 |
|
|
Prototype
White Spaces devices will be tested by FCC engineers on Saturday, August 9, at
FedExField just outside of
The Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) will blaze a trail beginning this Friday
that other networks may follow for future Olympic games. In order to
minimize staffing, equipment, and production costs, while maximizing
quality, the vast majority of the CBC’s coverage will be edited at CBC
Headquarters in Toronto.
“It allows us to have all of our
best equipment, that we wouldn’t have otherwise been able to take
abroad, available to us with all the bells and whistles in an
integrated HD environment,” says Trevor Pilling, CBC executive producer
for the CBC’s English-language coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
“That is hard to simulate on the road.” | Full Story
When NBC Olympics begins
its coverage of the Beijing Games on Friday it will also signal a
change in production techniques as the network, with one small
exception, will rely on flypacks from Visions and Bexel instead of
full-blown production trucks.
"Because the games are in HD and the time of year we really felt it was
not economically feasible to take a truck out of the North American market for three-and-a-half months," says Chip Adams, NBC
Olympics VP of venue engineering. "So we decided to put all our
facilities into a fly-pack operation, and when you do that it affects
just about every aspect of the way we operate inside a venue.” | Full Story
They say nothing beats live TV, and beginning August 11, ESPN hopes
America agrees. Starting the first weekday of the Beijing Olympic
Games, ESPN’s 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. ET block, which is currently dominated by
SportsCenter reruns, will now consist of six hours of live SportsCenter
programming. “The beauty of this place is we’re on all the time,”
explains Norby Williamson, executive vice president of production for
ESPN. “We’re on linear television networks, radio, digitally – the
assets are there so it’s really the challenge of the management team to
deploy them.” | Full Story
For most broadcasters the
challenge of dealing with one venue is enough to fill a day. So for NBC
Olympics' Chip Adams, NBC vice president of venue engineering and his
team of 25 technical managers, dealing with 44 distinct Olympic venues
this summer has been a test of patience, planning and fortitude. First
and foremost they needed to wade through 870 pages of plans and
diagrams that outlined the venues and Beijing Olympics Broadcasting's
plans for those venues. | Full Story
The NFL is joining the streaming
revolution and it’s taking NBC Sports along for the ride. Beginning on Thursday,
September 4, football fans will be able to watch all 17 of NBC’s Sunday
Night Football games, plus a menu of Internet-only extras, live on
nbcsports.com
and
NFL.com
. Sunday Night Football Extra will take the
video feed directly from NBC, replacing only the advertisements, and
offer four additional camera angles to enhance the television broadcast.
“We want to be very complementary
to the game broadcast, not cannibalistic,” explains Hans Schroeder,
NFL VP of digital media and general manager of NFL.com. | Full Story
Preparations for the
Beijing Olympics are entering the final stages, with venues having been
locked down and security tightened. And while 95% of the NBC Olympics
International Broadcast Center (IBC) facility has been completed and
the testing and training phase has begun some venue build-outs still
remain. “The NBC A-venue flypack builds are just underway and the NBC-C
venue builds do not start until August 4 so there is a lot of venue
load-in and building going on,” says Dave Mazza, NBC Olympics senior
vice president of engineering. | Full Story
The MLB Network has begun the hard work of turning
MSNBC’s old facility in Secaucus, NJ into a 144,000 sq. ft. facility
that will be the HD home for the network set to launch on January 1,
2009. “The skeleton of a building infrastructure is here,” says Mark
Haden, MLB Network, vice president, engineering and IT. “Now we’re just
tweaking the engine.” | Full Story
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. And then there is the issue of transporting HD signals via SD circuits thanks to proprietary technology.
| Full Story The BBC may be using only standard definition cameras for this year’s
British Open coverage but that doesn’t mean HD equipment junkies can’t
get their fix in the compound. CTV OB is providing HD vehicles and
cameras to ABC Sports/ESPN and Turner, including OB10, it’s newest HD
vehicle. “It’s CTV OB through and through,” says Bill Lacy, IMG Media,
SVP production. “We have just about everything they own.” | Full Story
And then there was one. This weekend's British Open from Royal Birkdale is the last major global sporting event that has not made the leap to HD. And with rumors circulating that it will be in HD next year this is the last chance for HD owners to complain about less-than-stellar HD images (although they will enjoy widescreen SD images).
| Full Story
During the 16 days of competition at
the Beijing Olympics, 34 events will be showcased from dozens of venues
throughout the city, requiring a great deal of organization to get those
HD feeds to viewers around the world. Luc Geoffrey, CTO of the Euro
Media Group, has the daunting task of connecting the images from 10
of those events, including two of the toughest: the 42 km marathon and
the 248 km cycling road race.
| Full Story Inertia Unlimited’s long awaited X-Mo with dual outputs, allowing the
camera to pump out a full-speed output for live broadcasts while
simultaneously capturing slow-motion images, as well as offering
improved sensitivity and even greater frame-rate flexibility, is making
its debut this weekend for ABC Sports/ESPN coverage of the British Open
from Royal Birkdale in England. “This is the camera we’ve been waiting for,” says Jeff Silverman,
Inertia Unlimited founder and owner. “Our customers will be able to use
a live, un-interrupted feed without fear of missing a replay and the
camera operator can even mark clips while the camera is playing out.” | Full Story
Every year the MLB All-Star Game manages to pull off the feat of not
only packing the dugouts with superstars in the form of athletes but
the TV compound with superstars in the form of top TV production
trucks, crew and engineers. These past few days outside of Yankee
Stadium have been no exception as Gamecreek Video, NEP, NCP, NHK and
other remote service providers have rolled out the big guns. | Full Story
For ESPN’s baseball production crew, the Home Run Derby
next Monday is a welcome change of pace from a 26-week run of more
traditional coverage of MLB action. “It’s refreshing and a nice
challenge,” says Tom McShane, ESPN associate director, event
operations. “It’s good to get out of the routine.” Also getting ESPN
out of the routine? Producing the Derby telecast in Yankee Stadium, a
ballpark more than 30 years old and the kind of older facility that
typically does not host All-Star Game activities. | Full Story
Sotiris Salamouris, Beijing Olympic Broadcasting (BOB) head of
engineering and technical operations, reports that the IBC is in good
shape with one month to go before the Olympic flame in Beijing is lit.
“I would say the IBC installation is in good shape,” says Sotiris
Salamouris, BOB head of engineering and technical operations. “For the
Olympics and other big events there are always problems here and there.” | Full Story
With the 2008 Beijing Olympics officially one month away Manolo Romero, General Manager of Beijing Olympic Broadcasting (BOB) and his team are gearing up for the test phase of the International Broadcast Center and a fleet of OB vans and flypacks are travelling via boat and plane for final setup at the venues later this month. Romero spoke to SVG's Ken Kerschbaumer about what makes the 2008 Games special and what lies ahead for the Beijing Games and beyond. | Full Story
Eurosport is building on the
launch of its high definition channel in May by signing a Europe-wide
deal with Panasonic to promote both the new service and the technology.
As Official HD Partner Panasonic is supplying HPX2100 and HVX201 P2
camcorders for the broadcaster's coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games.
| Full Story
The 95th anniversary of the Tour de
France will cover 3,500 kilometers and stop in 10 new towns, including
two in Italy, creating a nightmare scenario for any broadcaster wishing
to cover the three-week-long international event. Thanks to SFP’s
RF expertise, however, nearly 200 international rights holders, including
Versus in the U.S., can rest easy knowing that feeds from helicopters
and motorcycles along all 21 stages of the event will be broadcast cleanly
in 1080i HD.
| Full Story
This summer China will
become an OB lover’s paradise as more than 65 production trucks and a
number of flypack units descend on the country for the Summer Olympics.
And while “Made in China” has become a manufacturing norm it won’t be
for the Olympics. “About 75% of the OB vans actually come from
overseas,” say Jan Eveleens, Thomson Grass Valley vice president. “And
actually, most of them come from Europe. So that's already a first part
of the challenge, because all these trucks have to go from Europe to
Beijing.” | Full Story
ESPN and the National Football League have filed ex
parte comments with and invited the Federal Communications Commission
to field test wireless “white spaces” devices under “real world”
conditions during the 2008-2009 football season. To date, the FCC has
been testing these white space devices, which would operate in the same
band of spectrum as microphones, at its labs in Columbia, MD. | Full Story
After Wednesday’s power outage during the Germany/Turkey match UEFA
Media Technologies says the International Broadcasting Centre (IBC)
will switch immediately to generator power to prevent a repeat of the
power-cuts that left many of the world’s soccer fans in the dark for
about 18 minutes during the match. | Full Story
Germany's 3-2 win over Turkey in the European
Championship semifinal was a thriller, but very few fans outside the
ground in Switzerland saw it, either in victorious Germany or
gloomy Turkey. The Associated Press reports that violent thunderstorm swept across Austria and knocked out power at
the International Broadcast Center in Vienna, from where television
images of the match were beamed around the world. The only broadcasters whose signal escaped the interruption were
Swiss public TV company SRG in Zurich and Al-Jazeera, said UEFA, which
couldn't immediately explain why those feeds were unaffected by the
Vienna broadcast center blackout. | Full Story
NBC’s foray into 24-hour Olympic Sports coverage – by means of its
partnership with World Championship Sports Network to create Universal
Sports – has industry implications that reach far beyond this summer’s
Olympic Games. “I think this is part of an overall trend that there’s
increasing focus on niche sports networks,” explains Lee Berke,
president and CEO of LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media and a sports
television network consultant.
| Full Story
NBC’s foray into 24-hour Olympic Sports coverage – by means of its
partnership with World Championship Sports Network to create Universal
Sports – has industry implications that reach far beyond this summer’s
Olympic Games. “I think this is part of an overall trend that there’s
increasing focus on niche sports networks,” explains Lee Berke,
president and CEO of LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media and a sports
television network consultant. | Full Story
The Wimbledon tennis championships are underway and once again
broadcast technology is making itself felt not just on the television
coverage but also the decisions made by match officials. New to the
BBC's domestic and host transmissions this year is the Hi-Motion
camera, which produces ultra slow pictures for closer analysis by
commentators and viewers. | Full Story
Beginning Monday morning, Americans who
cannot get enough of Wimbledon can catch extensive coverage on their
choice of networks – ESPN, NBC and the Tennis Channel – with NEP
Visions serving as the backbone supporting all three. Providing two
HD trucks, a VT unit and two flypack control rooms for their three broadcast
partners, Visions will have an unprecedented presence at the All England
Club.
| Full Story An explosion in HD sports programming at both regional and national
networks this fall could outstrip the supply of HD trucks, leaving
networks and others scrambling to find HD-capable production units. “If
a truck is not booked now or a network wants to change or add something
it’s going to be a problem,” says Ken Aagaard, CBS Sports EVP,
Operations, Engineering and Production Services. “ | Full Story
With the Opening Ceremonies of this
summer’s Olympic Games just 51 days away, NBC’s extensive coverage
plans should have its production team more than occupied, but NBC Universal’s
latest announcement shows the company is already looking beyond Beijing.
NBC Sports and World Championship Sports Network (WCSN) have joined
forces to create Universal Sports, a multi-platform destination that
will complement NBC’s television and digital offerings throughout
the Games and, more importantly, after the lights dim on Closing Ceremonies
in China.
| Full Story Torrey Pines was supposed to begin its transition to post-U.S. Open
life this morning but, instead, a fleet of production trucks and
personnel spent one more day for coverage of an 18-hole playoff between
Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate that eventually spilled over into a
sudden death playoff. For NBC Sports, ESPN, and providers like NEP,
Total RF, Corplex and others it meant more TV action and a tighter
window to break down. “The biggest challenge is getting everything out
of here on time,” says Ken Carpenter, golf technical manager. “We had a
team breaking down the set-up behind the players.” | Full Story
|
|
