France Télévisions and TVU prepare for Paris 2024 with a “hyper-mobile” broadcasting solution

عديد TVU Networks solutions have powered a “hyper-mobile” broadcast as France Télévisions has started the countdown to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The new France Télévisions workflow, defined by TVU as a “hyper-mobile” broadcast, consists of TVU’s cloud solutions for production, remote collaboration, IFB management, intercom and mix-minus; the TVU RPS One for synchronized capture of live multi-camera content; and two Starlink Maritime units for data transmission and aggregation.

This workflow, which will presumably be used for other broadcasts during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, was used for a magazine with interviews focusing on the countdown to the sporting event. In total, almost four hours of live content were produced: three continuous hours on the news channel “franceinfo” and half an hour on the regional news channel “Paris Idf”, as well as a live broadcast on Twitch.

The event, with multiple locations and cameras, took place in Paris aboard a moving ship with limited space. Five cameras were used: four located on the boats and one mounted on a motorcycle following the action along the Seine River. In addition, two other live broadcasts were made at different locations in Paris and Ukraine. The seven live broadcasts, powered by the TVU RPS One and TVU One backpacks, were seamlessly synchronized on the TVU Producer cloud production platform, with “zero runtime delay.”

Satellite support and the power of the cloud

France Télévisions also used two Starlink Maritime systems, as well as the 5G network itself, to help counter cellular bandwidth challenges on moving ships. The TVU RPS One backpack transmitter with 5G modems was used to transmit synchronized signals from multiple cameras to TVU’s remote cloud production platform, adding 5G and Starlink connectivity. A motorcycle on the ground was also equipped with a TVU One 5G transmitter to capture additional footage.

On the other hand, the TVU Producer cloud platform served as the backbone of the production, facilitating seamless collaboration between team members, with much of the production done remotely from a France TV studio. Finally, camera feeds were transmitted as redundancy to both the TVU Producer cloud platform and the studio, providing automatic backup in case of unforeseen circumstances and ensuring uninterrupted broadcast.

Skander Ben Attia, engineering director at France Télévisions, welcomes this “more flexible” approach to live reporting: “TVU provided us with a smaller, less hardware reliant, and more versatile technology solution that created the foundation for hyper-mobile broadcasting. We no longer need to rely heavily on traditional extensive and complex infrastructure for news capture while also becoming much faster to go live and more carbon friendly.”

On the other hand, Romuald Rat, head of TechLab at France Télévisions, adds, “We are very excited about the results we are seeing from our hyper-mobile initiative with TVU. We have been able to produce high quality multi-camera live events or breaking news from any location despite challenging circumstances – hardware failures, an entire system down, war zones or deserted areas. With only batteries and cameras in hand and powered by the latest generation of 5G with Starlink and TVU bonded cellular transmission equipment, the reporting team has the tools it needs to rapidly conduct a live newscast anywhere in the world and cover stories from any angle – traditional and new.”