Playing Sport

Intercom specialist Thomas Riedel tells BroadcastPro Middle East about his company’s role in the FIFA World Cup.

Is this World Cup any different for you from previous years?

Any large scale event is different in some ways. Setting up such a large communications infrastructure is always a demanding task with special considerations and completely new communications scenarios. Although we didn’t launch anything new, the World Cup was the first event outside the Red Bull Air Race, where we used our new wireless HD video links with Riedel Conductor RF telemetry system for the helicopters. Those were responsible for the stunning pictures outside the stadiums for example.

How many Riedel solutions were used at the World Cup?

80 Riedel RiFaces

700 Artist Control panels

2,000 Artist Digital Matrix

Intercom Ports

300 Performer digital

Partyline Beltpacks

100 RockNet 300 Frames

20 MediorNet Frames

10 Helicopter Wireless Video

Links with Riedel Conductor

RF telemetry systems

40 venue based HD over fibre links

Did you encounter any challenges?

Everything went smoothly as we had two years to prepare for this event. We also had about 12 Riedel technicians and support staff in South Africa to provide detailed support.

You have been on site for many events. Which one is your favourite?

The most moving event was the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, where I had the honour of being part of the official Torch Relay of the Olympic Games.

Have you brought any special products to this event?

We made use of some new MediorNet software features at the World Cup. MediorNet was used to transport 20 HD-SDI signals including the world feed between the technical operation centres (TOC) in the stadiums and HD OB trucks outside. As the video and audio streams came from various asynchronous sources we made use of MediorNet’s Framestore feature, which synchronised the video signals to the truck’s internal clock, while the embedded audio signals were synchronised via MediorNet’s new Sample Rate Converter (SRC).

What makes the World Cup also a little more special is the size and the fact that nearly the whole world is watching. Coordinating such a large scale event is always a challenge.

When was the last time you visited the Middle East?

I was there for the first race of the 2010 Red Bull Air Race. Against the Abu Dhabi skyline, it’s truly impressive.

Where do you see Riedel heading in terms of new technology?

In the last few years, we’ve expanded our role as a manufacturer of backbone communications technology. With Mediornet, we are now able to provide an infrastructure for distributing and routing HD video, audio, intercom and data that provides the core system for complete events or production environments with significant savings in installation costs. The Red Bull Air Race, which runs entirely on a fibre-based MediorNet infrastructure since last year’s season, is a fine example of this.