July 16 th 2009: SIS LIVE will provide ITV Sport’s outside broadcast coverage of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League football

Langley, United Kingdom, 16 th July 2009: SIS LIVE, Europe’s largest outside broadcast (OB) and uplink supplier, has won the contract to supply the outside broadcast facilities to ITV Sport for its host broadcaster coverage of UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League football for the 2009/10 season. SIS LIVE will provide ITV Sport with new generation OB vehicles, OB 3 and OB 7.

Roger Pearce, Technical Director, Sport, ITV plc, says: “After an extensive tender process, we are very pleased to select SIS LIVE to provide us with the technical OB facilities for ITV Sport’s host broadcast coverage of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League for the 2009/10 season. We are extremely impressed with SIS LIVE’s technical innovation, excellent reputation and the standard of their new HD OB fleet. We look forward to a successful season working with the team.”

David Meynell, Managing Director, SIS LIVE, says: “The UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League are two of the world’s most prestigious club football competitions and we are delighted to have been chosen by ITV Sport to support their host coverage. SIS LIVE will be giving ITV Sport all the support and facilities they need to provide exciting host coverage of their UK home matches for both competitions, as well as presentation coverage for home and away games. ITV Sport is using our newest OB 3 and OB 7 vehicles to give a powerful and flexible broadcast solution. We will also be collaborating with ITV Sport to
pioneer new technical innovations and camera angles to offer people the very best possible viewing experience.”

All of ITV Sport’s UEFA Champions League games will be captured in high definition quality with 5.1 surround sound, while UEFA Europa League games on a Thursday night will be captured in a combination of HD and SD using OB 7. For UK home matches in both competitions, SIS LIVE will be providing OB 3 alongside the powerful Unit 12 vehicle for both host match and presentation coverage. A third production unit will provide monitoring and production space. OB 3, launched in September 2008, and OB 7, launched in June 2009, are built on the same highly flexible and userfriendly modular design. Both are fully HD
throughout and 3G capable, delivering the highest quality 1080i HD pictures with 5.1 surround sound. Because both vehicles have the same infrastructure design, they can share material seamlessly and are an ideal pairing for match coverage and presentation.

SIS LIVE is also providing a fully managed service for ITV Sport. Two experienced project managers will look after all aspects of the coverage, providing a point of contact for the ITV production team on site, as well as on site technical coordination with a guarantee that all queries are dealt with quickly and efficiently.

Phil Aspden, Head of Commercial, SIS LIVE, says: “At SIS LIVE, we understand the requirements of covering live football and know we need to be as flexible and adaptable as possible. We do not underestimate the challenge ahead and the geographical spread of games throughout Europe. But we are confident we can help ITV Sport create the best host broadcaster coverage of these premier club matches.”

ITV has the domestic TV rights until 2012 for both competitions and has the first choice live match on Wednesday nights during the early stages of the competition. ITV Sport will be covering a total of 18 live matches in the UEFA Champions League, including the final, and 15 live matches in the UEFA Europa League.

ENDS

Technical information
OB 3 and OB 7 are both based around a powerful Evertz EQX matrix that routes sound and vision using state of the art 3G technology. This is in addition to a Sony MVS8000G video switcher and Calrec Sigma Bluefin digital audio mixer, which delivers 5.1 surround sound. OB 3 can accommodate up to 20 Sony HDC1500 multiformat cameras and up to three Sony SuperMotion slowmotion cameras, while OB 7 can handle up to 16 HDC1500s and three SuperMotions. Both trucks have multiple EVS disk recorders and configurations for multiple DigiBeta, HDCAM or HDCAM SR VTRs. The vehicles also feature fully flexible monitor walls with two 26inch flatpanel FT preview monitors and 16 23inch transmission monitors, each capable of displaying up to four images each.

About SIS
SIS is one of the world’s leading companies in the television broadcasting industry. It is the foremost supplier of television programming and data services to the UK and Ireland betting industry. The company’s broadcast business, SIS LIVE, has the largest satellite uplink fleet in Europe and is the largest outside broadcast provider in the UK. It offers a complete broadcasting solution from onsite outside broadcast facilities through to global distribution and IP provision. The company covers 100,000 hours of live events worldwide each year, including Formula One, The Wimbledon Championships, UEFA Champions League football and European Tour Golf, and delivers approximately 80% of live news feeds across the UK.

Please visit www.sislive.tv for more information.
For more information, please contact:
Donna Palumbo, Sales and Marketing Manager, SIS LIVE
Email: dpalumbo@sislive.tv
Phone: +44 (0)1908 865554