January 2014
www.tvbeurope.com
TVBEurope 33 The Workflow
Sergey Revin, Panorama’s CTO
From Salford to Sochi: the BBC at the Winter Olympics
Broadcasters from all over the world will be converging on Sochi. Philip Stevens talks to the BBC about its plans.
TYPICALLY, PLANNING for a major undertaking such as the Winter Olympics would begin about three years before the event. However, broadcasting rights for the UK audience were not granted to the BBC until August 2012 – which gave the organisation just 17 months to plan its coverage.
the following Biathlon World Cup took place at the Laura Cross-country Ski and Biathlon Centre to the north-east of Sochi. Panorama again was working as the host broadcaster, providing the international HD signal of the event. However, not everything ran according to plan for the overall coverage. Due to the ongoing road works
in the area, the OB units could not get to the Centre and had to be parked about 8km away from the competition tracks. To enable TV production to go ahead, the signals from all camera positions located along the 10km race tracks were transferred via dark fibre lines to the Technical Operations Centre at the broadcast compound in Laura – and then on to the OB truck. From here the cameras on the track were operated remotely through Telecast systems. The Panorama team was using the fibre lines already installed for the cross country events in February. “The whole operation was a tremendous success, despite the problems surrounding the site,” reports Revin.
Software solution One significant solution that Panorama has installed at Sochi is its Media Office system. This is a versatile platform that allows ingesting, editing, logging, storing, searching, and
delivering digital content to multiple users in realtime. Feeds coming from any source — OB or DSNG vans, or ENG crews — are captured and stored in a single archive. Utilising EVS’s IP Web-browser technology, the Office enables fast search and retrieval of relevant video content from anywhere in the world. “This is an innovative tool that
allows up to 100 users working on news bulletins or feature stories to simultaneously search for and work with video. It is based on the Octopus6 Newsroom System, and allows users to piece together videos, images and text into a rundown. It also allows fast edits of video content, such as highlights, summaries, interviews, packages and so on, and delivery upon user request, including to OB vans operating at live events. This will be invaluable at Sochi.” He concludes: “We anticipate
that the Winter Olympic Games will attract somewhere in the region of 3.5 billion viewers worldwide. The intensive preparation work that we have undergone at Panorama will enable us to set a new standard in the coverage of such high-profile events.”
www.panoramahd.ru www.robycam.ru www.octopus-news.com www.sony.co.uk www.egripment.com
“We had already undertaken some prior planning in anticipation of acquiring the rights, nevertheless the time frame was still quite tight to prepare for the operation, seek budget approval and hit Host booking deadlines,” explains Jonny Bramley, the BBC’s executive producer of Major Events.
Fortunately, there was considerable experience from which to draw, based on covering previous Winter Games. “The operational model we are using in Sochi is similar to that employed for Turin 2006 and Vancouver 2010, with on-site presentation. But there is one major difference — the gallery, post production and majority of the team will be based in the UK,” reveals Bramley.
team in Salford across all platforms will number around 200, with a further 100 personnel travelling to Sochi. The BBC on-site studio at the Olympic Park will utilise three cameras, two of which will be manned. A For-A vision mixer and Yamaha DM2000 audio console will be used within the IBC. “We will have
“Our goal is to capture
production value edits which really stand out and give the BBC’s production class and polish.” While Avid is the preferred editing system on location, Final Cut Pro will be in use at the Salford facility. To handle the asset management of the content, the BBC will be installing a Rohde & Schwarz DVS Venice system with 96TB of storage at IBC and MBC with four Avid edit clients on each.
Relationships the atmosphere
and live reaction at every event where Team GB wins a medal” Jonny Bramley, BBC’s Major Events
A first for Salford He goes on to say that this event will be the first major multi-sport operation to originate from the BBC Sport’s broadcast centre in MediaCity UK at Salford. “There will be daily coverage on BBC2 from approximately 07:00 to 20:00, plus a Red Button operation delivering all events live on up to six separate web streams.” Although most of the production will come from Salford, the BBC will operate a small switching, editing and multiplatform facility in the IBC. In addition, there will be an operation at the MBC (Mountain Broadcast Centre) in Krasnaya Polyana. The production
one dedicated ISO camera at the Sliding Centre for bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton tracks. This is where we feel we would get the best value from our unilateral coverage. These are events where Team GB has a strong medal potential. We also have Announce Positions at a number of other venues, where the presentation cameras can act as ISOs.” “Within the IBC and MBC operations, a total of eight edit stations will create features from material shot on site. In addition, a small news team has an edit facility in the IBC. Although journalists will undertake some editing of their own packages, craft editors will also be on site to produce the high quality, high
Alongside material produced by its teams, the BBC will make use of the recently introduced ONC (Olympic News Channel). Operated by Host Broadcaster OBS, this facility makes ENG footage available to Rights Holder Broadcasters (RHBs) via its server. However, the BBC has previously formed relationships with other RHBs - notably the English speaking broadcasters from the USA, Canada and Australia — and regularly exchanges archive in order to provide the most comprehensive coverage possible.
Beyond the conventional televised coverage, the BBC team will be creating some web-specific content in Sochi, while their counterparts in Salford will be re-versioning the TV material for streaming. Bramley concludes, “It is anticipated that these will be a landmark Winter Games for Team GB, with a record medal haul being predicted. To reflect that, we have a greater live presence at venues than any previous Winter Olympics. Our goal is to capture the atmosphere and live reaction at every event where Team GB wins a medal.”
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