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Advances in broadcasting through an Olympic prism.

Opening ceremony at 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer.
Opening ceremony at 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer. Photo: Rune Pedersen

As we gear up for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games, the companies responsible for broadcast transmission of the iconic images worldwide must be at the top of their game. 

An Olympic veteran

With around 10,500 athletes representing 206 NOCs (National Olympic Committees) expected to deliver astounding performances, we look back at the behind-the-scenes action during the XVII Winter Olympics in Lillehammer.

When organising a global sporting event, it’s not only the sportsmen and -women who need to be at the peak of their powers. Erik Otto Evenstad, Senior Advisor, Spectrum Management at Space Norway, is very familiar with the demands placed on broadcasters during a monumental event such as the Olympic games as he worked on the 1994 Winter Olympics.

He had been working in the field of satellite communications at Televerket (the company that would ultimately become Telenor Satellite and, today, Space Norway) for approximately eight years prior to the games and had gained a broad spectrum of experience in satellite systems development.

Subsequently, he had worked on the newly established broadband communications service which opened the door for mobility users in maritime and offshore sectors, leading the way to today’s widespread connectivity on land, in the air and at sea.

The weather was a major worry

During the run-up to Lillehammer – a period of his life that he describes as magical and probably the most interesting weeks of his career – Erik Otto’s biggest concern was the weather. Throughout the previous three weeks, snow had been falling almost continuously and there was a great deal of concern about the implications for the games and how they would be broadcast.

Had the weather continued in that vein, there was a very good chance that events would have to be delayed because of danger to the athletes – for example lack of visibility could have caused the postponement of the downhill ski races while wind can have a massive effect on the safety of ski jumpers.

With many broadcasters renting available satellite capacity, any major delays would have had a huge impact on their ability to cover all major events.  And, bearing in mind that satellite communications were still relatively in their infancy in 1994, Televerket’s broadcast transmission, at that time, could also have been compromised by poor conditions, particularly picture quality.

Clear skies save the day

As it happened, the day of the opening ceremony, the weather took a turn for the better, and Lillehammer experienced 14 days of absolutely clear skies which showcased Norway and the skills of its satellite communications operators perfectly.

Erik Otto explains, “Although the clear skies meant that mornings were exceptionally cold and some events were delayed by an hour or two, a little bit of flexibility allowed everything to run smoothly. In those days of analogue transmissions, heavy precipitation could have seriously effected picture quality but I’m relieved to say that the pictures we transmitted were exceptionally good”.

Senior Advisor, Spectrum Management, Space Norway.
Erik Otto Evenstad
Senior Advisor, Spectrum Management, Space Norway.

“Nothing could be left to chance. We were determined that transmissions would happen in real time with the best possible picture quality and with the highest possible availability ‘on air’. Nittedal Earth Station was therefore a very important hub, and we put in place additional security to ensure that nothing would go wrong.”

99.9999% broadcast transmission availability

In addition to transmitting from our own Nittedal teleport in the eastern part of Norway, we called on the services of Eik ground station to make sure that antennas situated in the westerly part of the country could ‘see’ the satellites through the small window between horizontal earth obstructions, so extending the coverage we were able to offer.

Everything had to be tested in advance of the games, and we had to be sure that if one station failed, we had back redundancy built in to enable us to carry on transmitting. In the end, we had only 4 minutes of broken lines during the entire games, which corresponded to an availability of more than 99.9999% – a fantastic achievement of which we were all extremely proud.”

Flexibility was the key to success

30 outdoor terminals were needed to cover all the arrangements for the games and to distribute the programmes globally. Some of these were fixed at local sites, and some were mobile ‘buses’ which were placed directly at the arenas or close to them.  Flexibility was key as available transponder capacity varied from day to day.

Tormod Hermansen, CEO of Televerket at the time of the Lillehammer Winter Olympics, said that the company’s agility and dedication to putting the client at the centre of its focus influenced its technological and commercial approach and ensured it was victorious.

From analogue to digital broadcasting

Things are likely to be quite different for the Paris Summer Olympics this year. Not only will heat be a factor rather than cold, but technology has moved on in leaps and bounds in the past 30 years. Whereas mobile phone use was unusual in 1994, today smart phones will be used by hundreds of thousands of spectators to send photos and videos simultaneously around the world via satellite.

Erik Otto adds, “Now, the whole of Europe is covered with optical fibre ‘motor ways’, so much of the communications coming out of the Paris games will be via these networks. Whereas in 1994, there was mostly analogue distribution of videos, today everything happens digitally and broadcasters themselves will have far more specific requirements than we saw 30 years ago, and these companies will expect the service they receive to be adapted to the production needs of their own studios.

“Today, 25Mbit/s compressed contribution would be sufficient for most broadcasters. However, other clients, like for example BBC, will probably require two or three times the ‘normal’ bandwidth requirements as seen during the broadcasting of the D-Day ceremony in 2024 when they used 60 Mb/s. Moreover, some would also require 4k quality contribution links requiring much over 100 Mb/s (12 Gb/s non-compressed).”

Technical differences aside, one thing that is likely to remain the same is that the satellite operators delivering broadcast transmission will be putting as much effort into their side of the games as the athletes will put into their sports.

However, unlike the athletes, the broadcasters will hope that their efforts are completely invisible to the world at large, and that the only memories will be of world records being broken at Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.