VANCOUVER and WHISTLER – There are about 1,400 people working on the TV and radio broadcast and digital media production of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
It has been, and continues to be, an awesome undertaking by this group of Canadian broadcasters. We were privileged enough to be able to take a look behind the scenes of the International Broadcast Centre.
TSN and Rogers Sportsnet assignment editors who are normally competitors sit across from each other on the assignment desk, sharing stories.
There are five sets in the IBC in Vancouver, where the consortium is using 40,000 square feet and two more sets in Whistler. All content can be fed to all 12 networks showing the Games in English and French and other languages (we watched a few minutes of hockey on APTN in one of our Aboriginal languages and some action on OMNI in Italian).
There are four 152-inch Panasonic HDTV sets in the world. They’re all here. CTV is using one (with one as a backup), same as NBC.
The tech room is impressive. Racks and racks of gear that took 18 trucks to transport from Toronto to Vancouver and put me in mind of some of the most advanced cable headends I’ve seen (and it’s a temporary installation).
Yep, it’s a pretty big deal. So, let’s let some pictures we snapped tell a piece of of the broadcast/digital media story, as we’ve told you the details a few times before.
Inside the main CTV studio.
On the stylish RDS set.
The tech room.
A producer hard at work.
The Avid room.
The main control room.
Audio quality control.
The assignment desk.
In the digital media production room.
The Digital Lounge has had a few visitors, including 2010 medallists and this Canadian legend.
The tiny TV tents where broadcasters from all over rent time to do their standups. Nice view!
Outside one of the Whistler Live sets.
TSN’s Jennifer Hedger interviews Canadian ski jumper Stefan Read at the consortium’s other Whistler set.
Photos by Greg O’Brien
