Torino - Broadcasting Basics

Since I was in early this morning, I had an opportunity to visit the studios and control rooms which were "dark" (not on the air) this morning, and have a look around. NBC has actually used the same set framing and mechanics since Sydney. It can be torn down and setup again in another city, and all they have to do is change the soft parts (decor, background scenery, etc...), and to most people it looks like a brand new set. The call the sets JAWS (Just Add Water Studios)...



The photo above is from the set for Control B which produces the MSNBC and CNBC shows, which deal mostly with Hockey and Curling. These chairs are where the host (usually Jim Lampley) would sit and interview a guest in the studio. Also on the set, is a desk with a Torino backdrop, that they can use simply by turning the cameras around.

Behind the studio set on the other side of a plate glass wall is the control room...



The "front deck" consists of the Director (who calls the shots), TD (Technical Director, who does the actual switching), and ADs (Assistent Directors, who co-ordinate commercial breaks and timeline issues with the main network in New Yorkk).

The "back deck" consists of the TM (Tech Manager, who is responsible for everything technical in the control room), and Producers (who tell "the story" by suggesting to the Director what features/items they would like covered).

The control room is responsible for selecting the camera shots that tell the story of the show that is on the air. Sometimes they are showing live footage, and at other times they are rolling from tape.

In a separate room attached to the control room, the A1 (Audio mixer) and A2s (Audio techs) control the audio that accompanies the video from the control room. The A1 has control of the microphones from the Host and Guests, and the audio from the venues (or from tape). At a venue, the A1 would also have "nat-sound" (natural sound effects from microphones on the playing field) to add to his mix.



The audio and video from the control room is handle by Transmission, which is located in the BOC (Broadcast Operations Centre). BOC manages traffic, venue scheduling, resource scheduling, and transmission issues. The VANDAs (Video and Audio) from the venues are also routed here to the Edit, Graphics, Tape, and Control rooms. The outbound VANDA is transmitted back to New York for airing.



In a room just off the BOC sits COMMs. This is where I work, and our company provides the software that runs the Telex intercoms used here. COMMs is responsible for allowing all of the people in the above chain to talk to each other in real-time during the production of a show.

This photo shows Tony (of the Mountain Venue photos) in COMMs talking to someone on the intercom. All of the COMMs equipment running our software sits in the racks in the background (primarily in the rack just to the left of all the yellow patchcords).



I know that I wrote something similar to this from Athens, but it's nice to be able to back it up with pictures this time. I also know that this part will be boring or unintelligible to some people, but my Athens version was appreciated and commented on by several people, so I decided to do an update this time. Hope you weren't bored!

Torino - Caffè al Bicerin

It's early Saturday morning here, and I am working on my second night of less than 6 hours sleep. I came in early this morning so that Craig could come in late, as he was out at the Holland House (sponsored by Heineken) last night. Yesterday, I came in early, and met Jeff at the bus mall as he got off a little early from the overnight shift, and we went downtown to the Caffè al Bicerin to sample the famous drink I eluded to in an earlier post.

Finding places in Torino is a bit of an adventure, as addresses often are not given, or are difficult to track down with all the many side streets and piazzas (open plazas all through the downtown). Sometimes directions are given in terms of other nearby landmarks, as in this case where we were able to find the Church of the Consolata on a map, and then head there looking for the Caffè.

When we found it, across the piazza from the Church, we were surprised by how small it is, and that the signs out front are not exactly obvious...



The entrance on the left is for a tiny chocolate shop, while the entrance to the actual Caffè is on the right. When we entered, we were again amazed at how small it is. There are only 8 tables, each with one chair, and two benches that run along each wall to the counter area. These tables are made of marble, and are said to be the original tables from more than 200 years ago. The atmosphere is terrific: candle-lit marble tables, wooden walls with mirrors, red carpeting, and a marble counter in front of shelves lined with jars of candy...



Since it was only 8:30am, there were not that many people there, but I am told that later in the day, and in the evenings it is packed like a subway during rush hour. We ordered the signature drink, plus a breakfast specialty called "chocolate toast", which is essentiall a grilled cheese sandwich with two types of chocolate substituting for the cheese. The Bicerin is a blend of coffee, chocolate and cream/milk that is served in a glass...



I am not a coffee drinker, but I quite enjoyed the Bicerin. It tasted like a creamy, slightly bitter, hot chocolate. The chocolate toast was very, very good!



Cheers - Sean (kinda looks like I only had 6 hours sleep doesn't it!)

Torino - Medals Update

Canada's medals are rolling in faster than I can keep track of them, or do justice to the individual medal winners in a blog posting. Click here to visit the current list of Canada's medal winners.

Even as I write this, it looks like Canada has taken Gold, Silver, and 4th, in the Men's Skeleton event (like luge, but head first!).

Canada is also challenging the results of the Women's 500m Short Track race where Anouk Leblanc-Boucher took the Bronze. The rules state that the blades of both skates must be on the ice when the finish line is crossed, and Canada claims the silver medalist had a foot tilted off the ice. If the appeal is upheld, it is possible that our medal would be upgraded to silver, AND, the fourth place finisher (also Canadian) would then get the bronze.

Yesterday, we took silver in both the Men's and Women's Team Pursuit in speed skating, and a bronze in the Women's Skeleton, in addition to a bronze in Women's Snowboard Cross.

Also, in a shocking upset this afternoon, the USA lost to Sweden in a shoot-out in Women's Hockey! This was a semi-final game, meaning the US can do no better than bronze, and that Canada won't have to face them in the final (assuming that Canada hangs on to their 3-0 lead to win the other semi-final over Finland).

Lastly, I should mention that I forgot to announce that last week's Pizza of the Week winner was a delicious Sweet Onion and Roast Mushroom pizza I had on Monday, edging the weirder, but not as tasty Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Pizza from late last week.

Torino - Men's Figure Skating

Had a great time at the Men's Free Skate last night! There were 24 skaters in 4 groups, but we only arrived to see the last 18 (they save the best till last anyway). Tony and Nick were stuck up in the Mountains, so I ended up going with Jackie and Tammy from BOC (from the hat photo earlier).

Figure Skating takes places at the Palavela, which is only about a 10-15 minute walk from the IBC. There is an interesting "chia-pet" sculpture out front of the venue...



Russian Evgeni Plushenko started the night in first, American Jeff Weir in second, and Swiss skater Stephane Lambiel in third. There were 3 Canadians in the final 12 skaters. Emanuel Sandhu had an awful short program and was fortunate to even be in 7th place starting tonight. Jeff Buttle also had a so-so short program and started in 6th. The other Canadian was Shawn Sawyer, who I know little about.

American Evan Lysacek started the evening in 14th after a horrible short program, but he skated beautifully last night, and jump from 14th to 4th (he actually had the third best free skate of the evening).

Emanuel is known to be a volatile skater, and can be brilliant or a train wreck. Unforunately, last night we witnessed the train wreck in full, and he finished in 13th place...



Jeff Buttle, on the other hand, skated very well, bettering his own personal best by nearly 13 points! He fell on his attempt at the quad, but this still earned him points because he completed the full rotations (this was a calculated risk on his part). He also touched down with his hand on the triple axle, but was otherwise beautiful to watch. His program was scored 2nd only to Plushenko on the evening...



In the end, nobody could come close to Plushenko, Jeff Weir skated poorly and dropped to 5th, while Stephane Lambiel skated just well enough to hang on to the silver medal, and Jeff Buttle moved from 6th to take the Bronze...



On the way home, I ran into an "old friend" on the bus back to the Riberi Media Village. I met Elizabeth Manley in Salt Lake City back in 2002, where she was working for NBC radio network Westwood One. Back then, we had breakfast and chatted about skating. You'll remember Elizabeth as Canada's figure skating darling from Calgary 1988, who won the Silver Medal behind Katerina Witt who maybe shouldn't have won the Gold...



She is working for Westwood Radio again this time, and as it turns out, is only 3 doors down from me in the Media Village. She had some interesting insights into last night's competition. She thinks Plushenko is very good, but didn't deserve the huge marks he got last night, claiming that between jumps he does a lot of arm waving to distract judges from the fact that his footwork isn't very spectacular. She was also amazed that it was possible for any skater to win the Silver Medal at the Olympics without ever even attempting a triple axle (in the long or short programs) as Stephane Lambiel did.

All in all, it was a great night watching Jeff battle back to win the Bronze for Canada!

Torino - Hockey Night in Torino!

Tony, who's mountain venue photos are featured in the post below this, had two tickets to the Russia vs. Slovakia Men's Hockey game last night at Torinio Esposizioni ice rink, for himself and his friend and co-worker Nick (who is visiting from Las Vegas). Since Tony can get into any venue using his RTb Olympic accreditation (I have only RTc, which limits me to the IBC), Tony offered the second ticket to me, and then joined Nick and I by coming in through the broadcast compound entrance. Here's me outside the venue...



We discovered that we had pretty good seats, in the 5th row, on the goal line, which was pretty close to the action...



The game was very close, tied 3-3 late in the 3rd period, before Slovakia scored with a few minutes remaining, and then again as Russia was trying to pull their goalie. Since we were embedded in a pro-Slovakian section, we decided it would be prudent to cheer for the Slovakians...



At ice level, down in the corner where we were located, they also had the sideline reporters, some cameras, and of course, the Olympic Mascots - Neve and Gliz...



It was a great game, even more so since they asked me to sing the national anthems...



Incredibly, today I was offered two tickets to the Men's Figure Skating final tonight! I've invited Tony and Nick to join me (with Tony using his credential to get access again). More on that tomorrow...

Torino - The Mountain Venues

Stuck here in the IBC, and in the City of Torino, I'll probably never get a chance to get up into the mountains. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to enjoy some photos of the Olympic venues up there. Tony Kremer does most of our venue installations for the COMM's gear, and is also a very good photographer. Here are some shots of his showing the mountain venues.

This is the Athlete's Village in Sestriere-Colle, home to all of the Alpine events. Note all of the Canadian flags hanging from the balconies...



Here a shot showing the town just below the venue there...



Bardoneccia is home to the Snowboard events...



Pragelato is where the Ski Jumping takes place, and Pragelato Plan has the Cross-Country events...



The Moguls and Aerial (Freestyle Skiing) take place in Sauze D'Oulx...



Hope you like these shots, they look like beautiful places to visit. I'm just sorry I won't get a chance to get up there and take my own photos.

Torino - Hurricane Catriona

I had a pleasant experience today on my way over to check out the CBC plant within the IBC. Chuck Roberts works for Telex (the company for whom we write the intercom software) and is here supporting NBC, as well as the other broadcasters using Telex products. He was going over to the CBC to see how their system is working, and invited me to come for a tour (and to introduce me to the CBC COMM's guys who are mostly based in Montreal).

On the way there, we bumped into CBC announcers Catriona LeMay Doan and Steve Armitage. Catriona was a Gold Medal winner in Nagano and Salt Lake City, the Canadian flag bearer in Salt Lake, and has held numerous wold titles and world records in long track speed skating.

They were both friendly and quite accomodating, posing for a picture (cropped to show Catriona and me) in the hallway outside the TOBO tech centre. After which we walked down to the CBC together and chatted on the way. I asked her if she missed the competitive skating; she does, but she thinks it's weird people keep asking her if she's upset that she's about to lose her Olympic title. She said that while she won't be the reigning champion anymore, she still has the Gold Medals, so what's to be upset about?



My guess is that she is smiling so brightly because of the lasting charismatic effects of me having worn the magic NBC hat this morning.

Blog Mechanics

I've had a few people try to post comments to the blog, and think it's not working because they can't see their comment after they post it, and some have tried re-posting just in case. The problem is that I have enabled "comment moderation", which means that I get to see each comment and then approve it (or delete it) before it gets posted to the blog. This prevents spammers and flamers from posting inappropriate material to the blog. Granted, I don't get that much traffic, and haven't had any problems yet, but I think I will leave this feature enabled. So, don't worry if you don't see your comment posted right away, I'll get to it as soon as I can (and will only delete comments that were double posted).

You may have noticed that some of the text in my posts has a different colour (including sometimes the post title). That means that the text is a hyper-link to another page. Usually, I use this to link to an athlete's profile, or the news story about an event.

Also, I've just noticed that the blog starts to scroll older posts off the bottom, so they do not appear on the main page. Some of these still appear in the list of "Recent Posts" in the sidebar where my profile is (which unfortunately shows at the bottom of the blog in Internet Explorer). Posts that don't show up on the main page, or in the list of recent posts, can be accessed via the Archives lists for Januaray and February (also in the sidebar).

Note also, that you can click on post entries in the sidebar and get a separate page for each post, and in this mode, all the comments are shown following the post (as opposed to having to click the comments link to see previous comments).

Lastly, I've had some comments regarding my choice of headgear in my profile post. I don't know what your are talking about - that hat is the pinnacle of fashion here, and is really quite the chick magnet. So there!



Tammy and Jacqueline work in the Broadcast Operations Centre (BOC), which is just outside COMMs, and both think that I look quite handsome in my hoser hat.

Torino - Yet Another Medal!

Beckie Scott and partner Sara Renner won the silver medal this morning at Pragellato Plan in the Women's Cross-Country Team Sprint .

Sara actually broke a ski pole during the race, which consists of several laps around a cross-country loop, but managed to have a new pole supplied by a coach after only a few strides. Beckie Scott made up the lost seconds on the next lap.

Update: It turns out that it was a Norwegian coach who came to the rescue with a spare pole for Sara, which was a nice gesture of sportsmanship.

Beckie had finished 6th earlier this week in the 15km pursuit, in which she was the defending gold medalist. You may remember that she actually finished 3rd in the race, but was later bumped up to silver, and then gold (more than a year later), after both Russian women ahead of her were found to have failed doping tests.

Also today, and I am unable to find any confirmation of this yet, I was watching the third training run from San Sicario in the Women's Downhill which goes tomorrow, and I'm pretty sure that the leader was Canadian Kelly Vanderbeek.

The past few days have seen a number of horrific looking crashes at the downhill and luge, including Canadian skier Allison Forsyth who tore a knee ligament and will have to return to Canada for surgery.

Torino - The IBC

The International Broadcast Centre (IBC) is co-located with the Main Media Centre (MMC) near the Lingotto Oval (where speed skating takes place. The IBC houses the host broadcaster, Torino Olympic Broadcast Organization (TOBO) as well as all the broadcasters from around the world. The MMC has offices for Olympic organizations and print journalists from publications also from around world.

NBC occupies the largest section of the IBC (at least 6 times bigger than any other broadcaster, with the CBC being the next largest). I'm going to give you a pictorial tour of how I get into the IBC each day.

The bus ride from the MV takes about 10-15 minutes now. Naturally, the bus drives within 100 feet of the entrance to the MMC grounds, but instead of letting us off there, it continues on a set of switchbacks that lead up to a bus parking lot that is a few hundred metres away, and three stories above the entrance level.

The Athlete's Village in Torino (there are also two in the mountains) is located across a large set of train tracks from the IBC bus mall, and there is a newly constructed elevated walkway that leads from the bus mall to the AV and under a huge red arch...



On this side, the walkway meets up with an existing covered walkway (over the roads the buses come in on) that leads to a huge building that used to be a Fiat factory, but now houses Fiat offices, and a large mall on the third floor. My accreditation does not allow me access to the AV walkway, but here is a photo from the walkway junction back across the bus mall. Notice that you can see the mountains in the background (this is the first time it has been clear enough to see them)...



Turning to the left from there, you can look down on to the Satellite Farm, and the back entrance to the IBC. You can see why they call it a farm, although this area is MUCH smaller than in previous Olympics. Satellite transmission has mostly been relegated to use as a backup in case the fibre connections fail, and there is now so much bandwidth available that fewer people are using the Sat-Farm...



As you walk across the walkway, towards the shopping mall, and on the opposite side from the Sat-Farm, there is a strange looking garden that I call the "hedge brownie farm", and hopefully you can see why from the the photo...



The Lingotto Fiat building is enormous, so much so that it has a 2.4km test track on the roof (with banked corners) that they used to use for test driving cars. The link above has a neat aerial view of the roof, but here is a photo from the walkway showing the control tower and part of the banked corners...



Also on the roof is a helicopter pad, and a glass-domed restaurant that, combined, look a little like the Starship Enterprise...



The walkway is long enough that there is a horizontal people-mover (flat escalator, like at O'Hare airport in Chicago). When the people-mover ends, you can either walk down three flights of stairs to the "mag 'n bag" scanning station at the back entrance to the IBC, or you can continue on the walkway into the shopping mall, walk across to the other side of the building and take a real escalator down to street level where you can enter the IBC from its front entrance.

Here's a photo that gives a good idea as to the size of the Lingotto Fiat building...



And finally, here is the front entrance to the IBC. The NBC area is located closest to this end. In a few days, I'll show you some pictures from inside the IBC, and maybe a few from the mall.



Ciao for now!

Happy Birthday Cory!

Cory is my nephew, who turns 14 on February 13th. His class at school is studying the Olympics this week, and I'm told they might drop by my blog, so I wanted to send a special message to Cory today in celebration of his birthday!

Torino - Another Medal!

Cindy Klassen won Bronze today in the Women's 3000 speed skating event at the Lingotto Oval (which is right beside the IBC). She is the world record holder in this event and had been favoured to win the race.

Also today the Women's Hockey team clobbered the Russian team 12-0. Rookie Meghan Agosta celebrated her 19th birthday with a hat-trick! The team is receiving some criticism for running up their scores. I don't think this is fair, as they have to stay focused and disciplined in order to be ready to play the US later on.

Canada had won every Women's world championship up until last year when they lost to the US. They also lost to the US in the debut of Women's Hockey at the Nagano Olympics in 1998, revenging that loss with a victory in Salt Lake City.

Torino - Figure Skating Drama

Figure skating alway seems to create the news stories at the Olympics. In Salt Lake it was Jamie Salé and David Pelletier and the French Judge scandal. Now, today, Michelle Kwan announced that she is withdrawing from the US Team due to injury. The unscheduled news conference and follow-up interview in the studio here, had us all scrambling this morning in Comms.

At the US Nationals, Sasha Cohen took 1st, Kimmie Meissner took 2nd, and Emily Hughes took 3rd, all three earning spots on the US Olympic team. (Thanks to Andy, for the correction on this!)

Michelle Kwan did not compete, as she was recovering from injury, but petitioned the USOC for a spot on the team based on past performance and the hope that she would recover in time for the Olympics. The petition was granted, with the provision that she be evaluated by the USOC a week before the games. She passed the evaluation, and Emily Hughes was bumped from the team for Michelle Kwan.

At practice yesterday, Michelle only practiced one of her triples, two-footing once, falling the second time, and turning the third attempt into a double. She was visibly distraught after the practice, and this morning announced that she would withdraw, allowing Emily Hughes to compete.

Disappointing for Michelle, but the right thing to do, as many people had thought that Emily had earned the right to compete at the Nationals.

Susan, Caitie, and I have been watching a show on TLC called Ice Diaries which has been following some up-and-coming US Figure Skaters as they hoped to qualify for the Olympics. The show is a neat insight into the world of competitive Figure Skating. Of the skaters on this show, 2 are on the USOC C-Team, and 1 is on the B-Team (where Emily Hughes had been).

Here's a photo of a young Canadian up-and-coming Synchronized Skater (Caitie) during the warm-up at a recent competition with her Iced Energy team...



The team skates to the music from My Best Friend's Wedding, and they are dressed as bridesmaids. The team won gold at their first two competitions this year, and silver at a competition this past Saturday (with many of the team sick with the flu)...