LIVESAT Techniques, vehicles and broadcast services (2: personalizations on soccer fields)
The Livesat Company by Dario Colombini specializes in the customization of sporting events and among the regular customers appear SKY, RAI and Mediaset.
For example, in football, Infront handles the international rights of the football matches and contracts out filming to companies capable to operate through large mobile vehicles, i.e. trucks with 10, 12 cameras that produce the program aired internationally (the so called Clean Feed).
At the same time some smaller companies such as Livesat are called on the field for all the necessary integrations, for example by SKY Italia.
The international signal provided by the host broadcaster is received and recorded in the systems onboard the vehicle involved in the integration, but it can not be used during the match.
Instead, during the pre-game, you can hear the opinion of the referee, or connect with a player on the field, in a special slot called "mini flash" or at the end of the game where these interventions are called "super flash".
Even after the showers this vehicle and its selected crew will produce other images that are called "flash" or "mix" and the various interviews that journalists sent by the client (SKY, RAI, etc) can make directly from the soccer fields.
A quick interview is recordable or can be sent on air between the two parts of the match: a player is often involved when he leaves the football ground and goes into the locker room; this interview is called "mini flash".
The same interview conducted at the end of the second round and at the end of the match is called "super flash".
The interview with the footballer after a shower, just a few minutes after he enters the locker room, is shot in the "flash zone", while the one made after the player has already changed and he is about to return to the bus is called "in mix".
These interviews are often aired live and there is often interaction with the reporter in the studio of the main headquarters of the broadcaster involved, for example SKY, asking live questions.
Usually the interviewee is the one who made the score or a good action.
The journalist in the main studio requires a review of the various actions on field.
Usually in a setup of this type a camera is positioned on the opposite side of the bench -in reverse- to capture the coaches and the camera makes use of very long lenses 78x or 80x, while the other two cameras are placed after the goal.
One of the cameras is often used by the journalist on the sideline to present the event way before the game starts, creating the right expectations.
The other camera is often placed in the back of the goal but always ready to document the entry of players even up to 20 minutes before the game.
It also records valuable phases of training, even before the host broadcaster sends his images to air.
Once over the so called "Pit presentation" (a sort of initial establishing shot of the camera on the sideline), the second camera goes to the opposite side, so during the game we have the two cameras in diameter position that can record any intervention for the client who wanted the personalization.
As for the graphics which is a prominent part of this activity, usually a specific company call from the broadcaster (Sky, this time) is housed aboard the ob-van of Livesat and creates the graphics for the specific event, thanks to equipment that are assembled and disassembled on the bus from time to time adapting them to the nature of each event.
"Given that the entire production is carried out only in high definition, recently we were forced to change all the equipments, including video mixer ," says Dario Colombini , " as well as the cameras. The mixers are from For- A and cameras are by Panasonic Sony and Grass Valley.
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