Broadcast Rental works with NOS for Dutch coronation coverage

Elsewhere in the broadcasting industry, a remarkable 500 personnel, 13 satellite ENGs, 160 cameras, a helicopter and an airplane were just some of the resources deployed by The Netherlands public broadcaster NOS on 30 April to broadcast live the coronation of the new Dutch monarch, King Willem-Alexander, writes Broadcast Rental’s GP Slee.

In what may well have been the largest single-day audio-visual operation in Dutch history, NOS delivered 18 hours of live television, 27 hours of radio and two days’ continuous broadcasting on the internet.

The wheels were set in motion for this historic event on 28 January 2013 when Princess Beatrix announced her intention to abdicate. With only three months to prepare, NOS looked to engage the services of a long-term collaborator, Broadcast Rental, to provide a substantial part of the TOC (Technical Operations Centre) equipment. The company took care of the whole EVS tapeless infrastructure, which entailed a 400-hour ISIS central storage facility and 6 Avid suits

Prioritising reliability and familiarity, NOS asked Broadcast Rental to supply a similar system to that deployed in the Master Control Room at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Blackmagic VideoHub proved to be a valuable production tool at those events, hence NOS’s desire to use Broadcast Rental’s equipment again for the coronation.

Broadcast Rental therefore provided the main video switching centre, located on the Nieuwzijds Voorburgwal in Amsterdam, adjacent to the Nieuwe Kerk on The Dam square. Various incoming feeds were distributed to the unilateral and multilateral OB vans next to the TOC. The TOC also acted as a backup facility in case of failure of any of the OB vans. Next to the TOC operations, Broadcast Rental supplied an extensive file-based edit and archive workflow, based on EVS and Avid technology.

Thanks to extensive preparation, as well as close collaboration with Broadcast Rental’s partners DutchView and United, there were no real technical issues on site.