News
BBC RESOURCES
ON TRACK FOR OLYMPICS COVERAGE
06 July 2004: BBC Resources, the commercial facilities arm of the
BBC, is partnering with BBC Sport to provide coverage for 2004 Athens
Olympics and Paralymics Games. BBC Resources has been working with
BBC Sport and BBC Technology to design the area within the dedicated
International Broadcast Centre (IBC) and will be providing staff
from all areas of the business including BBC Outside Broadcasts,
BBC Post Production and BBC Studios to provide broadcast coverage
from Athens.
Traditionally the main coverage of the games comes from a broadcaster
based in the country that hosts the games. This year the host broadcast
coverage will be provided by Athens Olympic Broadcasting (AOB),
contracted by ATHOC, the Games Organising Committee. AOB will be
responsible for producing the international venue coverage, and
delivering the resulting signals (totalling around 80) to the International
Broadcast Centre. AOB will then deliver an international signal
package comprising 40 feeds to rights holding broadcasters and unions
in the IBC – in the BBC’s case, via EBU facilities.
The IBC, the broadcasting hub of the Games is located alongside
the OAKA complex, which includes the Main Stadium and several other
major venues. The total IBC space is around 100,000 sq m. Paul Mason,
Chief Technical Co-ordinator, BBC Resources has been working with
his team over the last two years to design the BBC’s temporary
broadcast complex and BBC Technology have partnered with DEGA to
complete the build on the site.
Facilities in the 999 sq metre area in the centre will include
two production control rooms, two sound control rooms, nine VT edit
pairs, six non-linear edit suites, 15 VTR record bank as well as
graphics and office areas. In addition, staff across all areas of
BBC Resources will be on site in Athens to manage the output for
BBC Sport. They will work alongside staff from BBC News, BBC Nations
& Regions and BBC Interactive. The Main Production Control Suite
will allow venue coverage from the host as well as BBC Commentary
from 25 venues. BBC Studios and BBC Post Production staff will be
on hand to provide studio crew and editors. In addition, BBC Outside
Broadcasts will provide fixed OBs and mobile satellite news gathering
(SNG) units.
This year there will be a BBC Interactive Control Room, from which
BBCi producers can select up to five of the available sources to
route to London Television Centre. There will also be a Production
Control Area for BBC Nations and Regions and BBC News transmissions.
They will each have their own production and office space within
the BBC complex as well as a ‘stand-up’ position with
a backdrop of the main Olympic Stadium.
Out in the field, BBC Outside Broadcasts’ operation, headed
up by Steve Goodey, Engineering Manager, BBC Outside Broadcasts
will provide a major OB at the OAKA complex including unilateral
cameras at Athletics and Swimming and disk-based fast-turnaround
editing. The three SNG units will be small, flexible satellite-equipped
units with the ability to operate out of around 15 venues with pre-allocated
compound space, or anywhere else in or around Athens. BBC Sport
will also have an Olympic Village Camera. Entirely remote-controlled
from the IBC it will used to provide interviews with Athletes from
the British team.
The complete BBC programme for BBC ONE and BBC TWO will originate
in Athens. BBCi will also send 4/5 feeds back to BBC TV Centre in
London where the final programme will be put together. To ensure
that the circuits back to London are reliable a resilient STM-1
(155Mb/s) fibre from IBC to London has been set up to carry BBC
ONE contribution, BBC-i (5 circuits), return vision circuits from
London, voice and telephone communications with TV Centre as well
as access to the BBC computer network for over 50 PCs. A full time
satellite link from the IBC ‘Dish Farm’ is also being
supplied by EBU carrying contributions for BBC TWO and BBC Nations
and Regions.
BBC Outside Broadcasts will a provide a brand new satellite links
vehicle, acting as a ‘command and control centre’ providing
downlinking and communications for the BBC SNG units, a path to
London for BBC News, and private monitoring vision feeds at locations
around Athens. They have leased dedicated space segment on satellite
for this purpose.
IBC Installation began on 7 June and the initial operational team
travel 22 July. A further, modified operation is planned for the
Paralympics Games based in the same IBC facility. BBC Resources
is on track to provide BBC Sport with unrivalled coverage of the
2004 Athens Olympics and Paralympic Games.
Mike Southgate, Managing Director, BBC Resources comments on the
deal: “This is a key year in the sporting calendar with the
Olympics being one of the events taking centre stage. BBC Resources
is on track to provide BBC Sport with unrivalled coverage of the
2004 Athens Olympics and Paralympic Games”.
For further information, please contact:
About BBC Resources
BBC Resources is one of the leading broadcast facilities operations
in the UK. The company was incorporated in 1998, and was the first
of the BBC’s commercial business-to-business subsidiaries
to be established. BBC Resources supplies a comprehensive set of
facilities and services including outside broadcasts, studios, post
production and costume and wigs, combining extensive experience
with a plethora of award-winning talent and expertise. Mike Southgate
is its Managing Director. Further information about BBC Resources
can be found at: www.bbcresources.com
For further information, please contact:
Georgie Hollett,, PR & Comms Exec,, BBC Resources
Tel: +44 (0)20 8576 2350 (Television Centre)
+44 (0)7834 845612 (Mobile)
Email: georgie.hollett@bbc.co.uk
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