Gearhouse Broadcast Assists Brazil's Globo With World Cup Coverage

Gearhouse Broadcast has assisted Brazil's Globo Group with its FIFA World Cup coverage by delivering two studios in central Moscow.

It has also delivered additional audio/video signal routing, standards conversion, distribution and QC monitoring facilities for TV Globo within the International Broadcast Centre (IBC).

Gearhouse was commissioned to provide Globo with TV rental equipment, systems integration and local tech support services for its studios in Red Square, where it has concentrated its main production facilities around the World Cup. The two studios are connected by fiber optics links to Globo's Free TV and Pay TV broadcast centres in Rio de Janeiro, so that its programming can be cut together remotely by its production crews back in Brazil, and thus achieving significant efficiency savings.

Within the main studio is a complex VR environment that is being used to illustrate the six daily network news shows and two weekly programmes aired live from Red Square. The studio has no physical scenic elements, and the presenters interact with a variety of 3D and 2D graphics elements that cover the main events for each day of the tournament. The graphics are created daily in Rio, so as to always maintain a fresh look, and are exported to Moscow through a robust data pipe using file acceleration protocols.

To bring Globo's creative vision to life within a VR space has taken careful planning and even required the installation of two specialist high-resolution large LED screens that feature a fine 1.2mm pitch. Stype camera tracking technology is being used to provide the lens and positional data for the cameras, which is then fed into Avid's Maestro Graphics solution along with the video output of the 6 camera set up to create the VR environment.

"In the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games, Globo surprised everyone with its studio in the centre of the Olympic Park, featuring virtual and AR graphics that were both informative and eye-catching. As you'd imagine, this is a huge event for Brazilians, and it's important that we deliver to our viewers a visual experience that represents a substantial evolution from the Rio 2016 design," said Jose Manuel Mariño, Globo's Director of Technology for Sports. "We were very impressed with the level of detail Gearhouse went into with its initial proposal. It also has a proven track record when it comes to delivering remote production solutions at high profile events like this."

Ed Tischler, managing director of Gearhouse Broadcast UK, added: "On this project we've assumed the role of technical partner to Globo, bringing together industry-leading technology and expertise to deliver cutting-edge studio build, graphics and remote production solutions. Our relationships with manufacturers, access to kit and skilled personnel combined with the ability to get large shipments in and out of challenging locations has proved key to successfully delivering this project."

The 2018 FIFA World Cup is taking place in Russia from 14 June - 15 July.

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