Behind the Scenes at DAZN's Champions League coverage
At Manchester City vs Barcelona, DAZN offered me the chance to spend an evening watching how they get a game on-air from the Joie Stadium inside their production trucks...
Entering its fourth season as lead broadcaster of the UEFA Women’s Champions League, DAZN has branched out and has in the past year began broadcasting via YouTube too, with host broadcast language commentary, and is quickly diving head-first into the new season, as Manchester City host defending champions Barcelona at the Joie Stadium.
It’s a huge opening round clash and one which demands the full attention, with live production from Manchester, rather than back in the DAZN HQ in down the M62 in Leeds.
It’s also one which they’d have loved more time to plan, but logistically is actually something of a nightmare for DAZN, with the draw having been made just 12 days before, and the fixtures only confirmed a day later, meaning the production team has had less than two weeks to plan for eight games in completely separate parts of the continent, from Manchester to Rome to Stockholm, and a second round of games just a week away, including a match in Turkey.
DAZN have for a night allowed me full access to their production, which on this evening is live from Manchester given it is an English team against the defending champions, but for most rounds the production will be remote from their HQ, where tonight Jemma Archer, Senior Producer of Women’s Football, is leading the production of the overall evening, with three other games ongoing, including Arsenal’s early evening encounter with Bayern Munich in Germany.
The crew of around 35 people is already well in place by the time I arrive at 4pm, four hours before kick-off, and many will have been outside the Joie Stadium main car park eight hours by the time the game even gets under way, ensuring everything is where it needs to be come 8pm.
There are four trucks and two vans parked up in a designated corner of the car park reserved for DAZN’s production, with the main two where the magic happens. The first truck, split into two sections, is where the Director for the evening will be sat, while a smaller section at the back has another set of screens for the graphics department who are there to put up stats, scores from elsewhere, yellow cards etc, as well as DAZN’s own advertisement graphics.
The other trucks and vans are for practical use, such as broadcast signal, power supply and one solely to carry around the hundreds and hundreds of wires, plugs, sockets etc needed just to produce the game remotely from a stadium.
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Courtney Pascaud, DAZN’s Production Manager, is there to meet me and immediately takes me on a tour inside the stadium itself to show me their set up.
Soon, commentators Chris Sharples and Courtney Sweetman-Kirk will arrive to start their preparation, as will presenters Siobhan Aherne and Emma Byrne, all part of the strong DAZN numbers on the ground in Manchester.
As we walk around the pitch, Pascaud explains the camera set up and what they’re all for, of which I’ll get a more detailed explanation for back in the production truck in an hour or so, but it’s an interesting insight nonetheless as to what each camera is for and its purpose on the evening.
This game is a five-camera set up, with another five dedicated to things such as interviews, press positions and the gantry, and all of this it’s worth remembering has had to be planned, arranged and executed at just 10 days’ notice of finding out the first round of games would throw up an English side against the European champions.
As we walk back around outside of the stadium and back into the compound, the autumn sun is beginning to set, and, annoyingly for the crew, the rain is starting to come down.
They’re well prepared for any sort of power outage though, with back-up generators and the like all on hand if needed, but the stature of the setup means that is rarely ever required, if at all.
At 5:30pm, things start to speed up, as in the Director’s truck they begin to go through their pre-match rundown. They are compiling various clips and highlights for the pre-show, which includes the goals from Barcelona’s triumph against Lyon in last season’s final, some stats on Ewa Pajor’s start to the season with her new club since arriving from Wolfsburg, while they also test out the team news graphics based on the last starting elevens for both sides.
They test out all the cameras, and this is where it’s explained to be what each one will offer on the night.
“There’s a few more cameras in the Women’s Super League, but when we get to the final there could be as many as 20,” one of the production crew explains. “The Director will be sat at the end; they’ll be looking at the screens and calling the shots.
“These are some of our preview monitors, to show the next shot we’re going to show on the live programme. Camera one is the main wide angle from the gantry, two is a close-up from pitch side, three is not rigged up but is our press position for post-match interviews. There’s a reporter camera by the tunnel and camera five is down behind the goal. It’s all very under control at a place like this because it’s set up amazingly well.”
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