The MotoGP World Championship is a television product made by Dorna and this year for five years in a row, the tv rights are in the hands of SKY Italy. And so, as it happens in all -large and small- sports events, SKY is not happy to simply repeat the feed proposed by the official host broadcaster and directly integrates the signals with customized information created through dedicated personnel and technical means.
In the case of the motorcycle World Championship technical and editorial team are sent by SKY on every circuit.
According to the "geography" of the circuits the layout of the radio cameras is decided and many shots are taken directly from the paddocks and pit lane with audio comments of the journalists.
During each competition the images are shot by Grass valley cameras and GigaWave links, which operate on authorization for the local frequencies provided, tested and assigned by Dorna.
Much of the material is also shot during the post event that is primarily devoted to the analysis of the race.
All the spoken commentary is made on site in a special booth on the location with journalists that comment assisting to all tv signals, getting the information of the data base created in collaboration with Dorna.
All the work is performed as a personalization of the main broadcast feed. The signal arrives at the control room and here the graphic customization is applied, but also the commentary, integrated with all the interviews from the pits, and a few replays where necessary.
All technicians, about twenty, are Italian and to achieve this customization it was not chosen to use an OB-van but a small series of mobile flight cases placed in a special compound.
Among the brands we mention Evertz hired for SPG and GPS, multiviewer VIPX matrix and fiber system Evertz Xenon, RTS Intercom Adam-M, Glensound for commentator boots, Stagetec Crescendo console, mixer and video replay by Grass Valley, Vizrt GFX for graphics, monitor Samsung 46" and JVC 27", and more.
The service in charge is One Television with Andrea Gianolli that coordinates the operations on site and personally controls the delicate shipments and assembly in every race.
Three or four flight cases contain all the audio and video equipments, the receivers of the radio cameras, the video mixer , etc. .
Once defined the conductors and the technical structure, the team plans the shots, ins and outs of the images and the graphics, then all the wipes, the speed of every story, the way clips are created and give a brief clip to the people involved.
The main control remains in Milan headquarter during these events of "customization", except in other events when SKY operates as host broadcaster for the worldwide service.
Radio frequency always creates problems, in fact for all production phases three radio cameras are used with radio frequencies allocated in advance. They integrate into the official signals incoming from the host broadcaster.
Everything is broadcast live every and each camera feed is recorded continuously. All news reports are live and no post-production is used.
The system used, Dino by Grass Valley, is used for slow motion and allows to have all Grass Valley online library available.
In terms of quantity, the total production time of the race, including -pre and post race- achieves sums up to around 35 hours per weekend, fuelling the "whole" live from the event itself to news reports broadcast on Sky Sport 24, Sky News 24, all motor channels, and contribution in some breaks.
