
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 ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
19/08/2026
World Cup Games Generate 84 Billion Minutes Across FOX, Fox Sports 1 and NBCU...
19/08/2026
July brought typical peak-holiday drops in viewership, driven primarily by viewers stepping away from screens and a visible decline in reach across both traditi...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Henry joins BCE as the company accelerates its commercial strategy and expands its international presence across the media, broadcast and technology markets. He...
19/08/2026
iWedia, a leading provider of software solutions for connected TV devices, today announced a major milestone in Android platform optimization with the successfu...
19/08/2026
NTP Technology announces that ST 2110-30 audio-over-IP connectivity with AES67 and RAVENNA capabilities is now available for the brand's world-class audio i...
19/08/2026
Net Insight has been selected to provide its Nimbra platform by the service provider Big Blue Marble, formerly ORS Group, as the core media transport solution f...
19/08/2026
LiveU has supported Coventry City FC and several other top-flight UK football clubs through one of their most demanding live production challenges of the year, ...
19/08/2026
Nature Seekers Documentary Shot with Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF
Brie Clayton August 18, 2026
0 Comments
Filming endangered turtles required camera...
19/08/2026
Neyrinck Brings D-Control Consoles Back to Life on Apple Silicon with D-Control ...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Riedel Communications today announced that Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Perth, Australia, implemented a comprehensive communications infrastructure that brin...
19/08/2026
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest contribution solutions, will spotlight a major leap forward in remote guest con...
19/08/2026
Integrated platform melds media asset management, playout automation and newsroom workflows
EMAM, PlayBox Neo and SNEWS have officially launched Nuvex, a conne...
19/08/2026
Screen Australia releases the Private Investment Toolkit to strengthen screen in...
19/08/2026
Do Aussies truly value local content? Unpacking Screen Currency 2026 with Deirdr...
19/08/2026
Wednesday 19 August 2026
Sky gives sports fans the chance to watch multiple liv...
19/08/2026
On Saturday September 5 Katie Taylor will step into the ring for the fight of her life against Flora Pili in front of 80,000 fans in Croke Park. A legendary fig...
18/08/2026
SportStream 2026, a free three-day virtual event, will take place September 15-17. One registration provides access to all three days of live programming and on...
18/08/2026
BeckTV will introduce BeckFlow to the European market at IBC2026, demonstrated on the Providius stand (10.F53).
BeckFlow is a web-based schematic documentation...
18/08/2026
Boland Communications will introduce a SMPTE ST 2110 input option for its 4K monitors at IBC2026, along with a new 55-inch super-narrow bezel display for video ...
18/08/2026
Dolby Laboratories and the Seattle Seahawks have announced a partnership integrating Dolby OptiView into the Seahawks' live streaming coverage, making the S...
18/08/2026
For BMG Executive Producer of Sports Production, Graham Taylor, producing live s...
18/08/2026
TMRW Sports has appointed Rufus Hack as President of Golf, a newly created role in which he will lead the company's golf businesses including TGL presented ...
18/08/2026
SMT will provide race technology for FOX Sports' coverage of the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. on August 23, when the NTT INDYCAR SERIES races ...
18/08/2026
The live, YouTube-native roundtables combine fan voices, credentialed reporters,...
18/08/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
18/08/2026
The industry legend sounds off on replacing the Heat's iconic Medusa score...
18/08/2026
William F. Rasmussen, the sports fan-turned broadcaster and entrepreneur whose out-of-the-box idea of a 24-hour cable sports network, ESPN, changed forever the ...
18/08/2026
DAZN Group has completed its acquisition of ViewLift, a provider of streaming and digital solutions for sports content owners. The acquisition was first announc...
18/08/2026
The American Association of Professional Baseball (AAPB) has added SI TV, Sports Illustrated's 24/7 streaming channel, as a broadcast partner for the remain...
18/08/2026
The Esports Foundation has announced that the inaugural Esports Nations Cup (ENC), originally scheduled for November 2026 in Riyadh, will be postponed to Novemb...
18/08/2026
Diversified has announced a new Global Managed Services Practice, consolidating the company's managed services capabilities into one organization. Rob Mello...
18/08/2026
Appear has completed a proof of concept with Thoroughbred Racing Productions (TRP), demonstrating multi-camera remote live production over bonded 5G cellular an...
18/08/2026
Riedel Communications has announced that Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Perth, ...
18/08/2026
Company launch with stereo-imaging tool
Panoramic is the debut release from Panorama Labs, a new company formed by mastering engineer Nicholas Di Lorenzo. C...
18/08/2026
Control software now available for older interfaces
Focusrite have just announced the launch of an update that extends Control 2 software support their Scar...
18/08/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
18/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/08/2026
Lightware announces an integration with SpectralBot that helps system integrators and AV operators troubleshoot faster using augmented reality (AR), AI-assisted...
18/08/2026
Command Frame for After Effects
Scott Black August 18, 2026
0 Comments
Free download, demonstrations, hands-on tests, and creator resources
Want to t...