Live from Paris 2024: Come rain or shine BBC Sport crews are delivering the stories of the Games

BBC Sport Olympic presenters, Jeanette Kwakye and JJ Chalmers on the sofa with SVG Europe’s Heather McLean in Paris, having a chat between takes

With just a few days to go until the Closing Ceremony of the Summer Olympics here in Paris, SVG Europe caught up with BBC Sport’s Ron Chakraborty, head of major events and general sport, to see how the operation is working on the ground, come rain or sun.

Chakraborty says the rain, apart from causing problems for some broadcasters in the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) studio block at the Trocadero, actually showed viewers that the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower was real and that the team was on-site in the centre of Paris.

Speaking from the production office at the OBS building, he explains: “For the first two days – oh god – it was one of those things. We were lucky because we were on the top floor, the rain went down but the Aussies are right below us and unfortunately, their studio got a little bit flooded and they had to not broadcast for a while. But dare I say, it was almost a good thing to have the rain there; it made people realise, “Oh, it’s a real view, this isn’t some virtual reality thing”.

“We haven’t gone so complicated and sophisticated that there’s virtual raindrops on screen as well! So actually it was a little bit of a positive. Obviously we wanted the weather to be great, but at least it showed, “yeah, crikey, this is where we are, we’re in the heart of Paris,” and since then, the views have been absolutely fantastic out.”

BBC Sport’s Ron Chakraborty, head of major events and general sport, in the production office in front of the Team GB and Team France wall of medal winners, at the OBS broadcaster studio building at Trocadero, Paris

Coverage variety

Bringing variety to the coverage is a team of crews on the streets immediately around the studio’s location, using RF cameras to create unique footage. He says: “We do have to remind people we’re here sometimes as well. So we have little roaming radio cameras as well [and yesterday] we had the GB triathletes in a little cafe just outside the studio. It’s just nice to have that variety.”

Chakraborty says that news crews are dotted at the various venues around the city making sure viewers get a firsthand feel for what is going on: “As wonderful as the view is, we’re on for 16 hours a day. There are plenty of ways we can be elsewhere; we are at the athletics, we are at the swimming, just getting as much of the flavour of a Paris and the venues as well. The atmosphere obviously has been brilliant. I think speaking to the other international broadcasters, this will go down as a great Games, unless something weird and wonderful happens in the last few days.

“I think people see Barcelona, Sydney, London and now Paris, with full venues everywhere, everything works well, wonderful performances from the home nations; it’s a great vibe around the city.”

In the BBC Sport Paris studio where all the magic happens

Captivating footage

That access to venues distributed around the expanse of the city is – as predicted by Chakraborty prior to the Games – providing captivating footage for audiences in the UK. He states: “Before we started the Games, I said these venues will look great regardless, and it’s come through. We go to the beach volleyball because it looks spectacular. At Versailles, the show jumping yesterday with that backdrop was unbelievable! The fencing is another one in the old Grand Palace. When [the athletes] all come down this balcony at the start of the session, it looks amazing.

“I think everyone’s just been blown away by how wonderful Paris has looked as the backdrop for the Games, so it’s just been a pleasure so far because it’s completely delivered for us. And obviously, from our point of view, GB medals are a huge help, but the audience figures have been absolutely wonderful as well. So here we are, sort of doing a health check on day 12, and all is well.”

Full resources

Using the full resources of the BBC’s regional operations has allowed the team to cover anything and everything. Chakraborty explains: “BBC Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland send their established sports teams here, but for the English regions there’s basically a selection process. People say, “Oh, I’d love to go to Paris,” so basically even if you come from BBC South, BBC North West Tonight, whatever it might be, you have to gather interviews and content for all the regions. I did that interview process and there was this one guy – Lewis Coombes – that just missed out from BBC South, [but I realised] we might need someone that’s a one-man band at the shooting.

“Lewis has been absolutely brilliant because he shoots, he gathers content, he does the interviews, then when we do the live two-ways for the highlights, and he sets all that up as well. So just to send one guy there that can do everything, it’s just brilliant. It’s just got us miles ahead. Things like when Amber Rutter, her husband and her baby boy – he’s three months old – we knew about that and we knew we were going to get the shots when she came off. So Lewis has just got us ahead of the game.

“Just as much as we want to talk about spectacular studios and all that stuff, little things like that help you tell the story so much more quickly,” continues Chakraborty. “To capture the sort of magic of the moment, as opposed to just being on the world feed; we’ve kind of really owned that little area [of shooting], which has been brilliant.”

The green screen on the back of the BBC Sport Olympic studio

He goes on: “Then there’s the BBC Wales guy, Tom Brown, he’s brilliant. He again looks after the Olympics coverage from Wales. Us and Warner Bros. Discovery were allowed one camera on the team GB boat for the Opening Ceremony and we thought, “Right Tom, can you deal with this? Can you take the camera, set up the Starlink till we’ve got a live feed from there, and interview the athletes? He said, “yeah, no problem”.” So we’ve got amazing interviews with Tom Daley and Helen Glover on the boat.

“Just knowing you’ve only got one guy to send, those guys are out in the nations and regions are brilliant. They’re so used to doing that as part of their daily job, it’s fantastic.”

Chakraborty concludes: “There are times when you want a different kind of reporter; one that’s half reporter and half pundit so they can easily fill for five minutes with analysis if the sport is delayed. But other times you want someone who’s got that brilliant kind of Swiss army knife of skills and you can just get them to do anything. Those little decisions we thought, “Oh yeah, we may as well do that”. And actually it’s turned out to be a real success. So like I say, it’s not just the big calls; some of the little decisions have really paid off massively as well.”

BBC Sport’s Paris 2024 coverage continues until Sunday 11 August.