Live From Paris 2024: Indias Viacom 18 All In on UHD, Delivering 20 UHD Streams Back Home Siddharth Sharma, Head of Content and Production, says UHD effort builds on cricket coverage of Tata IPL By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Wednesday, August 7, 2024 - 4:55 am
Print This Story
India's Viacom18 is all-in on UHD Paris 2024 coverage, delivering 20 UHD streams to consumers back in India on the JioCinema OTT app and 3 streams for TV in HD1080i, all with Dolby 5.1 immersive audio. That's a carryover from what we started with Cricket and the TATA IPL, says Siddharth Sharma, Head - Content & Production, Viacom18 Sports, of the UHD commitment. We've got the full UHD package coming in from OBS to our switching control room at IBC, and essentially we're creating our own little scheduling pattern and pushing out 20 streams back to India.
Viacom studios in Mumbai are using XR to help engage with India Olympic fans in a deeper way.
Sharma says Viacom 18 wants to make it the biggest and obviously the best Olympic experience ever shown to an Indian audience and all the innovations for the Olympic presentation are designed to keep the audience at the centre of it all.
Fans are leaning into an engaging experience as they cheer for Indian athletes, adds Sharma. The immersive coverage tipped off with a dedicated camera feed and correspondent on the India float throughout the Opening Ceremony giving viewers a ring-side view of the Indian contingent. The Opening ceremony was covered across 18 channels on our network, besides JioCinema, our digital streaming platform.
Speaking about the objective behind showcasing the event, Sharma says an event of the size and scale such as the Olympics often brings unprecedented complexities that Viacom 18 tried to address with the most comprehensive presentation of the Olympics in India ever.
With a choc-a-bloc schedule and several Indian in contention for medal positions, we ensured that every Indian athlete in action is presented on one of our 20 feeds and fans can seamlessly switch between their preferred choice of sport, he says. We also built JioCinema for this event such that fans can not only track live action in a language of their choice but also follow the schedule of the day, medals tally, and results of the day right below the Livestream Player. A dedicated schedule banner showcasing all India events is also shown daily, thus ensuring the streaming platform acts as a one stop shop for all things Olympics for viewers.
Viacom18 has close to 20 people in Paris, with some located at the IBC handling all the feeds and then three ENG crews out covering Indian athletes as well as the events that are of most interest back home. All original content in Paris is captured in 1080p and then upconverted to 4K back home in Mumbai.
Viacom 18's team in Paris ensures all the signals get to Mumbai at maximum quality.
The idea is to cover sports of interest to India and also all India participating athletes and we're not missing any India participation whatsoever, explains Sandeep Srikanth, Senior Vice President, Creative & Production for Viacom18 Sports. Helping in those efforts are the 20 streams of content getting all of that content home require HEVC compression and 4 Gbps circuits.
While we send 20 switched feeds to India, we are further using those as a base to create 3 hyper curated streams for TV and digital, says Srikanth. Those feeds jump between sports depending on India participation events that matter to India and really customize the experience. One of them is India in focus, which is always Indian athletes or events of Indian importance, the other feed is an International focus and we are doing studio shows around both.
There are about 500 people working back home in Mumbai as there are three studios and seven commentary booths zeroed in on covering the events which begin at 11 am in India and go until 3 am. The studio shows are available in English and Hindi while the event commentary is also available in two other India regional languages, Tamil and Telugu.
The Mumbai studios are using a mix of physical & green screen studios with XR and VR sets and extensions powered by Pixotope, the sets and backgrounds a mix of the base TATA IPL studios delivered by Clickspring & Sequin AR with a new Paris 2024 focused virtual environment and graphic package delivered by long term partners Wtvision India.
There is also a Women's Power Feed which gives OTT viewers a continuous stream dedicated to women athletes and women's team events.
If the sport is there and we can show it, we'll show it to you, says Srikanth.
Two of the three ENG crews have ENG cameras with LiveU units while a third ENG option has been an Apple iPhone. With venues like shooting, which is very far away but popular in India, requiring deeper coverage Srikanth has often deployed himself at venues with the mobile unit so that the proper ENG crews could be deployed to finals events including at the shooting.
Viacom 18 has used iPhones to give extra flexibility to its ENG efforts in Paris.
It's worked better than expected and as long as there's Internet at the venue, you're getting clean 1080p uploads and live 2-ways from the mixed zones, which is all we want, he adds. You want that first reaction as quickly as possible.
Popular sports back home include shooting, badminton, field hockey, table tennis, boxing, wrestling and athletics events like javelin where the defending Olympic champion is from India. Workflow wise Viacom18's audio team is embedding the English commentary on channels 15 and 16 via Madi at the IBC and then pushing it to India where there's a full sub-mix set up for final 5.1 and stereo delivery.
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...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Liberty University on why broadcast technology isn't just a technical invest...
08/05/2026
COW Jobs: UGC, On-Camera Video Content
Brie Clayton May 7, 2026
0 Comments
UGC, On-Camera Video Content
April 17, 2026Documentary Editor - US,......
07/05/2026
Journalists reporting on Sudan are working in one of the most complex and fast-m...
07/05/2026
Multi-year partnership positions Victory+ as a free home for Dallas Cowboys orig...
07/05/2026
From sideline reporting to directing and producing, the talented sophomore is building a well-rounded foundation for a career in live sports production
In the ...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital has received two Future Best of Show awards at NAB Show 2026. The COBALT blueCORE platform was recognized by TV Tech, and the COBALT PACIFIC ULL-...
07/05/2026
ESPN analyst Mina Kimes will host the televised semifinals and finals of the 202...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI, the global film streaming platform, has selected Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner. Bitmovin's encoding infrastru...
07/05/2026
NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and the U.S. Soccer Federation have announced...
07/05/2026
Angel City Football Club (ACFC) and Victory have announced a regional broadcast partnership bringing live match coverage to fans across the greater Los Angeles...
07/05/2026
Spiideo has announced the launch of AI Highlights inside Spiideo Play, its automated sports production platform. AI Highlights combines video, event data, audio...
07/05/2026
Leostream Corporation has announced a unified remote access ecosystem for high-p...
07/05/2026
The Atlanta Dream has partnered with Victory to stream all locally broadcast Dream games for free, expanding the team's digital distribution strategy and g...
07/05/2026
Riedel Communications has announced the appointment of Marc Engroff as Chief Fin...
07/05/2026
SES and ARD, Germany's largest public broadcasting network, have announced a long-term extension of their satellite distribution partnership through 2039. U...
07/05/2026
UpLight Technologies delivers a flexible video and lighting system for a new televised sportLaunching the Pro Cheer League required more than creating a compell...
07/05/2026
Full Day Productions and GSE Worldwide have announced Spikes Under the Lights, a...
07/05/2026
Seit dem Start im Jahr 2023 hat DJ (Beta) das personalisierte H rerlebnis von 94...
07/05/2026
Da quando stata presentata nel 2023, DJ (beta) ha aiutato a definire un'esperienza d'ascolto pi personalizzata per 94 milioni di utenti Spotify Premi...
07/05/2026
Since launching in 2023, DJ (beta) has helped shape a more personalized listenin...
07/05/2026
Desde o lan amento em 2023, o DJ (beta) j ajudou a deixar a experi ncia de ouvi...
07/05/2026
From our earliest days, Spotify has been built on a simple principle: Great audio should be easy to reach. It's what's driven us to expand from music to...
07/05/2026
Asian and Pacific Islander artists continue to shape the global soundscape, pushing creative boundaries and connecting with fans worldwide. This Asian & Pacific...
07/05/2026
Company announce long-requested choir instrument
In the latest expansion of their Symphonic Elements series, UJAM have introduced an all-new vocal instrumen...
07/05/2026
Modular-inspired sound generation with digital control
Buchla have introduced Ziggy, a new compact synthesizer built around the company's complex oscill...
07/05/2026
Combines analogue voices with digital synthesis and sequencing
Polyend have announced Drums, a new hybrid analogue and digital drum machine that combines sy...
07/05/2026
Control surface now officially supports four DAWs
When Nektar launched the Panorama CS12 control surface, it worked exclusively with Apple's Logic Pro, ...
07/05/2026
In the first quarter 2026, SGL Carbon generated consolidated sales of 184.5 million, which was 49.8 million, or 21.3%, lower than in the prior year (Q1 2025: ...
07/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz and Greenerwave achieve precise and fast ESA antenna characteriz...
07/05/2026
Two multi-role L3Harris products - the Red Wolf launched effects vehicle and SK...
07/05/2026
L3Harris will be developing key features of a secure and resilient digital infra...
07/05/2026
Alysa Liu and Shohei Ohtani Help Drive Viewership as 91 of the Top 100 Broadcast...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital Wins Two Future Best of Show Awards at 2026 NAB Show
Manufacturer Recognized by TV Tech and TVBEurope for Innovation in signal processing
Cobal...
07/05/2026
Software and hardware platforms, AI power and user-friendliness on show...
07/05/2026
Intinor will demonstrate its latest technical enhancements for the Direkt series at BroadcastAsia 2026. With a continued focus on reliable contribution and remo...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI has chosen Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner, replacing MUBI's legacy on premises encoding setup to improve scalab...
07/05/2026
Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2026 Members of this years graduating class reflect on their proudest moments at Berklee and look ahead to whats next.
...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
At BroadcastAsia 2026, Interra Systems will demonstrate its latest innovations in automated quality control (QC), real-time monitoring, and captioning. The comp...
07/05/2026
At this year's Broadcast Asia, PlayBox Neo is set to unveil recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solution...
Live From Paris 2024: Indias Viacom 18 All In on UHD, Delivering 20 UHD Streams Back Home Siddharth Sharma, Head of Content and Production, says UHD effort builds on cricket coverage of Tata IPL By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
