Mediapro will produce the UEFA Champions League final with a large display of special cameras

Three mobile units, more than 150 professionals and 42 cameras will allow you to follow every detail of one of the sporting events with the greatest television impact and a potential audience of 400 million viewers.

On behalf of UEFA, Mediapro will once again produce and distribute the Champions League final host signal which will face Tottenham and Liverpool next Saturday, June 1, at the Metropolitano stadium in Madrid.

A potential audience of 400 million viewers you will be able to follow every last detail of the match thanks to Three mobile units, More than 150 professionals and 42 cameras, including 8 Super Slow, 2 Ultra Slow, 2 tracking behind goals, 2 Ultra Slow Polecams, Aerial Cam, 5 Tactical Replay, 3 Beautys, 2 Net Cameras, 2 amateur cameras, 7 cameras for the arrival of the teams and 5 cameras in the tunnel during the departure of the players. State-of-the-art technological devices to guarantee the highest image quality distributed internationally.

The match will take place in 4K and HD quality in simulcast, the second final along with the one in Kiev that is made with simultaneous broadcast in these two image qualities. The match will be conducted by Òscar Lago, one of the most renowned and experienced sports producers in the competition. Lago was already responsible for the 2010 UEFA Champions League final in Madrid.

Mediapro was also in charge of producing the international signal at the 2010 UFA Champions League final held at the Santiago Bernabéu and was contracted by Sport TV for the production and distribution of the host signal for the UEFA Champions League Final that took place at the Estadio Da Luz in Lisbon in 2014.

A bird's eye view

For this occasion, next to the cameras UHD Sony 4300 of Mediapro's main mobile unit, the group will have a Significant number of special cameras, under the technical direction by Diego Miralles, which will allow the spectator to follow what happens on and off the pitch.

All these signals will be mixed in the main mobile unit in a SAM Kahuna Maverick from Grass Valley and a digital console of Lawo for the audio. In terms of optics, Mediapro will work with the latest in spectacles of Fujinon and Canon.

In its determination to always offer the best plan, the group acquired the Portuguese company in 2008 Omnicam4Sky from which it develops special systems with remote control for cameras that bring movement, emotion and realism to a broadcast of this level.

In just a few years, and thanks to the know-how that Mediapro provides with the production of hundreds of sporting events at the highest level every year, Omnicam4Sky has managed to become a reference in tracking systems, mini cameras with poles and suspended cameras.

Precisely Your Skycam System It has been a revolution in the market since thanks to four cable winches the gyrostabilized camera can move in any direction throughout the entire playing field.

The four motorized winches work together controlling the winding and unwinding of the cables and the coordinated controls drive the system, making it fast and agile, allowing the 4Sky system to fly or hold the camera in the desired position throughout the space within the four anchor points.

A dedicated processor controls each winch while the motor drive is commanded and controlled by a microcontroller which in turn receives commands from a central control computer. Inside two of these cables are Hosts a single-mode optical fiber (main and backup) that allows the camera to send video signal, position, telemetry and receive at the same time parameters such as diaphragm control, axis movement of the head as commanded by the joystick... The control software also allows you to pre-program flights and set custom reference positions within the flight space to aid navigation and simplify common or repetitive actions.
To use the Omnicam4Sky you only need two professionals. While a specially trained operator flies the system through space with the help of two joysticks, the second operates the camera by framing and focusing to control camera functions such as pan, tilt, zoom, iris, and focus.

Next to the camera, which in the case of the Champions League final will be a Panasonic AK-UB300, the suspended equipment features a remote head that provides pan, tilt and roll motion and includes all servo remote controls, it also houses fiber optic communication components and local processing boards, sensors to stabilize and control the camera. At the top, there are the batteries (with an autonomy of 4 hours) and the slight gyroscopic stabilization mechanism that achieves a more stable movement and a more stable image during movement.

To ensure the Maximum safety, especially when the "SkyCam" flies over the public, the system has two independent operating circuits: primary and secondary. In the event that the primary system failed, the secondary system would take control of the system by automatically stopping all components at the same time in a matter of milliseconds. In addition, as the braking force is applied by means of steel springs on the cables, in the event of a power failure, the brakes would be activated automatically without the need for external power.

The AK-UB300 housed in the Omnicam4Sky system is a Box camera with 1" sensor with 2/3" mount which offers simultaneous UHD (4x 3G-SDI) and HD (1x 3G-SDI and 1x HD-SDI) outputs, with direct HDR in output, whose signals "travel" through the fiber housed inside in the steel cables. Another advantage of using this type of camera in suspended systems is its low weight, as it barely weighs 1.6 kilos. In addition, in the case of the Panasonic camera, its high sensitivity (F11/2000 lx) and low noise (with a signal-to-noise ratio of 60 dB) makes it ideal for flying over a pitch bathed in the stadium's twilight and LED spotlights. In addition, it allows automatic correction of the image level and color temperature according to the changes that occur.

Mini cameras

Mediapro will have a Mini camera with pole and a "railcam" with high-speed cameras. In the case of poles, it is also a proposal resulting from Mediapro's R+D that uses mini-cameras Antelope Pico and that allows you to capture Slow motions up to 350 fps. in native HD (simultaneously in 1080P50/60). The system that measures just 176x40x45mm is based on a chip 2/3" 2K CMOS and guarantees a high level of detail and unsurpassed light sensitivity with automatic white balance and flick correction (in the case of the Wanda Metropolitano, having LED lighting eliminates this annoying effect).

Panasonic has worked closely with Mediapro and the German company Antelope to use its popular Remote Control (AK-HRP1005) that facilitates its operation. In addition to the replay control, the camera's own CCU records and sends live and replay signals through a fiber system developed together with Panasonic that also provides video return, intercom and control data.

In the dressing room tunnels, the production will feature the nPanasonic AW-UE150 PTZ Lights, the only PTZ in the world that offers 4K 50p HDR. These cameras will also be under the control of the AW-RP150 panel. Its joystick allows the user to operate PTZ functions or focus with one hand while accessing from a large LCD touchscreen to monitor and select menu settings. A joystick-mounted oscillating lever controls pan and tilt movements for greater focus and zoom control.

The CCU will be used AK-HRP1005 panels with PoE+ and IP control, which allows you to set up a broadcast camera system economically.

During the Champions League final, Mediapro will have a helicopter and a good number of beauties that will offer plans from the most interesting perspectives. For these beauties, the Panasonic AK-UC4000, whose signals come out of the camera head directly in 4K 12G SDI (with HDR option).

The popular ones will be used as ultra-high-speed cameras. FT-One de For-A capable of Capture between 24 and 860 fps, with a 12bit CMOS global shutter sensor (4096 x 2304 resolution).

It should be noted, on the other hand, that to link both the signal coming from the helicopter and the beauties, RD links from the British company will be used in this match Vislink and of the Biscayan SVP, integrating 4K encoders from BWS.

Finally, it should be noted that Mediapro has had a dozen XT3 servers EVS, plus six servers for high-speed (super slow motion) cameras. On this occasion, the filmmaker Javier Robledo will be in charge of selecting and mixing the repetitions in a Kahuna before reaching the main table table under the baton of Óscar Lago.