The official agreements see Italian broadcaster RAI charged by UEFA for filming and delivering internationally the so called "multilateral" tv program of all qualifying matches of Serie A on the Italian soil.
It is, in fact, RAI to implement the video program, supplied with no audio commentary but with custom UEFA graphics, for all tv stations on the international circuit of televisions who bought the broadcast rights.
Massimo Tomirotti RAI is the technical manager of two of such events, in Palermo, Italy vs Azerbaijan on 10th October at San Siro stadium, Milan, on 16th November, Croatia vs Italy.
The two matches are emblematic since they propose the typical format requested by UEFA.
However, there are substantial differences mainly due to the customization of the Italian TV channels that will broadcast the live events, that is RAI Sport, RAI1 and RAI 501HD.
Both events involve a complex management and the multilateral program in HD created for UEFA must follow a format for the shooting plan.
The coverage must provide for a minimum of 13 cameras, during the qualifying play-offs.
Many cameras are engaged in filming "standard" frames, i.e. some are positioned to catch a long shot from the stands, others to describe a narrow field, then the images from the back goal and then a number of other cameras are in the field for the "personalization" of the 'event.
All cameras employed by RAI are LDK8000 by Grass Valley equipped with Canon 72x HD and 82X lenses; plus some 21x wide-angle Canon are involved.
A steadicam will also be used on field, equipped with a high frequency link by Thomson 2.5 GHz; it s located at the left of the soccer field with respect to the classic front camera position on left corner. This camera delivers images at the beginning of the matches for the presentation of the teams during the national anthems and then is moving to the left to shoot the necessary images.
Tomirotti says: "The RAI has several others HD radio camera transmission equipments, but we decided to use devices by Thomson at 2.5 GHz as I consider them for this occasion more performant from the point of view of the video quality settings, and because in the case of shooting a "super-flash" at the end of the match, there would be no audio delay.
In the placing of the cameras RAI also is providing 4 super slow-mo by Grass Valley LDK 8000, a 6200, and 8300.
These video signals are discrete fed to be each input of EVS.
The vehicle engaged by RAI for the multilateral is a 14 meter truck called "Milan1 HD", with control room expansion, based on a double video and audio control zone, capable to implement sound in 5.1 channels plus stereo simulcast, for a total of eight audio channels.
Milan 1 HD is capable of handling 18 cameras plus two radio cameras and on board we find a Sony video mixer MWS Series 8000A, a 4-channel DVE DME8000A, audio mixer Stagetech Aurus 40 fader, loudness control and a multi effect by TC Electronic model 6000, two sets of wireless microphones by Wisicom 8 channels each.
Always on board we find a video matrix Trinix NXT 128x128 Grass Valley, an Adam as intercom to 128 ports intercom, WDCAM recording devices, monitory (some oled) in video control room consists of 32 units 17" Panasonic, and a second mixer video by Sony and secondary audio mixer by Soundcraft SI 24 inputs connected via madi to the main desk Aurus for a flexible management of audio resources.
A different vehicle is engaged for RVM and replay, with two six-channel EVS XT2 and two BLT Tricam HD. The tv compound is flanked by two RAI power generating vehicles, with bi-generator group of 90KV/a and a further support vehicle to collect luggage and camera tripods, cables, brackets, optical fibers, etc.
