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Feature: Sport and Broadcast Facilities - October 2003

In the second of a two-part feature, Sport and Technology's Editor Rachael Church talks to leading sports facilities providers and broadcasting players about the issues currently affecting their industry

With sports rights spend reduced, the facilities industry that services sports events is facing serious challenges. "In the 1990s we were on the top of a wave," says Kevin Moorhouse, technical director of international facilities supplier Gearhouse Broadcast. "And there was lots of money to go around. Now there's less money, the market is tougher and margins have gone down. It means we are all now competing for some of the smaller events."
"Two years ago, we were very much part of an industry that was laughing," agrees Will Pitt, sales and account manager of global satellite transmissions services provider Globecast. "However, in terms now of the pressure we are under to make profits, I can say we are suffering as much as anyone in this business."
"This year [2003] has been quite tough for us," Moorhouse admits. "On one hand we are supplying £3.5m [$5.6m] worth of equipment to BSkyB for an ATP event but we are also sending £100,000 [$161,000] worth of equipment and one engineer to Pakistan for a cricket tour. We try and fill up gaps between larger events in the year's schedule with smaller events."
The fact that there are those smaller sports means that it isn't all doom and gloom says Pitt. "There's lots to be positive about because sports events take place come what may. The way to weather the storm is to increase your bread and butter work such as in minor sports. They will also have tournaments and a certain level of league activity. Also, even though not all of them are distributed, there are still contracts out there to be won. Even in a supposedly quiet year there are still world championships in many sports as well as major tennis and golf tournaments. These happen every year and although there might be less money to spend, as long as there's an audience, then there is a need to get those pictures out there. There's still work to be done so it is up to us to be as flexible as possible while trying at the same time to maintain the same level of service."
"Two things have happened effectively," says David Carr, managing director of Charter Broadcast, one of the world's largest providers of multi-standard television equipment to broadcasters based on the flight pack format. "Not only have you got overall budget being cut with a few exceptions (such as the BBC now spending more on programming than they have in the past), but you have more competition as well. Many companies that have been involved in other areas such as soho and post-production in the past and have found out that they are getting very fragile, are starting to move into our business. Likewise, everyone seems to be building trucks when there isn't much work for trucks."
Despite the fact that Carr considers there to still be "an amazing amount of sporting events worldwide", Charter sees the benefits in diversifying its business. "We are doing some joint venture projects with other OB companies and are currently very involved in Fame Academy [a UK light entertainment programme on the BBC]. Some broadcasters are deciding not to use studios and going into more specialist locations and we are putting our equipment into doing those jobs. A lot of the equipment used in those sorts of programmes is very similar and came from that sort of background so it is a good fit." Charter also supplies equipment to a Fellowship Church in the US that has its own broadcasting network in the Dallas region.
Gearhouse meanwhile has also diversified and supplied facilities to reality programme I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here set in an Australian jungle [shown on the ITV Network in the UK], although 90% of its projects remain sports-based says Moorhouse.

Technology issues

Francis Tellier, CEO of HBS, FIFA's World Cup host broadcaster says HBS has made it a policy not to buy facilities equipment itself. "There is such an evolution in technology that it wouldn't make sense for us to buy something in for an event that becomes obsolete by the time of the next one.
Looking at new developments in technology, Carr says: "It is interesting seeing what things are happening with DV-CAM, server technologies and asset management, as well as in the area of high definition[HD]."
Carr says like many hire companies and broadcasters Charter has been relatively cautious about getting into HD "because there are so many standards. However, a lot of the equipment we are now buying is format-independent. For example, the latest router we have just bought will do HD as well as standard definition."
So, will there be a move towards more platform-neutral technology? "I believe so," says Carr, "in much the same way that we saw equipment become more software-based so that you didn't keep having to buy expensive new hardware. People just weren't prepared to do it."
Host broadcaster ISB, in collaboration with NHK, produced coverage of several Olympic events in HDTV at Salt Lake. The technology was used to cover the 2002 Opening and Closing Ceremonies, ice hockey (at the 'E' Center), speed skating, ski jumping, short track speed skating and figure skating events.
Charter's Peter Donlan says the US is ahead of Europe in all matters HD: "All the NFL shows are now being done in HD but we have no reliable numbers on how many viewers they have." He first saw HD in 1998 in Nagano when the Japanese did the ski-jumping and ice hockey in that format. "It was quite spectacular but there are only a certain number of people who can receive it." Carr cites that one of Charter's broadcast clients claims that less than 1% of its viewers can currently receive HDTV.
As far as the 2006 FIFA World Cup is concerned, to either go fully HD or not have an HD feed at all "is the big question", says Tellier, and one that he will answer by the middle of 2004 at the latest. He is not planning to go the Athens 2004 route where there will be a mixture of standard and HD feeds as this will mean "double coverage of some sports and smaller coverage of others." Tellier's decision will be influenced by a number of factors including the uptake in HDTV sets globally, with half an eye out for growth in the medium in Europe. "We are already seeing HDTV doing well in Japan, Korea and the US but we aren't expecting a lot of sets in Europe by 2006 even though there is a lot of interest. However, there will be benefits for households with widescreen format televisions and we are expecting that half all households in Europe by 2006 will be widescreen. Production costs are also an issue as HD is more expensive and we need to make sure with stay within our budgetary limits. It will be a mixture of making sure the facilities delivered to us are reliable but cost-effective." In terms of HD suppliers Tellier says it is a "chicken and egg" scenario. "We need to be sure enough facilities companies will go for HD themselves and buy the large amount of equipment that we will need, but they won't not want to invest in the equipment until they are allowed to pitch for the work. We are assuming though that the big names will go for HD."
"There will be an effort to provide clearer pictures," adds Pitt from Globecast, but he agrees that HD is expensive: "This is due to the technology requiring greater capacity. Because of that we will probably therefore see a move in the industry to improve compression techniques to allow greater quality of pictures distributed."
"Today's viewers are becoming much more fickle," says Moorhouse. "They will go an look at another channel if you don't give them what they want, and that might include more targeted experiences, such as more camera angles." Another industry source disagrees: "What happens is that there are certain aspects of these technologies that viewers do enjoy and take for granted, but really most people don't want to be in charge of choosing their own camera angles. They just want to go home, sit on their sofa, put on the match and pour themselves a beer."
Moving away from interactivity, are there other technologies that will have an impact on sports broadcasting in the future? "Yes," says Carr, "more sophisticated telestraters and graphics that explain more of what's going on to the audiences. If sports can be explained in more simple terms, then the audience will enjoy it and the sport will catch on. You will see more of the sophisticated equipment that is really helping the commentator."
According to Robin Shephard, managing director of BBC WiScape, part of BBC Vecta, a company which aims to exploit technologies from the UK public service broadcaster's R&D to create innovative products for the media and entertainment markets: "Audiences are getting thirstier and thirstier which is putting pressure on producers and programme makers to improve quality. This is against a background of falling advertising revenues. For us at BBC Vecta, there is increasingly a blurring of lines between broadcasting, media and IT. They are all coming together to produce total solutions and as they become more competent, the opportunities for generating revenues are limitless. The challenge to broadcasters is to work out how to utilise new media technologies and create new revenue steams." Shephard sees great potential for the use of 3D animation and virtual reality in sport. "The industry is creating solutions that haven't been thought about before. They will put you in a rally car next to Colin McRae and allow you to drive against him using live camera feeds. This will be revolutionising as experiences become more personalised." The BBC is working on a 3D animation project that is supposed to be launched later in 2003 although it is unclear which sport will utilise it first.
"The move towards server-storage capacity will have benefits to the industry," says Tellier from HBS. "There is tremendous progress being made in this area and it will provide a lot of flexibility for broadcasters. If we can store everything on a server and allow broadcasters to access it, they will be able to choose their own slow-mos. It makes sense to make everything available if we can afford to. But we need to get it right as there is a lot of money at stake."
Moorhouse agrees that the advent of disk server-based technology has been interesting. "Access to files on a computer network gives producers more power and faster playbacks and we will continue to see more developments on the IT side of things. We need to future-proof ourselves for new technology."
Meanwhile Pitt from Globecast remains "fairly unconvinced" by the advent of IP and telephonic technologies, saying: "I don't believe they are a threat to traditional broadcasting. They are an add-on as far as I'm concerned."
One area that has impacted on the facilities industry has been the use of satellite uplinks according to Moorhouse: "A lot of broadcasters of large events can take multiple feeds back to their home base in say Melbourne, in the case of the Australians for the Athens 2004 Olympics. It saves the broadcaster money and the audience isn't aware that the studio isn't based in Athens. However, that means there are less facilities needed at the venue and that's having an impact on our industry." In that scenario, Gearhouse's loss will be Globecast's gain.

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