October 27, 2014 – Brasil - When Germany kicked the winning goal in the second half of overtime in the final game of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, it climaxed a sporting event watched by almost a third of the world’s population. The victory was an historic accomplishment, and the fact it could be seen by an estimated 3.5 billion people was in part made possible by a dedicated team of engineers, designers, and installation specialists from Anton/Bauer, Autoscript, Bexel, Litepanels, Sachtler, Teradek, Vinten and Vinten Radamec, of the Vitec Group. Bexel provided broadcast support solutions and helped to ensure viewers could enjoy every dramatic moment of the games.

ESPN and Univision, the U.S. English and Spanish-language broadcast rights holders for the FIFA World Cup, both contracted Bexel, a leading supplier of broadcast services and video equipment rentals, to build modern studios and control rooms in Rio de Janiero, a feat that began months ahead of the event in Burbank, California.Johnny Pastor, director of technical services for Bexel, was first contacted during the 2012 London Olympics. The project would eventually include one production facility in the International Broadcast Centre (IBC), overseen by Swiss-based Host Broadcast Services (HBS), and another facility based on Copacabana Beach at the Clube dos Marimbas. The former would be used by the Spanish-language broadcast rights holder and the latter by the English-language broadcaster. Bexel would also be fighting a tight deadline to conjure up a remote studio containing three sets: one for the English-language portion of the broadcast, another for their international commentators, and a third set built for use by Disney and ABC’s “Good Morning America” hosts.

“At first we were given the indication that 15 to 20 people were to be using a small flypack to control the production for the studio sets for the English-language broadcaster,” Pastor said, “because most of the facilities were planned to be within the IBC. But as the project developed, ESPN realized it would be best to build their own custom studio facilities right on Copacabana Beach, so the talent and production could collaborate and get a more vibrant sense of the spirit of Brazil during the broadcasts.”

Pastor’s team decided to erect a small 34-by-42 foot building for the technical facilities in the Brazilian beach club. Construction of the buildings was undertaken by Brown United, and to keep within the unforgiving schedule, Bexel engineers were running wires even as the construction crews were building walls.

“Everything from the UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) back-up power system to the air conditioning, with ultimately eight generators, had to be custom designed,” Pastor said. “This gave us a much smaller presence in the IBC, everything was sent from there to the beach location over fiber, as well as to the facility’s three studio control rooms.”

Joe Wire, vice president of sales and account development at Bexel, oversaw the assembly of the beachside facilities, overcoming ongoing challenges and conforming to the unique culture of Brazil. “We understood that the city’s regulations kept trucks carrying containers over six feet long off the streets between 6 AM to 10 AM and 5 PM to 10 PM,” Wire said. “So most of our unloading had to happen either in the early hours of the morning or late at night, but that’s just typical of the type of service people have come to expect from Bexel.”Bexel built a world-class broadcast facility in a small space, on budget and in an extremely tight time frame. “Brazil is simply one of the most beautiful places on Earth,” said Pastor, “and one of the most hectic, demanding environments I’ve ever worked in.”

While Pastor handled the requirements of the English-language broadcast rights holder, Rod Allen, senior account manager and project manager at Bexel, managed the portion of the project for the U.S. Spanish-language rights holder, Univision. Before they even left for Brazil, a detailed mock-up of the whole studio set installation for Univision was constructed at Bexel’s Burbank facilities. Once the broadcaster’s chief engineer and technical director had signed off on it, everything was shipped to Rio de Janiero. Allen’s crews began loading equipment into the studio on the evening of May 12th and handed over the facilities on June 1st.

“For Univision, we brought all the incoming feeds into our Master Control. These fed the facility we built on site, which included Production Control Rooms, Audio Control Rooms, Voice-Over Booths, Multichannel Disk-Based Work Stations, Editing Suites, and a Production Sound Stage built by Univision. This enabled the Univision crews to cut between the World Cup games and the TV shows being done in their own studios.”

Univision also provided some of their own equipment, which had to be installed in Rio’s Atlantico Sul Hotel, along with two cellular-based ENG remote packs that would be used to capture interviews and commentary at different sites around the country. “In the end, we had to handle feeds from the IBC, from the local sound stage, from the sets in Atlantico Sul and from the backpack remotes at each soccer venue, and we had to make it seamless for Univision to cut between them,” Allen said. “We had two technical crews splitting shifts. Someone might be doing a given game in one control room and then hand the transition off to the other control room for Univision’s next broadcast. Univision even included a live cut-in from the International Space Station.”

The equipment Allen’s team installed for Univision included Broadcast Television Cameras, a Multi-Surface Audio Mixing and Routing System, Large Format Broadcast Television Switchers, a Wireless Microphone System with Custom Managed Antenna Distribution System, a Custom Designed Rapid Deployment Monitor Wall for each Control Room, and AVID Editing Systems and Custom Designed Work Stations for each user. “Once the equipment arrived in Brazil, we were able to fine tune all of its functionalities to the Univision engineers’ needs for the project,” Allen continued. “This enabled the Univision Production Team to concentrate on capturing their vision rather than adapting to a new work environment.”When it comes to global sporting events, the goals of every broadcaster are to tell the stories of the teams and players, capture the action, and share the excitement of competition. The 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil did just that, and the success of the production helped to break TV viewing records worldwide. To help achieve this end, it is no surprise that broadcasters chose to rely on some of the most respected, innovative and sought-after brands and services in the broadcast industry.[sc name="news-footer"]