By Kevin Hilton
SVG Europe correspondent
Long before the first starting
gun is fired the Beijing Games has stirred up several controversies.
While not on the same scale as China's human rights record the number
of people the BBC is taking to the Olympics has caused a considerable
furore that just will not go away.
But the BBC prides itself on
being at the heart of an event and says the 437 staff are necessary,
33 more than the Athens Games, because it is providing twice as much
output as for those last Olympics. In bald figures the BBC will be producing
3,800 hours of footage, provided by
44 feeds supplied by Beijing Olympics Broadcasting (BOB).
Many of the 437 personnel will
be working in 18 edit suites that are part of the BBC section of the
International Broadcasting Centre (IBC) in Beijing, as well as production
and ENG teams around the venues. To deal with the output from China
there will be 16 logging stations at Television Centre (TVC) in west
London, operated by personnel who must be wondering what they did wrong
to not be considered for overseas travel.
Much is made of this being
the first high definition and the BBC now has a dedicated outlet for
the technology but as its HD Channel was not given the official go-ahead
until November last year the broadcaster could not confirm to BOB that
it would need suitably equipped connections for a number of its feeds.
This means that although the
BBC intends to have a great amount of material in HD only SD circuits
have been allocated. To get round this not inconsiderable obstacle the
Dirac Pro compression technology will be used to carry HD footage over
uncompressed SD connections. BBC Research & Development developed
the system, with the codecs for contribution work designed and marketed
by Numedia.
The Dirac image compression
algorithm encodes footage using a motion compensation method and is
implemented using Numedia's Chameleon platform. Numedia was established
in 2004 by former Snell & Wilcox engineer Stuart Sommerville; its
range of Dirac products includes units for 1080p to 1080i compression,
HD-SDI multiplexing and HD SDI to SD SDI compression.
HD is usually promoted as a
pair with 5.1 surround sound and the BBC is certainly doing that for
this Olympics. This, however, is perhaps even more of a challenge for
the BBC, and other broadcasters, than the high definition video. Andy
Quested, the principal technologist in charge of HD for the BBC, says
the broadcaster will "try to do 5.1" where it can and has
been in discussions with those organising the host feed.
"There may not be 5.1
or what is provided might be unusable," he explains. "It could
be too heavy on the effects or too wide or have too much commentary.
We may have to go back to stereo because we have to have a balance between
our own added audio and the raw feed." There is the added complication
of the Olympics being a massive event taking place over a relatively
short period and comprising hugely complicated events happening at the
same time.
BOB is distributing discrete
5.1 surround audio, plus stereo, embedded in the HD SDI signal with
no Dolby encoded formats involved. Charlie Cope, a video editor with
BBC Post Production, regards this as beneficial because there will be
no expenditure on encoding and decoding but says the disadvantage is
that much of the equipment being used has only eight audio tracks. If
six of those are used for 5.1 then there is not much leeway for accommodating
a stereo mix, which is necessary for editing and feeds taken by BBC
News.
Like many broadcasters today
the BBC now has many outlets within its organisation to consider on
an event like the Olympics. As well as 300 hours to be split between
BBC1 and BBC2 television there will be 2,450 hours through the interactive
BBCi service. BBC Online, Radio, News, Nations and Regions and children's
service CBBC will also be taking footage from the Games.
New technology platforms will
play a critical role in dealing with the seven hour time difference
between China and the UK. Interactive, streamed video on broadband services
and mobile platforms will give on-demand access to the Olympics, supporting
the live prime time broadcasts. Footage for all this will be prepared
at the IBC on Olympic Green in Beijing using a tapeless production system,
mirroring the one that has been implemented within the BBC in recent
years.
BBC Sport's facility at the
IBC has been planned with BBC Resources and project managed by the broadcaster's
technology partner Siemens IT Solutions and Services, which contracted
Gearhouse Broadcast as systems integrator. The 1500 square metre area
houses a control room for HD production and one for interactive internet
and mobile phone services. These are supported by 18 edit rooms, production
offices and two big servers, all of which are connected to the venues
and the BOB EVS server.
This storage system, and accompanying
logging software, is linked to the BBC's EVS network, which in turn
feeds an Avid ISIS server. With everything in data form, incoming material
can be edited and prepared as it arrives, making for a quick turnaround.
BOB will include simple metadata in the video and audio feeds, which
BBC staff will be able to expand upon using the EVS IP Director media
management program.
This will assist the logging
operation, which will be carried out in London in an area at TVC housing
16 workstations. All editing and storage is to happen in Beijing and
once feeds have been logged in London information is sent back to Beijing
over IPTV circuits to update the local database. The BBCi and BBC Online
crews will also be able use this data, with the London logging operation
working through the night so there is no lapse caused by the time difference.
The BBC's IBC facility and
its studio in the futuristic glass Ling Long Pagoda will be run by staff
from BBC Post Production and BBC Studios, with crew and equipment also
provided by SIS Outside Broadcasts (formerly BBC OBs). SIS OBs has sent
two HD trucks to China and these are sub-contracted to BOB to provide
host facilities for coverage of sailing and rowing. The BBC itself is
not using any scanners; instead, flyaway packs are being used at venues
for the broadcaster's unilateral coverage and presentation, supplementing
the host feeds.
There is particular focus on
events in which British competitors have a strong presence or a good
chance of medals, including athletics, swimming, gymnastics, hockey
and cycling. The biggest unilateral venue, for most broadcasters, not
just the BBC, will be the National Stadium, where the opening and closing
ceremonies and track and field events are being held.
This is a full HD outside broadcast
installation, running with its own server for post-production. The BBC
will also be able to broadcast live from another 13 venues, if the need
arises. There will be editing facilities run by BBC Post Production
at Qingdao for the sailing, Shunyi, where the rowing is taking place,
and in Hong Kong, which is hosting the equestrian competition. These
venues will also feature presentation areas and cameras for interviews.
Alongside the athletics tracks
and at other sporting areas there are "mix zones", offering
three outputs for roving camera crews to plug into and connect to the
main feeds. The intention is that these will be used mostly by teams
working for the BBC's Regions, Nations and News departments. The broadcaster
has also worked with Team GB, the umbrella name for British competitors
at the Games and the body representing them, to create a remotely controlled
broadcast point. This allows athletes to walk into the centre, put on
an earpiece and communicate with the IBC, where an operator will run
the camera heads and microphones.
Eight ENG crews will be working
around Beijing and venues in other cities, using Panasonic P2 camcorders.
The BBC tried out the solid state format during 2006 at the Winter Olympics
in Torino and the World Cup in Germany and has made it part of an overall
move to tapeless production and post-production. For getting signals
back to the IBC there will be BBC News SNG vans around the Chinese capital
and at Team GB's camp in Macau.
Satellite also plays a part
in sending signals to TVC in London for transmission on BBC1, BBC2 and
BBC HD but this is to provide a secure backup to the main digital fibre
circuits. The EBU is providing over 200Mb/s of redundant international
circuits to the BBC for its transmissions. These are arranged in several
routes around the world between Beijing and the UK and will also accommodate
voice and data links and the 16 channels of IP streaming for logging
purposes.
The BBC is exploiting all the technology available to it and as many of its platforms as possible. As well as BBC1, BBC2, BBC HD, Radio Five Live, interactive channels and the internet the broadcaster is calling on a rather unlikely outlet to provide as much coverage as possible. The BBC Parliament channel on digital terrestrial platform Freeview will be used to "enhance" other transmissions but even the most die-hard government watcher cannot complain as the House of Commons will be in recess while the Games are on. But the politicians will probably be too busy coming up with new policies to be watching the Olympics. Maybe.