The winter season of ski competitions has ended, with the awarding of the cups for specialities in Soldeu. The five days of competitions on the Plic de l'Aliga and on the Avet, in the beautiful town of Andorra, were the backdrop for the latest snow races, held between 15 and 19 March 2023.

“Alpine skiing closes the year of ski competitions and television productions”, says Davide Furlan Outdoor Production Director of EMG Italy, the service in charge of television production by Infront, holder of the rights to the Alpine Ski World Cup.

“It hasn't been an easy year, thanks to the weather conditions, with a dry climate stingy with precipitation, but, even more, with temperatures that are too high for the snow and above all for keeping the snow frozen. These are, in fact, the prerogatives that a World Cup track must be able to guarantee to all the participating athletes, i.e. the same competition conditions. Many have been defections by some organizing committees of skicross and snowboard competitions. The uncertainty of the weather that forced the cancellation of the event made "the committees sit on the chair of prudence".

It was a necessary choice - it must be said - in order not to see all the economic efforts invested for the necessary return of image, the real propellant for the winter tourism engine of the organizing resorts, melt like snow in the sun.

The production calendar by numbers

This year's productive calendar of EMG Italy ski races counted 27 World Cup events, Alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, Nordic combined, ski cross and snowboarding in the most evocative and demanding slopes of the Italian and French Alps.

All the mobile television production units have been involved in various competitions, also thanks to a "fixed football championship" triggered by the Qatar World Cup. The ob-truck units NOVA 103, NOVA 126, NOVA 128, NOVA 150 and Orion 209 literally littered the numerous tracks of the different disciplines with cameras.

To give a connotation of the commitment addressed, below are some numbers that summarize the work of the EMG teams in the months of December, January, and February and the finals in March.

• About 100 days of production
• 12 Alpine skiing events
• 4 Nordic Ski and Nordic Combined events
• 11 freestyle and snowboard events
• Over 400 cameras transported and installed on the slopes
• Over 140 kilometres of optical fibres laid out
• 1080 men and women involved
• Approximately 5,400 days of paid work

Experience: you can't improvise on the track

“The experience of 15 years of World Cup productions of the technical teams, continues Furlan, “of the Production and of the Booking department, allow us to face this period of strong productivity in a structured and coordinated way. Every single role is covered thanks to the teams of internal employees and above all specialized freelancers, who are selected and hired by EMG's expert producers. EMG has always pushed for safety in the workplace and has found in Infront a very attentive and sensitive customer on this matter. Over the years, the work of raising awareness towards the organizing committees has led to remarkable results in terms of the safety of the infrastructure on the track. We can say that today the standard achieved to be proud of corresponds to a high level of awareness on the part of the workers, achieved thanks to training courses organized by EMG and those self-managed by individual professionals: who wants to be part of these highly specialized teams is aware that he cannot improvise as a cameraman or technician on the track; certifications for work at height and adequate PPE are required”.

The storytelling

The television production of skiing this year has seen the inclusion of some innovative technological aspects to enhance the narration and others have been confirmed after the experiences of the past year.

Perhaps the most evident was the use of the FPV Drone which was engaged in various disciplines of Alpine skiing, ski-cross and snowboard-cross: this is a DJI drone (model varies) with POV vision employed by the operator who achieved aerobatic certifications. The transmission system was based on microwaves, in the 2.4/2.5 band for the video signal and in the 5.7/5.8 band for the commands.

This type of shooting made it possible - practically - to bring the viewer directly onto the track, making him descend with the athletes, and thus giving the viewer the place that gamers have when they operate the joysticks of the controllers in a video game: the result was certainly of great empathic and innovative effect for the point of view.

Other production innovation was the insertion of numerous HFR cameras along the slopes, useful for reviewing the acrobatics of the athletes who whiz across the ice of breathtaking slopes in a slowed down manner. The replay of an HFR camera is decidedly exciting for the viewer and is decidedly functional for the marketing side, where all the logos remain on the air for many seconds.

Live from the slopes

Flavio Baggio, Producer and Technical set-up track coordinator of EMG Italy, says:

“This year we did a great job in every production, even if, as always, there were difficulties. The environment in which we moved and in which we worked, with techniques based on complex electronic circuits, has unique specificities. In skiing, first of all, the danger is the cold; but, absurdly, even the heat, or the wind and the fog, are harmful and constantly changing conditions. Knowing how to constantly adapt and know how to react immediately are essential conditions to be able to guarantee the proper functioning of all the electronics set up along the slopes. The men who work with EMG Italy are mountain experts, they have great experience, a spirit of adaptation and sacrifice: without them any production would be impossible to achieve. We went through heavy and abundant snowfalls that covered all the fiber sections. The very strong wind could have knocked down structures and anchored scaffolding. And then, the high temperatures have melted the snow and transformed those canals where the camera cables passed into rivers. Only thanks to the foresight of experience have we always managed to go on the air correctly, without any technical shortcomings or flaws: I must say thanks to my teams, true professionals".

Soldeu, Season Final of the World Cup

As for Soldeu, the final stage of the Alpine World Cup, two XXL vehicles were used for the production of all Alpine disciplines, the DH, IL SG, the SG, the SL and the Mix Team Parallel Event.

The OB van NOVA 126 was used for the workflow of fast disciplines, with 28 cameras, 5 EVS XT3 ChannelMAX. The crew consisted of 52 technicians, together with the Infront team, led by Daniela Calandra, Head of Winter Sports of Infront Productions Italy.

This major event and the entire set-up of the El Tarter track in Soldeu was designed by the technical and production crew of EMG Italy. The facility had to take into account the daily change of configuration between the men's race in the first part of the morning and the women's race in the second. The change of configuration forced new camera positions to resume the start, at another point, and different camera positions in the first part of the race.

The configuration change work, which was done for all the disciplines between the men's and women's races, was a great commitment of professionals and resources and involved all the men on the track, with camera shifts and double/triple wiring. On the Grandvalira slope in Soldeu, on the other hand, we produced the footage of the technical disciplines, the giant slalom, the special and the team parallel. Here we placed 26 cameras along the track and here too the configuration change took place 4 times a day, with about 15 minutes available between one race and the next. It was an immense commitment which, without precise coordination, would never have worked. The Soldeu event involved a total of 64 technicians with two large OB vans, 15 days of production on two different tracks about 4 km apart.

© 2023 Presspool PressOffice RobertoLandini