The first TV broadcast of the first test competition at the first Olympic facility put into operation has taken place. The Sochi Olympic trails at the Rosa Khutor alpine resort have welcomed one of the stages of the Alpine Ski European Cup.
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The first TV broadcast of the first test competition at the first Olympic facility put into operation has taken place. The Sochi Olympic trails at the Rosa Khutor alpine resort have welcomed one of the stages of the Alpine Ski European Cup.
The first TV broadcasting of the first test competition at the first Olympic facility put into operation has taken place.
For the first time in history one of the stages of the Alpine Ski European Cup has taken place in Russia at Sochi Olympic trails in Rosa Khutor. The competition that took place on February 9-26 has come as the first international test competition in line with the decree on the creation of an inter-agency committee coordinating and controlling preparations for and implementation of the “Test Competitions Programme at the Sochi Olympic facilities in 2011-2014” headed by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, signed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The Alpine Ski European Cup is an annual series of alpine ski competitions (stages) under the auspices of the FIS (International Ski Federation), defining the winners in men’s and women’s overall rankings, as well as in specific skiing disciplines among the best alpine skiers.
February 18, ANO Sports Broadcasting (Panorama) produced an HD signal of the international standard for the first live Russian TV broadcast from alpine skiing competitions (downhill, men) on Russia 2 (VGTRK) and NTV-PLUS Sport. “Never before have we broadcast from Olympic facilities, and never before – neither in the Soviet Union, nor in Russia – have we seen broadcasts from alpine ski competitions. We’ve got to the unknown territory, and that’s what is most difficult and most interesting,” said Vasily Kiknadze, general director of ANO Sports Broadcasting.
Most serious preparations were made before the broadcasting. As Russia had not had such an experience, Panorama professionals looked closely into the international experience: they visited a stage of Alpine Ski World Cup in Germany and invited the foreign consultants with the experience of organizing such competitions. A large team of almost 150 best Moscow and regional creative and technical professionals was gathered, two 12-compartment OB vans with 25 cameras, 2 TV screens 8 and 12 meters high, a Polecam crane and other kinds of special operator equipment was rented. The challenging landscape required serious technological solutions: to construct the bearings for the cameras from 2 to 10 meters high, 30 tonnes of metal framework were constructed. To connect TV cameras and additional TV equipment, a transport optic-fibre network of more than 10 kilometres long was created.
During the preparations and the broadcasting itself, we tried our hand in working jointly with all the organizations involved, and primarily with the Russian Federation of Alpine Skiing and Snowboarding, with the FIS organizing committee (International Skiing Federation), the Sport and Tourism Ministry, Rostelecom, GC Olympstroy and Sochi-2014 Organizing Committee.
The 2013 Track-and-Field World Cup will be held in Moscow. It was decided in Mombassa (Kenya) at the meeting of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).