Page 24 - AIB | The Chanel | Issue 2 2011

THE CHANNEL | SPORT
24 | ISSUE 2 2011 | THE CHANNEL
vehicle for the outside races ‑ in
London the marathon does not end
in the main stadium but it ends in
the Mall.
Additionally, the number of high
speed super slow‑mos will be
substantially higher than the 15 we
had for Beijing. It's also a question
of thinking about the local colour as
well as the actual sports
themselves. OBS has a number of
beauty cameras so that the Rights
Holding Broadcasters (RHBs) have
material they can use as holding
and background shots. London has
some fantastic iconic venues – for
example places like Greenwich
Park for the equestrian, with the
backdrop of the river Thames and
the City of London – and OBS will
be highlighting those for the RHBs.
Do RHBs drive the demands?
Ultimately OBS is an IOC company
but our remit is to provide the
coverage that the RHBs need. They
are looking for absolutely top flight
coverage, so this is very much a
driver from the RHBs.
How does it work in practice?
Firstly, you have to be a rights
holder. The BBC being the domestic
rights holder is massive and a
special case. Some broadcasters are
direct rights holders, some are
members of broadcast unions such
as the EBU. We deal with the EBU
as a block, and that applies also to
some of the other broadcast unions.
Some RHBs we are dealing with
directly. We have a number of
formal meetings when we all come
together. In 2009 there was a
briefing for the unions and the
major rights holders. This July we
had the second world broadcaster
meeting to update everyone on our
progress. One of the major things
that we do out of London is
provide space for the RHBs in the
International Broadcast Centre
which is on the Olympic Park.
The IBC is slightly smaller than
in Beijing, in terms of the area
available for broadcast fit‑out it's
around 48,000 sq m. The RHBs tell
us how much space they want in
the IBC and give us their require‑
ments for construction. LOCOG
handles the shell at the IBC with
high level aircon and power etc,
and then we organise the
temporary construction within that
shell which is quite a complex
operation.
How many RHs are you expecting?
More than 160 which includes
various sublicensees, with an
estimated 13,000 accreditations for
RHBs but we won't know for
certain until accreditation closes
later this year.
What about non-RHs?
Non‑RHBs are a group that we as
OBS don't deal with. They can't
shoot in official Olympic venues.
The RHBs have paid a lot of money
for the right to do exclusively that.
Will broadcasters ship trucks in?
Yes, there will be trucks coming in
from Europe. In Beijing around 60
full network capable HD OB trucks
were required and there are very
few countries in the world that can
source that number of trucks, plus
on top of that you have the
requirements of RHBs for add‑ons.
Our purpose is to deliver the
core unbiased coverage for the
RHBs and they add on their
coverage and they do that in
different scales. But some of them
will be bringing in unilateral trucks
as well. The demand for HD trucks
is obviously massive ‑ we make
sure we have our trucks lined up
quite early in the process.
What takes most of your time?
It's communications ‑ keeping track
of progress and making sure that
all the constituent parts are aware
of what's going on and working to
the same plan.
Some impressively complex
timeline planning goes on. And
there is a significant telecoms
operation as well – we have to
”
The
central
video
server in
the IBC
will hold
the whole
of the
Games in
HD
“