
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.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
17/02/2026
Johannesburg, 17 February 2026 - The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), ...
17/02/2026
A Green Beret hangs a 60mm mortar round from a M225A mortar system on a live-fire range. (Photo credit: U.S. Army)...
17/02/2026
AI Is Scaling Faster Than Governance And That's a Risk AI adoption hasn't rolled out through neat transformation programmes. It has spread organically...
17/02/2026
Cable Surges 9% on Strength of College Football Playoffs and News, while NFL Delivers Top 15 Broadcast Telecasts
ESPN (+86%) and FOX News Channel (+17%) Combin...
17/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
17/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
17/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
17/02/2026
As the FCC explores a potential clawback of Upper C-Band spectrum currently used for broadcast distribution, BCNEXXT is working with broadcasters and operators ...
17/02/2026
Qube Cinema announces the acquisition of the business of Arts Alliance Media (AA...
17/02/2026
Back to All News
Unveiling What's Next on Netflix for Australia and New Zealand in 2026
Entertainment
17 February 2026
GlobalAustraliaNew Zealand
Link ...
17/02/2026
Back to All News
WBD Files Definitive Proxy Statement and Schedules Special Mee...
17/02/2026
Arvato Systems Once Again Named One of Germany's Best IT Service Providers.
The best IT service providers in 2026
G tersloh - Arvato Systems is once ag...
17/02/2026
Open the report
Our 2025 report brings together results from 155 consumer magazine titles across 42 market sectors, published by 59 media owners. Over the year...
17/02/2026
Celebrating 21 Years of the RT Choice Music Prize
RT Choice Music Prize
In association with IMRO and IRMA
Classic Irish Album
And the winning album is
T...
17/02/2026
RT has today announced that as part of its public-service remit, it will expand...
16/02/2026
The production infrastructure scaled seamlessly from regular-season games to the...
16/02/2026
The operations team reimagined traditional workflows were reimagined and built a...
16/02/2026
Once again an in-house operation, the league's network is producing shows fr...
16/02/2026
The league is producing its first All-Star with NBC, Intuit Dome, and, once agai...
16/02/2026
When a customer in London needed a 4K video wall that could take 12G input, the media company found no video wall suppliers that could meet their specs and time...
16/02/2026
Grass Valley, a media and entertainment technology innovator, has won a competitive NATO-wide tender to provide the new camera system for NATO's main broadc...
16/02/2026
Comcast Business announces it is again partnering with NBCUniversal to architect and manage critical components of the linear and digital broadcast for three of...
16/02/2026
Week two of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics are underway and crucial to the NBC Sports efforts has been the NEP Group which is providing a full range of...
16/02/2026
The Film Independent Spirit Awards have officially switched things up. This Sund...
16/02/2026
SBS's Powerhouse Current Affairs Line-up is Back with the Conversations and ...
16/02/2026
A THAAD interceptor is launched during a successful Missile Defense Agency intercept test (Photo Credit: Missile Defense Agency)...
16/02/2026
aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, is increasing capacity and ramping up p...
16/02/2026
Content Vault, the patent-pending content security platform originally developed for the film, television and entertainment industries, has today announced a ma...
16/02/2026
Back to All News
Unscripted Content Producer MEGUMI Signs Exclusive Partnership with Netflix
Entertainment
16 February 2026
GlobalJapan
Link copied to clip...
16/02/2026
In Ep62 of the AMPS Podcast, they share how a 3 mm DPA 6061 Subminiature Mic became part of a custom solution hidden inside the underwater mask capturing breath...
16/02/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Releases the Second Season of Gangs of Galicia on April 3
Entertainment
16 February 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Wat...
16/02/2026
Back to All News
"Unscripted" Producer MEGUMI Signs Exclusive Partnership with Netflix
Entertainment
16 February 2026
GlobalJapan
Link copied to clipboard
...
16/02/2026
RT News & Current Affairs has today announced the new appointments of journalis...
16/02/2026
The NVIDIA Blackwell platform has been widely adopted by leading inference provi...
15/02/2026
With new partnership between the league and NBC, workflows distinguish more between live, broadcast sound
There'll be a lot new for the 75th NBA All-Star W...
15/02/2026
After 24-year absence, NBC Sports returns to NBA All-Star Weekend with unique ca...
15/02/2026
New to NBA coverage, the viewer experience offers several angles in addition to ...
15/02/2026
Coverage features 4X-slo-mo Supracam and Steadicam, Nucleus 4K cameras, closer play-by-play angle, 10 player mics
NBC Sports is in the midst of its first NBA A...
14/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/02/2026
Boston Conservatory Orchestra Helps Peter and Leonardo Dugan Complete Their Dre...
13/02/2026
Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) has provided an update on its adoption of the cloud as it continues on its journey to fully migrate to IT-based systems by 2...
13/02/2026
France T l visions has successfully launched France 2 UHD featuring Dolby Vision...
13/02/2026
Partnering with Worldwide Olympic Partner TCL, OBS deploys connected Athlete Mom...