BROADCASTING OF CRICKET LIVE MATCHES ON TV
“Boom, Boom “
Relive this : M.S. Dhoni’s winning shot soaring high in the air and clearing the long on stand and the ecstasy from the crowd in the stands is palpable as it came after a hiatus of 28 years on 2nd April at the Wankhade stadium during World Cup Finals in 2011. The Director of the TV Channel telling a cameraman “ Close in , Close in “ to catch that shot as close as possible and another cameraman to the commentary box focussing Ravi Shastri, the commentator, India’s Tony Greig, to catch his exuberant voice very closely “ And Dhoni finishes it off in style. And India lifts the world cup after 28 years. The party has started in the dressing room. And an Indian Captain did it “. The camera that captured the winning shot of this glorious scene posted for eternity is one of the 15 cameras used on the field that became the talk of the town and still etched in our memory.
Other shots of the Day captured BY CAMERAS
Crowd’s ecstasy at the winning shot
VIPs and Celebrities rejoice
Harbhajan’s cry
Indian Players invading the pitch
Yuvraj’s embrace with Sachin
Dressing rooms of India & Srilanka
The cameras positioned at different positions in the field and in the stands captured by cameras are collaged by the remix vision team and shown to the TV Viewers as one as they can see only one camera on their TVs. And it was the work of a dedicated production team of the Star sports T.V. channel. The Director and his team deserves a pat on their back.
It was just another day’s work at the office for the production team. A single day’s work is the work of over 100 people, who are all committed to delivering the best programme they can offer to the viewers. They are constantly trying to improve what they do and devote hours to delivering the exceptional finished product we see at our homes.
ORDEALS OF A PRODUCTION UNIT
The ordeals of a Production team to telecast a Cricket match LIVE on Television is insurmountable.
For the Production Unit , the match starts four days before it is actually played. It’s akin to Marriage Planners or Event Management teams, who also visit the area of operation well in advance. There are core crews and operations crews . The crew size may vary according to the nature of the matches to be covered. For ICC events like the World cup there will be 4 core and 5 operations crews.
The Core crew is headed by the Executive Producer, Director, Producer, floor Manager, Director’s assistant, Producer’s assistant, statisticians and reporters. The operations team for a WC size tournament has a Production Manager, Vision Mixer, EVS operators , Soundmen, Graphic operators, Hawk eye operators, Engineering operators, Cameraman , Satellite operators and Riggers.
On the first day they get the control room ready. The Engineering team gets the generator for Power and then puts the monitors in place. The next task is rigging up the cables, which is an elaborate process and if it’s a big stadium like Eden Gardens there is extra work load. They need persons like Gabbar Singh (Sholay fame) as the cables are heavy and it’s difficult to lift and put them in different positions. All the food items come from catering unit and sumptuous food is being served to all. All the camera positions and microphones across the stadium are hooked up to the control room.
The next day the Director oversee the facilities checkup. The cameras are in place, the cameramen check the viewfinders, the picture inputs are checked and the TV monitors in place. The sound checkup simultaneously happens.
The engineers also link the producer, statistician and the commentators , who all sit upstairs in the commentator’s box, to the control room. The commentators have a microphone, a view of the programme output, and a “Fruit machine”, a gadget that displays essential data like the team total, batsmen’s scores, bowlers figures and other stats. Each crew member works 10-12 hours on match days.
The OB Truck with worth 8 million is used to host the production staff & 78 TV Screens.
At any given time there was a designated “lead” commentator who describes the delivery along with two “ Colour” commentators who offer expert commentary. Ravi Shastri used to be the “lead” commentator when India were playing.
The most tense moment of the day, was the Toss, usually a straight forward event. In the 2011 World cup Final, there were two tosses as Sangakara’s call was not properly heard. But the viewers could see only one Toss event as the second one was filtered.
2019 World Cup Broadcast
The 2019 World Cup hosted by England & Wales emerged as the most- watched ICC tournament of all time with 1.6 billion viewers tuned in. Television has played an important role making cricket one of the most followed sports across the globe. While digital technologies have started surpassing Television in importance, the small screen (TV) still remains crucial in the cricket world. LIVE cricket is a smart way to motivate teams and inspire support from the entire country.
SKY TV Broadcast
The OB Truck is home to 78 different TV screens. There are 15 production trucks and 15 miles of cabling placed around the ground and controlled by a crew of 8-100 staff. Sky’s production Unit carries as high as 30 cameras for an ODI & 40 for Tests. During the Ashes 2013, 120 people worked in the production unit as they looked to get best crowd shots, instant player reactions as well as working with match officials to provide definitive angels for DRS.
Cricket fans now can listen to the on-field reaction thanks to stump microphones, see how a spinner has managed to get so many revolutions on the ball with hi-motion replays and find out if a batsman nicked the ball through Hotspot analysis.
Decisions on which pictures from the 30 camera feeds and various gadgets used will be broadcast to the viewer next are decided from inside of a 8 million Truck, the most expensive on the road in Europe using 78 TV Screens.