On the piste: ORF on bringing new innovations in sound and interactivity to ski coverage By Heather McLean
Friday, October 11, 2024 - 09:30
Print This Story
Planning for the Alpine Ski World Cup in S lden takes time each year as the Rettenbach glacier moves annually
With the Alpine Ski Championship Season Opener taking place on the slopes of the Rettenbach Glacier in Solden, Austria later this month, local broadcaster, ORF is aiming to bring a number of technical innovations to the coverage.
As host broadcaster for F d ration Internationale de Ski et de Snowboard (FIS), the Alpine Ski World Cup may see - pending trials taking place now - innovations on sound and interactivity.
One exciting innovation from ORF that may be trialled live at Solden if it is ready, then at Kitzb hel for the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup race, Hahnenkamm World Cup Races, and elsewhere, will be an audio innovation.
Working as a joint venture between ORF, Red Bull Mediahouse and FIS, the team is trying to get the sound of the athletes as they compete into the broadcast by creating a mic that can be worn on the slopes without impeding competitors' movement
Red Bull mic
Working as a joint venture between ORF, Red Bull Mediahouse and FIS, the team is trying to get the sound of the athletes as they compete into the broadcast by creating a mic that can be worn on the slopes without impeding competitors' movement.
Michael K gler, ORF head of directors, explains why this project is important: The new thing we are testing here is another push on the sound side. We have a project which we are really working hard on. We have really a lot of cameras on all these sites, but to my mind, the thing that is missing to give the broadcast an extra push is the real sound of the athletes.
There is a new technology now which we are working together with Red Bull Lab, which they used at the surfing. They had to integrate a mic into some tools for the surfers. Normally in surfing you have no sound from the athletes if it's in the tube in the water. But they were able to deliver this thing for some special occasions and so we came into contact with Red Bull to try to do this for snow sports. It's a lot of technology, a lot of involvement, a lot of stuff also from the FIA's side to get the athletes to wear it.
Now we are using the mic technology, but integrating this into the athlete's helmet and try to really get the original sound, the breathing of the racer, of the athlete. If this works I think this will be a really big step to make all these broadcasts even more impressive than they are right now.
The mic is currently being tested by Red Bull athletes. As soon as trials are successful, ORF will bring it to the slopes and its broadcasts for further testing, hopefully at Solden.
Team radio
Another project ORF is working on with FIS is to integrate more of the ski team radio communications into the broadcast. K gler explains: The other thing is also a project with FIS. We are trying to integrate more of the team radio into our broadcasts. Now we are doing a lot of team radio, which we record, but also want to go a little bit further into the action to make it more understandable, because if a Norwegian talks, nobody knows what the Norwegian is talking about, so we want to have a popup in English so that everybody should be able to understand what the guy is talking about. This is also under development, which we will try and if it works, it will pop up in time for Kitzb hel.
One more innovation that ORF is working on the development of is a 360 degree virtual reality (VR) tool so that people at home can go into certain areas of the course to have a real look around and get a feel for the venue. This involves the integration of permanent 360 degree cameras at various points around the course.
The Alpine Ski Championship Season Opener takes place on the weekend of 26 to 27 October on the Rettenbach Glacier in Solden, Austria
North America Stories
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality
Kate Luvis May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...
29/05/2026
Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...
29/05/2026
Experimental HIV vaccine achieves a long-sought goal In a first for the field, all non-human primates given a new series of vaccines generated antibodies capabl...
28/05/2026
FOX Sports' MLB coverage dominated the night at the 47th Annual Sports Emmy ...
28/05/2026
One of the most memorable postseasons in baseball history would have had no memo...
28/05/2026
NBC's Sunday Night Football is among the most-decorated and most-watched pro...
28/05/2026
The 2026 Sports Emmys marked a watershed moment for Prime Video Sports. After bu...
28/05/2026
Hosted by ESPN Senior Writer Ryan McGee, the ceremony honored winners from athletic departments, conference offices, professional networks, production companies...
28/05/2026
Major rights-holders rolled out their 2026 college football slates today, offering a first look at marquee windows, kickoff partners, and conference distributio...
28/05/2026
The 4 Nations Face-Off, an international competition that launched in February 2...
28/05/2026
Soccer is a truly global sport, and, to match the U.S. viewing audience's in...
28/05/2026
The NFL Today, CBS Sports' top-of-the-line NFL studio show, has a storied hi...
28/05/2026
Prime Video is no stranger to innovation, and, within the realm of live streamin...
28/05/2026
The crack of the bat, the pop of the glove, and the cheer of the crowd: those are three prime examples of the glorious sounds fans hear on televised baseball ga...
28/05/2026
Every year, March Madness captivates the entire sports world. Nonstop action, un...
28/05/2026
NBA on NBC was an integral part to live sports production in the 1990s, and, when the league made these media rights available, NBC Sports saw an opportunity to...
28/05/2026
UmpCam is a technological wrinkle that has given fans unprecedented views of wha...
28/05/2026
T-Mobile and the United States Golf Association (USGA) announced a multi-year partnership, making T-Mobile the Official 5G Network Partner of the U.S. Women'...
28/05/2026
By Gina McIntyre
(L-R) Sara Dosa and Andri Sn r Magnason attend the Time and Water premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at Library Center Theatre ...
28/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
On the piste: ORF on bringing new innovations in sound and interactivity to ski coverage By Heather McLean 
