State-owned broadcaster the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) officially opened its World Cup broadcast centre, which is based at the Sandton Convention Centre, yesterday.
The SABC will broadcast all 64 games live and will show repeats of the matches, ranging across all three of its channels. It will also broadcast on 18 public broadcasting radio stations, allowing for simulcasting.
SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago explains that for the first time, South African viewers can turn down the volume on their television sets and tune in to radio commentary in any of the 11 official South African languages.
Technically ready
“As the official national broadcaster of the World Cup, the SABC had to pull out all the stops and get the best technology and skills personnel,” said group CEO Solly Mokoetle during a live broadcast at the opening of the broadcast centre.
Kganyago says technical people who have worked on World Cup broadcasting before have been brought in by the SABC to assist in its productions.
He adds that 18 cameras will be used to broadcast the event, some of which will be roving, handheld and mounted cameras.
“The national public broadcaster has invested in world-class modern broadcasting technology, which includes four high-definition OB [outside broadcasting] vans. Three of these units were tested and successfully used during the broadcast of the 2009 Confederations Cup,” says the SABC.
Apart from this, the SABC will receive live feeds from official Fifa broadcaster Host Broadcasting Services (HBS) at the International Broadcast Centre (IBC). Kganyago explains that the SABC gets feeds from HBS for all matches except those in which South African team Bafana Bafana is playing. It gets to do its own filming for these matches, where it will deploy its OB vans.
“The feeds [from HBS] include a mixed feed ready for broadcasting, a tactical camera feed, two isolated player feeds and a beauty shot of the actual stadium. These feeds will be enhanced by SABC's own feeds from fan fests, public viewing areas (PVAs) and roving facilities,” says the SABC.
Two SABC OB units will tour the country, visiting different fan fests and PVAs. Live inserts into various programmes will be facilitated from these units over the 30-day event period.
“As the official broadcaster, SABC has exclusive rights to supply a 16x9 feed to all Fifa registered fan fests and official PVAs.
Nerve centre
Mokoetle said the broadcast centre studio will be the nerve centre of the SABC during the World Cup.
He added that 287 hours of television will be produced from that location and 1 900 hours of radio programming. Head of SABC's 2010 unit Peter Kwele said live television broadcasting by the SABC can be expected to increase to about 99 hours on a daily basis during the World Cup.
“Various edit suites, sound mixing facilities and broadcast servers are used to assist in the broadcast from the impressive set at the SABC broadcast centre in Sandton,” says the SABC.
It adds that match analysis graphics will be deployed to assist the experts and commentators in explaining the intricacies of the game better.
There are also two radio studios on the set to cater for radio broadcasts from the SABC broadcast centre. Kganyago says all 18 radio stations will have a chance to utilise those studios.
The space for the broadcast centre was rented from a third party, according to Kganyago. The rent is priced at R13.9 million, but Kganyago says the SABC is not actually paying anything. “We are giving them [the landlord] unsold inventory or airtime after the World Cup. That's why we say we are paying nothing, because we would have lost that airtime anyway. Once the day is gone, it's gone.”
He adds that the set cost approximately R3 million.
Why HD?
“The workflow in the broadcast centre is kept in HD to preserve the highest possible quality and only down-converted for transmission when the signal is carried back to the SABC in Auckland Park,” says the SABC.
Kganyago explains that all the content will be packaged in HD, but will be transmitted in standard-definition (SD).
“So, for international partners who want to purchase the productions, it will be of an international standard,” said Mokoetle.
Kganyago adds that there was no point in getting SD equipment which would have become redundant soon anyway. “We are also capturing and saving images and content in HD for future use.”
Boost for SA
“As all the installations [for the World Cup] are current and state-of-the-art, the lifespan of the installations will be long and the quality of the equipment will ensure SA has the highest quality broadcast infrastructure as we move into the new digital transmission era,” says WWW Strategy MD Steven Ambrose.
The OB units have already been used for the Fifa draws, cricket and rugby matches. After the World Cup, it will still be used for big events like these, according to Kganyago.
“The most we invested in was the OB units, but these are an asset to us and we can always use them. It's not just for the World Cup. We used the opportunity of the World Cup to get them, but they are not only for the World Cup. It's the upgrading of our technology. We just moved up what we were meant to do anyway.”
Ambrose says the same will apply to the broadcast technology at the IBC. “The core infrastructure at the broadcast centre will be used for events that will occur at the various stadiums in the future. I am certain that SA will host national sports events in the future of a scale big enough to utilise the new infrastructure.”
He says, despite confusion over digital broadcast standards for SA, the legacy of the infrastructure and broadcast equipment ramped up for the World Cup will ensure it does not lag behind the rest of the world. It will also mean that coverage of future events meets the highest international and technical standards.
Life beyond 2010
Communications manager at SuperSport Clinton van der Berg says the sports broadcaster also invested in HD equipment for the World Cup.
“While the football itself will be produced by HBS, SuperSport will produce a range of programming for 'non-live' coverage, including magazine programming. SuperSport has a brand new HD purpose-built for the World Cup studio - the biggest on the continent and state-of-the-art.”
Van der Berg says the HD studio was cost-heavy, but it will have a life well beyond the World Cup. “With SuperSport imminently announcing a new HD sports channel, it will allow us to broadcast more HD content across a range of sport, including cricket, rugby, golf, football and others.”
Because of this, Van der Berg says SuperSport expects to use the studio daily once the World Cup is over, justifying its investment.
He adds that SuperSport will have 24-hour SD and HD World Cup coverage. “This has put a strain on bandwidth, but this was anticipated and planned for.”
Share