
Live from Tokyo Olympics: CBC Efforts Brings Production Teams Closer Together By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Friday, July 30, 2021 - 8:20 am
Print This Story
Events like the Olympics always given the CBC a chance to bring together its Montreal team, which serves the French-speaking Canadians, with the Toronto team which serves English-speaking Canadians. And while the pandemic may have lessened the number of personnel in Tokyo to 140 it isn't dampening the spirit.
(l-to-r) Sanjay Rana, Francois Messier, Sylvain Archambault, and Sylvain Taillefer of CBC.
We have crews coming from Montreal, Toronto, and all across Canada when an Olympics come, and we become one family and that is what we're seeing, says Francois Messier, CBC/Radio-Canada Team Leader. There is a feeling of collaboration between the teams and it's amazing. It's really a feeling of family.
Messier says the team in Tokyo consists primarily of reporters who are in the mixed zones as well as personnel to support commentary from the aquatics and athletics venues. CBC News is also being supported.
Sanjay Rana, CBC, systems technologist, says that two 10Gbps circuits are used to send a multi-viewer of all the available OBS feeds to Montreal and Toronto. The team there then selects the 20 feeds they want sent over the Zayo network in JPEG-2000 at 120 Mbps.
Two main broadcast control rooms in Montreal and Toronto are involved and the broadcast alternates from one control to the other between the different programs as part of a COVID protocol.
Then we have one or two pre-control rooms, and two main broadcast control rooms and one for the morning show, he adds. There is also a sub mix for aquatics and athletics which are both mixed remotely.
Viewers back home are getting 23 hours a day of Olympic content on the main networks and then there are sub channels as well featuring long-form events like tennis, soccer, and golf. Bell and Rogers are also getting content out to viewers via TSN 1 and 2 and Sportsnet and a distribution deal with Amazon hits the OTT market.
We were supposed to have two studios here, but it was decided to keep those back in Canada, says Messier. Our main hosts are back home but we have a green screen studio here for athlete interviews that is a cheaper way than Discovery but it's our version of the Cube.
Also, in Tokyo are 16 LiveU units, 12 for the ENG crews, three for news, and one that is installed with Team Canada in the athlete's village. CBC Technical Producer Sylvain Archambault says a camera, LiveU, and a robocam with a mic stand gives athletes a chance to step up and take part in interviews.
One interesting aspect of CBC's operations is that the French-language team in Montreal moved into a new building in early 2020 that uses ST-2110 IP for signal transport. But the English-language broadcast center in Toronto is still HD-SDI. Sylvain Taillefer, CBC, technical engineer, says ST-2110 is used for audio in the voice over booths but the rest of the facility is in SDI.
As long as we stay 1080i HD SDI is fine, he says.
With the Beijing Olympics only six months away much of the CBC's future advancements will be seen at the 2024 Games in Paris. For now, the focus is on getting through the Tokyo Games safely while also serving sports fans in Canada.
This is my fourth Olympics and we've had some changes in the team, but we are always working towards same goal and it's fun to do that every two years, says Rana.
Or as is the case this year, every six months.
More from Sports Video Group
08/11/2025
College Hoops Preview 2025: TNT Sports Puts Multi-Feed Production Model Front an...
07/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Athlos NYC CMO Kayla Green on Building the Brand of the Young Trac...
07/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Inside Wasabi's Egress-Fee-Free Cloud Offering with Mike Welts...
07/11/2025
PGA TOUR On the Road: How NEP Supports the TOUR's Spectacular Centralized Fa...
07/11/2025
Analysis: No matter the sport, women need a fair share of the biggest stages By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, November 4, 2025 - 10:19
Print Th...
07/11/2025
DAZN to stream first live football match on TikTok By George Bevir
Friday, November 7, 2025 - 09:55
Print This Story
DAZN has partnered with TikTok to str...
07/11/2025
SVG Sit Down: E1 Founder/CEO Rodi Basso on the Future of E1 Series and Bringing ...
07/11/2025
TNT Sports Puts Multi-Feed Production Model Front and Center for Largest College...
06/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Athlos NYC CEO Kayla Green on Building the Brand of the Young Trac...
06/11/2025
ESPN Exits ESPN BET Deal With PENN, Goes Into Business With DraftKingsDraftKings will integrate innovative fan experiences' across ESPN platforms and DTC s...
06/11/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Voyage Audio's Colin Ritchie on How the Spatial M...
05/11/2025
College Hoops Preview 2025: ESPN Remote-Ops Team Preps for Massive Slate of Men&...
05/11/2025
University of Iowa Centralizes Video Production With Dual Control Rooms at Carve...
04/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Why Professional Fight League CEO John Martin Believes Growth Is I...
04/11/2025
SVG All-Stars: David Koppett, Executive Producer, Live Sports and Studio, NESN a...
04/11/2025
From concept to kick-off: How TAMS could transform sports workflows By Paul Markham
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 - 09:43
Print This Story
Techex tx darwin pr...
04/11/2025
College Hoops Preview 2025: The CW Tips Off Third Season of ACC Men's/Women&...
04/11/2025
College Hoops Preview 2025: Big Ten Network Heats Up for Busy Season With 500 Me...
04/11/2025
College Hoops Preview 2025: CBS Sports Readies 300+ Game Broadcasts Across Its P...
04/11/2025
College Hoops Preview 2025: NBC Sports Slate Features 200+ Big Ten, BIG EAST, an...
04/11/2025
College Hoops Preview 2025: ESPN Remote-Ops Team Preps for Massive Slate of 7,40...
03/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Inside the Sports Rights Landscape (and the new IMG) with Andrew D...
03/11/2025
Challenging the norm: How TNT Sports is evolving coverage of the men's and w...
03/11/2025
Inspired storytelling: TNT Sports' Pete Thomas on creating opportunities out...
03/11/2025
NBA 2K League Returns With New Format Featuring NBA Players, Creators, and FansSeason will include online tournaments, in-person events, and open-ladder fan com...
03/11/2025
Live on the Water: The Rowing Channel Pulls Off Historic Production at Head Of T...
31/10/2025
FanDuel Sports Network To Deliver Selected Live NBA, NHL Games to Major Streamin...
31/10/2025
NBC Jumps Out of the Gate in Extended Breeder's Cup Deal With Dual Drones, J...
30/10/2025
SVG Students To Watch: Sam Newitt, Kansas State UniversityThe South Dakota native thrives in many roles behind the scenes at K-StateHD.TVBy Brandon Costa, Direc...
30/10/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Swerve Sports' Christy Tanner Explores the Young FAST Channel&...
30/10/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Andy Liebsch, Senior Director, Video Services, Kansas S...
30/10/2025
Diversified Names Paul Lidsky CEO, Expanding Leadership Role After Serving as Bo...
30/10/2025
NBA, Cosm Enter Long-Term Partnership for Shared Reality Production, Distributio...
30/10/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: FanConnect's Brett Crossley on Reimagining the Ga...
30/10/2025
FanDuel Sports Network to Deliver Select Live NBA, NHL Games to Major Streaming ...
29/10/2025
MLS, EDGE Sound Research To Debut Immersive Embodied Sound' at LAFC vs. Aus...
29/10/2025
SVG Remote Production Forum 2025: All Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLA...
29/10/2025
World Series 2025: How Audio Is Transported Around the Sites and BeyondThe signals also move not just between two countries but around the globeBy Dan Daley, Au...
28/10/2025
ESPN Announces Monsters Funday Football', Its Latest Real-Time Animated Bro...
28/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Catherine Chalfant, Manager, Remote Operations, ESPNThe Ole Miss alum is an operational force behind ESPN's extensive college-football catalo...
28/10/2025
Elevating the experience: AI and data take Ryder Cup to the next level By Joe OHalloran
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 - 10:25
Print This Story
NBC produced th...
28/10/2025
Conquering the Air (waves): Taking a close up look at the IBC Accelerator Priva...
28/10/2025
World Series 2025: Spectrum SportsNet LA Brings Dodgers Fans Closer to the Actio...
27/10/2025
You can touch this: Haptics becoming central to the virtual live experience By Adrian Pennington
Friday, October 24, 2025 - 09:12
Print This Story
The vid...
27/10/2025
A tale of two trailers: France's Stop & Go doubles up with its new hybrid tr...
27/10/2025
Pro Padel League Stages City's Cup Finals Inside NYC's Hammerstein Ballr...
27/10/2025
World Series 2025: Sportsnet Delivers Made-in-Canada' Moment for a Nation U...
27/10/2025
ESPN Extends Partnership With Sony's Beyond Sports To Expand Animated Altern...
26/10/2025
Obituary: Charlie Jablonski, Industry Leader and Long-Time NBC and NBC Olympics ...
24/10/2025
NEP CEO Martin Stewart on $700M Investment, Restructuring, and the Challenges Fa...