CPS ramps up teams as EURO 2008 reaches climax
Almost three out of every four photographers working at the EURO 2008 football championships taking place in Austria and Switzerland this month is a Canon shooter, according to a survey by Canon Professional Services (CPS) reports Mike Stanton from the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna.
Around 115 of the 150-plus photographers working at the quarter-finals in Basle and Vienna were likely to be using Canon equipment based on surveys at the earlier group games in the tournament.
Helmut Mitter (standing centre), Martin Wieser (foreground) from CPS Germany and Óscar Mateo Gersol from CPS Spain running the front office service at EURO 2008 in Vienna.
Helmut Mitter, CPS Austria professional representative (pro rep), told CPN: “[The figures] are very good and show that photographers trust the equipment. Photographers will tell you immediately if there is a problem with equipment and we’ve had no real problems in the stadiums.”
Lenses for loan in the back office at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna.
More than a year in the planning, the CPS offering at EURO 2008 reaches its climax at the end of this month, as Canon was making plans to increase the size of its pro teams at the stadiums. Two of the last three games, including the final of the tournament, take place in the Austrian capital.
With the support of Canon Europe, Mitter has been overseeing the preparations for the CPS presence at EURO 2008 in Austria, including accreditation and logistics. Olivier Vermeulen, CPS pro rep for Switzerland, has been doing the corresponding job over the border. In addition, Mitter has been looking after the two CPS teams based in Austria during the tournament – one covering the games in Innsbruck and Klagenfurt, and the other matches played in Vienna and Salzburg.
The teams for the group stages of the tournament each comprised two pro reps who ran the front office, and two technicians who did the cleaning and checking of equipment, and repairs. The teams are put together from many different European countries and even from as far away as Dubai.
“The CPS space in Vienna opens four hours before the match and closes one hour after the final whistle”, said Mitter. With some games in the knockout stages of the tournament going to extra time and penalty shoot-outs it can be the early hours of the morning before the team finishes cleaning returned equipment and packs up.
Colin Graham (foreground) a CPS technician from the UK and Simon Esseborn from Sweden make repairs to equipment.
During the group stage of the competition, equipment would need to be packed and transported to the next match as the CPS teams shuttled between venues. This involved setting up afresh each time and is the most logistically complicated type of service. For this reason, CPS gave priority to its clean and check operation, loans and basic repairs, with more serious repairs being referred to authorised local repair centres. The same kind of operation was run during the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
At the EURO 2008 matches in Vienna CPS stocked cameras, most of which were the EOS-1D Mark III, and prime lenses from the EF15mm f/2.8 Fisheye up to the EF600mm f/4.0L IS USM, with the EF400mm f/2.8L IS USM being the most commonly borrowed. Zoom lenses were also available, along with wireless LAN units. Photographers mostly wanted their cameras to be checked and the sensor cleaned. The second most common request was for screws to be tightened or replaced.
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