The London 2012 Olympics were even more popular than Beijing,according to the EBU By Kevin Hilton
The EBU and its members were heavily involved in producing and distributing audio and video feeds of the London 2012 Olympics. While Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) covered the swimming, diving, sailing and
equestrian competitions, among others, EBU members and associate members also worked on host feeds. These included the BBC (boxing, rowing, canoe, tennis and football), ERT of Greece (weightlifting), NOS from the Netherlands (cycling road race and time trails), China’s CCTV (modern
pentathlon and badminton) and Fuji TV of Japan (judo). Commentary came through OBS via AEQ’s new digital commentary systems. All audio signals from venues were switched using an AEQ Titan 5,000x5,000 router. The EBU had its own Titan system for sending feeds to member and associate member broadcasters, over a variety of circuits, including E1, IP and ISDN. The last two formats were processed through AEQ Phoenix Studio audio-codecs, with all links arranged on a peer-to-peer basis. Javier Polo, head of the EBU Sports Operations Group, explains that the audio circuits operated using either the 15kHz AEQ-LD+ algorithm or 7.5kHz G.722. “The audio circuit transmission path was digital from the commentators’ microphone inputs up to the broadcasters’ audio mixing console or the viewers’ TV receiver,” he says. n www.aeq.eswww.ebu.ch
UNITED STATES
FOR THE Weather Channel’s Tornado Hunt 2012season kick-off, a Sound Devices 302 portable field mixer was installed in lead meteorologist Mike Bettes’ vehicle, the ‘Bettes Mobile’, to handle on-air audio for the live broadcasts originating from inside it.
“Building a broadcast vehicle like the Bettes Mobile required reliable, robust and trusted gear,” said Kevin Parrish, senior RF engineer for NBC Network News, field and satellite
operations. “Due to the nature of this assignment, it’s not possible to provide field maintenance; everything needs to work correctly from day one. Equipment selection is key and that’s why we selected the gear we did.” n www.sounddevices.com
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