Beijing Games: End of a Broadcast Era?
by | Aug 21, 2008 - 6:25:57 PM
With the 2008 Summer Games winding down this weekend, one can’t help wondering if this is the end of an era when networks sent massive production teams to the location of the Olympics.
Both NBC Olympics and the CBC are proving that it’s possible to use existing transmission pipes and file-based workflows to pump content thousands of miles for final production and distribution. And for 2010, the BBC is already eying a similar move…toss in the fact that London is hosting the 2012 Games, and odds are that BBC presence at the IBC for the next two Games will be much smaller, impacting not only the head count but also the sense of international community.
Then, of course, there is what the Olympics have done to this nation. As Charlie Jablonski, self-proclaimed NBC “Olympic hanger-on,” told me the other day, “Look around because you will never, ever see an Olympics like this again.” The Chinese not only threw people at the Games (and let us not forget, threw people out of homes) but also threw billions of dollars, a move that was self-evident through not only the occasional blue skies but the smooth operations everywhere.
But leaving aside the pomp and circumstance, the real change will be the result of technical advances. The move to server-based storage, tightened content exchange between EVS and Avid editing systems, and 1.5-Gbps infrastructures is the norm for even the smallest broadcaster in the IBC (in fact, the smallest simply ride on top of the BOB EVS infrastructure, delivering prepackaged networks).
So for me, it was great to be here, not only to revel in the Olympic excitement and spend some quality time with top engineering and production talent but to experience something that might not exist again: a vibrant, impressively large IBC that felt like the world’s largest TV production truck (complete with staffers sleeping on couches). Or over-sized on-site staffs that meet the over-sized demands for content delivery.
Time will tell, but odds are, technology will help make it easier for broadcasters to deliver top-quality productions from afar. And while the taxi-cab drivers in London may not like to hear that, it should be music to the ears of TV-network finance departments the world over.
Just let me savor this one.
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