International Sports Broadcasting, host broadcaster for the 2nd European Games 2019 held in Minsk, Belarus in June, turned to AEQ for the event’s communications tasks.
ISB managed the International Broadcasting Center along with 11 venues during the event, which hosted some 4000 athletes from 50 European countries competing in 15 different sport disciplines.
MULTILATERAL COVERAGE
Esteban Galán, ISB’s head of technical operations, says they implemented AoIP network interfaces, intercom systems, audio codecs, commentary units, broadcast monitors, 12 mobile units and more than 200 cameras to produce multilateral coverage of the games.
About 700 broadcast professionals worked to ensure the signals reached 190 worldwide right holders at the IBC and their home countries. In total, ISB says it produced close to 800 hours of coverage of which 600 hours was live.
During the event, the organization relied heavily on gear from AEQ and Kroma. The company used an AEQ Crossnet intercom system with multichannel AoIP for the communication channels. It installed 45 user panels, mainly at the IBC, along with a few at the bigger venues.
“The Dante Network allowed for the Crossnet to carry our signals originating from any point in the network,” explained Galán. “Signals could be accessed through the NetBox 32 and eight AD units as well as the Netbox 4MH’s that were deployed to send signals to the mic.”
CONNECTING LOCALLY
Galán said the Phoenix Venus 3 audio codec allowed them to connect locally to AoIP multichannel networks and was ideal for international contributions of commentary programs and return audio.
[Read: AEQ Netboxes Provide Access to IP]
“We used the Venus 3 to interconnect a few of the venues with the AEQ Phoenix Alio commentary unit. The Alio [a portable audio codec with mixer functions for either local or remote control] comes in really handy when talent in the commentary position are non-technical and may need assistance.”
The other venues such as the main stadium relied on the AEQ Olympia 3 AoIP multichannel commentary unit. Olympia 3 is a sound mixer that operates as an independent or standalone commentary unit, or can be linked to a small, medium or large commentary system.
AEQ specifies that it can also connect to a Dante-based AoIP routing system and receive or send audio from/to any device incorporating Audinate’s Dante technology or the AES67 protocol.