Eurosport Olympic Legacy Is About More Than the Games
21/02/2018
by Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director, Sports Video Group
The new rightsholder is a massive UN of sports production, delivering the Games to 48 countries in 42 languages
Eurosport's ambitious plans for the 2018 Winter Olympics are now in Day 6 of being in full operation, and Discovery Communications CTO John Honeycutt says that the team has been fantastic and, for the first week of the Olympics, things couldn't be going better. My biggest concern was, we would have some issues in the first couple of days and then we would never emotionally get out of that hole, he says. But we had a really strong opening weekend. and the viewer numbers coming back from the regions have been spectacular. So I feel really good about the performance and the team.
David Schafer says the Eurosport efforts for the 2018 Olympics will create a legacy that extends beyond the Olympics.
David Schafer, SVP, Olympics operations and planning, Discovery Communications, concurs, adding that the team expected some bumps because Eurosport and the team had never taken on such an ambitious project or really worked together so closely.
We were prepared for any angle and for anything that could go wrong, says Schafer. So, we prepared for those and I think the teams have reacted accordingly. And you can see it on air.
The Eurosport team is a massive United Nations of sports production that ultimately is responsible for delivering the Olympics to 48 countries in 21 languages. Schafer equates it to a U.S. national network having production teams across every state and then each state's team requiring different feeds with different languages.
If you think of it in that regard it is quite complex, he says.
There is a multi-national team in PyeongChang at the IBC and at the venues; another large team in Paris, where Eurosport is headquartered; a team at NEP's Mediabank facility in Oslo that logs and stores all assets and, in turn, makes them available to editors and other production teams across Europe; and then there are Eurosport operations across Europe that giving content a more local flair.
We have 50 Gbps of circuits in Korea, 50 Gbps of circuits back to Europe where signals go through Frankfurt to Paris and then to London where it goes out over the Discovery WAN which is a whole other set of circuits, says Honeycutt. All told we have about 150 to 200 Gbps of circuits so it's fairly complicated.
Eurosport's facility within the IBC has seven production control rooms, including one each dedicated to Sweden and Norway, busy pulling in content from 28 OBS feeds, unilateral feeds from venues and beyond.
Eurosport also is embracing remote production as the production control room in the Hockey 1 venue also produces the games held in the Hockey 2 venue. That feed is then sent to the IBC via a 10 Gbps circuit.
There has been a lot of rapid decision making and load balancing across the team, but we have a great group of people who raised the production up really quickly, says Honeycutt. It's a complete and total host feed operation with unilateral wraparounds and it is all flypacks from NEP.
Some of the key tools keeping everything connected and moving include Lawo V_remote 4 for moving IP signals, EVS replay servers, ScheduALL as the brain of the operations, and Vizrt for the Cube AR studio.
Then there are production teams focused on specific nations, like Germany, Italy, England, Norway, and Sweden.
The Eurosport Norway control room at the IBC gives Eurosport the chance to serve Norwegian Olympic fans with a nation-specific broadcast
When you look at our model we are across various platforms: free-to-air, pay, and digital, says Schafer. And the free-to-air markets where we own those rights and have not sublicensed any of them are where we have invested significantly in the infrastructure. And Norway and Sweden were those two countries.
In those markets Eurosport was taking over for commercial broadcasters in both countries that were known for high levels of production. That meant the Eurosport teams had a lot to prove with viewers in those markets.
We really went all-in to give them all the resources they needed to deliver on that promise, he says. And that is why you will see control rooms from Norway and Sweden, significant sized studios, and the most people on site.
Common Ground
In recent months Eurosport has worked hard to find common needs and economies of scales that can be leveraged across the various production teams that are serving local needs.
If you look at the core teams from all the markets, there has not been one market that was not engaged or passionate about this since day one, says Schafer. And they all have other day jobs as well as with all of our other sports coverage and we were able to help them along that path. But coming into the games, when they were able to completely focus on it, they have delivered beyond my expectations and I think that just watching them come together, get on air, and the hosts and producers and everyone showing up in PyeongChang and rolling up their sleeves together has probably been the most rewarding thing for me at these Olympics.
Now that the games are under way and the teams are on site there has been an uptick in sharing of content, leveraging assets, and more. The result is an effort that finds what began as diverse teams working closer than ever.
Now that people are sharing [content and resources] we are working as one team because, naturally, you would think there would be some tension between teams, says Schafer. But I have not seen it and I strongly believe that comes back to starting this project together.
Schafer says that when he first tackled the project the first step was to make sure every stakeholder an
LINK: | http://www.live-production.tv/news/sports/eurosport-olympic-legacy-abo... |
See more stories from liveproduction |
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet Appoints Santiago Solanas as CEO to Lead Next Era of Growth and Innovation
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet and Veritone Reach Agreement to Distribute, Transact and Monetize Media Archives
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
28/04/2024
Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with URSA Broadcast G2
Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with U...
19/04/2024
Comcast Launches NOW
PHILADELPHIA As government subsidies for broadband services come to an end, Comcast has launched NOW, a new product portfolio of lower-cost Internet, mobile and...
19/04/2024
DirecTV Stream Adds CW Affiliates
DirecTV Stream has added more local CW stations for its streaming customers in Boston, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Hartford-New Haven Conn., Phoenix, San ...
19/04/2024
MediaCo Acquires Estrella Media's Content and Digital Operations
NEW YORK & LOS ANGELES MediaCo Holding Inc. has announced that it has acquired all of Estrella Media's network, content, digital, and commercial operations....
19/04/2024
Adobe Launches New Adobe Express Mobile App with Firefly AI
SAN JOSE, Calif. Adobe has announced that the all-new Adobe Express mobile app is available to all users, bringing features powered by Adobe Firefly generative ...
19/04/2024
Netflix Adds 9.3M Subs in Q1
LOS GATOS, Calif. Netflix reported another blockbuster quarter by adding 9.33 million new subscribers in Q1, 2024 as global paid memberships hit 269.6 million, ...
19/04/2024
The Current State of the Industry and the Future Impact of AI
The Current State of the Industry and the Future Impact of AI Hillary Lewis April 18, 2024 0 Comments The Entertainment Industry: How did we get here ...
19/04/2024
After Effects Tutorial Text Blur Reveal
After Effects Tutorial Text Blur Reveal Andy Ford April 18, 2024 0 Comments Here's a way to do a quick blur reveal for your text layer. Start by...
19/04/2024
Hollyland Mars M1 Enhanced Wireless Transmitter / Receiver
Hollyland Mars M1 Enhanced Wireless Transmitter / Receiver Colin Smith April 18, 2024 0 Comments This tutorial shows the new wireless transmitter rece...
19/04/2024
Resolve Fusion: Writing Expressions with Lua
Resolve Fusion: Writing Expressions with Lua Simon Ubsdell April 18, 2024 0 Comments The answer to the very frequently-asked question: what is the pro...
19/04/2024
B+C,' Next TV' Announce Winners of Best of Show Awards at NAB Show
B+C and Next TV have announced the winners of Best of Show Awards for the 2024 NAB Show. The awards were judged by a panel of industry experts at the convention...
19/04/2024
Cate Blanchett Narrates Nature Series on Netflix
Cate Blanchett narrates the Netflix series Our Living World, which premieres April 17. The four-part series looks at the extraordinary creatures around the glob...
19/04/2024
For All Mankind' Spinoff Is in the Works at Apple TV Plus
Apple TV Plus has a spinoff of For All Mankind in the works. It is called Star City and details the cosmonauts, engineers and intelligence officers working behi...
19/04/2024
Jacquie Walker, Longtime Buffalo Anchor, Stepping Down From Desk
Jacquie Walker, longtime anchor at WIVB Buffalo, will step down from the anchor desk. She has spent over 40 years at WIVB and her last day as an anchor is May 2...
19/04/2024
Bob Hearts Abishola' To Make Syndicated Debut This Fall
Bob Hearts Abishola will premiere in broadcast syndication this fall on such station groups as Nexstar Media Group, Sinclair, Hearst Television, Tegna, E.W. Scr...
19/04/2024
Live With Kelly and Mark' Celebrates One-Year Anniversary
Live With Kelly and Mark remains TV's top entertainment talk show as Kelly Ripa and her co-host and husband Mark Consuelo celebrate their one-year anniversa...
19/04/2024
Sean McLaughlin Named VP of News at Graham Media Group
Sean McLaughlin has been named VP of news for Graham Media Group. He had been senior VP of local news at E.W. Scripps. He will will be responsible for developi...
19/04/2024
Netflix Shares First Peek at Long-Awaited One Hundred Years of Solitude'
Netflix has shared the first trailer from One Hundred Years of Solitude, a series based on the esteemed novel by Gabriel Garc a M rquez. The streamer is on boar...
18/04/2024
First Look: Tom Durant Pritchard joins the cast of crime drama Miss Scarlet for its fifth series
Tom Durant Pritchard as Alexander Blake Thursday 18 April 2024 Tom Durant Prit...
18/04/2024
Alone Australia goes from strength to strength
Alone Australia goes from strength to strength 18 April, 2024 Media releases The program again delivers for SBS with significant uplifts in digital BVOD vi...
18/04/2024
L3Harris to Expand and Modernize Solid Rocket Motor Manufacturing in Virginia
ORANGE COUNTY, Va., April 18, 2024 - L3Harris Technologies [NYSE:LHX] has entered into an agreement with Orange County, Virginia, to fund the expansion and mode...
18/04/2024
Achieving Air Dominance by Advancing Imaging & Designating EO/IR Capabilities
L3Harris Sky Warden multi-mission aircraft, equipped with the WESCAM MX-15 and WESCAM MX-20 EO/IR sensor systems, was selected for USSOCOMs Armed Overwatch prog...
18/04/2024
US Space Force Extends Partnership with L3Harris to Enhance Space Domain Awareness
MELBOURNE, Fla., April 18, 2024 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) has received ...
18/04/2024
2024 NAB Show Attendance Topped 61,000
LAS VEGAS The National Association of Broadcasters is reporting that more than 61,000 people attended the 2024 NAB Show, where artificial intelligence and the c...
18/04/2024
How today's storage and memory decisions underpin future creativity
Ann Keefe, Regional Director - UK and Ireland at Kingston Technology, explains how storage and memory decisions made now are underpinning creativity in the futu...
18/04/2024
Krisha Marcano Announced as Dean of Theater for Boston Conservatory at Berklee
Krisha Marcano Announced as Dean of Theater for Boston Conservatory at Berklee The theater educator, choreographer, and performer will join Boston Conservator...
18/04/2024
Escape Studios obtains UKVI licence to support international students
The newly acquired UKVI licence enables Escape Studios to recruit and retain international students By Matthew Corrigan Published: April 18, 2024 The newl...
18/04/2024
NAB 2024 popular among first time visitors
Attendees from more than 163 countries were present, including 34 delegation buying groups from around the world By Matthew Corrigan Published: April 18, 202...
18/04/2024
Dyn Media and NEP Germany pioneer new frontier in remote...
In August 2023, Dyn Media launched as a new broadcaster in European sports, aimed at giving sports beyond football the exposure and viewership they deserve. The...
18/04/2024
Hitomi partners with ES Broadcast Hire for US rentals
Hitomi Broadcast, market leader in audio/video alignment and latency tools based in the UK, has signed a partnership deal with global broadcast rental specialis...
18/04/2024
Screen Australia and Dynamic Television announce new Scripted Initiative
18 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and Dynamic Television announce new Scripted Initiative Savage River Screen Australia and Los Angeles-based telev...
18/04/2024
Vislink's DragonFly V - The Company's Smallest-Ever Transmitter Debuted at NAB 2024
Vislink's DragonFly V - The Company's Smallest-Ever Transmitter Debuted ...
18/04/2024
MediaSilo to Offer Camera to Cloud with Atomos
MediaSilo to Offer Camera to Cloud with Atomos Brie Clayton April 17, 2024 0 Comments Integration between MediaSilo and Atomos Cloud Studio unlocking ...
18/04/2024
MultiDyne Updates its SilverBULLET Series to Serve More Fiber-Optic Links
MultiDyne Updates its SilverBULLET Series to Serve More Fiber-Optic Links Brie Clayton April 17, 2024 0 Comments MultiDyne Fiber Optic Solutions intro...
18/04/2024
Cinedeck Partners with Paramount to Revolutionize Content Delivery Process
Cinedeck Partners with Paramount to Revolutionize Content Delivery Process Brie Clayton April 17, 2024 0 Comments Cinedeck, a pioneer in integrated de...
18/04/2024
Unreal for video adding rocks and foliage
Unreal for video adding rocks and foliage Graham Quince April 17, 2024 0 Comments Welcome to my series on learning Unreal Engine for After Effects u...
18/04/2024
Best Budget Beginner-Friendly 4k Drone
Best Budget Beginner-Friendly 4k Drone Sean Alami April 17, 2024 0 Comments Potensic Atom 4k 3 axis Gimbal Drone, ideal drone for beginners. Some con...
18/04/2024
Race or Just Have Fun at Rocky Mount Mills for a Good Cause, Not Your Run of the Mill 5K
Rocky Mount Mills will be overflowing with runners, families and friends, all fo...
18/04/2024
Berklee's Yoon-Ji Lee Receives Guggenheim Fellowship
Berklee's Yoon-Ji Lee Receives Guggenheim Fellowship Lee, an assistant professor of composition, creates music based on unconventional and nonlinear struc...
18/04/2024
Ben Sherwood, Former ABC President, Named CEO at The Daily Beast
Ben Sherwood, former president of Disney ABC Television Group, has been named CEO and publisher at The Daily Beast. Joanna Coles, former chief content officer a...
18/04/2024
Tonight on Skeem Saam: Lehasa puts his plan to eliminate Khwezi in motion
Tonight on Skeem Saam: Lehasa puts his plan to eliminate Khwezi in motionDon't miss Thursday, 18 April's riveting episode of South African soapie Skeem ...
18/04/2024
Wide Open: NVIDIA Accelerates Inference on Meta Llama 3
NVIDIA today announced optimizations across all its platforms to accelerate Meta Llama 3, the latest generation of the large language model (LLM). The open mod...
18/04/2024
Ping Pong for the Masses: Bringing an Old Sport to a Brand New Audience With World Table Tennis
Ping pong for the masses: Bringing an old sport to a brand new audience with Wor...
18/04/2024
Fanatical Fans: IMG on Bringing the World of Table Tennis to a New Global Audience for WTT
Fanatical fans: IMG on bringing the world of table tennis to a new global audien...
18/04/2024
Netflix Follows Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders in New Series
Back to All News Netflix Follows Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders in New SeriesPlay Video Play Video Entertainment 18 April 2024 GlobalUnited States Link copie...
18/04/2024
Chinese-Language Revenge Thriller Series The Resurrected' Marks International Film Stars Shu Qi and Sinje Lee's Debut on Netflix
Back to All News Chinese-Language Revenge Thriller Series The Resurrected'...
18/04/2024
'The Witcher' Season 4 Begins Production in the UK and Netflix Announces Fifth and Final Season
Back to All News The Witcher Season 4 Begins Production in the UK and Netflix A...
18/04/2024
2024-04-18
Apple has reduced its overall greenhouse gas emissions by more than 55 percent since 2015, the company shared today in its 2024 Environmental Progress Report. T...