El Clásico, for the first time in 4K with HDR and 360º replays

'El Clásico' between Barcelona FC and Real Madrid CF has been the first match in a European league where 360º replay technology has been used, and can also be followed in 4K with High Dynamic Range (HDR).

LaLiga and Mediapro, as the official producer of the Professional Football League, in their efforts to bring the viewer all the excitement of football, raised the bar once again with the broadcast of a new 'Clásico' between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid FC. The technological advances implemented for this match together with audience data reinforce the impact and interest of LaLiga and Spanish football around the world, placing Barça-Madrid as the most followed match between clubs in a domestic league.

To carry out this great coverage with planetary diffusion (the signal could be followed in 185 countries with an estimated audience of 650 million viewers), Mediapro had a great deployment, moving to the Camp Nou last Saturday a total of 8 mobile units, 6 DSNGs, and more than 400 professionals, including filmmakers, technicians and producers.

The pool signal for the match (since this season LaLiga does not allow customization of signals for the match itself) was carried out from two mobile units (one in HD with 28 cameras and another in 4K with 8 Panasonic AK-UC3000).

Although the intention is to be able to produce the main LaLiga matches in 4K and HD simultaneously from the new mobile that Mediapro is finalizing starting in the first months of 2016, for the moment, the audiovisual group is working on matches of this magnitude with two realizations, taking into account that in Spain the 4K signal can still only be followed through the service intended for public places offered by Vodafone.

Once again, Óscar Lago was the director in charge of the main mobile unit while Daniel Lozano was in charge of the production on the mobile in Ultra High Definition. Regarding the 4K broadcast, it should be noted that for the first time, thanks to the update that Panasonic carried out last September on the AK-UC3000, the 'Classic' was recorded in its maximum splendor in High Dynamic Range (HDR).

Lago commented that "this season the standard in LaLiga broadcasts has been raised considerably. At this moment we are using more cameras than in any other European league or the Champions League itself in the group stage. We are at a level similar to the Champions League in the semi-finals, for example, and this every day of LaLiga in the matches between Madrid or Barça. Weekly we cover the Madrid and Barça matches with twenty cameras, four matches with fourteen and another four with eleven camera positions. The jump from the regular days to the Classic was always enormous. Now this jump is smaller because the level of production in the regular days has risen considerably.”

“Matrix style” repetitions

As the main novelty in the broadcast of a Classic, for the first time viewers were able to follow the best plays from a 360-degree perspective. To achieve this, LaLiga and Mediapro have had the help of technology from Intel, a company that has deployed a total of 38 cameras at the Camp Nou. These HD and 5K cameras provide unique, multi-perspective replays, something never seen before in a European league. The technology allows you to see a play from different angles and is very useful for analyzing offsides and seeing plays with technical details.

This technology, to date applied in broadcasts of American football and baseball leagues in the United States, comes to the Spanish LaLiga to recreate in a 360º flight the main scoring chances and brightest moments of each match.

Based on the development of the Israeli Replay Video Technologies (now in the hands of Intel), it allows an infinite number of shots from the cameras located in the stadium to be stitched together in less than 2 minutes to create a 360º panoramic flight where the director chooses from which camera to which camera he wants the movement or if he requests a zoom towards an area of ​​the action. Once the image is processed, it is sent to a server. EVS for its airing, taking advantage of those times when the action is slower during the match.

Along with the 38 Intel cameras, Mediapro had for this match an aerial camera from a helicopter, two Super Slow cameras to follow Cristiano and Messi, a High Speed ​​tracking shot behind the left goal, two telephoto lenses to follow Zidane and Luis Enrique and two Beauty's (interior and exterior with a crane more than 40 meters high above the stadium).

In terms of audio, Mediapro installed a total of 17 microphones on the field and five among the public for the production of the signal. Dolby 5.1.

Hearing in Spain

The Barça-Madrid broadcast in Spain was followed on BeIn LaLiga by an accumulated audience of 2,214,400 viewers on pay TV and a share of 52.30%, making it the channel's most watched broadcast. In total individuals, the audience for El Clásico on BeIn LaLiga reached 17.31%. Only 4 months after its launch, beIN LaLiga has established itself as the most watched channel dedicated to national football in Spain, becoming the outstanding leader among pay channels in the months of September, October and November.

Gol was the channel chosen by viewers to follow the post-match broadcast with an audience of 2.6% and more than 300,000 viewers. This space becomes the most viewed broadcast of the Directo GOL program since the channel's birth. Gol reached an outstanding 1.2% in the total day, achieving its best Saturday with the special programming dedicated to 'El Clásico'.

The Classic from the air

360 repetitions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHJDzHHHsrQ