Sports broadcasting: How to plan for the unknown

Argosys Chris Smeeton explains why vendors need to be more agile and streamline working practices and processes to safeguard their businesses for the future

By Contributor

Published: June 24, 2021

Argosy's Chris Smeeton explains why vendors need to be more agile and streamline working practices and processes to safeguard their businesses for the future

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We are all living in uncertain times: the global pandemic has caused huge disruption through isolation, social distancing and travel restrictions. While no-one has escaped the effects, broadcasters have had to face very specific challenges - especially when it comes to the world of sport.

Will events go ahead? What restrictions will be there around crowd, coverage and athletes? Will the venue be shifted at late notice, or will the event be postponed?

There are countless high profile examples of this. In golf, the US Masters - probably the most popular annual event in the game - was forced out of its regular April slot in 2020, meaning there were two contests within five months of each other, in November and April 2021. Football seasons saw massive disruption and wrangling about promotions. And, of course the world's biggest multi-sport event saw its 2020 Tokyo edition postponed for a year.

Along with these one-off events, many venues had major construction and refurbishment projects. Some have been placed on hold; others have suffered severe delays.

What is the relevance to the broadcast technology industry? It has created a great deal of uncertainty. Vendors, who try to plan seamless delivery programmes based around the sporting calendar and often on historical timings and planning for these events, have had changes forced upon them. What has recently been a frequent occurrence of deferred orders can be disruptive to cash flow and affect stock planning.

But the complex situation has also seen orders brought forward, which also can also put pressure on vendors. For example, one of the systems integrators we regularly supply, C2S Media, called us on a Friday in February 2021, needing fully tested, guaranteed plug and play cabling to be flown to Cameroon on Monday for the (postponed) Africa Cup of Nations. We responded quickly and met the deadline, but it did mean a very long weekend in our workshop.

For another customer, we were asked to supply a huge amount of structured cabling, which needed to be shipped by sea to Japan for what would have been last summer's major event. We got all the cable in and had started work, but before the shipping date the event was postponed and the order was cancelled.

Our experiences are being mirrored right across the industry. Suppliers of every piece of technology in the ecosystem will have planned production runs and increased stock to meet the anticipated demand.

That is very important. With few exceptions, it is somewhat of a logistical challenge for specialist broadcast and media suppliers to change plans overnight. Assembling, say, the optical block for a studio camera is a highly specialised task. It is time-consuming, and you certainly cannot recruit staff overnight to be able to do it. Additionally, things like pre-cabling are always custom built to very precise/explicit specifications.

data-src=https://www.tvbeurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/AB-A19-51.jpg alt= width=234 height=247 data-srcset=https://www.tvbeurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/AB-A19-51.jpg 446w, https://www.tvbeurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/AB-A19-51-353x372.jpg 353w data-sizes=(max-width: 234px) 100vw, 234px />Take our multiple tactical fibre assemblies, designed for outside broadcast applications, where cables are roughly handled on a regular basis. Tactical fibre is used for a range of signals in outside broadcasts, carrying multiple signals over long distances. Installation on site means dragging the cable through ducts or across open ground. This inevitably leads to damage to the terminations and affects signal integrity. Broken connectors means expensive repairs, and a gradual shortening of the cable which makes it less useful and eventually unusable.

We're very conscious of being able to deliver a high return on investment and a longer service life by protecting the fibres from damage. The fibres we provide are protected in a breakout which prohibits them from rotating under use, and the entire end of the cable is protected with a captive heavy duty pulling sock. This solution ensures that the load under deployment and recovery is transferred directly to the aramid in the tactical cable, and when laying on the floor protects against crushing of the breakout. Often, these solutions are customised.

Workshops and production lines are usually sized for typical requirements. Where there is an anticipated surge in demand, this has to be planned well in advance. It is worth remembering that, in the four-year cycle of major events, 2020 was the big one, with the American presidential election as well as all the major sports. The pandemic had an effect on all of them: the election obviously took place, but without all the major rallies and stump tours.

data-src=https://www.tvbeurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/AB-A20-041-1-726x862.jpg alt= width=345 height=410 data-srcset=https://www.tvbeurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/AB-A20-041-1-726x862.jpg 726w, https://www.tvbeurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/AB-A20-041-1-353x419.jpg 353w, https://www.tvbeurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/AB-A20-041-1-768x912.jpg 768w, https://www.tvbeurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/AB-A20-041-1-1294x1536.jpg 1294w, https://www.tvbeurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/AB-A20-041-1-1725x2048.jpg 1725w data-sizes=(max-width: 345px) 100vw, 345px />The secondary effect of the pandemic on broadcast is that it has accelerated the growth

LINK:	https://www.tvbeurope.com/live-production/sports-broadcasting-how-to-p...
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