LiveU’s new LU800 has been used for the first time on multi-camera sports production after being employed on a remote production of this year’s Cartier Queen’s Cup 2020 Polo Tournament.
The event was streamed live to viewers on the Guards TV website and a leading sports channel in Latin America. It was covered using four cameras with the live feeds streamed in low delay from the UK to the production studio in South Africa.
South African-based Live Production Tech partnered with Polocam.tv to handle the production. Greg Hughes, director, Polocam.tv said, “Having covered this tournament and being on-site for the last decade, we were really struggling this year without the ability to fly to the UK or have more staff on site. LiveU provided us with the bonded streaming technology for not only broadcasting this event, but also setting the model for how to move forward with other events around the world.”
The multi-camera unit was used for the semi-finals and final. The commentator was at the event in the UK with the graphics, replays and switching carried out remotely from South Africa.
The production team used two side cameras for the semi-finals, a centre pitch camera and a camera positioned on a crane. Two LU600s were also used to provide goal line coverage. The final was a similar setup, with some drone footage.
The LU800 supports up to four fully frame-synced feeds in high resolution from a single unit, using IP bonding of up to 14 connections. The unit also offered the production team up to 4Kp60 10-bit HDR transmission for optimal colour depth and richness, as well as up to 16 audio channels.
Michael Esteves, director, Live Production Tech, said, “Having trialled the LU800 during earlier rounds, and been very impressed with its capabilities and the great enhancements it brought to our coverage, we were excited to use it for the semi-finals and final. The coverage we achieved was fantastic and allowed us to really expand what we were able to capture for viewers. LiveU’s remote production capabilities were also crucial, particularly given the current restrictions, providing us with the flexible production capabilities we needed, cost-effectively.”
