Paris 2024: Channel 4 and Whisper producing most accessible Paralympics coverage ever from new state-of-the-art broadcast centre

The team at Whisper Cymru are currently busy producing coverage of the Paralympic Games in Paris for Channel 4. Not only is the UK broadcaster aiming to make all 1,300 hours of live sport the most accessible yet, but it’s all being produced from a state-of the-art new facility in Cardiff that has also been designed with accessibility front of mind.

While inclusivity has always been an important focus for Whisper, the new Cymru Broadcast Centre takes things to the next level, as Bethan Evans, director of production at Whisper, explains.

“Trying to make broadcast and production jobs as accessible to as wide a group as possible has always been very important to Whisper,” she highlights. “And with the Paralympics, we set our stall really high. We’re very ambitious about our commitment to offer the most accessible work environment we could and also, as we developed our plans, to actually leave that legacy behind. That’s why accessibility in all forms of the design of the hub has been at the core from the start, whether it’s the colours or the space or something you wouldn’t think of. It’s just been a really good experience. We’ve learned a lot.”

Accessibility features include a changing spaces toilet, wide walkways, more spacious workspaces, ramps, power-assisted doors and accessible signage. Attention has also been given to the centre’s colour schemes and signage, to help both visually impaired and neurodiverse people.

Indeed, Evans believes that the innovation in this space comes from the work that has gone into making it accessible, rather than from the technology that has been installed.

“We’ve got two production control rooms and sound control rooms, a master control room, multiple edit suites, two production offices, the normal stuff, but for me, the real innovation is making the live broadcast environment accessible. The technology that’s powering things is what we’ve come to expect, but at the forefront was the planning and design and how that was going to work in a slightly different way. It’s not huge changes, but it just makes it more available to people.”

The centre is already being used to produce Channel 4’s coverage of the Paralympics, and the output is extensive, with more than 1,300 hours of live sport airing for free across Channel 4, More4, Channel 4 Streaming and Channel 4 Sport’s YouTube.

Content is coming back to Cardiff from multiple studios and locations across Paris, including the Stade De France, La Défense Arena, the Athletes’ Village, ParalympicsGB House and the Pont Alexandre III. A 200-strong team is working on what is set to be the biggest ever sports production in Wales.

A key goal for Channel 4 is making the coverage the most accessible yet and there are a number of firsts taking place to achieve this, including the first signed coverage on live sport, a signed live Opening Ceremony and the first deaf presenter in Rose Ayling-Ellis.

“Again, linking back to innovation, it’s not just technical,” adds Evans. “By having the first deaf presenter on the Paralympics, we’ve changed our whole workflows because Rose can’t listen to talkback. So instead that goes to a signer. It’s not your traditional technological innovation but we’re super proud of that. It shows how we’ve adapted, and right across the board there are things like that going on.”

Also new for this year is Channel 4’s Everybody Moves initiative which encourages disabled people across the UK to take up a sport. Paralympics coverage is being interrupted at least four times a day to highlight the initiative through an onscreen QR code that, when scanned on a smartphone, links directly to sports clubs in a viewer’s local area. As the QR code appears, there will also be studio discussions about the project and features profiling the work and participants.

This is just one part of the legacy that is often talked about when it comes to the Olympics and Paralympics, and Evans is hoping that the Cymru Broadcast Centre will also leave a lasting impression.

“Our ambition was always to have a big proportion of people with different accessibility needs in the Paralympics production team, both in front of and behind the camera, but hopefully the space is a better space in which to work and do your job well,” she says. “We held a number of Get Involved events in the run up to the Paralympics, both for people who are new to the industry, but also for those who are working in other areas of the industry who we wanted to encourage to move over to sport or to try out something in live broadcasting, and they have worked really well. We’ve got a lot of people working on the Games that are from those events. We’re super proud of those. I hope that having that diverse team improves our coverage. That’s the aim.”

Looking to the future, Evans concludes: “We hope we’ve designed the space to be really scalable and flexible, so that we can go up and down, but we’ve already got some plans to move a number of our productions over either later in the year or next year and produce remotely from Wales. We also hope that other companies within Wales, but also further afield, will be able to benefit from the facility going forward. It’ll be exciting times.”