Special Report ///


See the Sports Now Channel on www.tvtechnology.com for more coverage of the Sochi Games and beyond. Multiscreen Splash /// Olympic Video Player service highlights ‘complete’ broadcast, says Mark Hallinger


Editor’s Note: There are too many good stories from Sochi----I had planned several pages of coverage. Y


ou’ll have to go online for


that, where you’ll find stories about YLE, NBC, Panorama’s massive effort for the Russian coverage, TV2 from Norway, Viasat’s first Olympics for Sweden and more.


S SOMEONE who has been on-site at most Olympics for the last 20 years, this one


felt like we had arrived somewhere that resembled completion and stability. The workflows used by most broadcasters are established, and the services made available by the host broadcaster were stable, evolving, helpful to rightsholders, and in heavy use. To some extent we may be


at a production plateau. HD was tackled back in 2008 in Beijing, and production for streaming and multiplatform delivery started in a big way in London for many of the world’s broadcasters. There was a limited amount


The TV2 (Norway) MCR in Sochi


of 4K production in Sochi, including some from a Russian broadcaster, an NBC/Comcast trial, and as might be expected Panasonic recorded the opening ceremony in 4K. Many of us might be watching that spectacular imagery on the Panasonic stand at NAB in a week or two. Never one to disappoint, NHK had an 8K Theatre in the main hall of the broadcast centre.


But if all the limited 4K and 8K had not been there I would have hardly noticed, and chalked it up to the fact that these things are a bit too far away from actually driving revenue to be worried about just now. But I would have felt a distinct sense of something missing if host


broadcaster Olympic Broadcasting Services had let the new Olympic Video Player (OVP) multiscreen service debut in Rio, as it had originally planned. The prominence and buzz


about the OVP was what pushed this Olympics into one where I would use the word ‘complete,’ to describe the technical nature of the event. It was front-and- centre in Sochi with a public demo of the white label service displayed on all types of SmartPhones and tablets, and a whopping 95 rightsholding broadcasters (RHBs) were using it to send images home. The OVP was arguably the


biggest news from Sochi, but it is easy to forget that the iPad had not yet been released at the last Winter Olympics in Vancouver.


The service offered a-la- carte and turnkey services including on-demand HD video with full commentary; broadcaster commentary audio added to live video; pre-roll videos and commercials; live


YLE’s ‘Sochi Arena’ coverage running on a Windows phone


forward is the provision of extra live content to the viewer with unique and unseen camera angles. ///


streaming, including broadcaster channels; a ticker, including broadcaster content promotion; full customisations including language, broadcaster logo etc. One possible feature moving


A Panorama ENG cameraman


Home viewers in Sweden could access four screens of Sochi action on a pad device, and choose which audio to hear by touch.


//////////////// 4 TV Technology Europe I April 2014


The OVP demo room frequently drew large crowds.


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