Félix Auger-Aliassime and Leylah Annie Fernandez will have their moment Revolution at the Paris Olympics. Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse not included.
Tennis is one of the events that will benefit from new multi-camera technology that will offer three-dimensional replays. Older players will talk about an effect Matrixin reference to the 1999 feature film by the Wachowskis. Younger people will talk about an effect Revolutiona nod to the dance competition led by Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse.
Captured by 100 cameras positioned around the basketball court, these strobe images will recreate complete sequences with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), revealed François Legrand, Senior Director, Engineering, Technology and Infrastructure at CBC/Radio-Canada, during our visit earlier this week to the public broadcaster’s facilities at Studios Grandé in Montreal.
A dozen sports will benefit from the same treatment, including beach volleyball, judo, three-on-three basketball and rugby.
AI will also be used to present the 100-meter events in athletics. The races will be broken down into portions, just like each dive in the springboard events, to know the best push-off, the best height, etc.
Additional AI-generated data will be used in tennis (players’ reaction time) as well as table tennis (ball spin speed).
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
François Legrand, Senior Director, Engineering, Technologies and Infrastructure at CBC/Radio-Canada
“There are things that we will see for the first time at the Olympics,” emphasizes François Legrand. “But because no one wants to break their teeth at the Games, these technologies have all been tested before, for example at the world championships.”
Final preparations
For the third consecutive Olympics, part of the broadcaster’s operations will take place in the Grandé Studios, which are seen as an extension of the main building, the Nouvelle Maison de Radio-Canada. At Grandé, 15,000 square feet are dedicated to the Games, which will take place from July 26 to August 11.
During our visit to the facilities last Tuesday, preparations were underway. In the control room, about ten people were busy making sure that when the time came to go on air, Saturday morning at 6 a.m., everything was in order.
-
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
In the control room, rehearsals were in full swing on Tuesday, using images from the Tokyo Olympics.
-
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Radio-Canada teams have set up a studio which will receive the families of the competing athletes.
-
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Six editing rooms have been set up at Studios Grandé.
-
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
The Olympic team occupies 15,000 square feet of space at Grandé Studios.
-
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
The description booths, which look like ice fishing huts, allow commentary from Montreal on the various competitions.
1/5
“We rehearse, we check how each camera works on site, the position of the presenters… We revise so that everything fits together. I have 16 days. I have to be good right away. Otherwise, people will criticize,” says Luc Lebel, director-coordinator of Olympic production at Radio-Canada.
“The sign ‘Please excuse us, we are experiencing technical difficulties’ is not something we want to display.”
Nearly 200 employees in Paris
Radio-Canada has brought out the big guns to cover these Olympic Games: 184 people are currently in Paris. Among them, 60 also work for CBC. In Montreal, 250 people are providing TV and digital coverage.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Luc Lebel, director-coordinator of Olympic production at Radio-Canada
This year, it was important to be in Paris because it is a French-speaking environment. The last French-speaking Summer Games were in Montreal in 1976.
Luc Lebel, director-coordinator of Olympic production at Radio-Canada
Since the animation team (which includes Jean-Patrick Balleux, Guillaume Dumas, Martin Labrosse, Jacinthe Taillon and Geneviève Tardif) took the Montreal-Paris flight, the interviews where the athlete was transposed into the studio by visual effect (green screen) are over.
“It was a pandemic solution,” says Luc Lebel.
The famous description booths, which allow commentary and analysis of the various competitions from Montreal, are deployed at Studios Grandé.
These 12 “ice fishing huts” will host teams of describers and analysts such as Sylvie Fréchette and Marie-Gabrielle Ménard (artistic swimming), Hugo Barrette and Sébastien Boucher (track cycling) or Marie-Eve Dicaire and Jean-François Chabot (boxing).
An “out of the ordinary” ceremony
While waiting for the Paris 2024 competitions to kick off, Radio-Canada will broadcast the opening ceremony on Friday, with Céline Galipeau and Martin Labrosse on the microphone. The event will air at 1 p.m. on ICI Télé, ICI Tou.tv, Radio-Canada.ca and RDS. Bell Media’s sports channel will offer 450 hours of live coverage until August 11, in support of the public broadcaster.
Details surrounding the opening ceremony are being closely guarded. Will Celine (Dion, not Galipeau) sing? Will Lady Gaga perform? Only a handful of people are said to know, says Luc Lebel.
What we do know is that it will be a parade of 90 boats on the Seine, which will culminate at the foot of the monument erected at 5, avenue Anatole-France: the Eiffel Tower.
“It’s something completely out of the ordinary,” comments Luc Lebel. “They’re betting big on it.”
On the technical side, 120 cameras will be deployed along the river course, including drones. Another element to note: 200 Samsung cell phones (the result of a sponsorship) will be given to the athletes so that they can show the atmosphere on board the boats.
To avoid interrupting the ceremony too much, Radio-Canada will present 50% of the advertisements on a split screen.
For those who would like a taste of the efforts behind this anticipated event, we recommend The great Seinea two-part documentary whose epilogue will be broadcast on ICI RDI this Thursday at 7 p.m. Rebroadcasts are scheduled on ICI Télé on Friday at 11 p.m., and on ICI ARTV on Saturday at 4 p.m.