The Challenge
The Trail de Haute Provence offers three challenging trail runs, with courses that run through the Southern Alps in France to a maximum elevation of 7000 metres.
TV8 Mont-Blanc, a local French television station with national reach, was tasked with covering every step and broadcasting it live on linear TV and social channels, with minimal total production budget.
With challenging terrain that no OB truck could possibly traverse, TV8 developed an agile live sports production workflow in the cloud with Grabyo at the centre, creating live content in new ways, bringing a unique perspective to the race.
The Workflow
The production was managed remotely by a director and assistant director at TV8’s HQ in Annecy, 350KM away from the race venue. They collaborated within Grabyo Producer to manage multiple live inputs from the mobile camera operators, VOD assets for ad breaks, live HTML web sources to display race standing tables, plus graphics – both static and HTML data-powered graphics using Singular.Live.
On-site, TV8’s 7-man crew used iPhone 14 smartphones and a drone connected to the Larix app, to capture and transport video to Grabyo from the start/finish line, mobile studio and across the Alps, all over 4G connectivity.
Across the mountains, four mobile camera operators covered multiple stages and locations, running alongside the athletes. Two mobile camera operators worked the start/finish line, and a drone pilot covered stunning aerial footage of the runners in the Alps.
One smartphone fixed to a tripod mount captured the mobile studio, which consisted of a table, laptop and branded backdrop. This was where two presenters hosted the live broadcast from the finish line and offered commentary throughout the race.
The Results
Using Grabyo within this workflow, TV8 is saving an average of 65% on total production costs. Usually, producing an event of this type would cost up to €15,000 per day but with live sports production in the cloud, the cost reduces to around €6,000 per day.
This makes live broadcast coverage much more accessible for many sports worldwide – removing the barriers to entry for broadcasters and creating opportunities for hosts, sports federations and other organizers to reach more viewers over multiple linear, social and digital platforms, ultimately delivering more value to their sponsors.
Logistically, this type of production would be challenging using traditional methods, with remote locations that are inaccessible to cars and trucks carrying necessary equipment such as large cameras and encoders.
With a streamlined, lightweight workflow, TV8 is able to give viewers coverage like they have never seen before, from new locations and angles that create a more immersive, dynamic experience.
For more information, or to see how Grabyo can help you to build your own PoC live show for social media, OTT or broadcast, get in touch.
Check out TV8’s live sports production workflow: Infographic
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