Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio Oy (YLE) will be using an Outside Broadcast van equipped with digital consoles from Lawo AG of Germany for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
YLE, a regular broadcast partner of the International Olympic Committee, will be producing 400 hours of TV programming and more than 300 hours of radio for audiences in Finland, and client broadcasters in Sweden and Denmark.
Coverage of the Games is being overseen by Madrid-based Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), the host broadcaster responsible for providing international coverage. OBS’s ‘neutral feed’ will be customized by rights-holding broadcasters like YLE, who add commentary and additional footage for their own audiences. OBS commissions venue production teams from around the globe to produce coverage of certain sports and events, according to their expertise, and YLE has been assigned to a number of Athletics competitions as well as the prestigious Opening and Closing ceremonies.
Finland’s national broadcaster has deployed Lawo digital audio equipment for several summer and winter Olympics. For the London games YLE will have a production and transmission unit in its International Broadcast Centre (IBC) in London, at the end of a workflow that stretches to Helsinki, where its new HD OBV – the U10 – is being used as production unit for the second feed.
In the IBC, Helkamaa has specified a Lawo mc²66 MkII console for YLE’s main TV production, along with three Lawo sapphire units for radio; Radio Puhe in Finnish, and Radio Vega in Swedish. The third sapphire is in the audio master control room, handling additional requirements outside actual production audio mixing. A second studio facility has been set up about 3 miles from the IBC.
