BBC Sport used a new ‘remote gallery’ solution for Saturday’s FA Cup final, which saved on travel, crew and kit.
Normally, the broadcaster would use a number of trucks on location and deploy a legion of producers, editors, ops and technical staff.
This was not possible at a socially-distanced Wembley Stadium because of Covid-19, so Arena Television and dock10 delivered a ‘remote gallery solution.’
The system was first used during the fourth round of the FA Cup for BBC Sport back in February 2020 and proved successful. It was refined n every following round and for the final, the production team was based in a gallery at dock10 in MediaCityUK.
Peter Love, Director of Operations at Arena, said: “We started this innovative collaboration with dock10 back in 2019 to help develop a new solution of remote galleries for live sport following the demand from the industry for a reduction in travel to multiple locations.
“Now in an environment of COVID-19 our new workflow has enabled us to deliver the games for the FA Cup, including the prestigious final, with a reduced crew on site and enabling safe working during this global crisis.”
Andy Waters, Head of Studios at dock10, added: “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated new workflows right across the broadcast industry.
“We have spent a couple of years now testing and developing a new solution that would change the way sport is delivered to our screens. “When it was announced that football could return to television, we knew that we had already successfully delivered a safe remote solution for the FA Cup and could roll this out to a wide range of sporting events. It was a real honour to deliver the FA Cup final.”
