The Indian Premier League (IPL), was launched in April 2008 and has since gone from strength to strength. Played as a Twenty20 cricket tournament, the IPL consists of eight franchises, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai and Mohali, each of which is responsible for managing a single cricket team. The league is played over 44 days and features 59 games with the winners of the taking home around US$2million.

Taking up the largest space at the IBC (2,500m2 ), with approximately 300 of their 550 team members based in Johannesburg, is the joint ARD/ZDF operation. Shipping 180 tonnes of equipment, partly coming direct from their Olympics operation in Vancouver and partly from home, the two broadcasters cover the whole of Germany. Both are public nationwide stations, ZDF being a single entity, and ARD a coalition of regional stations combining to create a nationwide network.

While most broadcasters have set up base in Johannesburg, the BBC’s strict remit regarding their studio facility means they have made Cape Town home. “Since Germany in 2006 the thing that has set our coverage apart is using an iconic backdrop that people instantly recognise as be­ing a landmark of the host country,” explained Richard Bainbridge, Resource Manager.

This weekend saw the European Canoeing Championship take place on the Trasona reservoir, in Corvera (Asturias). Asturmedia was appointed by the Spanish Canoeing Federation to be the host broadcaster for the event. Among the TV channels from more than 60 countries who broadcast the event were: Eurosport, Eurosport HD, Sport 1 (Lithuania), TPA, TPA HD, ARD, Hungarian TV, etc.

On 4th June the broadcast transmission specialist Josef Rade and his production team, consisting of a cutter and a cameraman, picked up their SNG at the port of Durban. They made a few minor changes to the production technology in the SNG and also had to configure the parts that were flown out from Germany at the last minute. Then finally it was off to the North-East of South Africa, where the SNG North team underwent its final test in Johannesburg on 7th June and was given the all clear for “unrestricted transmission readiness”.

A Spanish flag with the words ‘Plaza de España’ adorns the wall in the corridor of Hall 6 which houses the radio broadcasters from Iberia. How­ever, if Spain defeat Germany tonight to reach the FIFA World Cup™ Final there will be no party on the Plaza as they will be busy relaying the atmosphere, ambience and action from Durban and various Spanish cities to their listeners.

It is the job of the HBS audio team to provide the aural landscape of each live match in creating an ambient backdrop for commentary and recreating the overall sense of being at the stadium for the viewing and listening public.

Every FIFA World Cup™ is dif­ferent – in more ways than one, as Sky Italia Producer Da­miano Joli has discovered. “For me it is a very different expe­rience, in 2006 I exclusively followed the Italian team as producer for their matches,” explains Damiano. “Here it is a completely new experience, because I am Sky Italia’s main contact in South Africa. It has been a good challenge for me and I am finding it really exciting.”

THE football World Cup is often described as the ‘Greatest Show on Earth’, and once again Gearhouse Broadcast is right at the heart of it as the finest players around the globe descend on South Africa this summer.
With a worldwide TV audience of billions, Gearhouse Broadcast is being used by seven major multinational broadcasters to supply both project solutions and equipment.

In order to maximize the coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ the German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF have increased the capacity of their joint production with the deployment of EVS instant tapeless solutions providing access to the FIFA Media Asset Exchange (MAX) at the International Broadcast Center (IBC) in Johannesburg, but also to hours of custom-made content produced across South Africa with XT[2]-LSM systems installed in 6 HD OBVans from Alfacam.

Sports broadcasters, leagues, and teams are looking to create dynamic, custom websites to satisfy the most ardent sports fan’s thirst for sports information. They want to create an online mecca where fans can get the latest news, statistics, highlights, events, and opinions—everything about their favorite sport. Until now, creating dynamic websites required the help of professional web designers.

This panel will tackle the economic consequences of the current crisis on the financing of sport (sponsorship, TV rights, etc) by type of sport, in various countries worldwide. It will seek to learn from the economic models of certain major sports including football.

Since almost one month four AntelopeHD systems with four operators/engineers are being located in various cities in South Africa. Stunning replays are recorded with 500-1.000 frs/sec and are permanently stored via an EVS network as well as played out as part of the world feed produced by HBS.

The Germany vs. England game at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa showed it once more... There is a need for a goal line super vision in soccer.

LMC provided a LiberoVision Analysis System for RTL’s TV production of eight games of the FIFA World Cup.