Paris 2024: Wireless Comms Cover Expansive Opening Ceremony, Various Olympic Venues

Paris 2024: Wireless Comms Cover Expansive Opening Ceremony, Various Olympic Venues For the parade of athletes, a network of connectivity stretched along the Seine By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor

Friday, August 9, 2024 - 10:11 am

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The Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics has been well-documented, but, given the workflows that allow international broadcasters, Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), and others to communicate with each other, the feat on the Seine River becomes herculean. At the heart of the effort is a dedicated team responsible for establishing a wireless communications network for the Opening Ceremony and for operations at all 35 Olympic venues, but this year's festival of global athletics required a record number of staffers and onsite equipment in Paris.

Rainy Weather, Segmented Rehearsals: Opening Ceremony Prep Is Complicated Aiming to create the largest and most complex Opening Ceremony in the 128-year history of the modern Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and France went all out for a dazzling 3.7-mile cruise down the Seine. The ambitious celebration required an extensive tech plan extending the length of the athletes' journey, as well as robust wireless communication for onsite production personnel. In addition, the country's organizing committee needed to install cabling that would send video signals to all LED screens on the riverbanks and audio feeds to the massive speaker system. Workflows were monitored via 25 strategic locations on both sides of the parade route. The committee had a plan, but two factors during the preparation phase complicated operations a bit.

Communications along the 3.7-mile parade route of the Opening Ceremony were stitched together with 25 connectivity points.

The first was the unpredictable weather leading up to the Games. Heavy rainfall raised water levels in the river exponentially, and too much water in the Seine could prevent the flotilla of boats from passing under the multiple bridges on the trip to the Trocad ro. The committee decided in mid July to move forward with the ceremony as planned.

The second complicating factor was the numerous rehearsals of the full show. Instead of rehearsing the complete show all at once, the rehearsals were done in segments on the river, preventing the crew on the ground from putting the entire coverage map together. Because of the sporadic rehearsals, the location of pieces of infrastructure could not be finalized: for example, LEDs were changed from one side of the Seine to the other and screens arrived late the night before the Opening Ceremony.

A record number of comms staffers and equipment are onsite in Paris.

Besides weather conditions' affecting water levels and last-second alterations to the LED layout, the fact that, for the first time ever, the Opening Ceremony took place outside of a stadium presented its own logistical and operation challenges. From a wireless-communications perspective, an existing structure that hosts numerous high-profile sports events and other forms of entertainment would offer a sturdy and reliable backbone. This wasn't the case on the banks of the Seine, and the comms plan relied on temporary 5G towers and other cellular support.

Constant Tech Needs: Serving Operations in Local, Far-Flung Venues Although the location of all 35 Olympic Venues was solidified long before the start of the Games, technological needs at each facility are always evolving. Whether it's satisfying the connectivity requests of other tech providers, OBS, and others, being adaptable has allowed the onsite staff to make it through the day. Certain staffers are assigned to handle the rapid influx of change requests, following appropriate protocols for the particular entities. Protocols include, for example, making significant changes to a venue's infrastructure after the day's last event is over, which means that the change is made in the middle of the night.

Communications equipment is located on the inside section of the Eiffel Tower.

The core of the 2024 Summer Olympics is taking place in the French capital, but several venues - especially for the early rounds of some sports - are located in other municipalities, such as Nice, Marseilles, and Lyon. Within Paris, venues rely on roaming teams and cluster managers to meet the needs of venues located close together. For example, Stade de France and the Aquatics Centre are within walking distance of each other. Urban sports skateboarding, BMX, and basketball 3 3 are being played in the Place de la Concorde. Venues outside the city center are attended to, with the most experienced staffers leading operations at those farthest from Paris.

Overall, producing the Olympics is an ever-changing process. With advances in technology, changes in philosophies and workflows, or, in this case, the first Olympics without COVID-19 restrictions after Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022, venue operations can always be improved. One change at Paris 2024 can be attributed to being more environmentally friendly: in a city that makes it conducive to do so, members of the onsite team have been traveling by bike.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2024/08/09/paris-2024-wireless-comms-cover...
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