The purpose built 3.2 meter by 1.3 meter video wall provides a complete preview of all the action as it happens at Le Stade Roland Garros, Paris' international tennis venue
Blackmagic Design today announced that the Fédération Française de Tennis (FFT) video production team will monitor all of the action at this year’s French Open using eight Blackmagic MultiView 16s. The purpose built 3.2 meter by 1.3 meter video wall provides a complete preview of all the action as it happens at Le Stade Roland Garros, Paris’ international tennis venue.
As part of a major video production upgrade for the venue, four of the hardware multi viewers will be used all year round in order to monitor 1080i50 signals across all 20 courts at Roland Garros, including smaller FFT tournaments and training analysis. During major championships, such as the French Open Gram Slam tournament and Davis Cup meetings, the additional four MultiView 16s provide the FFT team with a full overview of every camera feed being produced by up to 40 international sports broadcasters on site, as well as outputs of video systems such as keyers and video walls.
“Blackmagic’s hardware multi viewers replace several full IP mosaics and SDI video quads that we previously used for monitoring. As well as assisting in our overall upgrade of our inhouse production capabilities from SD to HD, the multi viewers also allow us to be more flexible by taking video outputs straight from our SDI video routers to see whatever we need directly up on our screens,” explains Christophe Chatain, head of AV, FFT. “Whilst most of our sources for this Grand Slam tournament are HD, as is the case with other international events, the fact that we can support Ultra HD monitoring in the future, and select how we view those inputs; either full screen or 2x2, 3x3 or 4x4 means we have a flexible, reliable monitoring solution that is future proofed.”
The FFT has also recently installed two Blackmagic Smart Videohub 40x40 routers as part of its upgrade of the venue’s audiovisual infrastructure. The first is used to distribute video feeds between the stadium’s multiple control rooms via optical fiber out to giant screens for spectators or to the venue’s IPTV network while the other manages all of the incoming sources for the video wall in the master control room, routing the MultiView 16 inputs and outputs.
“As the only Grand Slam tournament played on clay, the French Open is a major international tennis event, attracting sell out crowds and broadcasters from across the globe, so it goes without saying that our on court coverage has to be flawless, and the production team has to have its finger on the pulse as the drama unfolds,” concludes Christophe. “The installation of Blackmagic Design’s routing and monitoring equipment delivers a reliable and seamless video production workflow that enables us to provide broadcast standard video coverage of some of tennis’ most exciting matches, from the very best in the sport.”
About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.