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Pierra Menta Ski Mountaineering Competition

How Haivision Solutions Powered HighLive and Favoriz’s Coverage of the Premier Ski Mountaineering Event

About the Pierra Menta, HighLive and Favoriz

The Pierra Menta is an international ski mountaineering competition held every March since 1986 in Arêches-Beaufort in Savoie, France on the slopes of the Grand Mont in the heart of the Beaufortain region. Covering a total of 10,000 meters of elevation gain over four days, over 600 elite athletes compete in teams of two skiers in one of the world’s most demanding and exhilarating ski mountaineering races. The Pierra Menta is a stage of “La Grande Course”.

HighLive is a videographers’ collective specializing in mountain productions. For over 20 years, they have been making films for television and digital on the Pierra Menta. The idea of a live broadcast of this legendary race was born 3 years ago. HighLive and Favoriz joined forces to meet the challenge.

France-based Favoriz Production is an agile audiovisual production company delivering complete technical support for live events, corporate film production, and television content. Known for its innovative approach to filming in remote and outdoor environments, Favoriz specializes in covering high-impact mountain events.

“Having already worked with Haivision solutions on several projects in similarly challenging environments, we were very positive that we could provide viewers with exciting footage of the Pierra Menta competition. Haivision technology is extremely agile and the powerful cellular bonding features of its mobile contribution devices allowed us to deliver reliable and dynamic footage to viewers in one of the most remote locations in the country.”

Mickaël Favard, Director, Favoriz Production

The Challenge

Pierra Menta’s challenging vertical course is considered one of the most demanding events of its kind – both for athletes and the broadcast team. Given the extremely remote nature of the race environment, getting the necessary broadcast equipment and team members in place was a massive logistical challenge. There were several major obstacles for the Favoriz team to overcome including:

  • The need to build and transport their own mobile broadcast infrastructure to contribute live video throughout the course as a traditional fixed set up was not feasible due to the lack of accessibility in the mountain terrain.
  • A very limited and unstable cellular connection, as above 2,000 meters, the public cellular network no longer functions.
  • The geographical challenges of sending return video feeds from the mountain to an OB van in Arêches-Beaufort and to a production facility in Grenoble.

Production company Favoriz needed a way to provide coverage of the climb and descent with a flexible and reliable workflow that could deal with these remote and extreme conditions.

The Solution

Broadcast workflow consisting of Haivision mobile contribution solutions.
The Favoriz team built a versatile and agile broadcast workflow consisting of Haivision mobile video solutions deployed throughout the course. This enabled them to capture the emotion of the participants and to produce dynamic angles from up close on the mountain and for dramatic perspectives from the air. Combined, it created exhilarating footage of the competition.

Two Haivision Pro mobile video transmitters were attached to JVC cameras on the ground, along with four roaming mobile devices with the Haivision MoJoPro smartphone camera app installed to follow the racers throughout the course. This gave viewers captivating views of the skiers and the competition, immersing them in the struggle of the climb and descent.

The compact and ultra-portable Haivision Air mobile video transmitter was attached to a drone to capture unique aerial footage of the course. Two additional drones leveraged mobile devices and MoJoPro for supplementary aerial coverage under 2,000 meters. Smartphones with the MoJoPro camera app were also deployed in the Fanzone to capture fan live reactions and on a motorcycle for action shots of the competition.

Video from sources under 2,000 meters used Haivision’s Safe Streams Transport (SST) protocol to transport video over bonded cellular networks. To transmit video above an altitude of 2,000 meters from the helicopter, Favoriz leveraged Starlink satellite technology and the Haivision Pro’s video streaming technology to send signals from that extreme elevation down to its endpoint.

Video streams were sent to two Haivision StreamHub receivers located in a production facility in Grenoble and to an OB truck in Arêches-Beaufort for post-production and distribution.
The result of an amazing viewing experience using Haivision products

The Result

Leveraging Haivision mobile contribution solutions, Favoriz delivered high-definition video of the competition to a global audience powered by:

  • Ultra-reliable and ultra-low latency video contribution in a difficult and unpredictable environment
  • An agile and flexible deployment of mobile solutions across a geographically diverse, multi-day course
  • Robust cellular bonding capabilities from Haivision Pro mobile video transmitters with public cellular networks at lower altitudes and Starlink connections at higher elevations

Favoriz successfully produced an immersive experience of the Pierra Menta with a broadcast-quality and cost-effective live production. Despite the remote and extremely elevated area, Haivision’s agile ecosystem of mobile video contribution solutions were able to deliver an exciting viewing experience to the audience.

Products Used

Video Transmitter
Low latency mobile 5G video transmitter supporting 4K/UHD, quad-HD, and 10-bit HDR with HEVC and H.264 encoding.
haivision air transmitter
Video Transmitter
Compact and battery operated 5G mobile video transmitter supporting HEVC and H.264 encoding.
Live Broadcast App
iOS & Android camera app with live video and recording/forwarding over aggregated mobile and WiFi networks.
Haivision StreamHub
Receiver/Gateway
Mobile and IP stream receiver, decoder, and distribution platform supporting SDI, NDI, ST 2110, SRT, and SST.

Related Solution

Live Video Contribution

Our secure & reliable live video solutions offer pristine-quality broadcast contribution over any network, even internet, satellite, 4G, & 5G.
Solution: Live Video Contribution
Our secure & reliable live video solutions offer pristine-quality broadcast contribution over any network, even internet, satellite, 4G, & 5G.

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