News Release - 9 July 2005
FREE DAILY PLAYOUT SATELLITE & BT TOWER INFORMATION
The Host Broadcaster Television Service for the Island Games in Shetland 2005 is provided by SMG Broadcast and Events solutions, and is co-ordinated by SMG production manager Danny Livingston.
We will be providing a limited news footage service from the Games, playing out 5 to 10 minutes per day of highlights for news broadcasters to edit and voice over for their bulletins, available via satellite and through BT tower, and also via internet.
Shetland Islands Council is providing streaming video to the Internet for the benefit of the community, competitors, their families and friends and this content will also be available to broadcasters. Newsrooms can monitor the output of our pool feed service using this link:
http://www.shetland.gov.uk/islandgames/
We are also providing a limited FTP service to enable download of small packages of highlights at higher resolutions. Please contact us if you wish to use this service.
Danny Livingston - OB Production Manager - SMG Broadcast and Events Solutions m: 44 (0)7803 970 036 / e: danny.livingston@smg.plc.uk
Satellite Details
The satellite details for our playouts are given below. Our satellite channel is on Intelsat 10-02, which should extend to most of Europe. We will be relaying a feed to BT Tower in London, where Broadcasters may be able to make arrangements to pass this feed on to another satellite operator for transmission if required, but we cannot pay for this service. We suggest that you approach other broadcasters in your area to share the costs if this is possible. We have no objection to this feed being relayed to anyone else.
These feeds will be designed for broadcasters to add commentary, but may carry some verbal guidance for editors on sound channel 2. The pictures will be edited loosely to allow the playouts to be edited further by the end users. The content will be mostly colour material, showing human interest and location elements, but with some sports highlights content.
For broadcasters on location in Shetland, and for those who have an interest, we will be providing a schedule of events that we will be covering, much of it live for recording on location. We can provide live output of any of our scheduled coverage, but would require that the satellite uplink (and additional relays if needed) is paid for by the broadcaster (or broadcasters) who have requested the uplink. We can also arrange unilateral 2-way interviews with any competitors or officials if required, again paid for by the broadcaster requesting the feed. Broadcasters may want to do this if a strong news story emerges for their area in the course of the event.
Outline of our service
We will issue advance and daily schedules of intended pool coverage prior to the games so that broadcasters can make best use of their resources. We will also try to help co-ordinate pool coverage to avoid having two cameras at one event and none at another. Where we can't meet the exact needs of a particular broadcaster's schedule we will consider allocating our pool positions to broadcasters able to resource their own coverage.
As an overview we will be providing a Host Broadcasting Service to all broadcasters, based on a pool feed which is a combination of 7 manned live OB cameras deployed at key events at Clikimin sports centre, supplemented with five single camera units deployed on an ad-hoc basis, producing a daily B-roll of highlights from the smaller venues and events such as cycling, which are outside the scope of a fixed location OB. This will be colour coverage, so any focus on individual athletes would be best considered by individual broadcasters using their own crews. These pool pictures will be available to all broadcasters, with the intention of providing the best possible coverage to all involved. We will play out a 5 to 10 minute daily highlights package on satellite at 16:25 BST (15:25GMT) to allow turnaround for evening news bulletins.
We have a feed distribution point in our OB unit at Clickimin where pool feeds can be accessed by broadcasters for local recording or uplink, to allow all broadcasters to have instant access to pool footage, both on location and in your newsrooms, supplemented by the streaming video for monitoring. Broadcasters may also book live satellite time for specific events if needed: some may be able to negotiate shared costs with others interested in the same live event.
Recording format locally is your choice - you simply need to provide and operate a suitable machine to record a digital or analogue pool feed if you want to record at location.
Aspect ratio will be 4:3 origination in PAL as the dominant standard for news and internet broadcast. Sound will be two channel, with clean mono FX and a separate guide commentary, not intended for transmission, on highlights packages.
We will attempt to bring all resource requests together to co-ordinate any sub-contracting or additional crewing which may be required. Facilities on the islands are limited, so there may be little spare capacity to meet additional requests on the day.
As the games have always been run on a collaborative basis, we may ask for exceptional moments of sporting action to be made available to the pool feed where we allocate a pool camera position to a broadcaster other than the host: this meets our objective of best coverage possible for all involved. We don't expect universal access to exclusive interviews or other non-sporting coverage.
The policy on branding of pool output is that the captions will carry island games branding, but that the output will not have a continuous branding bug or clock. This will help broadcasters to meet ITC/BBC guidelines, and will eliminate the need for clean and dirty feeds.
If our coverage does not meet your needs we will be happy to allocate host broadcaster positions to your cameras, so long as we can show news highlights from your coverage on the pool feed to other broadcasters. The reason for this is that space is limited at Clickimin, and the venue managers will need to restrict the numbers and positions of cameras for safety reasons.
Satellite playout details
Below are details of satellite and BT tower bookings for playout of pool material for preview and daily material from the games.
PLEASE NOTE that updated details should be verified before transmission time. This info correct at 9 July 2005
This material will be unbranded and is free to use for all broadcasters. This material can be used without charge at any time for any use, but should not be resold. The only condition attached is that the rights holders (Shetland 2005 Ltd) are informed of any usage, and that the games are referred to as the Natwest Island Games
During the Games we will play out on Intelsat 10-02 1 west each day at 16.25 - 16-40 BST (15.25 BST) and will issue details seperately.
All playouts are on Intelsat 10-02 via Telenor. The feeds will be downlinked at Scottish Television in Glasgow, and passed to BT Tower on assignment GTR53 for broadcasters who cannot access the satellite directly. BT Tower Item numbers for these feeds are include below. Broadcasters may then contract BT or other satellite providers to redistribute this feed to another distribution channel. Telenor can also arrange redistribution to other satellites if required: contact Telenor UK bookings at +44 (0)207 923 6555
Saturday 9th July
Island Games pool playout - BT Item Number 113/00
TX: 15.25 - 15.40 GMT
Satellite: Intelsat 10-02 1 West transponder TXP61
Channel: Dig 10
Downlink Frequency: 10988.000
Downlink polarity: Vertical
Uplink frequency: 14038.000
Uplink polarity: Horizontal
Bandwidth: 9.0MHz
Symbol Rate: 5.632
FEC 3/4
Format 4:3
Not encrypted
vision: Dirty (Shetland 2005 GFX and Scores - no clock/bug/branding)
Audio: channel 1: International sound
Audio: channel 2: Guide commentary as required
POOL FEED PROPOSED TRANSMISSION SCHEDULE -
Saturday 9 July
14:00 - Pre shoot material part 1 - b-roll stock shots
15:00 - pre-shoot material part 2 - today footage, colour shots background and setup material
16:25 - 16:40 - playout to satellite - stock shots and today footage, setup material
19:00 - Opening ceremony - live
21:00 - short highlights - opening ceremony
21:30 - pool feed stops
This information is for guidance only - all times approximate.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Paddy Cuthbert - Podge Publicity :
17 - 23 Calton Road, Edinburgh EH8 8DL
T: 0131 477 2037 / F: 0131 558 3904 / M: 07968 699 636
E: paddy@podge.co.uk / W: www.podge.co.uk