Industry news: MotoGP™ moves into Ultra-High Definition territory with IBC 4K Live Showcase
Always on the cutting-edge when it comes to implementing new technologies, Dorna Sports is now investigating 4K technology and will be producing a first LIVE Ultra-High Definition broadcast in partnership with EUROVISION, I-MOVIX, SKY Italia, Grass Valley, Fujifilm and ONE Technology during the next edition of the International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam on September 12th, during the first day of action at the Gran Premio TIM di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini.
The MotoGP™ 4K Live Showcase will consist of a broadcast running from 9am to 6pm, featuring Live footage from Pit Lane and Paddock cameras and recorded HighSpeed footage.
The HighSpeed footage is captured using I-MOVIX X10 UHD System in 4K high speed modes at 500, 750 and 1,000 fps and in 4K 2x super slow motion, coupled with Fujinon XA99x8.4 box lens and the new Fujifilm 4K ZK12x25 25-300mm PL mount lens.
The X10 UHD is the industry¹s first 4K ultra-slow motion system to support both continuous super slow motion (SSM) and ultra slow motion (USM) at frame rates of up to 1000fps – a feature used for the first time ever in Live Sports coverage during the MotoGP™ German round at the Sachsenring in July.
Dorna Sports relies on Grass Valley, a Belden Brand, 4K workflow solution to manage the footage, building on the experience it has acquired over recent years developing its tapeless live replay system based on the K2 Dyno Replay system and K2 Summit servers.
Building on the knowledge they have acquired over the years, EUROVISION will ensure the transport of the MotoGP™ 4K Live Showcase, by implementing a workable UHD1 (4K) transmission system compatible with current satellite and uplink infrastructures. Using high efficiency NS3 modulation and H264 encoding that EUROVISION pioneered in the professional contribution network, a complete transport solution is put to work to bring the broadcasters UHD1 pictures.
SKY Italia will also be co-operating with Dorna Sports in Misano by deploying a dedicated infrastructure on-site and by treating the signal. It will receive the 4K broadcast at their facilities in Milan from EUROVISION’s feeds and route it to a hybrid compression system to be re-encoded using HEVC technology and broadcast the 4K signal on one of their transponders.
Dorna Sports is the exclusive commercial and television rights holder for the FIM MotoGP™ World Championship and produces Live TV coverage from all Grands Prix in-house, guaranteeing consistently high-quality broadcasts for television partners.
In 2014, the Live International Programme Feed is produced in High Definition Dolby 5.1 using more than 100 High Definition cameras at each GP, including fixed cameras, purpose-made OnBoard cameras, Heli, RF and Super High-speed Slow Motion cameras.
Source: motogp.com / Dorna Sports
