The Job

First things first, weather was both smoggy and rainy yesterday, so our covert photo operation was postponed.  Sunday hopefully.  Friday at work was a relatively light day.  Other than creating the first official competition of the Commentary Switching Olympic Games and testing with Japanese television and NBC, not much happened.  I will talk more about the Commentary Switching Games in upcoming posts.

However, now is a great time to explain my job to those of you wondering how the heck I get to come work here.  As stated earlier we tested Japanese television and radio and NBC.  The Olympic Broadcast is produced by a host broadcaster.  This started in the early 90's I believe.  Because there are hundreds of countries broadcasters trying to show the games in their respective nations, it would be a nightmare to have them all trying to produce their own signal.  So what happens is the host broadcaster, BOB (Beijing Olympic Broadcasting) produces a neutral audio and video feed along with graphics that each countries Rights Holding Broadcaster buys and uses.  So if you are watching gymnastics in France and in the USA you are seeing the same feed.  You are hearing different audio commentary which is were I come in.  I work for the Audio Commentary side.  We have 44 venues here in Beijing.  Every rights holder gets an identical audio commentary box with two headsets and a place for a third microphone.  That audio goes from their press position at the venue to a little room at the venue, where a group of our department monitors it.  It then becomes digital and travels along fiber optics to the IBC (International Broadcast Center) where I work.  It feeds into a large room where we check it, and route it to the proper rights holders studio which is set up in the IBC as well.  Every rights holder creates a temporary studio for the Games.  The IBC is typically a converted convention center, in Atlanta it was the Georgia World Congress Center.  It is a vast array of cables carrying the entire broadcast of the Olympics all being fed to our hub and then to each temporary studio.  It then feeds to a satellite farm or now some other kind of delivery back to the home nation.  I make sure the audio is good.  

Now even more specifically, during the Games themselves, smaller nations tend to have a few medal hopefuls they are watching closely.  Lets say Finland has a great high jumper.  In anticipation of that athlete doing well they may want to interview that athlete right after the competition hoping they've medaled.  Well the countries with less resource, can hire a generic host broadcaster cameraman and audio person, and then they can book a simple audio circuit for the talent or a producer to have in their ear, so that the studio in the IBC can tell them information, like start talking, or we're recording now, or ask another question.  I enable that temporary communication.  At its busiest we might have 4 running at once, and my main job is to make sure that both the venue and the studio are in connected.  This job is becoming more and more scarce in its need because the service we provide is extra money, and now everybody has cell phones, which they can pretty easily use to coordinate it.  The rights holders who are trying to pull this off live, usually have their own cameras and crew there.  

NBC has gone so far this year as to sidestep commentary from our services all together.  So they are feeding their audio commentary via another format.  Their studio here is bigger than the host broadcasters.  They have their own cafeteria inside their area.  The Today Show is being filmed at the base of a giant tower next to the Birds Nest and the Water Cube.  I'll post a picture when they open the area up.  

Before I forget, here a couple of things you can watch for in the Games Broadcast.  The graphics on the screen will look very different from what you typically see on NBC for everything else.  The NBC logo or bug as its known is really the only thing they put on the screen for actual event coverage.  The graphics are generic and from the host broadcaster. 

How did I get in on this.  Asbury College.  Dr. Jim Owens, the chair of the Media Department has been in the industry since the 80's.  He is in Senior Management with the Host Broadcaster which is OBS (Olympic Broadcasting Services).  This company sets up a local entity to produce each games, ISB (Salt Lake), AOB (Athens Olympic Broadcasting), TOBO (Torino), BOB (Beijing).  Dr. Owens connection is what allows Asbury College students to work as interns in the Games.  I worked Salt Lake as an intern.  My department like me, and called me to work the same position as a freelancer in Athens.  The same thing happened for Beijing.  Most of the guys working for the host broadcaster have been doing this from at least Sydney or Salt Lake on.  Some longer.  Every games brings in some new people and some people have to step away because of job situations they are in back home.  Its sort of like being at a family reunion for two months.  These guys are like cousins you don't see very often, but when you get together you have a good time, share about life, share meals, and then part your ways until the next Games.  

The bottom line is the Olympics is built on relationships.  You get here through who you know, you move up through who you know, and stay through who you know.  Well, that's it for now, the next post will be a summary of our excursion today.  Should be fun.