Reporting on the Olympic Games from the smoggy Chinese capital may have its ups and downs, but radio reporters covering the games, which begin today, will at least have the luxury of a state of the art broadcast centre to facilitate their transmissions for the next 17 days.
A brand new building, the International Broadcast Centre (pictured left), is a 55,000 square-metre building in the newly-built National Convention Centre within the Beijing Olympic Green near the now famous ‘Birds Nest Stadium.’ It is serviced by a rooftop satellite farm and fitted out with banks of audio and video editing equipment for each network.
The IBC is a radio and television broadcasting venue whose design and fit-out is managed and operated by the Olympic Broadcasting Organization (OBO). At the Broadcast Centre OBO receives and distributes the international TV and radio signals generated at the venues as pooled audio and video, for use by broadcasters with accreditation and rights access.
The host broadcaster is Beijing Olympic Broadcasting (BOB), a joint venture between the IOC’s Olympic Broadcasting Services and BOCOG. BOB will employ more than 5,000 staff during the Games, covering 302 events taking place in 37 different competition and several
non-competition venues.
Increases in broadcast revenue over the past two decades have provided the Olympic Movement with an unprecedented financial base. Broadcast revenue now generates 50% of Olympic income, an amount of $1.5 billion at the last games. In recent years mobile phone and online rights have also begun to bring in new revenue streams beyond traditional tv and radio.
The IOC is the owner of the broadcast rights for the Olympic
Games – including broadcasts on television, radio, mobile and
Internet platforms – and is responsible for allocating Olympic
broadcast rights to media companies throughout the world
through the negotiation of rights agreements.
At the Athens games, the Olympic Broadcasting Organisation televised more than 4,000 hours of live Olympic coverage. At this games 1000 cameras and microphones will broadcast over 5000 hours of events to 220 countries around the world.
Over the next two weeks 2GB and ABC Local Radio (except Sydney) will broadcast games coverage from mid morning until late in the evening. The opening ceremony begins tomorrow evening and most significant events of interest to Australians will be heard during daytime broadcast hours.
The coverage begins today, on the 8th of the 8th 2008, an auspicious date for the Chinese.
Below: Pictures of the International Broadcast Centre at the Beijing Olympics.
