Paris-Troyes en Champagne Goes Live on France.tv with AVEO
Regional audiovisual company builds broadcastgrade cycling workflow around Blackmagic Design infrastructure.
Blackmagic Design today announced that AVEO, a French audiovisual production company, used a Blackmagic Design workflow to deliver the first live broadcast of Paris-Troyes en Champagne on France Télévisions’ digital platform france.tv.
Covering more than 180 kilometers of open road with a crew of 15 and a converted Mercedes Sprinter, the production outside broadcast relied on a mixed package of Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2 cameras and PTZs for acquisition. The gallery control workflow featured the ATEM Constellation 8K live production switcher for vision mixing and a Blackmagic Videohub 80×80 12G router, with Blackmagic Replay deployed for near live editing and replay packages.
Paris-Troyes en Champagne is a UCI ranked one day classic with more than a century of history. The central challenge of cycling is keeping the broadcast coverage moving with the race. Two motorcycle camera positions travel with the race at all times, each equipped with an URSA Broadcast G2 and stabilized Canon B4 broadcast lens traveling on a custom equipped BMW motorcycle.
“The motorcycle camera operators chose the URSA Broadcast themselves,” said Fournier. “They liked the way it handled on the bike, and once they had used it, they didn’t want to go back. With an SDI return, we can also shade the cameras remotely using an RCP over 4G from the OB, freeing the camera ops to focus entirely on framing and the race.
“Live camera feeds are transmitted to the OB via AVIWEST’s proprietary Safe Streams Transport protocol, with a StreamHub server in the van as the receiving endpoint.”
From inside the Mercedes Sprinter, the ATEM Constellation 8K cuts between nine simultaneous camera sources across four M/E banks, including helicopter and crane feeds, four PTZ cameras covering the final 500 meters and postrace protocol, and a France 3 journalist providing location inserts.
Blackmagic Replay runs on a single Apple M4 workstation connected via a Blackmagic Media Player 10G. Eight HyperDeck Studio HD Plus units record the incoming feeds as growing files, which DaVinci Resolve can access immediately to prepare slow motion replays and build highlights while recording continues. The Media Player 10G then returns the finished output to the ATEM Constellation 8K for playout.
“One operator handles the slow motion replays, builds the finish highlights and plays out around 15 preproduced clips during the broadcast, covering work that would otherwise be split across three roles,” Fournier said.
Maintaining a live picture throughout the race required several layers of connectivity.
A helicopter received the motorcycle feeds from altitude, helping to maintain coverage when ground level connections dropped.
“Starlink was bonded with our AVIWEST 4G modems, while Blackmagic Replay provided earlier race highlights whenever live pictures were temporarily unavailable,” said Fournier. “Realtime GPS race data from provider Octale was keyed over the program feed through the ATEM via the downstream keyer, showing rider speeds, time gaps and kilometers remaining throughout the broadcast.”
The partnership with France Television has been renewed for 2027.
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