News Release - Island Games 2005

FREE SATELLITE AND BT TOWER PLAYOUTS

INTRODUCTION

Between 9 and 15 July 2005, 2500 athletes and officials from 24 island communities throughout the world will descend upon Shetland to compete in The NatWest Island Games, a biennial international multi-sport event, larger in scale than the Winter Olympics.

15 different team and individual sports have been chosen from a list of 18 set down by the IGA: Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Bowls, Cycling, Football, Golf, Gymnastics, Sailboarding, Sailing, Shooting, Squash, Swimming, Table Tennis and Volleyball.

Shetland will host more than 390 top class sporting events being staged at more than 18 venues across Shetland's 100 islands; venues that include Britain's most northerly golf course, clay pigeon shooting range and floodlit Astroturf pitch and some of the best indoor sports facilities to be found anywhere in the UK.

Athletes will travel huge distances to compete in Shetland. The 24 member islands of the IGA are: Aland, Alderney, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Froya, Gibraltar, Gotland, Greenland, Guernsey, Hitra, Isle of Man, Isle of Wight, Jersey, Orkney, Prince Edward Island, Rhodes, Saaremaa, Sark, Shetland, St. Helena, Western Isles, Ynys Mon.

FREE PREVIEW & DAILY PLAYOUTS VIA SATELLITE AND BT TOWER

SMG Broadcast and Event Solutions, the production resources division of leading media group SMG, has been appointed to operate a host broadcast service for the Games.

SMG Broadcast and Event Solutions Contact: Danny Livingston, OB Production Manager, m:07803 970 036, e:danny.livingston@smg.plc.uk

The outside broadcast service will include:
A free daily five-minute sports news round up of the Games onto a designated satellite channel for all broadcasters on a news access basis. The footage will be produced in such a way as to enable a fast turnaround around quickly. Broadcasters may access this feed direct from satellite at no cost or via BT tower in London subject to BT rates for the routing to final destination. The aspect ratio for pool material will be 4:3.

The 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, with some sports highlights content.

This material will be unbranded and is free to use for all broadcasters: the only restriction in use is to let us know when and where it is broadcast.

OTHER SERVICES

SMG Broadcast and Event Solutions will be providing a schedule of events that they will be covering, much of it live for recording on location. They can provide live output of any of their scheduled coverage, but this would require that the satellite uplink (and additional relays if needed) be paid for by the broadcaster (or broadcasters) who have requested the uplink.

SMG Broadcast and Event Solutions can also arrange unilateral interviews
with competitors, officials or organisers if required. This would be paid
for by the broadcaster requesting the feed.

Webcasting for the Games - Shetland Islands Council are currently working on a facility to make pictures from the event available on the internet, as live streaming and as downloads of highlights. The scope and quality of this facility is still at the test stage, but we hope to release details when the technical elements of the service are confirmed.

FREE PREVIEW FOOTAGE PLAYOUT

10 minutes of preview b-roll material featuring aerial shots and location shots of Shetland and some training shots of various sports will be transmitted on 30th June 2005 to allow broadcasters to use to preview the Games.

This material will be unbranded and is free to use for all broadcasters: the only restriction in use is to let us know when and where it is broadcast.

Details:

Via BT tower
At 15:30 - 15:45 BST on 30th June on GTR53, item number 109 at BT tower, London, for broadcasters able to access BT tower via landlines/satellite.

By Intelsat 10-02:
14:30 GMT - 14:45 GMT
14694 Booking ID:

Satellite Intelsat 10-02 1 West
Total Bandwidth 9.0 Mhz
Transponder /Channel Txp 65/ Dig.15
D/L Freq. / Pol. 11490.500/h
U/L Freq. / Pol. 14290.500/v
EIRP/ dBW 39
Telenor UK Uplink V510

Special Instructions:
Local end at BT tower GTR53
Switch has been booked from 13h15 - 15h00

Digital Tx Details:
FEC: 3/4
Symbol Rate: 5.632

Transmission will not be encoded.

FREE 5 MINUTE DAILY PLAYOUT OF NEWS FOOTAGE

The playouts will consist of highlights and b-roll material for broadcasters who want to cover the event but have limited or no resources available in Shetland, and will be supplied with clean fx with separate guidance comments to assist editors.

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.

All playouts are on Intelsat 10-02 via Telenor. The feeds will be downlinked at Scottish Television in Glasgow, and passed to BT Tower, London, on assignment GTR53 for broadcasters who cannot access the satellite directly.
BT Tower Item numbers for these feeds will be circulated when assigned.
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.

Any broadcasters who require material outside of these times should contact Danny Livingston at SMG to arrange time to be scheduled on our uplink, and provide satellite details as required. The broadcasters making the request should meet costs for these additional facilities.

Contact: Danny Livingston - OB Production Manager, SMG Broadcast and Events Solutions - m:+44 (0)7803 970 036 / e:danny.livingston@smg.plc.uk