This VRT blog post has been translated from Dutch to English. Please find the original VRT article here.
Final Control built on LiveOS: 2 touch pc’s and 2 multiviewers are used to operate the LiveOS productions of three pop-up streaming channels. Photo © VRT
Thursday, August 8, 2024 – While our compatriots in Paris have already won five medals, it is also time to award some medals here in Belgium, at VRT in Brussels. This recognition goes to VRT colleagues who, over the past weeks and months, have gone all out to deliver an unprecedented edition of the Olympic Games to all Flemings. Both in front of and behind the scenes, enormous efforts are being made at Reyerslaan to provide viewers, listeners, and online users with an unforgettable Paris 2024 experience.
In Brussels, the Sporza editorial team works overtime during the Olympics. “The core team of our editorial staff is located at VRT. For efficiency, most colleagues work in the same space. This includes the social, online, and linear sections,” says Maarten Geens, head of digital and social at Sporza. “It’s convenient to have a short line of communication since a lot of Olympic content overlaps and is used on different channels. For such a large, silo-breaking project as the Olympics, we have around 50 people here during peak hours. We monitor all sports, decide how the streams and linear channels are filled, manage Sporza.be, and Sporza’s social media channels. All this ensures that no Fleming has to miss anything from the Olympics.”
Via VRT colleagues at the IBC (International Broadcast Centre) in Paris, raw footage for VRT 1, VRT Canvas, and digital streams on VRT MAX is sent to the broadcast center in Brussels. Before airing, these pass through several stations, including the service and continuity department, coordinated by Tim Augustynen’s team.
Tim Augustynen, team lead of final control: “In final control, we ensure seamless continuity across multiple channels daily. This has been long established for classic linear broadcasting and now also for streaming. Working on an event like the Olympics and managing extra streaming channels is an honor and a step forward. The experiences here provide insights for our future, maximizing and renewing our value within VRT. It helps us give visibility to our work and shape the future of final control.”
“The experiences we gain here provide insights for our future, maximizing and renewing our value within VRT”
— Tim Augustynen, team lead of final control
Especially for the Olympics, Tim’s team, in cooperation with Sporza colleagues, is therefore providing three extra streaming channels for VRT MAX. From Brussels, directors and final directors are watching every day to define the content of these livestreams and to keep everything on the right track technically. Steven Pelkmans is one of these final directors. “Every evening around midnight we receive a broadcast schedule of the three Sporza livestreams for the next day. This puzzle is carefully put together by Kris Van Gucht and Thomas Gillis, the coordinators in Brussels. It is up to the final director to get this schedule and the additional changes with the right images, graphics and commentary on the Sporza livestreams. Often there are several transitions and operations at the same time, so then you have to switch quickly, literally and figuratively.” Around Steven’s workplace, commentators sit in commentary booths. “It’s important to maintain close contact with the commentators, both here in Brussels and with the commentators covering the matches on the ground, We give them the necessary cues and our sound engineer ensures a nice balance between the commentator’s voice and the ambience and atmosphere sounds in Paris to give the viewer an overall experience at every sports match we broadcast.”
Final director Steven Pelkmans at work. “Often there are several transitions and actions at the same time, so then you have to literally and figuratively switch quickly”. Photo © VRT
Everything for a crazy viewing and listening experience
So not all commentators are on the ground in Paris. Some of them do so from VRT, like Gil Meulemans and co-commencer Evelien Bouilliart for a special sport: skating. “Not an easy assignment,” according to Gil. “I was not quite into skateboarding before these Olympics so I really had to familiarise myself with the sport. Fortunately, I am assisted by my experienced co-commentator Evelien who knows all about it. It is mainly the specific language of the tricks that I had to learn. Fakies, bigspins, nose grinds, there are some.”
“That just makes the dynamic between us fun,” finds Evelien “I can often explain the technical side, Gil then makes the more approachable translation for the general public. Because of course you can’t assume that every viewer knows what it’s about and yet you also want to get them into the story. Because after all, we’re doing it all for them, to give them a crazy viewing and listening experience.”
Collaboration starting months in advance
When you are watching the Olympics on VRT 1, you see Goedele, Imke and Tess nicely talking everything together from the multifunctional studio on VRT. Which was completely converted into an Olympic look for the occasion by VRT CRW in collaboration with the Technology Department. “The design comes from our CRW design team in collaboration with T&I and competent suppliers. All the production equipment needed to make a broadcast in the multifunctional studio, but just as much for the streams and directing, we take care of that at CRW,” said Luc Mertens, Head of Projects at VRT CRW. “They are served by passionate CRW colleagues. From camera operators, lsm operators, lighting operators and sound technicians over image mixers, image correctors, chief technicians, recording directors, to even styling. It is important to know that months of hard work precede whatever you see now on TV or online. For example, also all the material used at the IBC in Paris departed from VRT CRW. And of course all that was extensively tested beforehand.”
VRT CRW works closely with colleagues from Technology in the multifunctional studio. They use the latest technologies there to bring everything beautifully into focus. Product Owner technology team TV studios Martijn Rymen explains which exactly. “The data integration from Sporza is a great example of that. We pluck things like graphics from the Sporza website and integrate them seamlessly into the multifunctional studio. That way you get the Sporza feeling right away as a viewer. We use a new fourth wall that gives an extra sense of space to the studio.”
“We pluck things like graphics from the Sporza website and integrate them seamlessly into the multifunctional studio. That way you get the Sporza feeling right away as a viewer”
Martijn Rymen, Product Owner technology team TV studios
The CRW and Technology colleagues in the multifunctional studio are in close contact with the final direction and Sporza editorial team. “Whereas Tim Augustynen’s team handles the operational operation of the final direction, we have provided the entire technical framework. We do this on our LiveOS platform, which allows us to switch flexibly to suit new productions. We also keep a very short line with our colleagues at Sporza. Behind the scenes, many of our colleagues have been working very hard for months,” says Martijn Rymen.
This VRT blog post has been translated from Dutch. Please find the original VRT article, here.
