At the mid-December FIS Alpine Ski World Cup events in Val Gardena and Alta Badia, the International Ski Federation along with producer Infront Sport & Media Italy and OB provider Global Production tested 4K UHD using HLGBT.2020 HDR color space.

The signal produced in Italy was not distributed in 4K UHD HDR, but its conversion to HD SDR went to all the world’s largest broadcasters and the event was designed as a real-world test to get ready for a forthcoming 4K UHD TV airing.

Global Production, as the technical provider, worked with Infront Sport & Media Italy, rights holder of the Ski World Cup. The mobile vehicle, OB8, used as many as 25 Grass Valley HDR-enabled LDX 86N 4K cameras, of which three were in 6X configuration.

Davide Furlan, CEO and partner at Global Production, said: “Never has the ‘white’ been so exciting and the result so incredible! We can say that we have opened a new era for the TV production of the world ski races. It is a new world reproduced, where the spectators at home will feel like they are there on the slopes, thanks to the new definition in 4K UHD and the new color perception closer to reality provided by HDR: new colors, new sounds and new emotions.”

It took three days to wire the track and connect the 25 cameras, positioned by Infront director Sandro de Manincor, with the support of the FIS for security issues. The technical staff hired to produce the event consisted of almost 60 people. The organizing committee made a portion of pre-wired optical
fibers, plus some dark fiber sections, available.

Global Production laid the remaining backbones in dark fiber and SMPTE, using about 15 km of cable. They then created intermediate remote routing stations using hybrid fiber-based Grass Valley systems to reach each TV camera.

View full case study