In Rio 2016™ Olympic and Paralympic Games programming, the best sports moments will be scheduled with the world´s spectators. With a little more than three years to the beginning of the Rio 2016™ Games, planning of competitions coverage has already begun. From May 13th to 17th, 27 Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) employees, including its CEO, Yiannis Exarchos, were in Rio de Janeiro to get to know the competition venues and other inspiring city scenes.

OBS is the official organisation of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), responsible for delivering the pictures and sound of the Games to radio and television broadcasters with broadcast rights. Since 2008, OBS acts as the Host Broadcaster, working with the Organising Committee of each host city to guarantee all the infrastructure and technology needed to cover the Games.

“Our mission is to provide the best competition vantage points to people around the world. We want to broadcast all the emotion of the Olympic Games, and work so that millions of people worldwide participate in this great and exciting party”, says Exarchos.

This is what the Rio 2016™ Committee Broadcast Integration teams and OBS plan to do. Throughout the week, OBS and Rio 2016™ employees visited each one of the regions which will host Olympic competitions – Barra, Deodoro, Copacabana and Maracanã. Divided into five teams, each team counted professionals from different areas, like production, planning, engineering, information and telecommunications. They observed aspects like the devices required to best position the cameras, lighting, venue and surrounding area logistics. Basically, all the details so as not to miss one instant of athletes´ best performances in the competition.

After the research, teams met at the Rio 2016™ Committee headquarters, where they joined different functional areas involved in broadcasting operations. “We have integration with practically 90% of the committee´s functional areas, like transportation, accommodations, venues, etc.”, says committee broadcast specialist Mauricio Casé.

Yiannis Exarchos, CEO of OBS, at the Rio 2016™ Committee headquarters (Photo: Rio 2016™)

The OBS CEO confirmed that he is satisfied with the work developed by Rio 2016™ and plans to make additional visits to Rio as the Games planning advances. “Rio is an inspiring city. I believe that we have a great opportunity to do surprising, ambitious things. I flew over the city this Wednesday (15) and the possibilities to work with this background are unlimited. It is clear that such grandiose planning represents a lot of work, but I am fully confident that, along with the Rio 2016™ Committee, we will succeed. From what I was able to see this week, we have everything to make the best coverage ever”, he commented.

Exarchos even said that the greatest challenge for the team is to transmit, through the camera lens, the energy and the ideals of the Olympic Games. “We are very excited about working with Rio de Janeiro. Working with Olympic cities, we see that many places have a certain appeal due to their magnitude, beauty or history. Rio has all this and more. What is really fascinating about this city is its atmosphere. The energy is contagious, and the people, the Cariocas, bring this positive vibration. Our main challenge is to find the best way to show this to the world, because this is the real magic of the Games. If we are able to transmit a little of this energy, then we´ll definitely be able to present a great show”, he promises.