Equidia, the first television channel in Europe dedicated to horse racing, has developed a Blackmagic Design live production workflow to produce and broadcast its live events.
Central to the project was a need to modernise the video production and live broadcast capabilities at racecourses throughout France, including an upgrade from analogue SD to HD.
The channel enlisted Anjou-Image to design and build a mobile control room solution, featuring an ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K switcher, HyperDeck Studio Mini and URSA Broadcast.
“Migrating from analogue to HD is a long and complex process. We’ve been working on this project with AMCO (Anjou Maine Centre Ouest), the regional federation of horse racing, for several years now, and we’re delighted to have successfully taken these first steps,” said Pierre-Yves Maillet, CEO of Anjou-Image.
“The HD capture from Blackmagic Design has quickly proved to be the most suitable solution in terms of quality and pricing.”
Philippe Foucher, director of the AMCO Federation, added: “As a technical group, we support 33 racecourses with their video production needs, and this upgrade has expanded what we can offer. This represents nearly 250 days of filming. Anjou-Image has designed a mobile control room solution based on Blackmagic Design, allowing us to offer a premium quality service to all of our racecourses.”
As part of the solution, Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4Ks have been deployed at the start line to allow race officials and the production team to review key moments in slow motion. All live video signals are routed back to and recorded using HyperDeck Studio Mini broadcast decks.
