South Africa’s premier T20 League, under the new branding of Betway SA20, is currently underway around the country, and taking part in all the matches will be Birds Camera Solutions.
Birds Camera Solutions are using two systems from the Albatross-250XL range to produce the league’s games. Albatross-250XL is the largest system in the German company’s portfolio and can cover an area of 250 x 250 metres. The system’s speed is impressive, running at 10 m/s, making it an ideal solution for presenting the fast moving action to the audience.
Philip von Senden, COO of Birds Camera Solutions, comments on the production: “We are very pleased to be involved in cricket for the first time in the company’s history. Even more so as the SA20 aims to be one of the world’s best leagues, and expectations are very high for all involved post Covid-19. We can gain a lot of experience in production, and the results thus far have been a success for both the broadcaster SuperSport and also for viewers.”
The SA20 schedule is tight, and the venues change several times. In the space of a month, the 33 matches will be played at six different venues across South Africa, adding an extra challenge in terms of logistics and installation.
Prishen Govender, Senior Technical Broadcasting Manager of SuperSport commented: “Broadcast Solutions were professional in all aspects from site survey through to installation. The pilot clearly understands the production, and instantly formed a good working relationship with our producer and understood exactly what shots and angles we were looking to achieve. The equipment in combination with the Birds Cam team has delivered SuperSport an excellent solution which we look forward to using in future events.”
Albatross 250XL systems set the highest standards for safety and reliability. Fibre cables for redundant signal transmission are integrated into all four ropes, and all systems meet the safety guidelines of DGUV 17/18 and are TÜV-certified. Another benefit of the system is the native AR integration of the systems without adding 3rd party AR tracking solutions which is a feature also used in the SA 20 cricket league matches for the graphic overlay of the team and match data.
