GLOBECAST AUSTRALIA GIVES AN OLYMPIC PERFORMANCE

Chris Wright, Greg Littrich & Scott Long

The Vancouver Winter Olympics were beamed to the world via the resources of GlobeCast Australia, in both HD and SD, on multiple simultaneous channels. GlobeCast Australia, in consultation with Olympic Broadcast Services and Sky New Zealand, crafted a solution that would deliver Sky NZ’s unilateral needs, whilst establishing a successful platform for onward distribution to Europe, Asia and the Americas – to more than 50 takers in all, major broadcasters such as ESPN, European Broadcasting Union and Asia Broadcasting Union members, and to sports agencies such as IMG.

“This is the single biggest overseas deployment for global event delivery by GlobeCast Australia,” according to GlobeCast Australia Chief Executive Mike Lattin. “Whilst we work daily with major global broadcasters and events, it was quite humbling to be entrusted with an event that occurs once every 4 years and requires 24/7 transmission to every corner of the globe for two full weeks,” he said. “To our specific key clients in the Asia Pacific, such as Sky New Zealand, we were proud to deliver a first-class coverage.” GlobeCast Australia was moving an Olympic News Channel feed non-stop as well as live coverage of the various events. In all, it was an 8 channel multiplex. Project Director for the bid and delivery was GCA Commercial Director Andrew Nealon whilst the Project Managers were DSNG Director Greg Littrich - on location with a team of GlobeCast Australia engineers in Vancouver - and Operations Manager Peter Doueihi in the GlobeCast Australia Broadcast Centre in Sydney. The team put in place two completely diverse fibre routes from Vancouver to Sydney, one with SingTel and one with TATA. In addition, the teleport, fibre and satellite resources of GlobeCast Australia were employed. And a specific lease was taken on AsiaSat5 to supplement GlobeCast Australia’s permanent lease on AS5. The incoming fibre signals were being turned in the broadcast centre to AS5 and back to the northern hemisphere on fibre.Because of the company’s enviable sporting pedigree, Project Director Andrew Nealon had the vision to put together the global delivery solution for the Winter Olympics. Other parts of the GlobeCast Group picked up the signals from GlobeCast Australia to take responsibility for delivery over Europe and the Americas. Once equipment selection was made by GlobeCast Australia, three equipment racks were designed to order and accommodated the equipment into the desired configuration. The system was soak-tested for a further few weeks before shipment. During construction, consideration was given to size and weight as once complete the entire system was to be shipped via air freight to Vancouver. “From the time the equipment left our warehouse in mid-January, it was around 5 days later that we received the call it had all landed safely, cleared Canada customs and was waiting for us within the Vancouver IBC,” Mr Littrich said. The first two of the GlobeCast Australia 4-man crew arrived in Vancouver on 27th January and set about re-connecting the racks and equipment. All equipment powered-up without failure, so contingency time was used for additional testing and triple-checks prior to the full end-to-end fibres and satellite leases becoming operational on 7th February for successful delivery of the Games. Read more.