Five rings, five networks in one at International Broadcast Centre
Countdown: one week until the opening of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
Keith Pelley can be prone to superlatives, but this time he is beyond reproach.
“It’ll exceed your highest expectations,” the president of Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium declared before a tour of the CTV-Rogers section of the Vancouver Convention Centre.
At 40,000 square feet, it’s bigger than a lot of permanent TV stations in the world. It’s so big, CTV has a colour-coded map near the entrance so none of the 1,400 personnel working in 20 departments gets lost. By February 28 they won’t want to leave the million-dollar ocean view.
Five production teams on two to three shifts will keep things running around the clock. It’s essentially five TV stations in one that were built from the ground up in Toronto for testing and training, disassembled and trucked in 18 semis to Vancouver.
Hallway space is now a big production office with desks everywhere possible. Enough space is available for a fire drill. Inside the convention meeting rooms are 14 production and editing suites – nine English, five French – dedicated to each sport venue. The digital heart of engineering is organized chaos with spaghetti wires on the floor and air-conditioning and ventilation machines whirring. No detail is too small; even the telephones have screen savers.Producers ensure the lighting, sound and layout are just right in each of the studios, which take advantage of the building’s large windows and spectacular views of Canada Place, the North Shore and Stanley Park. The opening ceremony is February 12 at 6 p.m., but the Games go live to all of Canada from here two hours earlier.
Five-rings lights shine above the anchor desk. Rings and ice crystals are a popular motif. The wooden interview corner in the main studio has a faux rock fireplace, also with the rings. A Panasonic HD monitor is embedded in the fireplace for a fire-log loop.
CTV bid US$153 million five years ago for 2010 and 2012 rights, more than double the CBC contract for US$73 million for 2006 and 2008. CTV paid just $4.5 million to carry Calgary 1988. Pelley admitted in December that CTV will be selling ad space right until the closing ceremony. Break even is the goal. Business-to-business sponsors have not bought to their potential, but provincial governments like B.C., Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador have.
CTV’s business plan included numerous revenue streams never explored by a Canadian broadcaster, such as daily live showings in HD at Cineplex theatres from B.C. to Quebec and the Believe merchandise, now seen on the Shopping Channel. A commemorative five-DVD set is already for sale, and the story hasn’t even started. If you can’t wait, highlights will be available via YouTube, iTunes and Xbox.
There are 300 cuts of “I Believe,” the Nikki Yanofsky song written by Glass Tiger’s Alan Frew. CTV owns the publishing rights and CHUM Radio stations. It counts as Canadian content, generates royalties and gives on-air staff yet another excuse to talk about the Games.
“It will become the song of the Games,” Pelley boldly predicts.
It would be futile to doubt him.
Drop zone
How goofy can the Olympics be? Decisions are made on the fly and budgets go out the window.
Problem is, someone at the International Broadcast Centre couldn’t see clearly out the window because of the 20-metre raindrop sculpture called The Drop.
The 2,700-kilogram German design was unveiled to much fanfare on August 13 but quietly removed January 25 by a Vancouver Pile Driving barge and sailed to North Vancouver. Certainly an odd payload amid real raindrops. Nobody’s talking about the cost in either dollars or emissions.
Olympic bay watch
The opening ceremony is February 12. It’s also the theatrical release date for 20th Century Fox’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, starring Uma Thurman as Medusa and Pierce Brosnan as Chiron. The opening date is no coincidence. Scenes were even shot at the Westin Bayshore, which is behind heavy security because it’s the official hotel of the International Olympic Committee. •
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This article from Business in Vancouver Februrary 2-8, 2010; issue 1058
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