Leader, co-star of the major sporting events of summer 2021

Test instruments Leader have been used by different broadcasters and production service companies to produce a large number of sporting events during the last summer.

Specifically, multiple waveform monitors “True Hybrid” LV5600 of Leader were used in various events to monitor all types of sources SDI and IP simultaneously. The analyzer was also used IP LVB440, which provides in-depth analysis of the IP network through a low-latency HTML-5 display.

Kevin Salvige, regional development director at Leader Europe, focuses more specifically on the Euro Cup organized by UEFA, which offered 51 matches over 31 days of competition in UHD/HDR. According to Salvidge, “several Leader clients provided OB support, feeding UEFA's main control room in Amsterdam before distribution to media rights holders.”

Salvidge refers to the test instruments of the series ZEN of Leader, which allowed OB service providers to monitor multiple pass-through features on a single display, ensuring that HDR and SDR video feeds were of the highest quality possible.

Color management with ZEN

Leader's ZEN series played a key role in the color management process Orion-Convert HDR a SDR developed by the company Cromorama and deployed at summer 2021 sporting events. Pablo García Soriano, founder of the company, comments emphatically that “Leader's ZEN series instruments helped us develop the algorithm we used to create the LUTs that are now proving very valuable as customers begin to offer HDR services for these major sporting events.”

The future looks optimistic. Adrian Young, CEO of rental partner Leader Europe, Presteigne Broadcast Hire, reflects on how the summer of 2021 has unfolded and sets his sights on next year's sporting events: "Big sporting summers like the one we are currently enjoying place high demand on rental companies. We knew that the delays of the 2020 UEFA Championship and the Summer Olympics would have a positive impact on 2021. Demand, especially for UHDTV/HDR products, turned out to be stronger than we could have expected, with rentals again above summer 2019 levels. Our Leader test and measurement products have been in high demand. With 2022 also seeing a large number of major sporting events, we see demand for UHDTV/HDR increasing.”