Presteigne Charter kicks World Cup into action

For four weeks in June and July, the FIFA World Cup 2010 presented itself to televisions around the globe. Stadiums throughout South Africa prepared for the onslaught of international football fans, teams warmed up and intercontinental broadcasters steadied themselves for one of the most important and high profile world broadcasting jobs of the decade.

Presteigne Charter were proud to be have been awarded the contract to provide technical facilities and broadcast solutions for the UK rights broadcast holders, BBC and ITV, in addition to Input Media for Sky Sports and also for German rights broadcast holders Sky GmbH and RTL for coverage of the FIFA World Cup.

With responsibility for providing post production, interactive production and facilities for feeding mixes of live coverage to the main London productions for both BBC and ITV Presteigne Charter’s London operation also supplied semi-permanent, fully integrated studio set up installations for locations in Cape Town and in the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) in Johannesburg, incorporating Soccer City. The IBC site served as both BBC and ITV’s technical hub and mixing point for World Cup production, linking together the stadium venues, studios, outside broadcasts and UK television centres. Production control rooms, post production and edit suites, audio control rooms, remote studios and stand up positions all received Presteigne Charter’s equipment enabling the rights holders to deliver a seamless, consistent and unsurpassed standard of broadcasting excellence.

Sky Sports acquired its own Cape Town studio for the World Cup close to the new Green Point Stadium. Despite having no live rights to the event, Sky, in collaboration with Input Media, delivered live studio discussions and overviews of the matches and also featured interviews in and around the area. Presteigne Charter supplied facilities, cameras and server systems to Input Media for Sky’s use. In addition, a second studio for ad hoc bookings, together with several stand-up positions, was also provided by Presteigne Charter. These stand-up positions allowed for live broadcasting from the city’s cable cars and from the top of Table Mountain which overlooks and offers tremendous 360° views over Cape Town.

Presteigne Charter’s German operation provided broadcast technology and technical staff to Sky GmbH and RTL’s technical centres. RTL and Sky, together with ARD and ZDF, held the German broadcasting rights to the World Cup 2010.

Presteigne Charter also outfitted Sky and RTL’s studio and equipment rooms in the IBC in Johannesburg with a variety of broadcasting equipment. Pay TV channel, Sky GmbH broadcasted all 64 matches live and in HD while RTL broadcasted nine of the matches as part of its free service.

The vast majority of the substantial amount of equipment that Presteigne Charter provided was from its own vast inventory. These included EVS Server Systems running in different Codecs and integrated with Avid and Final Cut Pro and, fresh from the English Premiership League, Presteigne Charter’s red mini-cams were also provided in addition to Sony HDC 1500 cameras in studios and JIX jibs.

On the audio side, Lawo MC266 audio mixers, working in conjunction with Grass Valley and Harris routers to provide embedded audio solutions were supplied. A new product in Presteigne Charter’s inventory, the 4HM Sam64 was also provided, working in tandem with the Lawo and routers and providing a reliable and cost-effective solution to the issues of interfacing SDI to audio equipment such as routers, consoles, intercoms and workstations. The SAM64 de-embeds 16 audio channels from each of the unit’s four SDI inputs to provide a total of 64 audio channels in both MADI and AES3 formats.

Throughout the same period, Presteigne Charter also provided facilities for regular clients at events such as the French Open Tennis, Wimbledon and Formula One. Ensuring that existing projects within such a packed sporting schedule retain the same attention to detail that clients have come to expect is always a challenge, but one that Presteigne Charter prides itself on being able to overcome.