Matrox MXO helps Mexico's TV Azteca deliver FIFA World Cup programming
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“Our workflow was very smooth. The combination of the Apple and Matrox equipment performed beautifully and let us deliver top-quality pictures to our viewers. It also let us meet our goal of doing it very economically.” |
TV Azteca is Mexico’s second largest broadcast television company, operating two national networks, Azteca 13 and Azteca 7, through 555 owned-and-operated television stations located throughout Mexico. TV Azteca is one of the most efficient TV companies in the world and the second largest producer of Spanish-language television, investing approximately $225 million US in new productions each year resulting in over 9,000 hours of original content. In house production includes sports, news, soap operas, musical programs, and entertainment information shows.
The company also owns 100% of Azteca America Network, a broadcast television network focused on the rapidly growing US Hispanic market. It currently has 51 affiliate stations in dominant market areas where 87% of the US Hispanic population lives.
Other TV Azteca subsidiaries include Azteca Internet network sites; Monarcas Morelia, a professional soccer team of Mexico's First Division league; and Azteca Music, an innovative music recording company.
When it can time to bring the FIFA World Cup action to its many Mexican fans, TV Azteca adopted an innovative new workflow to deliver packages from stadiums around Germany during their month-long coverage. They were the first broadcaster to use a combination of Matrox MXOs, Apple Final Cut Pro, and MacBook Pros to deliver coverage of a worldwide event.
TV Azteca had crews stationed all over Germany at the 12 different venues where the soccer matches were taking place. It was their job to cover the soccer teams and fans as well as German cultural events that would be of interest to the audience in Mexico. All footage of the Mexico National Team was shot on DVCPRO HD using Panasonic P2 camcorders. Other footage was shot on HDV.
“Following the Mexican government’s mandate, TV Azteca started broadcasting in HD in 2006,” said Jorge Pickering, TV Azteca’s Director of Technical Services. “HD is the way of the future and it was very important to us to record as much material as possible at the World Cup using HD equipment so that we will have optimum quality archival footage to be used in the future.”
TV Azteca’s editors used Final Cut Pro on MacBook Pros to create each content package in the field and then connected to an SDI or HD SDI satellite link using Matrox MXO to quickly transmit their final edits straight from the timeline to the servers in the TV Azteca headquarters at the International Broadcast Center in Munich. It all had to be done on a strict deadline, in time to make the primetime broadcasts in Mexico.
“Our workflow was very smooth. The combination of the Apple and Matrox equipment performed beautifully and let us deliver top-quality pictures to our viewers. It also let us meet our goal of doing it very economically.”
