Mediaset, since 1992 with Champions League, has renewed their commitment.
Premium, the on demand pay tv by Mediaset, has the exclusive broadcast rights for the next 2 editions of the UEFA Champions League. Yves Confalonieri, Editorial Contents Director, says: "For us it is clear that the Champions League is not only an investment in tv rights, although quite expensive. It is a real big event. In fact not only it involves the transmissions of the matches in high quality, but also the entire event management, such as pre and post matches from studio. We have added new talents, and we want to return the excitement typical of the stadium.
The choice of the set design in studio also tries to restore the vision of the curve in the stadium, with the conductors virtually present in the venue.
Fabio Cazzaniga, Director of Sports Productions says: "I am managing a team of 45 people with executive producers, an international office that oversees the management of the UEFA contract with all technical specifications (Broadcaster Manual). 145 matches are to be produced and in Italy and we also have an obligation to produce all the matches of the Italian teams, so the home games of Roma and of Juventus. Besides that, we have the ability to integrate all the other matches abroad, I.e. customize the international clean feed with Italian contents.
The commitment is considerable and, for example, in the customization we were asked for a dedicated camera exclusively shooting images to be relayed to the study in Milan that handles pre and post matches, showing images on special monitors walls within the sets and returning a stadium feeling. This camera is usually placed on the second seats row, so we are equipped to bring the viewer more and more "inside the stadium."
Mediaset fields ob-vans to broadcast the international clean feed and even a smaller mobile vehicle to realize the customization for Italian broadcasts. For example, for the recent Roma-Barcelona match we deployed 135 people, talents, technicians and operators, with two control rooms, one dedicated to the international signal and one the the exclusive personalization of the national signal.
In addition, we defined that when our teams play abroad, the people involved in integration images are around 35, and employ more than six cameras.
We want to be less American style and more Italian to enhance the product we have, respecting the Italian character of the parent company profile, Mediaset."
Luca Festa, Executive Director says: "The technical specifications of the Uefa is not compelling, they indicate the use of a mandatory minimum 14 cameras and since we like to do things right, in some cases-as in the first game of the group stage, Roma Barcelona - we deployed as many as 23 cameras.
Commitment is heavy and it took even a spidercam which is an investment for the costs.
Then two mobile production units are involved, the one that governs the international video feed and the one dedicated to the personalization for the Italian market.
Euroscena from Rome is the tech service company that was chosen to cover Roma Barcelona and many other sports events.
In addition to the spidercam we added a Hypermotion, always maximum coverage on the back goal vision and the front; then we use two steadicam, two cameras in reverse shots that capture grimaces, faces and expressions of coaches, plus two cameras pointed directly on the public called "fan reaction" able to catch every public sensation.
The Sports Agency, the editorial working group by Premium, not only has to worry about feeding the various sports channels of Premium, but must also produce stories for the news TG5 and various contributions for Italia 1, then everything broadcast on the FTA channels.
The UEFA today also requires continuous recording of all cameras in XDCAM Isocam since they produce a video magazine linked to the Champions League.
All the signals of the cameras are recorded simultaneously and the two vehicles directed talk to each other on a the network, so each image of each of the two vehicles is provided for the other and feasible for broadcast."
