April 2009: On Sunday 26 April, BBC Studios and Post Production’s Sport area on the second floor of Television Centre will act as a nerve centre, supporting live and fast turn-around editing for four major sporting events – The London Marathon, Moto GP from Japan, F1 from Bahrain and Match of the Day 2.

The team of 25 post production staff will help create over fourteen hours of content for BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Three and will log and manage even more.

The networked server infrastructure allows the sharing of material across multiple systems – Avid, EVS and FCP. It will record and ingest from a total of 20 outside feeds on the day, whilst simultaneously replaying to multiple destinations.

The morning begins with Moto GP from Motegi in Japan, going out live on BBC Two at 06.45, with a team creating a 75 minute highlights programme to transmit on BBC Two at 14.00.

Live coverage of the London Marathon follows on BBC One between 08.30 and midday, when it moves to BBC Two until 14.00. There is also a highlights programme between 18.00-19.00. 15 feeds – including motor bike and helicopter cameras, as well as the Outside Broadcast feeds, will be received by the second floor Sport area. The post production team will coordinate, manage and monitor the media and edit the opening and closing inserts and a highlights programme, plus provide an archive recording facility.

Live coverage of the F1 race in Bahrain begins on BBC One at 12.10 and the post production team will then edit a highlights programme for BBC Three for 19.00. They are working closely with OB partners SIS Live, to ensure a seamless workflow between the Television Centre editing operation and the OB set up. Programme features will be edited on BBC Studios and Post Production’s Final Cut Pro system. The project information and media will then be re-linked to the SIS OB Xsan, ensuring the production team has access to the same media whether working at base on or location.

Finally, on the same Sunday, two matches are being recorded and turned around for Match of the Day 2 which goes out at 22.00. The first match, Arsenal Vs Middlesborough starts at 1.30pm and the second, Blackburn Vs Wigan kicks off at 16.00. This is in addition to the games recorded on Saturday.

The depth, breadth and design of BBC Studios and Post Production’s Television Centre facility enables it to flex facilities to suit productions’ needs – for example drawing on extra Avid and tape suites from its Fourth Floor Entertainment Production village to support the Sport area. The fully integrated matrix system enables production teams to see and access the same content, wherever they are in Post Productions facilities.

Head of Operations, Clive Hodge says: “This kind of Sunday, with its feast of different Sporting events, makes the most of our second floor facility and our talent, creating huge amounts of quality content across a variety of channels.”

For further information, please contact:
Georgie Hollett, Head of Communications, BBC Studios and Post Production
Tel: +44 (0)20 8624 9495
Mobile : +44 (0) 783484 5612
Email : georgie.hollett@bbc.co.uk

back to top