‘The lenses we are using would be used on Formula 1’: Behind the scenes of Champs Live
Fergus Mainland sat down with Broadcast Coordinator Tom Howe and Drone Pilot Anthony Channer to learn all about the BTS of Champs Live
While going back and forth on email with Anthony and Tom, one is drawn to Anthony’s email signature. ‘Director and Technical Wizard’ seems like an appropriate title for one of the team responsible for bringing the British Rowing Club Championships to life on screen.
To many, the setup and logistics required for more than 40 hours of broadcast can be viewed as something of a dark art, but for the two of them, it’s just something that’s taken in their stride.
The pair were first introduced to rowing several years ago when they were approached by BUCS Regatta to enhance the event’s coverage. With backgrounds in covering Motorsport, American Football, and other things, rowing was a new challenge that started off as two manned cameras and a few lock-off cameras up the course. Over time, and budget allowing, their rowing coverage has grown into a mightily impressive set-up in 2025:
- 3000m of fibre optic cables
- 12 cameras across the lake, including a drone and a boat camera
- 1 director, 1 graphics op, 1 roaming camera op for medals and interviews, 1 boat cam op, 1 drone op, 3 manned camera ops
- Radio talkback across the whole site for directing the staff
- 2 multi-views sent to race control for the officials’ view of the whole course
- Stand-alone graphics PC, standalone streaming PC, vision mixing desk, 1 bonded
- Streaming devices for the output, independent internet.
- Vision and Audio feed to the PA and big screen
- 14 commentators
Now in their second year of producing Champs Live, the four-day British Rowing Club Championships broadcast, Anthony and Tom are constantly exploring ways in which to improve the experience. While viewers on the bank and at home see the event brought to life, there is plenty that goes on behind the scenes.
The urban legend goes that Holme Pierrepont was too windy to be an airport, so they turned it into a rowing lake. What some don’t realise is that an airport was built – less than four kilometres from the lake. As the drone pilot, this creates the biggest challenge for Anthony.
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“The challenge comes in flying over people, which introduces more paperwork and more risk, obviously. With the National Water Sports Centre in particular, apart from a five square metre spot at the start of the course, the entire lake is in the airspace of Nottingham City Airport, so we’re essentially in a no-fly zone,” Anthony explains.
“I’m qualified as high as it gets, so that gives me the ability to fly over people, which is something you generally don’t really get to do.
“When you add an airport to that, they’re very keen we don’t encroach on their airspace. There’s a set layer of planning that goes into every job. Some of them are more complicated than others, and obviously this one, because it’s over fly and because it’s near an airport, is probably about as complex as it gets,” he continued.
“People everywhere can feel part of the action, even if it’s up the lake and they’re standing by the finish line”
The challenges don’t stop with the airspace. The 2025 Championships were marked by sunshine, torrential downpours, and even a lightning strike close to the lake. All of which makes the broadcast team’s lives that bit more difficult.
“It’s not the most complex of things from an ops point of view, it’s probably one of our more complicated ones from an engineering point of view because of what I have to do with the graphics. It can be difficult with the weather and spray and rain from the weekend, certainly Rob got quite wet on the boat,” laughed Tom.
“Weather plays a big factor with Anthony. You just can’t fly in the rain. Partly due to DJI saying you can’t because the drone will break, and also the insurance is invalid. You can get away with it to an extent in the wind, but the rain is a big one.”
The 2025 broadcast was levelled up through the introduction of the boat cam, which allowed viewers to get up close and personal with the rowers. For Anthony in particular, delivering a quality product is one that allows viewers to feel like they’re immersed in the racing.
When asked what his favourite part of the weekend was, he joked, “Hearing the words ‘beautiful drone shots’ every 30 seconds. I can hear the commentators from where I was standing, and my head was growing!”
“When people watch and they get a feel for what’s going on, they can feel part of the action, even if it’s up the lake and they’re standing by the finish line. Because of the screens and because of phones, I love the fact that everybody is involved, no matter where they are on the lake. I love being able to involve everyone and giving people opportunities to see what’s going on.”
“There’s a lot of satisfaction from starting on Wednesday to then coming off site Monday at 21:30 and knowing that it’s gone well”
“I take a lot of satisfaction when the job is done and it’s gone well. I very much enjoy the graft that goes into it all,” added Tom.
“There’s a lot of satisfaction from starting on Wednesday to then coming off site Monday at 21:30 and knowing that it’s gone well, almost flawlessly, and then we start to think about what we can do better or what more we can do for the client to push ourselves on.”
Through the implementation of the boat camera, combined with some of Anthony’s engineering magic, Champs Live provided coverage of every metre of the lake. Every camera that was used across the four days was at minimum HD and some of the lenses would be expected to be used covering Formula 1.
Watch the races back on Champs Live!
