Live From Paris 2024: Televisa Mexico's TV Tower Presence Proves to be a Hit

Live From Paris 2024: Televisa Mexico's TV Tower Presence Proves To Be a Hit Mexico City production teams finalize Olympics content for delivery via three channels By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director

Saturday, August 10, 2024 - 5:29 am

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Olympics fans in Mexico have three channels of TV content to choose from. Televisa's team in Paris and a team in Mexico City are focused on delivering as much live coverage as possible via three over-the-air channels.

Everything is done via remote production, says Miguel Angel Garcia, EVP, live events and production services, TelevisaUnivision. That is something we've been doing since we did the Pan Am Games in 2019 from Lima, Peru.

Miguel Angel Garcia says everyone at Televisa is happy with the way things have gone both in Paris and in Mexico City.

Located at the TV tower at the Trocad ro, Televisa's main production presence in Paris comprises a studio operation (with a dynamic view of the Eiffel Tower in the background) and a production team handling camera shading, lighting, camera operations, staging, and signal transport to the IBC. The signals are sent from the IBC to Mexico City, where production professionals in production-control rooms and master-control rooms create the final product.

Every channel has their own master control in Mexico City, says Garcia. When we go live, we send the same signal to all the different control rooms. The sports-network channel is live with Olympics content from around 4 p.m. to midnight, including a 3 -hour recap of what has happened. At midnight, we start with the live event coverage [because Mexico is eight hours behind Paris].

The TV tower has proved a blessing for Televisa. According to Garcia, the broadcaster considered finding its own rooftop location, but that could have involved unknown issues - where to park, office space for a team of 50 people, connectivity, green rooms, catering and food, power - making the TV tower a much simpler and more efficient option.

Plus, if it rains when you are on a roof, you are done and can't even go live, he adds. But everyone is very happy with this location.

Televisa's studio at the Trocad ro TV tower has a view of the Eiffel Tower and a large LED wall displaying graphics and replays, enabling the talent to watch the action.

The operations at the TV tower include a technical presence on the first floor - where signals are managed, monitored, and mixed - and a studio on the third floor. Says Garcia, Our talent comes here, watches the competitions on a monitor and all the highlights, and goes upstairs to the studio for the live shows.

The Televisa studio features an oval studio floor designed to be similar in shape to a sports stadium. The studio offers the flexibility to create different looks with a reporting desk or a small table or even standup locations on the stadium-shaped stage or elsewhere. The walls have plenty of branding via a large LED wall and smaller LED panels.

We have four cameras, adds Garcia, including a Steadicam and a jib camera to give a feeling of movement while doing intros for different sports. We were also a little bit lucky in that our view also shows the buildings on the sides of the Trocad ro.

Televisa's studio camera setup

The broadcaster has about 75 people in Paris, split between the studio and IBC operations and also covering the athletes and competitions at the venues. A production team manages the incoming signals and makes sure they are coordinated before being sent to Mexico, where there is a heavy emphasis on simulcasting live events.

The time zone is tricky for Mexico, which is eight hours behind Paris. A lot of the live coverage occurs after midnight in Mexico and concludes around 3 p.m. Three networks deliver the coverage, although the main Televisa channel also airs regular programming, such as the morning news shows. During those times, sports fans head to the dedicated sports channels.

We always make sure people can see the athletes from Mexico live, Garcia points out. That is our primary focus.

Much editing takes place in Mexico City on Adobe Premier. The editing team has access to the OBS Content+ system and can pull out content and edit it for air. An EVS system can be used to play back events that can't be broadcast live.

A small Grass Valley production switcher is on hand to produce the studio show locally in case of any issues with connectivity to Mexico City.

For fan favorites diving, taekwondo, artistic swimming, and judo, Televisa has commentary positions at the venues (a total of 11) and six ENG crews and reporters following the athletes and reporting from the mixed zones. LiveU bonded-cellular transmission backpacks play a big part in the ENG efforts.

A unique aspect of Televisa's coverage is its relationship with the athletes: Televisa is a financial supporter of the Mexico Olympic team. That relationship tightened the bond with the team and makes it much easier to get athletes to stop by the Trocad ro set for interviews.

Overall, everyone's happy, says Garcia. We've been planning this for two years, but now, seeing everything put together, it's just amazing how our infrastructure not only here in Paris but also in Mexico City is doing. We have different shifts covering this 24/7, and our team was coming off the Euros and COPA Am rica, so it was a quick turnaround. There was even some overlap, with people leaving COPA Am rica to come to Paris and people being shifted to cover for those people for the semifinals and finals.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2024/08/10/live-from-paris-2024-televisa-m...
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