Winter Olympics 2010 - Vancouver - BBC TWO/HD/RB/OL/IP

is it me or is the HD coverage not looking HD at all, only the BBC Sport graphics are HD.

Random, off topic question but does anybody know the brand of the jackets the BBC presenters are wearing... it's really nice!

Indeed. European public broadcasters have the Olympic rights because the EBU has acquired pan-European rights for all of its members -- preventing commercial broadcasters from outbidding them. The CBC doesn't have that luxury.

Doesn't this EBU agreement for the Winter Olympics end at the end of this one? I remember reading that Sky Italia had won the rights and will share with RAI for Sochi 2014.

As for coverage - my fears about the coverage of the ski jumping were almost founded, showing too many slo-mo's that meant at one in Friday practice that the jump score captions were on screen for less than 3 seconds.

However, I do like the astons keeping the small style of Beijing 2008, rather than the awful big and blocky captions used for Torino in the last winter olympics.

This is the penultimate EBU deal, and London is the final one.

Background in this German Centric Article ...

Sport-City Org

Well tonight's first show was (I thought) a bit of a disaster from start to finish. A somewhat shoddily edited package right at the beginning and virtually every sound fade was slow, several comm problems etc. etc. I could speculate on budget cuts but its not like I'm directly involved or anything.

To be positive, I really like the 'finger' signposts they used at the end for the coming up sequence - and Clare Balding is great at presenting anything.

You get the impression the Beeb have been let down a bit on the studio front. The view last night didn't seem very exciting and presumably they decided it wasn't good enough for the prime time show.

Agreed about the studio, it looks like Hazel is in a cupboard with a window!

Wasn't Torino the only time that the BBC have had their own, pretty major, bespoke studio at a Winter event? ISTR that at least once the main studio presentation was in London, in the era of the Virtual Grandstand set. I don't think that the Winters have ever been produced entirely on-site (as Beijing and previous Summer games have been) - and instead I think they've always been co-ordinated via a gallery in London. (Torino had a small studio operation on-site, but the bulk of the co-ordination was in London with lots of circuits carrying multis and unis to TVC)

I suspect that in the current climate of cost cutting at the BBC, and the concentration of MPs and the NAO on the number of BBC staff sent to major events, and the costs spent building bespoke studios, they have decided not to rock the boat too much this time?

Vancouver is presumably a more expensive location to work from than Torino as well?

My betting is that the studio is in the IBC (rather than a separate BBC-sourced location), and that they have decided to go for more location-based presentation and less studio chat, and thus reduced the spec of the studio (and reduced the air time for it?)? How many of the UK medal favourites are likely to compete in Vancouver and how many likely to compete in Whistler? (Having a big studio in the wrong location would also be a bit embarassing?)

I caught a bit of the SVT Sweden and NRK Norway coverage yesterday. SVT have a 3 camera (minimum) studio in a space that looks like it could be a hotel room (corner of a building with large - but not huge - windows with a nice mountainous skyline) but are using this mainly for 1+1 studio chat and throws to reporters at event locations. NRK have a windowless wooden set (not sure if in Norway or Canada?!) and are also maximising their location reporting.

NRK 1 and NRK 2 were both carrying Winter Olympic coverage simultaneously - which must be quite challenging for their production teams.

I watched 10 minutes of both productions and they were littered with mistakes though - not totally unexpected on the first day of competition in new and probably unfamiliar facilities (and probably with lower budgets).

NRK 1 HD's studio and location reporters appeared to be HD - though they're 720p50 rather than 1080i25 (so must be converting 1080i29.97 to 720p50 (or 1080/59.94i to 720/50p if you prefer!) - looked good though. Couldn't see SVT HD so can't comment on their stuff.

As far as I remember the main studio presentation was in London for 1994, 1998 and 2002. The virtual studio you refer to was 1998 when Ray Stubbs and Jane Hoffen presented all the coverage.

Yep - it was the Jane Hoffen studio I remember. Wasn't there quite an OTT Virtual wideshot move in the opening sequence?

Yep : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvfaQSC64_E

Horrid music arrangement (I quite like the Ski Sunday theme as a piece of music - but for titles it just feels dated) back then - and the titles are probably skating on thin ice when it comes to Olympic branding these days. Also - is it me or does it feel terribly slow paced for an opening?

Steve and Sue did the 1998 games too, but Ray and Jane did the overnight stuff - I remember it well, because I was a horrible student at the time and stayed up to 4am every night just for the hell of it. Every generation of students needs a big sporting event in the middle of the night, I think. Ray also did the overnights in the Commonwealth Games later that year, on his own that time. One of Jane Hoffen's only BBC gigs, of course.

I remember in 2002, on the teatime of the first Sunday, Steve Rider trying to explain how to work the red button so they put an off-air picture on a monitor in the studio - only they'd forgotten what channel they were on and put Last of the Summer Wine on instead. That was a mad day of sport, though, the Beeb had the Winter Olympics, Davis Cup Tennis, the Masters Snooker final and the African Cup of Nations Final, all live.

Unfortunately not many HD broadcasts in this country do look very HD if you ask me. Was it POV that had a lot of complaints about the BBC HD channel not looking very HD? IIRC the BBC just blamed people's equipment.