National League Football

October 8th, 2015

Aldershot Town and Forest Green OB

We were at Aldershot for the National League Football Match between Aldershot Town and Forest Green, broadcast on BT Sport. Where Forest Green won a comfortable victory over Aldershot Town. Timeline set up 11 cameras including a super slow mo, radio camera and players mini camera in the Aldershot dressing room.

We have a variety of camera angles so we never miss a moment of the action. These are made up of 2 cameras on the centre line high up, one of these is wide all of the time for the action to unfold within the frame and the other is a close up of the same angle so we can capture close up action shots.  There are 4 cameras around the pitch covering the low down action with the crowd in the background of the shot.  We also have two 18 yard cameras that capture the action that happens close to the goal lines.

There are 25 microphones all around the pitch and each one is independently faded up depending on where the ball is around the pitch, so you always hear the sound of the ball being kicked. On top of this we have a commentary position where 2 commentators voice over the match while they are watching what you are watching at home so they can relate to as much of the action you see as possible.

All of these cameras and microphones come back to one place: the Outside Broadcast truck. Where we mix and cut the cameras and sound into one mixed down feed that we send over fibre to the BT broadcast centre.

We use advanced instant replay machines to wind back the live cameras so you can experience the action over and over again.  In the engineering department we are always adjusting the cameras to match the constantly changing light colour and brightness that happens naturally throughout the day. From very blue midday sun to warm evening sunset.  We need to adjust the cameras so they all equally match.