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
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
08/09/2026
Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) has announced a multi-year agreement with A E...
08/09/2026
Spectra Logic today announced the availability of Media Insight, a new capabilit...
08/09/2026
Rogers Communications and Quebecor have announced a 12-year sublicensing agreement for French-language national NHL games beginning with the 2026-27 season. TVA...
08/09/2026
Skyline Communications and Bridge Technologies will demonstrate two integrations...
08/09/2026
Boland Communications will make the European debut of its 4K55HDR7SNB 55-inch super-narrow-bezel monitor at IBC2026 (Stand 12.C57, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-1...
08/09/2026
Ateme and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) have announced a collaboration comb...
08/09/2026
Haivision has joined the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme as part of t...
08/09/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced price reductions on its PYXIS 6K and Cinema Camera 6K models, effective immediately through Blackmagic Design resellers worldwid...
08/09/2026
AI-Media will demonstrate its LEXI Suite at IBC2026 (Booth 5.C34, September 11-1...
08/09/2026
Bitmovin and Ad Insertion Platform (AIP) have announced the first live deploymen...
08/09/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate story-centric media workflows at IBC2026 (Booth 9.A01, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), connecting newsroom production, content ma...
08/09/2026
M2A Media and Ateme have announced a partnership integrating Ateme's video processing solutions into M2A Media's MediaToAnywhere platform for live sport...
08/09/2026
Ikegami will exhibit at IBC2026 (Stand 12.A31, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), including a Day 1 introduction of new cameras in the UNICAM XE series. Additiona...
08/09/2026
Broadcast industry analysts will be gathering plenty of insights at the 2026 IBC Show this weekend in Amsterdam, but Caretta Research has offered up some though...
08/09/2026
SENSHI and DAZN have announced a global broadcast partnership that will bring SENSHI's live events free to viewers in more than 200 markets. The partnership...
08/09/2026
New architecture built with Evertz will bring 4K HDR to Monday Night Football, N...
08/09/2026
Built for rap producers, by rap producers
Sauceware Audio, the independent plug-in company founded by Grammy-nominated producer Jacob (Travis Scott, 21 Sava...
08/09/2026
Classic Sound Techniques design revived
Warm Audio's latest release delivers a meticulous recreation of the preamp circuitry employed by the Sound Techn...
08/09/2026
Latest soft synth inspired by the Memorymoog
XILS Lab have just launched a software instrument that draws its inspiration from Moog's iconic Memorymoog,...
08/09/2026
The Airport Chaplain takes off as SBS's biggest launch of 2026
8 September, 2026
Media releases
1.67 million viewers on National Total TV to date
Best...
08/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/09/2026
Mo-Sys, the world-leading developer of virtual production, camera robotics and image tracking technology, has completed a business restructuring, which has incl...
08/09/2026
New York, September 8, 2026 The TSAmediaHUB audiovisual contribution and distribution infrastructure developed by Telef nica's Audiovisual Services area re...
08/09/2026
Expanded Riyadh operation brings Asharq and Thmanyah services together on a resilient on-premises Pebble platform.
Pebble, the leading automation, content mana...
08/09/2026
Techex, a pioneering leader in live video workflows, will showcase its broadest software feature set to date at IBC 2026 (Stand 2.B45), extending its lead in so...
08/09/2026
Visitors to Grass Valley's booth at IBC2026 will be introduced to new Framelight X capabilities that connect content acquisition, management, editing and pu...
08/09/2026
BCNEXXT will showcase the latest evolution of Vipe at IBC2026 (Stand 2.B09), introducing a series of innovations designed to deliver higher-quality audience exp...
08/09/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Ad Insertion Platform (AIP), a leading innovator in advanced ad insertion technologies, to...
08/09/2026
Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time graphics and augmented and virtual production, is announcing a major package of enhancements to its Suite 7 soft...
08/09/2026
Big Blue Marble is supporting TDF, French infrastructure and network operator, broadcasting Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and radio services, as a techno...
08/09/2026
Agents work inside a single production environment, from incoming wire copy to a live studio show...
08/09/2026
Building on their strategic partnership, Ceeblue and Layercake make the unthinkable possible: scalable sub-second streaming over standard DRM, SSAI, and CDN wor...
08/09/2026
Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time graphics, augmented and virtual production, is completing the environment for fast-paced broadcast production wi...
08/09/2026
A SaaS portfolio built to work together, helping operators grow audiences, monetise smarter and run leaner, on their own terms
At IBC 2026 (stand 1.B49) Synam...
08/09/2026
Accedo, global provider of video streaming software and services, has been selected by PlayOn Sports, a national leader in high school sports technology, to exp...
08/09/2026
LiveU, the leader in live IP-video solutions, is enabling The Associated Press to take global newsgathering to the next stage with intelligent connectivity and ...
08/09/2026
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced the latest evolution of it...
08/09/2026
Compact, power-efficient X Platform performance brings broadcast-grade reliability and ultra-low latency to space-constrained remote production (REMI) workflows...
08/09/2026
Zixi, the leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, and Kiloview, a leading provider of professional IP video encoding and decoding solutions, t...
08/09/2026
Collaboration gives content owners scalable CDN capacity and broadcasters enhanced flexibility, including for C-band transition planning
Quortex today announce...
08/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/09/2026
Telos Alliance and Pluxbox Announce Dynamic Media Facility Integration Partnersh...
08/09/2026
J nger Audio Showcases Industry-First S-ADM Cloud Workflow at IBC 2026
Search
Dolby, MainConcept, Techex and J nger Audio will showcase the industry's ...
08/09/2026
Tuesday 8 September 2026
Sky Go gets a major upgrade for Sky Glass and Sky Stream customers
Today, Sky launches a new version of the Sky Go app for Sky Glass ...
08/09/2026
Documentary thriller simulating a Russian attack on UK soil will culminate in a live final episode reuniting the playersTuesday 8 September 2026
Trailer releas...
08/09/2026
Tuesday 8 September 2026
Jamie Demetriou and Amelia Dimoldenberg to host next t...
08/09/2026
Wuppertal September 8, 2026
Riedel Introduces New OnAir Headset PlatformRiedel Communications today announced the launch of its new OnAir headset platform, a...
On the piste: ORF on bringing new innovations in sound and interactivity to ski coverage By Heather McLean 
