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At this very moment, the different control rooms are orchestrating the technical operations needed to broadcast Paris 2024. Their mission? To ensure impeccable real-time management of video feeds, perfect sequencing of sequences, harmonious integration of live commentary and flawless coordination with the teams on the ground. This was made possible thanks to the work and expertise of La Fabrique's AISO team, an Operational Engineering department dedicated to setting up technical systems for special operations (Cannes Film Festival, Rolland Garros, Tour de France, Olympic Games, etc).
The lifeblood of our antennas: image storage!
Setting up a robust storage infrastructure was one of the crucial elements in the technical preparations for the event. To meet the challenge posed by the hundreds of hours of competition to be recorded and broadcast on our channels, the AISO department worked for over a year and a half to deploy a solution that would match our ambitions.
The heart of the system is a dedicated room on the 7th floor of MFTV, France Télévisions' headquarters, housing 11 high-performance servers, 5 of which are specifically dedicated to feeds. This configuration makes it possible to efficiently manage the feeds for the three channels broadcasting the Olympics: France 2, France 3 and the digital channel.
Based on this programming, we are going to produce 30 feeds, enabling each control room to draw on this resource. Technically, this makes it possible to record, play back, reread and recalibrate the numerous feeds.
This infrastructure guarantees not only the availability of data but also its security.
The Traffic Room: the beating heart of our system
The feeds are routed from the Trafic room, the nerve centre for the production of the three antennas, post-production and image archiving. Designed specifically for this exceptional event and strategically located close to the server room, it ensures that the commentary is perfectly matched to the images, thanks to a high-tech sound system. These 30 feeds are fed by the 55 streams distributed by Olympic Broadcasting Service in UHD and HD formats.
For recording and playback, we developed a global, shared system to work with all the resources, which meant finding a pivotal format: Full HD 1080p HDR. This means we can deliver quality results for UHD, HD and post-production.
The server control room, a key element
The server control room, located on level 0, is a crucial part of the system. It allows us to manage and supervise the recordings, while working closely with the LSM operators who broadcast the recordings to the three nearby control rooms.
The Sport editorial cockpit desk, our lookout point
On the same floor as the server control room, the Sport editorial cockpit office gives operators total visibility of the day's different Olympic competitions. This enables them to precisely define and retrieve the most exceptional event segments for the nightly rebroadcasts on France 2 and the digital channel. From the cockpit, the operators also keep a close eye on the next day's events, fine-tuning the broadcast schedule for each control room during the day.
The Olympic Games PC room, a news companion
Ephemeral until the Paralympic Games, the PC Olympics room's mission is to provide support for the PC Info room on the 5th floor. This room is focused around two of our core activities: a technical section, which records the day's footage, and a documentation section, which sorts and organises it. An editorial manager coordinates the work to feed our news programms.
Control rooms and post-production, a winning synergy
For each control room involved, an editorial manager determines the day's programme. At the same time, LSM operators keep a careful eye on three to four sports simultaneously, meticulously selecting the most striking images. Equipped with remotes, they also have access to a graphics workstation, enabling them to quickly and easily launch news items, jingles and aerial shots.
In addition, an Espace Vidéos Transferts (EVT) workstation has been set up. This consists of four video library workstations and twelve server access points directly available in the editing rooms for efficient, tailor-made post-production.
The EVT plays a role upstream of this archiving by making certain feeds available to the editors and by recording all the images on the servers, which will be used to feed the video library.
As you can see, France Télévisions' head office is working hard to offer exceptional images and moments.
The success of our coverage of the Olympics depends on rigorous and passionate coordination between our technical and editorial teams.
The systems have been prepared in advance, but we are not immune to unforeseen circumstances that need to be resolved to ensure that everything runs smoothly and to facilitate the work of the teams as much as possible
And to make sure you don't miss a thing, go to the france.tv platform!
