| By: Kevin Hilton, European Correspondent | Published: July 15, 2009 |
By Kevin Hilton
The Ashes cricket series between England and Australia began in typically controversial style July 9, with the Australians accusing their hosts of forcing a draw through time-wasting and the rekindling of the argument over whether this is a sporting event that should be available live on free-to-air television.
The action continues as the second Test at Lord’s beginning on Thursday, with Sky Sports offering full HD coverage of the series on its pay-TV platform. Commercial terrestrial broadcaster Five is screening highlights on each match-day evening. A parliamentary review of the list of so-called Crown Jewels — sports tournaments that guarantee live free-to-air coverage — is under way, but the general feeling is that cricket will not regain protected status.
The Ashes is Sky’s second big sports broadcast of the summer, after the Lions tour of South Africa, and outside broadcast contractor CTV OBs has expanded its facilities to offer the best possible coverage.
Thirty-two cameras, plus six for the Hawkeye tracking-analysis system, are being used at each venue, with these subdivided into eight categories.
Main coverage is shot on 12 Sony HDC1500s, with seven super-slow-motion HDC330s, which work in conjunction with a multilayer Kayak and Hawkeye facility and are known as Skyline cameras. Further slow-motion analysis comes from three ARRI Media-supplied Hi-Motion cameras, known by the Sky cricket department as 600Ps for reasons too convoluted to go into. Sky’s regular cricket coverage uses two Hi-Motion cameras; and the addition of the third camera, says CTV Technical Director Hamish Greig, reflects the importance of the Ashes to the broadcaster.
A first for this tournament is the use of HD runout cameras; the four units are arranged with two at a 90-degree angle on either side of each wicket. All other specialised cameras are also in HD: one radio camera on a Steadicam rig, the camera mounted at the commentary position, two Hot Spot infrared cameras on the wickets to catch any nicks or other slight contact on the bat, and two stump cameras, one for each end.
The production is organised and directed, by Mark Lynch, from CTV’s big HD scanner, OB2. This is supported by the central VT truck, MVT3, which houses a linear-editing suite. A second linear suite is located in TSV2, with an Avid 5.1 area in the MVT4 vehicle. Recording and playback is handled by 12 networked EVS media servers.
Scoring and statistics graphics are supplied by specialist-software developer Alston Elliot. The most recent graphics innovation introduced by Sky for cricket was the Field Plan system, used for the first time last year, which shows the position of the fielders on the pitch.
Other vehicles on-site include a BT links van for the fibre connections to broadcasters, an SNG truck being used by Fox Sports, and facilities supplied by Visions for Five’s highlights programmes.
To match the 5.1 audio to the HD pictures, two Soundfield surround-sound microphones are being used, one at each end of the pitch.
Stump microphones were among the first innovations introduced for cricket by Sky, in 1990, and feature again as part of the Snickometer, to show if the ball has made contact with the bat.
The coverage of all sports is stuffed full of stats, but cricket is particularly focused on facts and figures. This extends to the TV coverage, which uses more than 40 mics, in excess of 15 miles of cabling, and an 80-person production crew at each venue.
The on-site staff is supported at Sky’s headquarters in west London by teams producing the live interactive footage on the Red Button and editing highlights footage.
To give the commentators something to talk about between overs or during rainy periods, a database of more than 3,500 international players, past and present, has been compiled by Sky’s production team. The scale of the coverage is reflected by additional editing facilities at both the venues and Sky’s broadcast centre and the addition of an evening highlights programme.
Live television coverage of cricket is now firmly on pay TV, but the BBC is using this year’s Ashes series to underline its historical connection with the game through both its radio commentary of the Tests and a new online archive highlighting the greatest clashes between England and Australia.
Live commentary of games in the five-match series is being carried on digital channel BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra and Radio 4 long wave. There must be the expectation from the players, commentators, and fans that the 2009 Ashes turn out to be of the same stature as the classic matches featured in the Test Match Special (TMS) Archive (www.bbc.co.uk/ashesarchive).
Featuring audio and supported by video and photographs, the Archive stretches back to the 1938 Ashes series, when England batsman Len Hutton scored 364 runs, beating the previous record of 334, set by Australian legend Don Bradman, who was on the pitch to congratulate him. That achievement, which was a world record for 20 years and still stands in Ashes cricket, is described with restrained enthusiasm by commentator Howard Marshall.
Other great moments feature such cricketing greats as Fred Trueman, Richie Benaud, Shane Warne, and Mark Waugh. Two outstanding moments are the so-called Botham’s Ashes of 1981, when all-rounder Ian Botham and bowler Bob Willis helped England snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, and Australian Adam Gilchrist’s scoring a century during the last Ashes in 2007.
The current TMS commentary team of Christopher Martin Jenkins, Henry Blofeld, and Jonathan Agnew features heavily, but there is also the chance to hear past masters of the commentator’s art, including John Arlott and Brian Johnston.
“This is a really special archive of some of the finest moments in radio history as we hear many of the greatest practitioners of commentary narrate the story of the finest cricketers to contest the Ashes,” comments Adrian Van Klaveren, controller of BBC Radio Five Live. “It’s an enthralling collection, and you can simply feel the atmosphere that emanates from these commentaries.”
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