Telling the story: Extensive technical set-up delivers comprehensive Special Olympics coverage
Held in Turin from 8-15 March, the Special Olympics World Winter Games welcomed more than 1500 athletes from 100 countries participating in eight sports. The live broadcast coverage moved 2km across the city from the Inalpi Arena, where the Opening Ceremony was held on 8 March, to the PalaTazzoli Ice Arena for the figure skating and short-track speed skating competitions, which took place from 12-14 March. Host broadcast responsibilities were taken over by Sky Deutschland, which brought in its own outside broadcast (OB) vehicles to provide the feeds.
On site were two satellite news gathering (SNG) units, a tender, a vehicle for vision and editorial and a utility van. Arvid Stöckmann, technical supervisor for SNG and sports production at Sky Deutschland, describes SNG 1 as “the backbone of the technical set-up”, housing the audio and production engineers, while SNG 2 provided full back-up. The show director and a graphics operator from Berlin-based live broadcast graphics and AR/VR developer netventure were based in the tender, with the EVS operator, vision mixer and remote control of the PTZ cameras in the vision tec/editorial vehicle. External equipment and cameras were stored in the utility van.
Johanna Torchetti, senior manager of field operations for football and sports production at Sky Deutschland, outlines that 10 cameras were used to cover both competitions and create the live world feed that was made available to licensed broadcasters over a satellite link. Main cameras were Grass Valley LDX 92s fitted with 25x and 90x lenses (all of which were kept in the vision tec unit), plus three Sony PXW-X400 XDCAM camcorders with wide angle 14x and 24x lenses and two Sony BRC- H800 PTZ remote cameras. Beauty shots and the commentary-cam were Sony PXW-Z90 camcorders.
This set-up was supplemented by a unilateral for the mixed zone and a PTZ camera in the commentary position supplied by ESPN. In addition to this, the sports broadcaster’s OB provider, NEP Italy, moved its two vehicles, HD 18 and Tender 18, from the Inalpi to the skating venue. Media management technology, local storage and workflow infrastructure were brought in from US company Thumbwar.
“We produced a world feed and passed that on to ESPN, sending it out via satellite as well as to MTI Teleport in Munich, from where international broadcasters were able to take it,” Torchetti says. She explains that of the 10 cameras used to produce the world feed, one was unilateral to give a “common view”, with the others used to cover the figure and speed skating as effectively as possible. “We wanted to present the athletes in a different way,” she says. “In the end it’s all about emotions and we wanted to get clear camera shots of that, such as at the finish line at the speed skating. We were hoping to generate a beautiful world feed with lots of emotions and happy athletes.”
Most of the cameras were mounted on tripods but with two that were handheld at ice level. “We didn’t have a Steadicam or cameras on rails but the handhelds gave us movement,” Torchetti says. “There were also a couple of beauty cameras, including a PTZ on a high tripod to get over the glass that surrounded the ice so we could get a key shot from that perspective as well. The main focus was not to detract from the athletes, which is why we tried to keep it quite simple as much as possible.”
Sky also positioned atmosphere microphones on the protective soft-fall areas around the central ice rink. “Mics were placed there and we also connected to the venue audio system and the LED wall showing the results,” Torchetti comments. “That was not originally planned but we thought it would give the viewers a better understanding of what was happening. In terms of the sound, there were the announcements and the music that accompanied the dancing of the figure skaters. But for the international audio we wanted to pick up the sound of the skates on the ice and the reaction of the crowd. In addition, we had a commentator on-site supported by various co-commentators, as well as a reporter conducting pre- and post-competition interviews.”
ESPN produced its own unilateral commentary, while to make material available to other organisations Sky again deployed the scoopa file-exchange platform, developed by German company best boys media lab, which it had used during the Berlin Games in 2023. “German media outlets once again collaborated in the Media Alliance, with seven national companies exchanging footage to maximise content, which continued the legacy from Berlin 2023,” Torchetti says. “Sky also provided highlight clips from the opening ceremony and five-minute packages after each competition.”
Like other sporting events of this scale, the major consideration for Special Olympics World Winter Games was what resources are necessary to cover all the venues involved. “Live broadcasting is a very costly venture,” observes Chris Wragg, senior director of broadcast communications and social media engagement for Special Olympics. “Sky Germany really helped us out by providing pro bono production services at the skating venue. But beyond that, having live coverage, especially in the mountains, was not feasible for an event of our size.”
The other competitions – floorball, alpine and cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, dancesport and snowboarding – took place outside Turin in the mountain towns of Sestriere, Bardonecchia and Pragelato. As it would have been impractical and expensive to get traditional OB trucks into these areas, the bulk of the events making up the Winter Games were recorded by mobile ENG crews, which sent the raw footage back to the central Global Media Hub over WiFi connections. The six ENG teams from the Hub, shooting primarily on Sony A7S II mirrorless digital cameras and FX6 full-frame cinema cameras, were joined by three crews from the US, who also used FX6s, operating natively in 1080p/59.9 with the XAVC codec.
Working with them were three video journalists, six reporter/producers and four video editors at the Hub, which was overseen by Restless Films, who edited the incoming footage on Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple FCPX systems. Jarret Baker, senior manager for remote operations at ESPN, explains that the ENG crews worked using one to three cameras and moved from venue to venue as the events progressed.
Once material was edited it was made available to rights holders and non-rights holders via Dropbox. “We tried to streamline the process and make it easy to use as much as possible,” explains Wragg. “It was very point-to-point, from the camera operators to the editors to making it available on Dropbox. In our experience this is by far the most efficient way to do it, especially for an event like ours that is reliant on widespread ENG coverage rather than being live.”
The results of these efforts can be seen on the Special Olympics YouTube channel, including the ESPN/ABC World Winter Games Recap Show and various clips of the different competitions from other broadcasters. In all they provide a vivid record of an important and inspiring event that will only grow in profile over the coming years.