Feature: Tuning into Turin; a service provider’s perspective - February 2006  

Facilities provider GlobeCast’s head of sport Graham Smith turns his attentions to the Torino 2006 Winter Olympics that begin on 10 February.

Certainly, 2006 is set to be a crucial year for global sports broadcasting. With the advent of high definition TV (HDTV) on Europe’s horizon and a number of high profile, worldwide events to be held this year, broadcasters are dealing with both familiar challenges and new developments in special event delivery. The Winter Games will be one of the turning points for many broadcasters and service providers who are set to tackle this massive event.
In February 2006, more than 1.5m sports fans will descend upon Torino for the 20th Winter Games. This elegant former capital of Italy will play host to 2,500 of the world’s greatest athletes for 17 days of fierce competition. The opening ceremony alone is expected to attract over 2bn viewers worldwide. As a result of this anticipated increase in viewership and the arrival of HD, broadcasters are already planning greater hours of coverage and throwing much larger amounts of money at the Games than ever before. With emerging nations, such as Mongolia and Azerbaijan showing the Winter Games for the first time, the number of countries and territories broadcasting the event is set to rise from 160 for the 2002 Games to a record 200 for Torino.
Glamour and viewer statistics aside, it’s important from a practical perspective to know that few events are actually being held in Torino itself. Aside from the ice skating and ice hockey, which are to be held in the Torino Palavela and Torino Esposizioni respectively, the other 11 categories will be held at six sites in the surrounding mountains. Alpine skiing will be located at Sestriere, the furthest venue, over 100 km from Torino.

It was just another winter’s tale

As well as facing the challenge of broadcasting 85 events from seven widely spread venues, broadcasters have to, by the very nature of the sports they’re covering, face the wintry conditions and mountain ranges needed to make the Games worth watching. Heavy snow fall and mountainous terrain make satellite broadcasting very difficult. With this in mind, the Winter Games will mostly be a fibre event in 2006. The majority of major broadcasters will be transmitting their unilateral signals via fibre while the Torino Olympic Broadcasting Organisation (TOBO) and Telecom Italia have laid fibre between each venue and the IBC in Torino. All signals from all events, as well as all unilateral signals, will be available at the IBC.
There is a second IBC at Sestriere, the highest venue of the Games, where the Alpine skiing is being held. This tourist town is all fibred into the IBC in Torino and is located about one and a half hours by road from the host city.
However, satellite does have a role to play and satellite service providers are upping their game-plan to fulfil it. GlobeCast, one such provider, will provide a major US rightsholder with 36mHz of Europe to Europe satellite capacity for contribution between each of the seven competition venues and the IBC in Torino. Additionally, it has prepared an offer for both rightsholders and non-rightsholders that includes tape playout, office space, European capacity and symbolic live positions with views of the Olympic flame and Ceremony stadium, Torino City and the Alps and Sestriere.
Wintry conditions are nothing new to the news business and neither are widely spread venues. However, major broadcasters are now having to face the new challenges associated with HDTV. They are numerous but not insurmountable. Capacity is one issue; it can take a whole transponder to transmit a single HD channel via satellite – the same space required to transmit 5 SD channels. Similarly, whilst an STM1 fibre has three times the capacity of a satellite transponder, an HD channel still normally requires five times more capacity than an 8Mbit/s SD feed. And although HDTV does not pose greater technical challenges than SD production, it is important for service providers and broadcasters to be aware of the significant increase in expense resulting from HD due to additional kit costs and capacity requirements. Perhaps the greatest challenge though has been the speed with which satellite/fibre service providers have had to execute the conversion from SD to HD in time for the Games. Although, if the city of Torino can modernise itself in time for the Games, surely those of us dedicated to transmitting those Games should be able to do the same.

Small role for HDTV?

All that said, it seems clear that at the end of the day HDTV will play a very small role at the Winter Games. Apart from the likes of Canada’s CBC, Japan’s NHK and Korea’s KBS, who are set to broadcast in HD from selected venues, it will principally be a standard definition event.
Mobile television coverage is also set to make its debut at Torino. For the first time there will be live or delayed coverage of the Winter Games available to mobile phones. Customers across five continents in almost 20 countries including France, the UK, Germany, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and South Korea, will have access to the footage.
Network agnostic providers such as GlobeCast are in a strong position to benefit both from this growth in fibre and the continued demand for satellite, and are keeping up with the opportunities that new media initiatives provide.
The Torino Winter Games is just one of four major sporting events on the horizon this year. The Commonwealth Games, FIFA World Cup and Asian Games are fast approaching, each with its own unique set of challenges and opportunities. Providers need to be well positioned to meet the demands of the market and the increasingly global nature of these events in order to face the individual challenges and issues that they pose. Let the Games begin!

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