TOKYO OLYMPIC GAMES: GLOBAL UNITED KINGDOM Eurosport
Discovery unveiled an enhanced three-story, multiple ‘room’ Cube for the Tokyo Olympics that includes cuttingedge analytical capabilities and a more gamified viewing experience for sports fans. The new extended reality Cube studio was the centerpiece of Discovery’s coverage of Tokyo 2020, showcasing new software and motion graphics that pushed the Cube’s analytical capabilities to a whole new level, while giving viewers the chance to deep dive into the details of why an athlete won gold — or did not. The multi-location Cube studio for Tokyo 2020 featured seven different immersive real-time video environment locations, or ‘rooms’, which were used for different shows, bespoke 360-degree beauty shots of Tokyo as backdrops, newly released 3D Zoom software to allow viewers to see wider panoramic views of Cube locations, and a virtual set extension with cameras able to roam around the digital environment, taking the gamification of this presentation studio to new heights. On the new enhanced Cube, Scott Young, Discovery’s SVP of content and production, said from Tokyo: “Well, this is an extraordinary piece of kit. Virtual studios are not new in the world, but what Alex Dinnin [Discovery Sports’ head of graphics and innovation] and his team have created is extraordinary. It’s world-class.” Added Young: “This is virtual studios next level. It’s quite extraordinary.” Coverage within the Cube followed the Japanese clock, creating night and day effects, and the presentation moved around the virtual three-story building to different ‘rooms’ to suit each show style, from informal to formal.
BBC
BBC Sport’s onsite presence for the Tokyo Olympics may have been smaller than originally planned, but the socially distanced crew worked hard using two 10Gbps circuits to transport Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) content feeds back to Salford in Greater Manchester, where the production team kept fans engaged with what was a very successful games for Team GB. And it resonated with viewers. “We’ve had a lot of positive feedback from the UK and we’re very pleased with the audience who are taking to it like this is a regular Games,” said Jonny Bramley, executive producer of major events for the BBC. Of course, this was ultimately not a regular Games and, like all the broadcasters at the IBC, the BBC had to make some big adjustments. A key feature back home was a completely virtual studio as all commentators, hosts and analysis is being done in the UK. “We realized it was going to be physically impossible for us to replicate what we had planned to do with on-set crews, so we established the studio back in Salford,” said Bramley. “And the commentary positions here didn’t meet with our socially distanced guidelines, so we’ve pretty much moved all of our commentary home and the comment off screen.” As for the virtual studio, Bramley said it worked out great and gave the effect of the BBC team being on top of a skyscraper in Tokyo. “It’s really effective and as a virtual studio has been a success,” he said. “We’re very happy with that.”
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SPORTSTECHJOURNAL / FALL 2021
United Kingdom: Jonny Bramley (left) and Richard Morgan inside the BBC production center at the IBC. Ron Chakraborty, BBC Sport’s lead executive for major events, added: “So many viewers think we’re in Tokyo, I think it’s a really great compliment for the technical teams and production management that have made this work and made the viewers think that this is a normal BBC Olympics production.” There were 32 international circuits to Salford and the BBC also took the host MDS commentary package. Ten commentary booths back home were also in use and one of the ongoing themes in discussions with any sports broadcaster over the past 16 months was what is lost when commentators are not onsite. BBC Sport chief engineer Richard Morgan said that a total of 46 HD circuits (the 32 international plus 14 news) are outbound and five are inbound and that technically things are going well. “The idea of remote is nothing new to us whatsoever so that’s not an issue,” said Morgan. “And I’m sure we’ll be doing more remote because of sustainability as the challenge is a commitment to be carbon neutral by 2030. But COVID did push us slightly further [into remote].”
IRELAND Irish broadcaster RTÉ produced over 270 hours of Tokyo 2020 coverage on TV channel, RTÉ2, and 408 hours of live coverage across the RTÉ Sport website and the RTÉ News app, celebrating the achievements of the largest Irish Olympic contingent of athletes in the country’s history. In addition, the Irish broadcaster carried out its first remote production for a live event. “We had a remote presentation position for a live show for the first time ever, for the overnight program,” said Cliona O’Leary, deputy head of TV sport at RTÉ. “The workflow to have a remote presentation in Tokyo and control room in Dublin is a big innovation for us,” noted O’Leary. “This was conceived by our execs Mark McKenna [TV producer] and Kevin Corcoran [executive producer], and facilitated by Tom Nugent, RTÉ’s technical lead in Tokyo, and others in RTÉ.” “Our remote production was a first for us and it was very successful,” continued O’Leary. “We sub-let our presentation studio in Tokyo from the BBC and they gave us space, power and fiber connectivity. We also had a two-way with David Gillick, Olympian, who worked as our resident expert across all sports and he was our reporter on the athletics as well.” This year, much like BBC Sport, RTÉ was more limited in what it could show due to Discovery’s rights deal with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). O’Leary commented: “We bought linear rights to the
