With the FIFA Club World Cup now in full swing, the team at IMG’s Stockley Park facility is busy hosting DAZN’s global content operations as well as providing the infrastructure for the streamer’s English language production hub.
It’s no mean feat. DAZN only acquired the worldwide rights to the tournament in December 2024, which meant the timeline for preparing to bring the event to viewers around the world was much shorter than for other major sporting events. In total, IMG has had around 200 members of staff working on a project that has come together in a “matter of weeks, not months,” Melissa Andersen, IMG’s senior director, operations tells TVBEurope.
This is the first time IMG and DAZN have partnered on an event of this magnitude, and Andersen describes the setup as a “new and different way of working”. IMG has created a DAZN production house at its facility in West London, hosting the streamer’s production team. The Global English studio show is also produced at the Stockley Park facility, covering 51 of the 63 matches in the tournament. “That’s being done in our virtual studio and two of our production galleries, and essentially it’s a pre- and post-programme that’s wrapped around each match,” explains Andersen. “It starts with an hour before the first match of the day, and then there’s a post-show and a pre-show into the next match.”
With the FIFA Club World Cup based in the United States, IMG is providing an around-the-clock operation, with two shifts running during the day. “Essentially, on an average day here in London, we’re on air from 4:00 in the afternoon till about 6:30am.”
In addition, IMG is also hosting DAZN’s central content management system and distribution hub, with a team of media managers and loggers working out of the production hub at Stockley Park, as well as an engineering team who are hosting the central media asset management system for the entire tournament.
“There are over 500 users, which includes all of DAZN’s core markets, their sub-licensees, their partners, their publishers, the clubs, anyone who needs content,” explains Andersen. “It’s all being accessed through that central hub. We’re logging absolutely everything that’s being captured, from the reporters on site, all of the match footage and clipping up the studio. Packages are cut and then made available to all the different broadcasters who are going to take them.”
And if that’s not enough, IMG is also hosting and providing support to the gallery producer for UK rights holder, 5 (formerly Channel 5).
Unsurprisingly, this is one of the biggest operations IMG has ever run. The company previously worked on the FIFA Women’s World Cup with HBS, providing the centralised media hub. “We do studio options for all sorts of clients,” adds Andersen, “but I think on this scale, this is really the best of the best of what IMG can offer, because we’re managing all of this under one roof.”
The team is using 11 edit and four graphics suites, and is responsible for producing three different versions of highlights: one minute, three minutes and 12 minutes. “The one and three minute highlights have to be out incredibly quickly after every match, and the 12-minute highlights are done minutes after that. It’s quite a bit of operation.”
Tackling technology
For the one- and three-minute highlights packages, IMG is playing the highlights via the desk to add graphics for different versions, one version for the DAZN platform, one version for non-DAZN platforms such as YouTube.
“The 12-minute highlights we’re doing in one of the edit suites, predominantly with Adobe Premiere Pro as well as some Avids,” explains John Munks, technical lead for IMG.
To handle all of those assets, IMG is using EVS’ IPDirector as the management system, with content sent to the various locations within Stockley Park via the company’s near line. The content is also available to sub licencees and the clubs. “We’re up to 650 people who are connecting via Signiant to get that material,” says Munks.
In terms of how the content is arriving in London from the various stadiums around the United States, DAZN has partnered with NEP America on a central hub for all the different regions taking the content. The main feeds are being sent to IMG via pre-existing Nimbra connections the company has with NEP as well as SRT and tower feeds.
There are also 32 TVU units out and about sending material from each of the clubs competing in the tournament. “They follow the teams around, so they get all the formal things, like press conferences, or they’re filming the training sessions. Those teams are also able to send over Signiant back into our MAM system as well. We’re getting a number of SRTs via Telstra distribution, who are another partner of DAZN,” says Munks.
All of the video is originating in HDR with NEP’s Match Centre converting it into the relevant formats. For IMG, that’s 1080i SDR. As well as the main and backup feeds, IMG is receiving a second backup feed via satellite.
Graphics goal
IMG has partnered with AE Live on the graphics needed for the broadcasts, as well as the 10×20 metre virtual studio. “We’re using Vizrt as our renderer for on-screen graphics,” explains Chris Izatt, director of virtual innovation at AE Live. “There are three graphics operators in the gallery, with two of them looking after on-screen graphics, and one working on the virtual studio screen content. A virtual studio operator is sitting next to lighting, controlling the environment, the time of day, making sure the keying is good and anything like that.”
Zero Density’s Reality, an Unreal Engine-based graphics engine, is powering the virtual studio alongside a custom, proprietary control software. The studio has four cameras—all manually operated—three on pedestals and one on a jib.
For talkback, uses Reidel as their in-house system, including Bolero wireless packs. “We have bridged our Riedel system to NEP’s RVON system, which is something we do regularly,” adds Munks.
It’s undoubtedly been a huge project for everyone at IMG, with both the short lead-in and the huge amounts of technology being deployed. But Andersen, Munks and Izatt say they’ve been inspired by the team to come together to collaborate.
“Because we’ve done all the elements separately, it wasn’t an effort to put it all together in the time frame. It’s stuff we’ve done before, so the knowledge was there, and we could piece it together fairly quickly,” says Munks.
“The plus side is that everyone’s minds are quite focused,” agrees Izatt, “and the results have been really good.”
