The 78th editions of the male Superlega and female Serie A1 volleyball championships, the pinnacle of volleyball in Italy, are both produced for television this year by EMG Italy. The Serie A1 Superlega for males features 14 teams, while the female LVF has 12 teams. Both leagues follow a round-robin format, followed by playoffs and play-outs.

The EMG Italy team, led by Paolo Sassano, coordinator of Sports Productions, manages the entire television coverage for male and female matches in remote production from the Broadcast Center in Cologno Monzese. They ensure quality TV and streaming broadcasts every weekend on VBTV, the official OTT live streaming platform of Volleyball World, including the two flagship matches produced directly by the volleyball leagues. Each match broadcast is enriched with pre-game interviews, providing an engaging and spectacular experience for all fans.

"We are very proud to collaborate with the EMG Italy team in the significant work of promoting volleyball in Italy and worldwide, which we deeply care about. The attention to detail, both technically and editorially, enhances the offering for our viewers, allowing them to have an engaging and spectacular experience and solidifying VBTV as the primary destination for all volleyball enthusiasts," says Finn Taylor, CEO of Volleyball World.

Filippo Milella, producer at EMG Italy for volleyball, reveals, "The involvement of EMG Italy in managing all matches is both technical and editorial. For all remote productions, EMG Italy handles streaming on Volleyball World platforms, receiving and redistributing signals. Over the weekend, seven matches are played for the female tournament and six for the male tournament. On average, we produce about 4/5 matches in remote production for male volleyball and the same for female volleyball, meaning about ten matches every weekend, totaling almost 300 events in a year."

Technical Standard

As mentioned, the technical standard for these matches requires all games to be produced remotely, using four cameras: three operator-assisted and one unmanned, positioned at a 90° angle on the short stand to capture a perspective similar to tennis, capturing the field longitudinally. The first and second cameras are centrally located in the stands, capturing overviews and game details, while the third is positioned under the net for closer details.

Filippo Milella emphasizes, "The setup also includes pre-game interviews with coaches, recorded before and replayed just before the match starts, along with other live interviews at the end of the matches. Thanks to the net camera, we can immediately capture the comments of the best player on the winning team and a player from the losing team. The Lega Volley Femminile directly provides us with the graphic package and logos to create live graphics, always remotely from the production center in Cologno Monzese. For male volleyball, the graphic package is created directly by EMG's graphics department, Boost Graphics. For all matches of male teams, EMG Italy manages both technical and journalistic commentary on-site, entrusted to two specialists from the Volleyball League, while holding overall technical management. The refereeing control, called 'Video Check' and similar to VAR in football, is done by framing images projected by the big screen, located on the field and managed by the Lega Pallavolo with dedicated equipment. In fact, the cameras for Video Check are distinct from those feeding the TV broadcast and are all operated on-site."

Editorial Approach

The EMG Italy team handling both male and female championships operates cohesively, ensuring that all matches have a precise stylistic and editorial identity. All images produced for streaming and television are consistent across all matches. This is possible thanks to a centralized directorial approach entrusted to multiple "directors" who coordinate in advance with specialized directors, ensuring a cohesive editorial line both during normal gameplay and in breaks.

Filippo Milella adds that on each playing field, EMG Italy installs, in addition to the four cameras, a commentary station and a field-side station with specific microphones for interviews. "All cameras," he says, "are connected to encoders, which transport signals separately in parallel and bidirectionally (audio, video, metadata, and communications) to EMG Italy's operational center in Cologno Monzese. Here, a series of decoders make the signals available again across the series of control rooms. We have over sixteen dedicated control room stations, thanks to Simply Live equipment, generating ready-to-broadcast programs according to the case's needs."

All connections to and from the fields are made via fiber optics, and in the control rooms, directors monitor work on two touch-screen monitors and independently generate replays.

Filippo Milella concludes, "Managing the entire television production of volleyball requires great passion, and to achieve excellent spectacularity, it must include many aspects, such as choosing and managing all technical equipment, positioning, relations with customers and suppliers, and, last but not least, live graphics. Furthermore, we pay great attention to the details and proposed shots, applying a certain discretion, especially in women's volleyball, to avoid inappropriate shots, particularly for families."

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