Although France T l visions has a strong presence in Rio, much of the production work - including production of the main studio at the Olympic Park and integration of graphics within the broadcast signal - takes place in its Paris broadcast center via fiber connection.
Francis Closeau says France T l visions has delivered for Olympic fans in France despite numerous logistical challenges.
According to Francis Cloiseau, head of sports production, France T l visions, operations have been going very well, and the team of 190 people working on the production are meeting their goals despite battling logistical issues related to unreliable transportation operations and IBC dining facilities that are far smaller than required.
The core France T l visions technical facilities at the IBC include a technical-operations center that brings in 55 feeds from OBS, 13 mixed-zone signals from the broadcaster's production teams in the field, and the output from four onsite Avid editing suites that take content from two ENG crews and create feature stories (four Avid suites in Paris create competition highlights). The IBC facilities are tied to Paris via fiber and also tied to two studios, one that has four cameras and another with three.
The France T l visions technical-control area makes sure the production team in Paris gets what it needs for proper Olympic coverage.
All of the equipment in Rio was brought over by France T l visions because renting it was cost-prohibitive. France T l visions even had to bring over a construction crew from France to build the set.
It was less expensive to bring them from France for construction. We brought over 30 tons of freight as shipping it was less costly than renting, says Cloiseau. The only thing we booked here was an OB van, and, if we could do that over again, we would probably bring over our own OB van.
In Paris, three control rooms deliver coverage to viewers via France 2 and France 3 (the main events and those featuring French athletes); France 4 (football and rugby), and France O (basketball and volleyball). In addition, Equidia Live, a French equestrian specialty channel, broadcasts the Equestrian events (and shares a mixed zone at the events with the France T l visions team), and all of the events at the Olympics are live-streamed via the web and apps.
Our programming begins at noon France time with a magazine program with athletes in the studio at Olympic Pack, says Cloiseau. After that is 50 minutes of highlights, and then we are live from 2 p.m. until 9 p.m.
Because much of the nighttime action in Rio occurs in the early morning in France, there is a replay of late-night events from 8 a.m. to noon on France 3.
The Rio facility is connected to Paris via a 2.5-Gbps STM-16 circuit (there is also a backup) with 34 signals going to France T l visions and 11 going to Canal Plus, which is also showing the Games on eight channels.
One change from [the 2012 London Olympics] is, we worked with JPEG2000 there, but, if we wanted to use JPEG2000 here, we would have needed a 10-Gbps STM-64 circuit, and the price between Brazil and Europe is more than 1 million, says Cloiseau. So we changed our way of working and when with MPEG-4 at 42 Mbps and a small delay of around 500 ms. But it allowed us to cut the cost to less than a quarter of using JPEG2000.
France T l visions studio in Olympic Park had to be changed to deal with issues related to too much sunlight.
Another big change from London is that, there, the main studio was near Tower Bridge and close to the France House, making it ideal for bringing athletes and celebrities to the studio. But, here in Brazil, the France House is located near the Copacabana Beach, which is too far from most of the athletic competitions. So the decision was made to place the main studio within the Olympic Park so athletes could quickly and easily stop by the studio for interviews.
One unforeseen challenge, however, has been that the studio's windows are oriented to the north, causing issues with the sun.
We decided to close the window and instead have three big screens, one of which has a camera shot of Olympic Park that [is shown] behind the talent, says Cloiseau. If we had known about the issues with the sun beforehand, we probably would have put the studio inside the IBC as it is very expensive to have the space in the Olympic Park.
The main studio has seven cameras that are being cut from a control room in Paris. There is also a second studio, but high transmission costs resulted in that four-camera show being cut at that studio location.
In terms of unilateral operations, France T l visions had a platform with three cameras at the swimming venue and a platform with four cameras at athletics.
Work on the 2018 Winter Olympics will begin this fall, and Cloiseau says the France TV Olympic production team will begin the continuous process of getting everything sorted for the 2018 Games, which will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
If they take a stop and a break and then try to come back to Olympic planning, he explains, it is more complicated, so it is easier to have the same people permanently working on it.
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
04/12/2025
Coronal mass ejections caused by eruptions on the surface of the sun can have fa...
04/12/2025
Gracenote Content Connect enables media ecosystem to precisely align ad campaigns and programming based on rich content signals
NEW YORK - December 4, 2025 - N...
Although France T l visions has a strong presence in Rio, much of the production work - including production of the main studio at the Olympic Park and integration of graphics within the broadcast signal - takes place in its Paris broadcast center via fiber connection. 
