Actua Sport has once again chosen LiveU’s IP video ecosystem to enhance its live sports coverage, this time at the European Athletics Championships held in Rome from 7 to 12 June.

On behalf of the European Broadcast Union (EBU), Actua Sport acted as host broadcaster for this six-day event, which achieved record-breaking ratings and set 15 championship records. Almost 200 hours of sustainably produced live stream coverage were provided to television and streaming platforms.

Actua Sport was responsible for producing all live coverage of the numerous athletics events, as well as interviews and behind-the-scenes for 35 European broadcasters. The task included selecting the highest quality solutions to meet the high production requirements and budget, while also considering important sustainability aspects. LiveU was implemented as part of an efficient hybrid, lightweight remote and on-site production, covering live coverage, production and distribution.

LiveU has helped Actua Sport connect live cameras to all-electric monowheels to provide new perspectives and bring fans even closer to the action during outside broadcasts. This is the first time monowheels have been used at a major athletics event and they have proved to be a successful addition.

Actua Sport used a mix of LiveU field units, including the multi-camera LU800, to feed signals from cameras positioned on the monowheels and hand gimbals – at the start, finish and other points along the courses for the external races (walk and half marathon) – back to the three OB production units. An additional pair of LU800s were used to capture behind-the-scenes footage around the stadium.

Franck Choquard, Director of Actua Sport, said: “We have been using LiveU for several years and know we can rely on the reliability of the solution. The technology offers better value for money than traditional RF workflows and allows for greater agility, especially during dynamic events like these. As an example of seamless integration, we have also used LiveU’s IP Pipe tool with our Color Matching Unit technology to match the cameras, ensuring the correct color correction and ensuring we send the frame-synchronized signals back to the OB vans.”

On the distribution side, Actua Sport used LiveU Matrix for cloud IP distribution to its 35 recipients, complementing the traditional satellite or fiber optic connection.

Choquard added, “We had to produce field events with multiple galleries. We had a total of 12 feeds available on-site and remotely via LiveU Matrix, which distributed the production feeds in LRT or SRT to participants and some cloud-based platforms. Participants could access the feeds and record them as a standalone, use them for post-production, live stream them, or broadcast them to other platforms. Some participants used these feeds to recreate their own main feed.”

LiveU Studio, LiveU’s cloud-native video production solution, was also used in an end-to-end cloud-based workflow. Leveraging the flexibility and agility of Studio, standalone feeds in Matrix were connected to a remote gallery as part of the live production. Actua Sport repeated this workflow again at the subsequent European Athletics U18 Championships in Slovakia (18-21 July).

Choquard highlighted the important sustainability aspects of the project, saying: “We are integrating sustainability into all areas of production and LiveU technology helps reduce the number of people on site as well as costs. If we had had the same setup for the two external races with HF, we would have needed a different air solution, either a helicopter or an airplane.”

Choquard concluded, “The LiveU team is open-minded and flexible from the start, bringing innovative ways to the business relationship. Their customer support is second to none, which is a huge plus for us.”

Roy Hasson, VP Global SaaS and Solution Sales at LiveU, said: “We have a close relationship with Actua Sport and are delighted to highlight the success of this project, which has broken records on and off the track. Our LiveU EcoSystem is the beating heart of many major sporting events, enhancing production values ​​and engaging and growing audiences. It is a great example of how LiveU enables sustainable live productions by integrating cloud-based workflows with hardware encoders.”