European Athletics Championship: Lessons from a Live, HDR, HFR, UHD, and Next-Generation Audio Sports Event

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and several of its member organizations undertook an ambitious trial over the summer period—a live, ultrahigh-definition, high dynamic range, high frame rate, wide color gamut, and next-generation audio trial at the European Athletics Championships in Berlin, Germany. The trial included four 2160p/100 cameras with live control of shading/racking, live vision mixing, live recording, live mixing of audio objects, audiovisual synchronization with audio objects, and live encoding. This paper looks at the lessons learned during the trial—what went well, what needed extra work, and what is needed to overcome current technical hurdles.