The Professional Paddlesurf Association (APP) has Blackmagic Design for the production of the 2018 World Tour

The APP World Tour launches extensive programming, including live broadcasts and post-produced pieces of all its Paddlesuft events, a growing sport, around the world

The Professional Paddlesurf Association (APP) has organized its now traditional World Tour with a complete workflow of Blackmagic Design, including digital film camera Ursa Mini 4K, the studio camera Micro Studio Camera 4K, and the ATEM Production Studio 4K mixer for the live production and streaming of this event considered one of the great global surfing events.

Created by Waterman League, the APP World Tour is the official professional world championship for the rapidly growing sport of paddlesurfing, also known as stand up paddling (SUP), including both the surfing and racing divisions. The APP World Tour launches extensive programming, including live broadcasts and post-produced pieces of all its events around the world, with distribution to more than a hundred countries through major global networks such as CBS Sports and Fox Sports Australia. The 2018 tour events will be held in London, New York, San Francisco, Paris and the Canary Islands, with live broadcasts, featured content, specials for athletes...

Tristan Boxford, CEO of Waterman League, the production company responsible for the production of APP World Tour, assures that "we have produced events and live productions everywhere, from the beautiful beaches of Hawaii to the city of Tokyo, from Germany to Patagonia, in the glacier area of ​​Chile to Fiji and beyond. We have a very dynamic environment. We need products that can start working, so we can create a production setup very quickly and easily. Sometimes not even mobile production units and other elements that facilitate things from the point of view of production.”

At each live broadcast event, the Micro Studio Camera 4K picks up presenters on set, two Ursa Mini 4K cameras are configured to capture key action angles, and another URSA Mini 4K acts as a roving ENG camera. All SDI signals are routed through Blackmagic Micro SDI-HDMI Converters, and the loop through SDI signal is fed into the ATEM Production Studio 4K, while the HDMI output signal is fed from a replay system, sending a replay feedback to the ATEM. The Micro Studio Camera 4K offers SDI in and out, giving the team control over the camera from the ATEM Production Studio 4K. The rig also has a graphics station that runs live graphics on an HDMI input, while all audio is mastered through a MIDI card running in conjunction with the ATEM and its software.

The Waterman League also runs two full-time television series that follow both surf tours and races and their competitions, as well as special projects and lifestyle content the company creates to support the tours, including segments about the athletes, locations, lifestyle and other elements of the sport. Since 2012, the tour has been streaming all of its events live on the web. After using Blackmagic Mini Converters for many years, they began using ATEM mixers to support their live streams.

"The ATEMs were very intuitive and easy to use, and gave us the high quality we needed. They are incredible for our needs. From there, we saw the value of the cameras and the level of quality of the production, and we started to move towards that. Now all our cameras are Blackmagic Design. We use ATEM switchers for live production, studio cameras for live studio installations and URSA Mini 4K for high-speed action for all water sports," says Boxford.

Waterman League Media Director Christian Henning leads each webcast and runs the ATEM Production Studio 4K software control on his computer, in addition to the main switching computer which has built-in macros to run the ATEM. Each member of the technical team has a computer on the network with a copy of the ATEM software running, both as a backup for the main computer and so that anyone can be called at any time to check the audio, upload a graphic or help in an emergency with the switchover.

The team takes a program to the beach via SDI and to the announcers on set while a replay system creates a timeline for its daily broadcast. The SDI signal is also split into an editor that cuts live packets throughout the day and assembles the video for release as soon as possible.

In the most demanding conditions

According to Christian, "Since the beginning of our live broadcasts we have been using ATEM production switchers. The software interface has made it easy to connect various operators, from audio control to technical director and graphics operator. We have been able to grow our productions using Blackmagic Design products from a two-camera setup covering a day-long SUP surfing event to a live broadcast entity, creating a television program of each of our events around the world, while also providing our base of global fans the live competition experience.”

Covering an event like this "means that we only film and operate in the worst conditions that electronics can be put in, with salt sea air, wind, rain and waves hitting our equipment no matter how tightly we cover things and protect them. We've had to broadcast live on desert islands, on beaches during Europe's worst storm in 50 years, as well as in deserts where high temperatures melted batteries. Through all of this, our team “Blackmagic Design has continued. After doing this work for the last ten years, I can say without a doubt that in my experience, the only company that makes equipment that lasts and can withstand the harsh conditions of life on the road is Blackmagic Design,” acknowledges Henning.

"We've used many great cameras in the past, but the Blackmagic Design cameras are the ones that best suit our live production needs. The image quality is amazing and it's been great for us to have consistent products across our workflow. Every angle is the same levels of high-quality 4K images. We don't stream in 4K due to bandwidth restrictions, but we shoot everything in 4K so it's the highest quality possible," concludes Tristan Boxford.