NBC taps Visions, Bexel to supply HD flypacks for Summer Games

By Carolyn Braff

As a result of size, space and economic constraints, flypacks will have a larger presence at this summer’s Olympic Games, but that does not mean that the production will be scaled down. NEP Visions Limited is equipping NBC Olympics not with traditional broadcast trucks, but with two state-of-the-art HD flypacks, providing yet another parameter that breaks new ground for Olympic broadcasts.

“Essentially it’s got to do with economics,” explains Martin Anderson, managing director for NEP Visions Limited, of the decision to use flypacks. “At the end of the day we have other clients that we have to service, and most of the equipment going to Beijing we have to get out of Wimbledon.” NEP has less than one week to get all of its equipment out of Wimbledon, pack it and ship it off to Beijing.

“We cannot afford the time that it is going to take to put OB trucks onto ships,” Anderson says. “That’s a reflection of the mix of contracts that we’ve got and when our various different sporting seasons start and end.”

The flypacks NEP is providing are not your typical simple flypacks. Space and convenience are of the utmost importance for an event of Olympic scale, but NEP does not skimp on technology in favor of convenience. In addition to the host broadcaster’s cameras, NEP is equipping NBC Olympics with 15 Sony HDC 1500 cameras, 10 super-motion and radio cameras, 60 additional remote sources, HD production galleries with 125 monitors, Grass Valley HD Kalypso 4 M/E switchers, two Calrec Omega sound desks, 5.1 surround sound audio, 256 x 256 trinix routers, full fiber infrastructure and 136 x 136 Telex talkback at each venue.

Keeping in mind that NBC’s technicians will call the new space home for three weeks, NEP chose a Bespoke designed production environment that includes VTR areas with 120 monitors, a 125-monitor production monitor wall and specially designed technical desks.

“This is effectively a 24-hour operation,” Anderson says. “Because of the time difference, the vast majority of this has to be edited and repackaged and turned around, so it does help if when you design the flypack, you design everything around the production workflows.”

New additions to NEP’s 2008 Olympic coverage include implementing flat screen monitors, 5.1 surround sound, Vinten Vector 950 stabilizing heads and more EVS’s and IP Directors, but when it comes to change, NBC stresses evolution, not revolution.

“As far as NBC is concerned, the most important thing in the world is reliability,” Anderson says.“They do not want us to be trying to pioneer brand new technology on what is the single most important event on their sporting calendar this year.”

Although the companies involved are excited by the opportunities flypacks create for this particular production, the overall consensus among the mobile production companies is that flypacks are not a permanent solution for Olympic coverage.

“It’s great when you can’t get another 53-footer on top of a mountain,” says Craig Schiller, vice president of broadcast services for Bexel, “but it’s not perfect.”

“For these Games, we’re integrating our dot-com operation,” explains Chip Adams, director of venue engineering for NBC Olympics. “Lots of the larger venues will have some presence of the dot-com people shooting video with camcorders, so trying to integrate them and get them space on the compound has been a challenge for us.”

Space is an issue in terms of equipment, as well. Bringing a full production truck over from North America for the production was not economically possible for NBC, so the network has decided to put their facilities into a fly pack operation.

“With a fly pack, you have to get in there about a week before just to get the facilities installed and get the cables run, just to get it to the level of a truck that we had in past Games,” Adams explains.

NBC will not bring full facilities into every venue, but rather focus most of their attention on the A-level venues.