CONTEXT
Nearly 2,000 athletes gathered in Berlin, Germany in August for the 12th International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships. Over the event’s nine-day period, athletes from at least 34 countries were awarded medals, and three world records were set. In addition, there were nine championship records, eight area records and 57 national records.

The IAAF, athletics’ world governing body, reported sales of more than 400,000 tickets for the Championships and exceptionally high viewing figures from the 190 countries televising the coverage.

> German television audiences averaged 5 million viewers per day, with a peak of 9.9 million viewers during
the men’s 100 metres final and 8.6 million during the women’s high jump final
> France reported average TV audiences of 3.5 to 4.0 million
> In the UK, TV audiences averaged 3.0 million
> In Japan, TV audiences averaged 4.5 million

EUROVISION
Eurovision Sports Services was in Berlin to provide a full range of services to broadcasters. These services included multilateral distribution of the international signal for the entire event, unilateral transmissions, and providing workspaces and accreditations. We also assigned a Eurovision Sports News reporter and cameraman on site to enhance the sports news exchanges and enable Eurovision to offer exclusive, dedicated reporting.

Eurovision distributed both High and Standard Definition integrated signals, ISO (isolated) feeds by sports discipline, and dedicated broadcaster circuits . The HD world feed was primarily for Europe, while the SD was to Europe, Asia and the Americas. Eurovision’s MCR handled every aspect of the transmission of the competition.

STATISTICS
> HD SDI 1080i/50 Hz and SD productions
> 72 cameras in the stadium
> 27 cameras dedicated to the Marathon event
> 18 cameras used for the Walk event
> 140 items transmitted via the Eurovision Sports Exchanges (55 EVS sourced)

PARTNERS
Eurovision worked very closely with host broadcast organization BERTA 2009 (Berlin Radio Television Athletics). BERTA is a joint organization comprising two Eurovision members, ZDF and ARD. In this particular operation, ZDF provided Eurovision with bulk fibre bandwidth and, in turn, Eurovision provided ZDF with a back-up HD service. True to the founding principles of Eurovision this exchange was nevertheless a first involving the FiNE fibre network.

“This event was truly a perfect collaboration. The close cooperation and the dedication of all staff on site – from the host broadcaster to Eurovision – allowed us to successfully fulfill and, I hope, exceed our clients’ expectations. The operation was marked by that ‘special something’ that happens when people who enjoy working together are able to harness all that energy and all that passion and achieve the best possible results. That is exactly what happened in Berlin!” — Benoit Paquay , Eurovision Sports Services Coordinator

“It was truly a joy to see how the basis of Eurovision membership – reciprocity – really came into play here in Berlin. The onsite broadcasters were eager to exchange material and to help one another. And that meant everything from exchanging reports to ºhelping out with extension cords!”
— Ine Bjolseth, Eurovision Sports News Editor