Covering the UCI Para-Cycling Road World Championships from motorbikes and drones
Deploying a fully mobile production set up, livemotion cuts costs and cumbersome cables thanks to LiveU’s cellular bonding technology
Background
For the first time in the history of the UCI Cycling and Para-Cycling Road World Championships, Eurovision Sport broadcast all para-races live on its proprietary streaming platform. With the live videos accessible online and without geo-blocking, the 2024 edition of the sports tournament could be watched free of charge worldwide.
While the Swiss-based production company livemotion produced the live streams of the para-races, the public Swiss broadcaster SRF/SRG focused on covering the rest of the competition on TV. The available resources for the two live productions differed greatly, yet the goal was the same: providing viewers with broadcast-grade live images.
The Challenge
Fans and supporters from around the globe turned their eyes on Zurich as their favorite athletes hit the streets for the UCI Para-Cycling Road World Championships 2024. Tasked by the local organizing committee (LOC), the livemotion team set out to live broadcast the dynamic race – everything but an easy job with several competitions going on in parallel and the circuit expanding over more than 50 kilometers.
To let viewers follow the action on the road, camera crews had to keep up with the high speed of the para-cyclists. In addition, the camera signals were to be delivered to an OB van several kilometers away with minimal delay. Connecting cameras via cable was clearly not a feasible option – neither was an SNG uplink, due to budget constraints. So how do you ensure a reliable live broadcast in such circumstances?
The Solution
After testing several IP-video solutions, livemotion selected LiveU for transmitting the live feeds from the race. A total of five video encoders came into play, delivering close-ups captured from camera operators on motorbikes and aerial shots from drones over bonded cellular networks.
Offering remote control over all LiveU encoders in the field, the LiveU Central management platform allowed the production crew to set the same delay for all devices and ensure a fully synchronized multi-cam remote production. The final program feed aired on Eurovision Sport‘s streaming platform and other TV channels – providing visual proof that you can achieve broadcast-level quality with a compact, mobile technology set-up that costs a fraction of a traditional TV broadcast.
"One of LiveU's key advantages is that we can trust the technology to deliver uninterrupted live feeds. Even when camera teams move into a network area with poor coverage, the LiveU units keep transmitting – making the difference and giving us the peace of mind that we can meet our clients‘ high quality standards at any time.“
Raffael Huber-Svensson, CEO, livemotion