Taking Remote Production to the Next Level CBC's Coverage of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games

In 2012 CBC was awarded the Canadian broadcast rights for the 2014 & 2016 Olympics. The Olympic broadcast experience is a nation-building event that embraces partnerships, cross platforms and be shared in multiple languages. Content will be delivered on TV, desktop, mobile, tablet and radio platforms with all sport available to watch live in both official languages; emphasizing a need for a production model that is flexible, robust and cost effective. To meet this challenge, CBC/RC has chosen a remote production model that utilizes a transmission concept that will extend the reach of our Olympic headquarters in both Montreal and Toronto not only to the IBC (International Broadcast Center), but directly to the sporting venues. — This presentation will cover new concepts of remote production, next generation live remote event delivery, and transmission concepts that allow CBC/RC to make innovative production and cost minimizing decisions. Remote production, as it applies to the CBC/RC, is a concept of producing content with minimal infrastructure deployed at the remote site. With only the necessary resources on site costs are reduced, but more importantly quality and accessibility of media are increased utilizing existing robust infrastructure at home to support remote talent. Remote production on this scale required the development of new transmission concepts. Subjects covered will include file based delivery of content, IP technology at the venue, minimizing frame rate conversion, remote audio and video production, and next generation transmission. The presentation will also provide insight into the technical and operational challenges that were overcome and production opportunities that were realized during the design and implementation of the plan.

Published

2014-10

Content type

Original Research

Keywords

Remote Production, Olympics, Transmission, Standards/Frame Rate Conversion, 5.1 Audio, Surround Sound, File Sharing, File Based Workflow, Web, Mobile, Streaming, Encoding

DOI

10.5594/M001583

ISBN

978-1-61482-954-6