Carving powder: Austrian broadcaster ORF on the challenges of bringing the Alpine Ski World Cup on the Rettenbach Glacier to viewers By Heather McLean
Friday, October 11, 2024 - 09:31
Print This Story
ORF is the host broadcaster for the Alpine Ski World Cup 2024, S lden, Austria
The winter season is starting once again at S lden in Austria, where the F d ration Internationale de Ski et de Snowboard (FIS) Alpine Ski World Cup is set to take place for the 30th time on the Rettenbach Glacier for the Alpine Ski Championship Season Opener.
With the women's giant slalom set to take off down the glacier on Saturday 26 October and the men's competition on Sunday 27, the athletes will compete against the mountain, the clock and themselves.
Rettenbach Glacier with one of the steepest pitches on the tour is one of the select few on the World Cup circuit to hold both the ladies' and men's events. Austrian national public broadcaster, ORF, is the host broadcaster for FIS at the Alpine Ski World Cup.
The camera plan for S lden in Austria, where the F d ration Internationale de Ski et de Snowboard (FIS) Alpine Ski World Cup is set to take place for the 30th time on Rettenbach glacier for the Alpine Ski Championship Season Opener CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE A LARGER VERSION
Moving targets
Unlike any other championship that ORF is the host broadcaster for, the glacier causes issues for the broadcast setup, as it is literally always on the move.
Says Michael K gler, ORF head of directors: It's a really demanding scene as it's a glacier and the glacier is always moving each year, so we have to adapt our set up there. We have to adapt the positions every year according to the new circumstances. I'm always going there in between to try and gauge what the situation is.
K gler comments on other challenges the glacier creates for the broadcast during set up: For us, the glacier is a real demanding situation for everybody because for the technical crew to build the setup, it can be foggy, it can be really bad circumstances. So it's always a challenge to be ready in time with all the setup and all the things, because it's a lot of stuff to bring up to the mountain, a lot of cabling.
K gler notes that unlike other mountainous ski events, because of Rettenbach and its annual movement, this is the only one ORF carries out where there is no cabling infrastructure ready to plug into.
He states: Compared to some other great races like Kitzb hel [the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup race, Hahnenkamm World Cup Races, Austria] where we have a lot of fibre lines already in the mountain, you cannot do that on the glacier.
Every single cable has to be brought to its position, and this is a lot of work to do, continues K gler. And it's also challenging because the racecourse is really slippery and icy, and so if the people are not able to walk and to work, especially under this circumstance, it's difficult. It's not like the soccer field. Soccer fields, you go in, it's a plain stadium. You have your outlet there, you have the pre-cabling. So skiing itself, like a biathlon or cross country, is one of those events which are really demanding for the technical staff, especially for the crew to set up. I give them a really big round of applause for what they're doing, because whatever the wish is, they try to make it possible. So this is the challenge we have there.
Rettenbach glacier causes issues for the broadcast setup for ORF, as the glacier moves every year so no permanent cabling can be put in place. Everything must be taken up the mountain in the two days prior to the Alpine Ski Championship Season Opener
Austrian enthusiasm
The technical crew will arrive on site for the setup on the Tuesday prior to the event, then they have Wednesday and Thursday to get everything up the mountain and set up on the glacier, with test day on Friday.
K gler adds: The positive thing there is that people are enthusiastic especially in Austria about these winter sports and alpine races. We have a complete arena in the finish area for the people to watch, which is integrated into the lift station. There are stands, there is a complete setup there; this is really packed and crowded with between 15,000 and 20,000 people in the finish area. And this finish area is on a parking lot, so there is concrete there which makes the situation easier for us to work in, and for fans to congregate in.
Although this season we have a complete change of the setup from the side where we put the cameras in the finish; we were previously on race's right side but this year we go back to the race's left side, which we were doing about 10 years ago, but then for the flow of the audience they had a different concept. But now we are back on the left side, which for us is a big advantage because using a crane camera, we can get a shot like in a soccer stadium with a big crowd in the back.
This is great for us because now we have the celebrating audience in the back and the athletes in the front, so this is giving another dynamic shot for the audience.
On site production
Solden is produced entirely on site, with OB 1, ORF's own truck. Says K gler. This has to be an OB event; it doesn't make sense in this case to say no, I would go with this or with that remote production, we can save money or whatever, because you always have to move and adapt on ski. The handheld positions, for example, I go down on each racecourse before the race and according to the setup of the racecourse, I decide where to put the handheld cameras. You always have to renew the plan and you always have to adapt, and actually the second challenge for cameras is also the safety challenge. You are not allowed to go in certain positions due to safety issues, even though you would have a better angle
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
12/06/2026
Meet The Grumpy Onion Ireland's newest online sensation, all he wants is to ...
12/06/2026
RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast
Adding to the fun around 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, RT has launched a brand new d...
Carving powder: Austrian broadcaster ORF on the challenges of bringing the Alpine Ski World Cup on the Rettenbach Glacier to viewers By Heather McLean 
