Host Broadcaster Turns to EVS for Multi-sport Event in 2020
EVS, the leading provider of live production solutions, has been selected by the host broadcaster of a global multi-sport event taking place in 2020 in Asia to provide solutions for the centralised ingest, management and distribution of its content. EVS will also be responsible for a comprehensive media server that will give operatives instant access to thousands of hours of material. These tools will enable the production crews located at the various venues and within a central international broadcast centre (IBC) to create an unprecedented amount of compelling content.
Worldwide rights holders at the event will benefit from the host broadcaster’s decision to deploy EVS’ new centralized video content distribution platform Media Hub. By using the platform’s web-based interface, production teams will be able to easily browse, preview, select and deliver content.
All workflow management and reporting will be handled through EVS’ VIA Flow, a central workflow engine, which enables users to exchange content between the IBC and multiple venues as well as monitor the flow of media throughout the EVS ecosystem. It offers full visibility from ingest to archive to help editorial teams keep track of their work while facilitating collaborative workflows.
Commenting on this matter, Dr Pierre De Muelenaere, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO ad interim of EVS said: “This deal provides yet another example of a host broadcaster turning to EVS for support at a major international event that is going to be watched by billions of fans globally.” Xavier De Vynck, SVP, Big Events & Business Development at EVS added: “Our solutions provide the tools needed to enrich the viewing experience for audiences around the world, enabling the quick creation and distribution of content that encapsulates the drama and elation experienced during such high-profile live events.”
EVS’ latest live production solutions will also be used by many of the facilities providers contracted to cover the event. These will be deployed at the various venues for the creation of high-quality replays, slow motion and highlights.
Daktronics Installing New Video Board for Pittsburg State University
Daktronics (NASDAQ-DAKT) of Brookings, South Dakota, has partnered with Pittsburg State University in Kansas to design, manufacture and install a new LED video display for their football venue, Carnie Smith Stadium. Approximately 1,560 square feet of LED video space will be unveiled this summer.
“Pitt State Athletics is excited to partner with Daktronics on this important project,” PSU athletic director Jim Johnson said. “Showcasing the best game-day experience in NCAA Division II is extremely important. When the university debuted the "Jungletron" 11 years ago it set the bar for game-day experience at a Division II football game. Now, due to wear and tear over the course of time as well as the changes in technology this is an appropriate time to revitalize that tremendous game-day atmosphere with this new display.”
The new end zone display will measure nearly 23 feet high by 68.5 feet wide. It will feature a 15HD pixel layout to bring excellent image clarity and contrast with wide-angle visibility to fans in every seat. Industry-leading environmental protection ensures the display will perform at optimal levels during any weather.
“On behalf of everyone at Daktronics, I want to extend my sincere appreciation and gratitude to Pittsburg State University for choosing us for these exciting new technology updates for Carnie Smith Stadium,” said Ryan Kuzman, Daktronics sales representative. “This new display and scoring equipment, along with our new state-of-the-art Show Control System, will be delivered to elevate the Gorilla GameDay fan experience to everyone who attends an event.”
The display is capable of variable content zoning which allows it to show one large image or multiple zones of differing content. Live video, instant replays, up-to-the-minute statistics, graphics, animations and sponsorship messages can be shown individually or simultaneously on the screen to cater to every moment of the event.
Daktronics will also be including its powerful Show Control System with this installation. This industry-leading system provides a combination of display control software, world-class video processing, data integration and playback hardware that forms a user-friendly production solution.
In addition to the equipment installation, the university will also receive a content package that will be produced and delivered by Daktronics Creative Services.
A new custom scoreboard, new game clock, two new delay of game clocks and three new locker room clocks will also be included and integrated with the installation.
Daktronics has grown with the sports industry from the company’s beginnings in 1968. Today, the company has LED video display installations at hundreds of colleges and universities across the United States.
Daktronics Upgrades Arrowhead Stadium to First HDR-Capable Video Display in Football for Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs have returned to Daktronics (NASDAQ-DAKT) of Brookings, South Dakota, for an upgrade to the west end zone video display at Arrowhead Stadium in Missouri. The installation brings the first High Dynamic Range (HDR) video display to professional football. It replaces the 16HD technology installed in 2009 with 10-millimetre Surface-Mount Device (SMD) technology that increases the resolution by more than 2.5 times for the 2019 season.
“We continuously look at ways that we can improve the fan experience at Arrowhead Stadium, and adopting new technology is one of the avenues we can use to accomplish that,” Chiefs President Mark Donovan said. “Daktronics has been an important long-term partner for us at Arrowhead Stadium for game days and non-football events. The updates their team has made to our video board and control room mean that our new scoreboard will provide our fans and guests with the best display quality for live video, replays and other content while maintaining the iconic size and shape of our original video board.”
The new display fits into the same footprint as the previous display in the west end zone and measures 37 feet high by 150 feet wide. It features more than 5 million LEDs and is HDR capable to increase the contrast for better overall image quality shown to Chiefs fans inside the stadium.
“There are few displays in the league with 10-millimetre technology, putting the Kansas City Chiefs at the forefront of this new wave of upgrades. They will also have full HDR capability with the highest brightness and highest contrast of them all,” said Daktronics President and CEO Reece Kurtenbach. “We’re excited to continue our long-standing partnership by installing this upgrade at Arrowhead Stadium as we continue to provide them with exceptional products, service and support. Their fans will certainly see the difference in this new display and the experience at Arrowhead Stadium will be better than ever.”
Much like the previous display, this new installation is capable of variable content zoning to provide live video, instant replays, statistics, graphics, sponsor messages and any combination thereof during Chiefs games and special events.
Additionally, the Chiefs will receive a control room refresh with Daktronics proven Show Control System and a content package to be produced and delivered by Daktronics Creative Services.
Daktronics has grown with the sports industry from the company’s beginnings in 1968. Today, the company has integrated LED super systems in nearly 60 percent of all professional sports facilities in the United States.
disguise Powers Longest Ever AR Centered Broadcast at Opening Ceremony of 2019 Pakistan Super League
The Pakistan Cricket Board started the 2019 season with something truly spectacular. Right before the first match, an awe-inspiring opening ceremony took place at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium - but this was unlike any event ever seen in the tournament’s history.
Broadcast to over 50 million people around the world, the 60-minute Pakistan Super League opening ceremony combined mind-blowing augmented reality graphics with live performances from global acts, including iconic 70’s funk band Boney M, Pakistan’s Junoon and solo stars Fawad Khan, Young Desi, Aima Baig and Shuja Haider.
Event management company ITW Trans Group collaborated with specialists in large scale opening ceremonies, concerts, and events, The Musketeers. Having coordinated the creative vision behind the last three Pakistan Super League opening ceremonies, Creative Director Samer Feghali wanted to push the envelope of live entertainment boundaries.
“With an annual global audience of 50 million people, our goal each year is to keep this an exciting and engaging component of the tournament and to push the creative vision for both the television audience and those in the stadium” stated Samer. “AR was something that we had wanted to try for this event, but it was always going to be a risk - this duration of real-time AR rendering had never been done before. We worked with ITW, explaining they would be the first hosts ever to orchestrate an opening ceremony of this kind, and once they gave the green light, it was all systems go!”
The opening ceremony featured eye-catching elements of AR throughout the live broadcast. Bringing the event to life and working in collaboration with Musketeer were content generating experts, Bild Studios and Studio One. David Bajt and Scott Millar from Bild Studios technically produced and supplied all the equipment for the show, with Urs Nyffenegger, from Studio One, providing the AR animation elements.
The teams used disguise gx 2 servers, designed for unparalleled generative content capacity, to render the AR content for the several artists performing, as well as the added spectacular elements. Creative Producer Urs Nyffenegger said: “The Notch and disguise combination was essential for the success of the PSL Opening Ceremony due to the adaptability, flexibility and unparalleled real-time workflow capabilities. Everything we were able to accomplish on this project was only possible because of disguise.”
A project as ambitious as this came with a host of its own challenges. Not only did the teams have a short turn-around time of just 45 days, but they had only 15 minutes to remove the stage from the Cricket pitch. “We have to take care of the pitch area and we have very limited time to take care of it,” said Samer. “Every time we ran a rehearsal, we could not pinpoint the stage exactly, so to calibrate with disguise and the stYpe Cameras during setup within an hour was amazing.”
To add to the already complex event, the main headliner for the Opening Ceremony pulled out the day before, leaving the team to reconfigure the content with just 24 hours’ notice. With such a short turnaround, Scott Millar from Bild Studios chose Notch and disguise because of the proven compatibility and solid combination, meaning it would be delivered on time. To overcome the artist issue, a virtual DJ was flown out for the Opening Ceremony last minute. The user-friendly features of the disguise server meant the DJ content was immediately integrated with the compiled show.
“With disguise, we were able to composite all six cameras feeds, with camera delay, with AR, and with the graphics on top to present that composited output to the vision mixer to the camera returns, and we were able to do that for two cameras per server. This is a huge benefit over other systems. In the world of live events, with disguise, you are really able to send ‘stuff’ everywhere,” said Scott.
The disguise servers made calibrating the cameras prior to the show simple and managed all the input from each camera. stYpe was the partner in camera tracking and provided custom tracking heads and third-party software to allow accurate tracking of the project for all six cameras involved. They were able to pull off all tracking on time, with an 80% increase in clarity and quality.
“I cannot imagine being able to pull this show off, with any other system. I have used a lot of products on the market, and to do the change of adapting over 15 minutes of show content, 24 hours of the show, for a Virtual DJ (VJ) we flew in was remarkable. We were able to plug in the VJ’s content, without issue and integrate the AR, to a live camera,” remarked Samer.
“We built virtual cubes with LEDs to accompany the music set for the headline artist, and without the VJ they would have been black. Integrating his content was so easily assimilated I was amazed, it just worked with the disguise hardware, and in theory it is not so easy to accomplish,” added Urs Nyffenegger, who alongside the Studio One team provided the AR animation elements.
The PSL Opening Ceremony featured a disco scene, flying F16 jets, a 30-meter trophy, a robot that landed on stage, and more. The end result was a 45-minute live show with 12 different AR scenes achieved using disguise, Notch, and Stype technology, combining AR and VR with a live broadcast to over 50 million people around the globe. This accomplished the longest ever duration of an AR centred broadcast.
RedNet Connects E-Sports Championship
Focusrite RedNet Components Employed At Intel® Extreme Masters Championship.
At the recent Intel® Extreme Masters Championship (IEM) 2019 in Katowice, Poland, a variety of RedNet Dante™-networked audio converters and interfaces from Focusrite were employed to provide connectivity solutions across multiple stages over the festival’s two-and-a-half weeks. The IEM Championship represents the world championship for e-sports games, and this year’s competitors vied for top honours in Starcraft 2 and Counter Strike: Global Offensive, among other titles. Much of this competition was live-streamed, and RedNet interfaces provided a key solution in keeping the audio content properly networked.
Domninik Samborski, Brand Manager/Marketing Specialist for Audiotech, the Poland-based firm that provided A/V solutions for the festival, noted: “An event of this scale requires the use of reliable, scalable, easy-to-use audio solutions. For a few years now, Dante has become the leading standard in audio-over-IP. The benefits that come with the use of Dante technology are the lack of degradation of audio signal and avoiding artefacts like ground loops because it is a digital signal, and global management of the system clock. Focusrite was one of the first companies to implement Dante technology in their audio converters. Focusrite RedNet can be a bridge between analogue and digital audio formats, thanks to their interfaces for AES / EBU to Dante, MADI to Dante, Pro Tools HD to Dante, or analogue to Dante. The wide range of input and output formats supported by the RedNet system makes it the most versatile Audio-over-IP system on the market.”
Sound engineer Marcin Kondziela of the firm 120dB Sound Engineering, who served as the on-site tech for the festival, remarked: “At IEM 2019, we are using Focusrite RedNet devices at approximately 15 points, which gives us a total of about 200 connections in the entire network. Everything comes back down to one OB Truck and is manageable on the network. Thanks to that, we gain the flexibility of having multiple connections accessible, with functionality and scalability across the entire system.”
Fellow sound engineer Michal Mika, also from 120dB Sound Engineering, added: “Focusrite RedNet converters are used to take the signal from microphones in a given location and return the signals back to the host or the reporter. We also use RedNet to collect signals from the commentators' desks or studios with pre-match or post-match analysis. We also provide signals back to the commentators so that they can hear each other and that they can be in contact with production staff. Some of the converters are used in control rooms to send and receive signals to communication systems. We use Riedel communication systems, and we are connecting to this system through RedNet converters via analogue.”
Mika added that 120dB has been employing RedNet devices in a variety of different applications. “We’ve used Focusrite RedNet not only for television and e-sports but also to fulfil the needs of a large stadium event where we had to send a signal to the roof of a stadium. We also use some of them in recording studios, and they are also great interfaces for post-production studios. We have been using Focusrite RedNet converters for 3-4 years. We chose these devices because they are easy to use – they are very reliable and they have never let us down. They are very durable and travel with us all over the world. A few days ago, the entire system returned from Montreal, Canada, by air. A few months ago the whole system was with us in Rio, Brazil, and now it's in Katowice and as you can see, it's doing great!”
Greeley Ice Haus Gets a Huge Danley Upgrade
With over 100,000 residents, Greeley is part of an urban corridor that populates the front range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. The Greeley Ice Haus is a city-owned, indoor, all-season, skating rink used for open skating, skating lessons, figure skating events, youth & adult hockey clubs, the University of Northern Colorado hockey team, and – in the words of senior AV and theater technology consultant at K2, Kevin Hodgson – “any ice-based event!” Hodgson, on behalf of K2, a Boulder-based AV consulting firm, led the design and worked with with the Denver office of Ford AV on the installation of a new sound reinforcement system at the Greeley Ice Haus. Citing their unmatched low-frequency pattern control and honest bass response, Hodgson specified Danley Sound Labs loudspeakers and subwoofers for the upgrade.
“The Greeley Ice Haus seats about 1,000 people on one side of the rink, and the University of Northern Colorado team’s fans can fill it up,” Hodgson said. “The previous sound system was well over a decade old and had become increasingly unreliable after the building took a lightning strike and after years of aggressive volumes for a variety of events. Multiple loudspeakers weren’t even working, and those that were weren’t working well.”
He continued: “The city wanted a system that sounded clear for intelligible speech and punchy for music playback at UNC hockey games and figure skating events. Given the room’s long reverberation – it’s mostly concrete and metal with very little acoustic treatment – my goal was to keep loudspeaker energy on the stands with as little as possible spilt elsewhere. Danley’s point-source boxes have high-impact, high-fidelity sound and unmatched low-frequency pattern control. Given their performance, Danley boxes are also affordable. Achieving the same results with any other manufacturer – if it were even possible – would cost way, way more.”
Six evenly-spaced Danley SH69 loudspeakers cover the stands from above the edge of the ice, with the lower edge of their patterns just nipping the hockey glass so that people in the front row are still covered. A pair of Danley DBH218 subwoofers fill in the low-end content with honest bass, but Hodgson was careful to give the users control over how much low end is actually delivered. The subwoofer feed comes off an aux send on a new Yamaha TF1 digital console; when the stands are filled, and the event is rocking, more subwoofers sound great, but when the stands are empty, fewer subwoofers sound better. A handful of Danley Nano and GO2-8CX loudspeakers provide fill and over-ice coverage. New Shure wireless microphones, QSC CXD-series amplifiers, and a Q-SYS Core 110 processor round out the system.
“The Danley products sound great right out of the box, which made tuning and commissioning the Greeley Ice Haus easy,” Hodgson said. “The system is much more robust than the system they had before and we’re comfortable handing it over to the non-technical staff as well as the experienced AV professionals from UNC. They can push it way further than anyone would feel comfortable with and still be far from damaging anything.”
Nexo Geo M10 First Stadium Installation
NEXO’s GEO M10 Series mid-size line array makes its debut in the sporting world, as part of a new fixed-installation sound system for the Stade Pierre Brisson in Beauvais, just north of Paris. Systems integration company Vidélio has worked closely with NEXO’s in-house engineering team to design, specify and install the system, which will greatly enhance the match experience for 10,000 fans.
The Stade Pierre Brisson is a multi-use facility, primarily hosting football matches, and serving as the home ground for AS Beauvais Oise FC. Neighbouring club Chambly FC, which has recently won league promotion, is sharing the stadium as its own ground is not yet registered for Ligue 2 games.
The stadium is able to hold 10,178 spectators, in West and East facing grandstands. The time had to come to replace the aged entertainment PA system, and, from the very first origins of the project, it was clear that the GEO M10 from NEXO was going to be the obvious solution.
“It was clearly the best solution for their budget,” explained NEXO Engineering Support team member David Hochstenbach, who provided the design for Stade Pierre Brisson. Conveniently, NEXO’s factory and international HQ are only an hour down the road!
As the venue already has a fire and safety VA system, the NEXO GEO M10’s purpose was to provide entertainment and commentary for the matches, as well as the lucrative broadcast of local advertising.
The loudspeaker installation, identically matched in the east and west stands, uses eight clusters, each with 4 modules of GEO M1025 with 120° dispersion. Fixed in the roof at an average height of 9 metres from the ground, the GEO M cabinets are throwing over a maximum distance of 15 metres, to cover the audience grandstands. Two additional clusters, each with 3x GEO M1012 modules, provide coverage on the pitch.
The system uses two zones, one for each grandstand, and there is an amp room on each side. Running through a single control room, the signal is under remote control using NEXO’s proprietary NeMo system and the NEXO NXAMP Mk2 network. “One of the main benefits for the technical team is that the NeMo recorded log provides real-time diagnostic monitoring of the system,” explained David Hochstenbach.
Community R SERIES Loudspeakers Provide the Optimum Solution for Zabok Sports Hall
HUST has completed the installation of a new sound system for the Zabok Sports Hall, using a combination of Community and Apart loudspeakers with Biamp control.
The economic centre of Krapina-Zagorje County, Zabok is located in northwest Croatia. The Zabok Sports Hall, the largest in the region, is a three-story venue with a gross floor area of 3,834 square meters. The venue is divided into three sports halls, with dressing rooms and facilities. The main hall has a fixed seating capacity of 550, with retracting stands that increase the capacity to 1,100. A prime focus of the main hall is basketball, while two smaller halls additionally provide shooting and gymnasium areas. The venue also features a café and gallery.
With input via a Yamaha MGX12XU mixer, the system designed by HUST is controlled by a Biamp TesiraFORTÉ AVB AI digital audio server with an interactive interface. A username and password system allows for staff to be assigned levels of control, which provides for the requirements of zoning in daily use and for the music and live events that are also held in the venue.
Throughout the venue, HUST used a combination of Apart CM6E ceiling mount and OVO5TW and OVO8TW wall-mount loudspeakers to provide high-quality public address and background music. “The most difficult but critical area was the main hall,” said Tomislav Stubičan of HUST. “We needed relatively high sound levels and very high intelligibility in this large, reverberant space, so the natural choice was Community’s R SERIES. The R.35-3896 8-inch ultra-compact horn-loaded triaxial three-way loudspeaker provided the best solution for this application. With superior speech intelligibility and music quality, its outstanding pattern control enabled us to direct the sound to the audience and avoid reflective surfaces. We chose a distributed system to optimize direct sound and provide seamless coverage.”
Tomislav concluded: “The Zabok Sports Hall is a prominent venue, both locally and nationally. It was therefore important that the sound system met the highest standards and I’m pleased that our design with high-quality products has delivered a sound system that fully meets the needs of the venue.”
GSL Fills De Kuip Stadium with Marco Borsato
Superstar Dutch singer Marco Borsato performed his anthemic back catalogue to 240,000 fans over five nights at Rotterdam’s De Kuip stadium in May. His dynamic songs and enthusiastic performance style required full spectrum coverage across the entire roof-less stadium, leading the production team to the d&b audiotechnik SL-Series.
Borsato is a national treasure in The Netherlands, thanks to a hit-making, multi-award-winning, twenty-year career. He is one of a handful of artists with the fanbase clout to play five nights at one of his country’s biggest venues – the fifty-one thousand capacity De Kuip (which translates into English as ‘The Tub’- the affectionate nickname for the Stadion Feijenoord).
Utrecht-based d&b partner Peak Audio was challenged with providing a system that could deliver the full-frequency range in the demanding open-air stadium environment.
Anthony Kappel served as System Designer and Chief System Engineer alongside colleague Bart Schouten from Peak Audio, who was System Designer and Project Manager for the series of concerts.
“As an early adopter of the SL-Series, we’ve had the opportunity to gain a lot of experience with the cabinets, and even more when designing and specifying both GSL and KSL for the Marco Borsato concerts,” said Bart. “We benefitted a lot from the accurate simulations we achieved using d&b ArrayCalc, and we were confident we could get the best result possible for a concert in a stadium like De Kuip.”
In addition to the ArrayCalc software, the team also utilized d&b ArrayProcessing to accurately determine the behaviour of the SL-Series line array across the entire listening area within De Kuip.
Front of House Engineer and System Designer, Barak Koren, said: “ArrayProcessing proved indispensable in achieving accurate simulation in the design phase, providing a powerful tool, especially when applying temperature and humidity changes during the gig.”
Koren, Schouten and Kappel specified forty GSL8 cabinets for the right-left main arrays and a further forty for out-fills and delays. These were complemented with a series of KSL8 for the main fly-fills and far-fills. GSL12s were on duty for front-fills, with SL-SUBS positioned around the stadium. One hundred and eighty d&b D80 amplifiers fed the setup.
“The GSL and KSL System enabled me to mix with a big dynamic range - soft piano songs and massive pop arrangements - and obtain the clarity of the vocalist across the whole venue,” Barak continued. “It offered great projection with very smooth polar pattern off axis.
“We also achieved this with minimum sound pollution outside of the venue – as the open-air stadium could spill sound out into the residential neighbourhood. We had great results and no complaints, despite the high sound levels within the venue and full spectrum coverage. The only system that can deliver these requirements is the SL-Series.”
Concert reviews praised Borsato’s ‘frenzied sing-alongs’ and ‘dramatic ballads’, noting how the venue sounded like ‘one big choir’.
“The GSL and KSL System sounded clear, detailed and tight in the low end,” said Barak. “The coverage was good, and even, so it was easier to mix. We got great reviews, so we probably did something right! The controlled low-end frequencies are the biggest benefit for stadium sound. That creates clarity that gives the ability to mix softer with the same level of sensation.”
Belarus TV Elevates European Games 2019 Live Production
With host broadcaster ISB looking to raise its production capabilities and deliver stunning live-footage, four new mobile production sets from public broadcaster Belarus TV were deployed at the recent European Games 2019 in Minsk. Broadcast Solutions recently delivered all production tools to Belarus TV.
With 15 sports attracting more than 4,000 participating athletes, the European Games is one of world sports’ largest competitions. ISB was appointed the main contractor, producing the world feed from the Belarusian capital Minsk.
ISB’s mobile production called on Belarus TV’s mobile production resources to cover the opening and closing ceremonies and the event’s most important games, including OB Vans and support vans. Belarus TV deployed the flightcase studios for the unilateral signals. All of the OB Vans are newly commissioned and were developed and delivered by German system integration company Broadcast Solutions at the beginning of this year. During the Games, Broadcast Solutions provided production support with dedicated specialists that monitored the production and technology.
“We are very happy to support ISB producing the TV-programme for one of the most prestigious sports events that took place in Belarus so far, especially as a Belarusian company,” said Alexey Washjurine, Deputy CTO of Belarus TV. “ISB’s trust in our teams and the newly acquired production tools validates our decision to invest in mobile production tools from Broadcast Solutions. During the event the OB Vans worked smoothly and Broadcast Solutions’ support on-site was just perfect.“
Each mobile production set comprises an 18-camera HD OB Van, a four-camera HD flightcase studio and a support vehicle. All four OB Vans have an identical design and work as 20-ton semitrailers with two extensions and up to 18 cameras operating in HD – two wireless, two SuperSlomo and 14 standard HD-cameras.
Onboard the OB Vans is a selection of Grass Valley cameras, vision mixers, video routers, multiviewers and slow-motion servers. The audio relies on Calrec Audio broadcast consoles and audio routers. IHSE KVM systems secure access to computers and workstations, and the intercoms are based on Riedel Artist systems.
The flightcase studios also employ Grass Valley cameras, with FOR.A vision mixers and Ross Video routers. Yamaha mixers manage the audio, with KVM systems from Guntermann & Drunck.
For orchestration within the OB Vans and flightcase studios, Belarus TV opted for Broadcast Solutions’ proprietary control system, hi – hi controls all production-relevant areas in the vehicles such as video routers, multiviewers, audio routers and tally. Intuitive touch controls and newly developed hi hardware controls simplify day-to-day production operations in the OB Vans.
The European Games are an international multi-sport competition among athletes of the European continent held every four years under the direction of the European Olympic Committees.
The 2nd European Games, hosted by the Belarusian capital of Minsk, comprised 15 sports, eight of which provide qualifying status to the Olympic Games 2020 in Tokyo. Competitions in boxing and judo were held in the European Championships status. A total of more than 4,000 athletes participated.