A series of major winter sporting events in Beijing wrapped up on Sunday, February 20th, with an elaborate closing ceremony comprised of theater, dance, music and cultural traditions targeted to those watching from home. COVID protocols prohibited attendance by the general public, leaving spectators to broadcast, cable and streaming options for the viewing of the events.
Beijing, China - September 21, 2009: Exterior of Beijing National Olympic Stadium also known as Bird's Nest. It was designed as the main stadium of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
The televised games shone through, despite pandemic exhaustion, growing tensions between nations and ongoing drug scandals among athletes, with Norway, Germany, Canada, the U.S. and China finishing with the highest accolades.
In addition to the host broadcaster, CCTV in China, many of the world’s other top broadcasters—Discovery Networks in Europe, ZDF in Germany, RTVS in Slovakia, TV Globo in Brazil and many more—utilized Clear-Com’s products over local and global IP networks to support their complex broadcasting workflows for the duration of these events.
Broadcast productions were comprised of a combination of local and remote contributions from many talented professionals dispersed across many geographies and time zones, who were well served by Clear-Com’s catalog of IP-based products, bringing teams together seamlessly amid varying conditions. In some cases, networks actually had more production team members based out of their home facilities, than they had onsite in Beijing.
In these instances, remote-enabling IP communications solutions like Clear-Com’s LQ® Series of IP Interfaces, Agent-IC® Mobile intercom app and the new Station-IC™ Virtual Desktop Client, played an integral role in these applications. These systems facilitate connection to the core intercom system via cellular service or Wi-Fi, no matter the physical distance.
Clear-Com wired and wireless solutions were also used for the live performance event operations during ceremonies marking the beginning and end of the games and were supplied by a Beijing-based Clear-Com Rental Partner. The comms needs for these ceremonies were incredibly complex, requiring three sets of Eclipse® Delta Frames, 48 V-Series™ Panels, three sets of HMS-4X Main Stations, over 52 FreeSpeak II® wireless beltpacks and 36 wired HelixNet® beltpacks.
Our deep appreciation and congratulations go out to all those involved in the production of these events, named and unnamed, bringing the welcome display of comradery and athleticism into our homes in the wake of a tumultuous couple of years.