The quality of production was a critical factor on an event this size considering that it was one of the most watched events across the world. According to Peter Angell, Director of Production for HBS "With the highly complex movement plan for both the 3 production and 5 technical teams, we needed to be sure that we had complete consistency between the venue facilities, whilst at the same time allowing each production team to have individually customised vision monitoring, vision desk and EVS set-ups. That this was achieved was a key factor in delivering consistently high-level production from all matches, whatever the combination of venue, facility and production team."
Testimonial
"The engineering crew were well selected, all highly experienced and motivated professionals. All technical problems were sorted out on site immediately; there was even time for improvements during the event itself, helping the match director to improve his own individual performance. Part of the my early discussion with Gearhouse Broadcast was that fly-away kit needed to be designed that could be rigged / operated / de-rigged / transported between venues in less than 24 hours, due to the specific constraints with respect to the match schedule. In close cooperation with Gearhouse Broadcast this has been achieved, thanks to the detailed planning of these kits all the tight turn arounds were managed very smoothly." Jorg Sander, Director of Venue Operations for HBS
Logistical Expertise
The logistical side of this project was not without its challenges. According to Tim Stead, Director of Logistics for HBS "Given the size and weight of the equipment and the complex schedule of movements required I consider that the operation went smoothly…Once we had done the first couple of rigs and de-rigs the team settled into routines and the timing was consistent.
Compliments to your crews in general who worked until the job was done….There was a huge amount of planning required and this paid off. Given the constraints of number of kits the movements worked. We were aided by solid backup from the Gearhouse Broadcast teams who followed the plan and worked hard."
Jorg Sander finishes with a statement summing the relationship up "Overall I'm very happy with what we achieved; it was a good decision to select Gearhouse Broadcast as one of our major providers for this event".
