Deltatre Helps Discovery Deliver ‘Gold Medal’ Digital Media, Broadcast Services For PyeongChang 2018

Discovery took on an Olympic-level challenge when it was awarded European multimedia rights for upcoming Olympic Games from 2018-2024. No broadcast partner had delivered the Games at such scale and complexity and as a part of its plan to redefine the Games viewing experience, Discovery wanted to innovate through graphics and augmented reality services to offer something new and which would enhance the storytelling of the Olympics for viewers.  

To make things even tougher, this was Discovery’s first ever Games as a rights holder, the first time a single partner had delivered localised Games coverage in 48 markets, and which included bringing every minute of the live action via digital platforms for the first time across Europe.

To meet these challenges, Discovery not only enhanced its in-house team by hiring highly experienced staff with but also partnered with experienced external experts to deliver technical services that would redefine Games broadcasting.

Discovery partnered with Deltatre to provide both digital and broadcast television services to ensure that viewers received the very highest digital experience ever offered across Europe. Deltatre were the systems integrators for Discovery and Eurosport for their PyeongChang 2018 broadcast graphics operation, supporting seven Eurosport studios in PyeongChang, including the innovative “Eurosport cube”, and further productions for Eurosport’s UK, French, German, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, and Norwegian markets.

Deltatre provided the detailed results services that allowed fans across Europe to keep up-to-date with real-time results for every single event, medals tables, athlete information, country data and more, across the web, tablet, and mobile devices. Combined with competition video and editorial content, Deltatre services helped power many of the critical experiences Discovery and Eurosport shared with consumers.

The service included providing onscreen, augmented reality, virtual analysis, big screen services, local and remote post production, 24/7 games time engineering and graphic design support. Deltatre’s Magma Multisport software provided data driven onscreen, post production and AR graphics using the ODF feed (Olympic Data Feed) for productions in nine languages and in two graphics styles.

In addition, Eurosport tasked Deltatre to support the graphics build and operations for the Eurosport cube, an Olympic-first mixed reality studio, using AR and VR to create a fully interactive environment to analyse the action. 

The cube allowed medal winners and Eurosport’s experts to immerse themselves and their audiences in the action, better understanding the sport and bringing them closer to the action than ever before.

“Deltatre helped us achieve a gold standard in our graphics production of the Olympic Winter Olympic Games PyeongChang 2018,” David Roulson, vice president of Olympics Engineering, Discovery, says. “In addition to Deltatre’s management and supply of very large set of real-time multi-lingual graphics, the Eurosport cube studio received a hugely positive response from viewers. Conceived by the Eurosport team it was brought to life with the hard work of Deltatre in both graphic design as well as technical equipment use. Deltatre’s willingness to be part of our total team onsite, and professionalism of those onsite staff, gave extra confidence that all aspects of their graphics service would work extremely well, and everything did.”

“It was clear from day one of this project that the ambition Discovery and Eurosport had for their on-screen graphics was far beyond that of any other broadcaster we had worked with. Add to that the individual requirements of key Eurosport markets, each with their own local take on their Olympic Games production, this was without doubt an immense, global challenge for all involved,” Andrew O’Neil, executive at Deltatre, says. “Despite this, the commitment, dedication creativity and innovation brought to this project by both Deltatre and Eurosport was outstanding, and the resulting delivery and output was quite incredible and there for all to see. Discovery and Eurosport have definitely arrived on the Olympic Games scene, and I am very proud Deltatre could play a part in that.”