Live From Paris 2024: CBC Calls Canada House Home, Enhances Connection With Athletes Moving out of the IBC puts the Canadian broadcaster right in the mix for French, English viewers back home By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Monday, August 5, 2024 - 3:39 am
Print This Story
The CBC has taken a different approach to its Olympic operations. It has a technical center at the IBC, but its studio and production operations are located at Canada House, in the Cit des Sciences et de l'industrie. And it's paying dividends.
We are gaining the presence of athletes and families during the evening, says Francois Messier, executive director, production and sports, CBC. We get access to the athletes more quickly, and they stay with us longer because they're not going through a car wash of interviews. Instead of having them for two minutes, we get them for seven or eight minutes.
The CBC presence at Canada House includes a main studio complete with LED walls and comfortable guest and talent seating that doesn't involve a studio desk. A second studio for morning updates back home has seating for a small audience, and various standup positions are located around Canada House and various activation and fan zones. The CBC also has two standup positions at the TV tower at Trocad ro, one each for its French- and English-language networks.
Francois Legrand (left) and Francois Messier in the CBC's main studio in Paris
The IBC is more of a technical hub, where we take the feeds from OBS and ship them back to Canada, Messier says. All the signals go to both Montreal and Toronto to meet the specific needs of both the French- and English-language audiences.
About 150 production staffers are in Paris, he adds, with another 200 working in Montreal and about 50 in Toronto. French-language primetime programming is produced from Canada House; CBC programming is produced in Toronto. The French-language network has an onsite presence at three venues - swimming, athletics, gymnastics - but all other commentary is called from facilities in Canada.
With the Olympics being here in Paris, Messier says, we felt that [the French-language] network needed to be here, and the gymnastics commentary position will be used by the English-language team when basketball is played in the same arena this week. Back home, we have 12 voiceover booths.
The CBC studio set uses LED walls to create a warm look that seems to feature wood slates.
On the technical side, according to Francois Legrand, lead engineer, Olympics, CBC, a router at the IBC allows the CBC team to sub-switch signals that go to Canada. The signals from Canada House pass through the IBC before heading to Canada.
Because we have older equipment here, we still use SDI, he adds, but that's going to change. One challenge for the Milan 2026 Winter Games is that OBS will no longer deliver signals in 1080i, which is the CBC delivery format. Legrand says the broadcaster is determining how that will impact operations, including the potential to send more signals back home as 1080p and converting them there.
We are also using the OBS cloud service as a backup feed, he continues. If our own equipment fails, we can use that service.
A second studio in Canada House is particularly suited to providing morning updates to viewers back home.
Ten ENG teams service both networks, follow Canadian athletes, and get mixed-zone positions for events in which Canadian athletes compete. CBC relies on OBS connectivity from the mixed zones but also has TVU bonded-cellular transmission systems. And 5G was used for the Opening Ceremony, during which CBC had a journalist on the Team Canada boat.
One interesting wrinkle is the need to ensure that both networks are in sync and delivering the same live coverage of the same events at the same time, especially when it comes to the off-tube commentary over the prepackaged OBS feeds. The CBC is using a tried-and-true workflow: the video is sent to Canada for the off-tube teams to call the action, and the audio returns to Paris to be embedded in the video signal, which is sent to Toronto and Montreal as a complete package synchronized for both networks.
The video doesn't travel both ways, just the audio, notes Legrand. Moving forward with ST 2110 and with newer equipment, we can replicate that workflow just by working with the timestamps of the signal and virtually realigning everything at each side.
Canadian fans have been enthusiastically tuning in to Paris 2024: one in three Canadians (more than 13.3 million viewers) tuned in for the Opening Ceremony, and the time that viewers spend on digital platforms is double what it was during Tokyo 2020.
In the first week, the swimming gave Canadian viewers a reason to tune in, Messier says. That was a jumpstart for us. We're above our expectations in the daytime and afternoon in Canada on both linear and digital. We can stream up to 12 feeds, allowing people to look at gymnastics or volleyball or something else they want to watch. We also are requiring authentication this year, so we're getting a lot of data from those who are more engaged with our platforms.
Also helping? Committing to enabling viewers to better understand the athletes and the storylines. We've been creating stories and making sure the audience know the athletes before we show them during the Olympics, he says. We added a series of pregame shows and give people some idea of what to expect.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
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...
04/06/2026
Sony Electronics is introducing the SRG-AS10, a 4K 60p-compatible PTZ auto-frami...
04/06/2026
This recent grad from Spring, TX, led creative-video output for the Aggies' men's basketball team last season and has been producing video and creating ...
04/06/2026
For the first time at a women's golf major, every player in the field will r...
04/06/2026
Three Panasonic PT-RQ45 40,000-lumen 3-Chip DLP projectors made their first live...
04/06/2026
Bitmovin and Akamai have announced a collaboration with NRJ Group, a French mult...
04/06/2026
Telestream will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N7952), demonstrating media work...
04/06/2026
Sony has announced the development of RIALTO 65, a 65mm format image sensor block for the VENICE 2 digital cinema camera, targeting release in the first half of...
04/06/2026
KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N8025, June ...
04/06/2026
Bell Media's TSN and RDS are the exclusive Canadian broadcasters of FIFA Wor...
04/06/2026
The Challenge: Receiving Heavy Media Files From Road Games Quickly and ReliablyT...
04/06/2026
MASV, a managed file transfer platform used in broadcast and live sports product...
04/06/2026
NESN has announced the appointment of Fahad Haider as Vice President of Operations and Engineering. Haider returns to NESN, where he previously served as Vice P...
04/06/2026
David J. Halberstam, who spent almost 50 years in sports as a broadcaster and an executive, died June 2 after a years-long battle with brain cancer.
Over his l...
04/06/2026
Although collegiate production programs are tasked with delivering high-quality ...
04/06/2026
California studio, two production trucks, global distribution system are combine...
04/06/2026
New global program empowers and supports storytellers through scriptwriting course and access to industry experts
TikTok and Sundance Institute today announce...
04/06/2026
Steinberg DAWs now boast in-depth Tonalic integration
Celemony's innovative virtual session musician plug-in has just received an update that brings ARA...
04/06/2026
Get Hands-On With Over 20 Mic Brands
GearExpo UK is fast approaching, and if you've been looking for a chance to check out some new mics, then you'r...
04/06/2026
Combos feature new Amplifier Intelligence engine
Positive Grid's latest release sees the company introduce two new combo amplifiers that promise to offe...
04/06/2026
Is Your Job Making You Work this June?
4 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS Launches the World Cup Watchers' Rights Association to Stand Up For Australians&...
04/06/2026
Statement regarding unauthorised use of SBS logos on third party social content
4 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has become aware of social media posts in c...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming infrastructure, and Akamai, the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business onli...
04/06/2026
American Underground (AU), the Startup Hub of the South and a community of mor...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
NVIDIA and Microsoft Reinvent Windows PCs for the Age of Personal AI
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
RTX Spark - a 1-Petaflop Superchip, the Full...
04/06/2026
Inside the Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man Grade
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
Simone Grattarola discusses shaping the look in DaVinci Resolve...
04/06/2026
Cine Gear Expo Announces 2026 Awards of Excellence Recipients
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
Ed Lachman ASC, Caleb Deschanel ASC, and M. David M...
04/06/2026
St. Vincents Live with Orchestra Tour to Feature Berklee Alum Ruby Plume Berklee alumni St. Vincent and Ruby Plume will appear on the same bill across seven d...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
All the Truth in My Lies Coming to Netflix on August 28
Entertainment
04 June 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Download the imag...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
Larry Tanz, VP of Content, EMEA, Delivers a Keynote Speech at ...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
Turn Your Living Room into a Stadium With the New FIFA World ...
04/06/2026
Keeping conversations real on LinkedIn Published on Jun 4, 2026 Categories: Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Communications
Share
LinkedIn
Facebook ...
04/06/2026
BackStory follows four Irish young people as they travel back to their parents' homelands
Modern Irish identity is enriched by cultures and influences from...
04/06/2026
June's forecast with GeForce NOW: 100% chance of gaming.
GeForce NOW is lining up new adventures for the month, from big-name blockbusters to quirky indies...
03/06/2026
SES and Viva, Mexico's ultra low-cost airline, have launched multi-orbit satellite inflight connectivity on Viva's Airbus aircraft. A total of 60 A320s ...
03/06/2026
The College Football Playoff, ESPN, and TNT Sports have announced kick times and...
03/06/2026
RED Digital Cinema will exhibit at Cine Gear Expo 2026 (Booth 33, June 5-6, Universal Studios Lot), hosting three panels and hands-on product demonstrations.
P...
03/06/2026
Roku has announced the Soccer Zone, a dedicated hub for FIFA World Cup 2026 content available across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argent...
Live From Paris 2024: CBC Calls Canada House Home, Enhances Connection With Athletes Moving out of the IBC puts the Canadian broadcaster right in the mix for French, English viewers back home By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
