The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) are behind some of Europe’s most ambitious broadcasting projects. Eurovision is one but the Olympic Games are no exception.
The Olympic Games are the moment where the world comes together to focus on sport; Eurovision the moment we focus on music. In many ways the Olympics are Eurovision’s sister, and the parallels are uncanny!
The Eurovision Network
This is a Eurovision blog, so it only figures that we would have to discuss what the “Eurovision Network” actually is. Beyond the annual song contest we all know and love, the EBU works to distribute all types of content to its member states. Certain broadcasts such as the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) or major sporting events like the Olympics, involve multiple different members all broadcasting the same content simultaneously. This is a major challenge! Eurovision services steps in to streamline the broadcasting of such events.
“We help produce, distribute, personalize and optimise content. We have a service portfolio with the agility and ability to enhance and adapt content to the needs of all digital platforms.”
Eurovision Services via https://www.eurovision.net/about/whoweare
An Olympic Sized Challenge
In other words, Eurovision is all about connecting the world. How do you connect the world though when dealing with live broadcasts? After all you cannot have the winner of an event announced in one country before another! Adding personalised commentary over the top of that is yet another challenge! It truly is an Olympic sized challenge just to broadcast an event like the Olympics! The answer to that is both pretty straight forward and pretty complex – cables! Lots and lots of cables!
Down To The Wire
Back in 2008, Eurovision.tv shared an insight to us Song Contest lovers on what exactly was going on to make the Olympics that year viewable. Simply put every broadcaster was given a wired connection to Beijing where the Olympics were being held. Now the EBU has 156 members and whilst not all of them will show coverage of every event, you can imagine just how many cabled connections are needed to pull off such a major TV operation. Understandably this procedure takes months to carry out and is subject to a fair bit of planning! The advantage of all this work is each member broadcaster can have a direct feed of the events and be able to add their own content over the top of the broadcast in real time. It is truly a marvel of technology, how global live TV involving multiple organisations can be streamlined and successfully fulfilled.
Ding-A-Dong Instant Song
The Olympics is truly a global behemoth of international live televising and yet it is so seamless in its execution so much of the time. The Eurovision network and the ESC in itself, all truly connect the world. It is so easy in our digital age to forget the pioneering technology that allowed for the latest songs, news, sport and culture to appear on our screens, just like that. Clashing cultures, languages, locations and time-zones all pose challenges to international live broadcasting but we live in an incredible age where we can share our cultures together! Eurovision is truly remarkable, it is one of those things that brings people from across the world together. Media is in our hands, instantly. In the same time, all across this planet, we can truly be united.
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