Input Media Spearheads International Feed From Roland Garros

When Rafael Nadal won his fifth French Open at Roland Garros on June 6, underlining his return from injury and staking his claim to a second Wimbledon title, television coverage was shown round the world. British production company Input Media was in charge of the international super feed, and host broadcaster France Télévisions and Orange collaborated again on 3D presentation.

Orange is to increase the amount of tennis shown on its Orange sport channel, having agreed to a deal to broadcast live the ATP World Tour for three seasons from February 2011. This gives Orange subscribers the chance to see major tournaments played in Europe, Asia, and North America, including the Masters 1000 and 500 series and the ATP World Tour Finals.

Earlier this year, the French Tennis Federation (FFT) retained Input Media to produce the international feed and daily highlights of the French Open. The UK company will hold the contract for at least another three years and this year presented more than 150 hours of programming from Paris.

Feeds were in HD and SD, with footage produced at Roland Garros and in Input Media’s broadcast facilities in west London. Executive Chairman David Wood says he is pleased to have retained the contract with the FFT, which Input Media has held since 2008, and the team is “excited about the future and the new ideas we have for all our French Open programmes going forward.”

Technology used by Input Media included an EVS-IPD network, with its regular equipment supplier Presteigne Charter providing 13 EVS IPDirector, three EVS XT[2] HD/SD six-channel servers, three XT[2] HD/SD four-channel hard-disk recorders, an Evertz 1282 router, two Avid Nitris editing workstations, a 16-TB Unity media server, and a Grass Valley Kalypso 2M/E mixer.

Presteigne Charter also worked with international broadcasters during the French Open. U.S.-rights holder Tennis Channel rented a wide range of gear from the UK hire company, including an Evertz EQX 294-in/384-out router; from Sony, 11 HDC1500 cameras, three PDW700 XDCAMs for ENG work, and an MVS8000G switcher; four Presteigne Charter HD minicams; from EVS, 21 XT[2] servers, six XFile systems, an XStore, and five XHubs; two vision mixers; and a Grass Valley Kalypso switcher. Tennis Channel also subbed the rights to ESPN in the U.S., ESPN International, and NBC.

Japanese Pay TV service WOWOW used an Evertz 1282 router, three HDC1500 cameras, one HDW-750P HDCAM camcorder, a Grass Valley LDK 8000 WorldCam HD camera head linked to a Presteigne Charter LDK 6000 RF Data Back, four EVS XT[2] six-channel recorders, and a Sony MVS-8000 2.5M/E vision mixer.

Eurosport HD took coverage from Roland Garros, with production at the broadcaster’s MCR in Paris. British Eurosport’s presentation was produced and broadcast from its offices in Feltham, to the west of London, in Arqiva’s broadcast centre. The Game, Set and Mats review programme was produced on location at Roland Garros.

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