Let the show begin!

The International Broadcast Centre (IBC) was officially opened today at an event that also saw the handing over of the Soccer City stadium to Fifa.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter cut the symbolic tape to confirm the opening of the IBC. Also present were Gauteng premier Nomvula Mokonyane, LOC chairman Irvin Khoza, executive mayor of Johannesburg Amos Masondo, Confederation of African Football president Issa Hayatou, and sports and recreations minister reverend Makhenkesi Stofile.

“This centre will enforce improved infrastructure to attract investment and will make the cost of doing business cheaper. This is why it is important,” said Fifa president Sepp Blatter.

He added that the centre allows for a great legacy for Africa and SA after the World Cup. He said that through this centre, Africa will be presented to the world.

Blatter also officially switched on the unilateral incoming and outgoing monitors at the Master Control Room (MCR) of the IBC.

“Television and football go together like a good love story,” said Blatter. He explained that football contained the right amount of spectacle for TV.

Fifa says the global cumulative figure for the World Cup TV audience in 2006 was over 20 billion and it hopes to get the same audience this year. “While they say [they expect] 20 billion [World Cup TV audience], my target is 30 billion people because in four years if we haven't moved up, then we're just standing still,” said Blatter.

There will be 204 countries broadcasting the World Cup and there are 179 media rights licensees (MRLs) present in SA, according to Fifa. There are 13 000 MRL accreditations and 2 600 staff accreditations.

In terms of equipment, Fifa says there are 70x40ft containers of host broadcaster equipment and 200 pallets with cameras, tripods and lenses.

There are 2 750 hours of feeds produced by Host Broadcast Services (HBS), which was mandated by Fifa to be the host broadcaster for the World Cup, 18 distinct feeds produced by HBS for each match, 1 900km cabling for all 10 venues, 700 unilateral camera positions, 5 070 video circuits and 30 multilateral video feeds per venue with embedded audio produced.

A 30-camera multilateral camera plan has been put in place. An aerial coverage camera and a cable camera system will be provided for selected matches at certain venues.

“All 64 matches of the World Cup feature full production in HD. All multilateral feeds are available in HD format at the IBC. All these feeds are down-converted to SD, so MRLs can book either format, HD or SD, for the delivery of multilateral feeds into their unilateral spaces,” says Fifa.

“As part of the catalogue of services, HBS offered dedicated outside presentation studios at the IBC. The enclosed studios are elevated nine metres from the ground and give MRLs the chance to shoot footage of the Soccer City stadium with the city of Johannesburg in the background,” says Fifa.

HBS is also offering two unequipped bookable outside platforms for MRLs to perform stand-ups, with a view similar to the one offered by the dedicated studios.

There are 30 interview studios and 50 presentation studios.

“The Master Control Room is the central distribution point within the IBC for all incoming (venue and non-venue) and outgoing (telco and satellite farm) VandAs,” says Fifa.

The MCR also handles the management of the signal distribution to the IBC production centre. MCR staff will intervene if availability, quality or circuit-timing issues are encountered. The MCR will be fully staffed and operational 24/7 from 2 June to 12 July, according to the governing body.

The Commentary Switching Centre (CSC) controls and patches all national and international commentary and coordination audio circuits.

“HBS is using the same audio matrix, which connects all venues to the IBC via uncompressed high quality audio circuits and shortens set-up times between matches. The whole signal path is redundant via protected WAN connections and is fully under the control of HBS operational staff, explains Fifa.

The Production Control Room (PCR) is the central distribution point and hub for all incoming and outgoing feeds and material between the MCR and IBC Production Centre (IPC). It also ensures all individual exchanges of programme material proceed smoothly inside the centre, says Fifa.

“The PCR deals with the daily requests and technical requirements from the multilateral production facilities within the IPC and all feeds are switched through the PCR production router.”

The PCR also controls and monitors the ingest and outgest of all multilateral feeds and material onto the Fifa MAX Server, as well as the incoming HBS file transfer, transcoding and ingestion of ENG material, according to Fifa. The PCR also hosts a dedicated server for mobile content, which handles the ingest and outgest of material for the mobile content production.

There are also two dedicated EBIF Show Live Production rooms where the various elements of the programme (titles, features, live match coverage, match highlights, action analysis, voice-over guide, graphics, etc) are mixed to produce the programme, adds Fifa.

The governing body says a 5.1 surround sound mix is produced to accompany all the matches. This mix is intended to complement the HD streams.

“There are two 5.1 surround sound production rooms at the IBC. The two rooms are used by the HBS audio production team to create a 5.1 surround mix. The pre-mixes and audio elements are transported from the multilateral production facility at the venue to the IBC via the Commentary Contribution Matrix. The final 5.1 surround sound mix is sent back to the venue after the coding process into a Dolby E Stream (20-bit) and the audio stream is embedded into the dedicated video feed.”