Grass Valley Switcher Helps DORNA Sports Shift Gears for Production of MotoGP 2021 Season

Grass Valley announces its Kahuna 6400 production switcher is central to DORNA Sports’ workflow for the live production of the 2021 Grand Prix motorcycling season. DORNA, the commercial rights holder of the FIM MotoGP™ World Championships, will produce shows for 19 MotoGP events in 15 countries all over the world. Grass Valley’s switcher will enable DORNA to easily handle the wide array of formats and feeds that typically challenge the production of moto racing events, including at the recent Grand Prix event in Portugal last weekend.

Hundreds of millions of racing fans will tune into MotoGP Grand Prix events this year. To meet consumer demand for a stunning-quality experience of the fast-paced live action, DORNA requires scalable and reliable solutions. At every event, DORNA has to handle different sources and feeds, with several partners requiring various formats and deliveries. Kahuna M/Es and the on-board FormatFusion3 technology, equip DORNA’s teams with true multiformat operations, supporting any combination of SD, HD, 1080p and 4K UHD. FormatFusion 4 technology supports HDR conversion at M/E level, allowing operators to seamlessly handle SDR and HDR in parallel for live productions.

Daniel Laviña, technical director of DORNA said, “Production for the 2021 season will call for several special requirements due to the exigent conditions and technical challenges of producing live sporting events. Grass Valley’s solution provides our team with the assurance that it can reliably and flexibly handle these challenges along with the operational capacity for remote production.”

Thanks to the Kahuna switcher, DORNA teams can operate workflows across several separate locations, frequently spanning thousands of kilometers. For example, a frame could be used by teams at the Australia circuit while another panel will be located and utilized by teams in the DORNA master control room in Barcelona, Spain, with no delay or compromise on the quality of the production workflow.

"In today's live productions environment, fast and smart ways of working are central to our customers' needs,” said Tim Banks, vice president sales, EMEA at Grass Valley.  “We are delighted that, once again, our solutions have been selected by DORNA Sports for production of this season’s coverage. We look forward to partnering with the DORNA team on events such as MotoGP and strengthening our relationship ahead of a summer of the long-awaited return of live sports."