Olympics 2012 - non-BBC specific

As regards the OBS coverage - most as we know is covered by specified international broadcasters, but others are listed as just by OBS - most notably swimming (Seven covered these at previous games but are no longer the Aussie broadcaster). Do the OBS have their own filming unit for these then or is it likely they've been put out to tender to independent broadcasters?

Also does the OBS have any involvement with the Paralympic Games?

Suspect OBS sub-contract to independents or put together their own teams of freelancers. They won't have much in the way of their own facilities and staff for these - what would they do in the 4 years between games? (I imagine a large chunk of the European HD OB fleet is in the UK at the moment...)

SIS Live (normally an OB facilities company) were host broadcasters at the Commonwealth's in Delhi. They just hired in a lot of freelance staff (many of whom were ex-BBC) (And I know Doordashan were listed as hosts - but they weren't in reality)

Mics would always be pronounced "Mikes" not "Micks" - so I don't think so. (A "mic" is pronounced "mike" not "mick")

From the Beijing website : " The Mixed Zone facilitates contact between the media and the athletes in a designated area near the exit of the field of play."

I guess it is a designated area where the athletes and media can mix? The Media won't be allowed to roam around the competition areas apart from this zone.

Posted before here - but a repeat reminder wouldn't go amiss ...

OBS Teams – Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo, Modern Pentathlon - Swimming, Basketball, Equestrian, Fencing, Handball, Sailing, Shooting, Beach Volleyball, Wrestling
BBC – Boxing, Rowing, Canoe/Kayak - Sprint, Tennis, Football
YLE (Finland) – Opening/Closing Ceremonies, Athletics-Integrated/Track/Throws
SVT (Sweden) – Athletics-Jumps
SBS(Korea) – Archery, Taekwondo
Fuji TV (Japan) – Judo
TVE(Spain) – Canoe/Kayak - Slalom, Triathlon, Aquatics-Swimming Marathon
CCTV (China) – Modern Pentathlon, Badminton, Gymnastics, Table Tennis
NOS (the Netherlands) – Cycling-Road Race, Time Trial, Athletics-Walks/Marathon
STV (Slovakia) – Hockey
ICRT(Cuba) – Volleyball
ERT(Greece) – Weightlifting
VRT (Belgium) – Cycling (BMX, Track, Mountain Bike)


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TELEVISUAL.COM
03-Aug-2012 @ 14:15

What exactly would these broadcasters have control of? For example I can't imagine the Cuban broadcaster has much experience in using HD equipment. In fact, would they even have experience in widescreen? Would that not matter?!

Yup. It's called the mixed zone because it's the only point where the athletes & press areas come into contact. All competitors have to pass through the mixed zone after their appearances.

The only media in the competition area are those working for host coverage, and have to wear bibs to extend their accreditation (OBS crew will normally have access to press, broadcast and operational areas, missing the code for access to the field-of-play)

Does anyone know if OBS are still using "AGILE" for their graphics?

They are presumably responsible for production of the OBS host feed, working to OBS's requirements. (Ensuring high quality HD pictures and sound are produced and events are archived to the right format etc.)

Not really - it's their understanding of the sport and how to cover it that is key - not what kit they use.

The BBC don't have their own Outside Broadcast facilities and technical staff to do the rowing, boxing, football or tennis host feeds - they hire in from third parties (mainly, SISLive, who bought the BBC Resources OB division a number of years ago - but others - both British and European - are also used).

Most other broadcasters these days will be doing the same.

Whether Cuba have brought an entire team (camera operators, sound people etc.) from Cuba, or just key players (director and/or producer etc.) will be up to them I guess.

There's also a lot more to producing TV coverage than the technical side - there's accommodation, travel, transport, co-ordination, scheduling etc. How this is split between OBS and the international broadcasters also providing host broadcast feeds is an interesting question.

And then we have NBC paying billions for the rights but not contributing to the OBS. They do film stuff, but only for US audiences.

Isn't that a good thing?

I wouldn't complain about that. I sincerely doubt we'd want NBC providing host coverage - and if they bankroll the events, even better, they're subsidising our coverage AND producing an inferior product we don't have to watch.

That's a win/win isn't it?

(The 2700 people is the jaw dropper though...)

I've been looking on the NBC Olympic site and the country info pages are really bad! West Yorkshire a city? South Sudan is still part of Sudan.

Libya is using the green flag and is called 'Libyan Arab Jamahiriya', despite now just being Libya.

And China's map including Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on the left.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/imgml/nations/maps/CHN.png