It 's definitely the most important sporting event in Italy and certainly one of the largest in the world: the Giro d'Italia, now reached the 2013 edition.
Italian state broadcaster RAI and RCS Sport recently signed an agreement granting rights of deployment, transmission and utilization of cycling races on television by RCS Sport.
Matteo pastore, Head of Media Rights and Relations RCS Sport - La Gazzetta dello Sport says: "This is a historic turning point in defining the role of RAI as Host Broadcaster, head of the television signal, produced with HD standards, overseen by an international direction and declined on two different models of production.
The duration of the agreement is 4 years, from 2013, and contemporarily it was prepared and defined a production technical manual which defines and specifies the role of RAI as Host Broadcaster responsible for the production of audio-visual International and Domestic tv signal of the cycling races, with HD production and international technical control."
Enrico Motta is the Project Manager of this production and big events for "Rai Produzione Grandi Eventi" which is a division of RAI that is principally concerned with the events of greater public success, as the name suggests, and especially devoted to sports, but not only.
He declared: "It was a huge breakthrough accomplished by making a responsible step at a time, we studied the possible, we are doing the impossible but with some caution, with measured steps."
The big difference from previous editions is that this year the RAI not only produces everything in HD but it also FTA broadcasts in HD on channel 501 of the digital terrestrial service, DTTV, plus the usual satellite platform in Tvsat bouquet.
The entire production team is involved in direct broadcasts, plus also in the contributions to the news bulletins, the several evening shows for the various stories of RAI Sport 1, Rai Sport 2, Rai 3 (the network dedicated to cycling), the journalistic contributions to other channels of RAI, with a production that is active for sixteen hours a day and that makes a monstrous amount of images that add up to about eight hours of programming per day.
In the team we definitely mean to remember the Head of Major Events of RAI and also deputy director of TV Production, Dr. Maurizio Ciarnò that on the basis of the projects proposed and tech meetings, gives the "ok to proceed".
Now the mechanism is more than run-in, since 1998 Enrico Motta and the team have set up and then refined the system that for the first time last year was upgraded to HD. And this year the grat piece of news is that everything is being broadcast in HD on CH 501 o DTT (though not many in Italy are aware of this so far).
"The system works and is functional and working," says Motta. "Basically, the work day is divided into three parts beginning with the dawn, around six in the morning, where you start with the installation of the systems, with the occupation of the space needed to pull back and complete all structural wiring. Then once you create the wiring ridges the team that takes care of the shooting takes over, connecting all the links to the OB-van on the spot for filming; the technical and production units, everything is tested and put into operation.
The TV compound this year is totally interconnected by optical fiber to a central "star like" hub that collects all the signals and combines together all the vans shooting engaged and also all the peripherals equipments, and the commentator locations that are physically on the grandstand near the finish line, connecting also the studio where the program "Il processo alla tappa" on Rai Sport is shot. Everything arrives at the tv compound by a fiber optic ring redundant in order to avert problems even in the case of interruption.
