USOC Entertainment Properties: The Olympics and beyond - hopefully - Post News - United States Olympic Committee - Brief Article

Post, March, 2002 by Mark R. Smith

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- From the broadcast standpoint, considerable media attention during the 2002 Winter Olympics was focused on the International Broadcast Center in Salt Lake City.

Given the size of that massive under-taking, that's predictable and understandable. But during the two-year gaps between the alternating winter and summer events, there's still a mountainous amount of video work done to prepare for the next games. Just ask anyone on the 12-man staff at the United States Olympic Committee's Entertainment Properties Division at its headquarters in Colorado Springs.

While the load is definitely more daunting during an Olympic year; Laura Zappi, associate director of broadcast marketing for the USOC, points out that the staff's noses are still to the grindstone during the "off" years in the division, which was founded in 1993.

Since then, almost all of the production work has been internal. However, that could be changing, given a new marketing approach and a little help from the USOC sponsor; Panasonic.

THE SET-UP

Interestingly, the Entertainment Properties facility isn't used as much during the games as it is before and after the events.

The sundry works are varied, including shooting footage during Olympic trials and producing vignettes of athletes training that are used during their speaking engagements, as well as corporate presentations for national governing bodies of the various sports, such as USA Hockey - to name but a few.

That variety of work "minimizes the monotony," explains production editor Andy Goyne, who listed other projects, such as training and inspirational videos for athletes and sponsors, PSAs, and searching and licensing footage from a vast archive that dates back to 1932 to networks like HBO and Oxygen. On this day, he's working on a motivational video to be shown to the athletes as they snag their apparel, event tickets and room assignments before the games.

Because Panasonic is a big sponsor; much of the equipment comes at a good price, Zappi explains. That's an especially big deal lately, with the advent of high-def and the marketing possibilities it creates. An HD suite was recently added to the facility. It came with two HD I 50 decks and conversion cards, allowing video conversion from I 080i and 72Op to 480 lines easily.

That upgrade and a flexible work schedule give the department ideas about raising revenue via outside projects to support the athletes' training." Today, our goal is to utilize the HD resources now on hand in-house to expand the business outside the Olympic family," Zappi explains.

Rounding out the equipment list is an Accom WD/HD digital disk recorder. "We can store our HD footage on it, add graphics and video treatments, and export the QuickTime files it creates into Adobe After Effects or Adobe Premiere," explains Goyne. "It renders all of that out. The Accom is also used as a DDR"

Goyne adds that the Accom is quite stable, since it can capture HD footage in real-time. "We've been using it for five months and it hasn't crashed yet" he states.

The Panasonic equipment list includes an AV-HS3 100 switcher and a versatile HD-only switcher that enables chromakeying and a 3D wipe effect that controls the aspects of each wipe, like the edge, drop shadow and borders.

The department also houses Panasonic's Universal Format Converter; the USC- I 800, for formatting and standards conversion that can switch from HD to standard definition. It masters on the Panasonic HD-D-5 3700 H deck which is also used for editing and includes Editware DPE-500 software that controls the two DVCPRO decks, the HD-150s and HD D-5 decks, and the switcher.

Two Panasonic Post Boxes are used for nonlinear editing, as are Ampex I-inch, MII, Panasonic D-3 and D-5, S-VHS, Sony UMatic 3/4-inch and Sony Beta SP decks. For audio, the department offers a new Panasonic Ramsa DA7MKII digital audio board.

Shooting is done on HDC-27V cameras, the multi-frame rate HD camera from Panasonic. There's a standard definition element in the same room as well.

Yet, Accom is not the only other manufacturer in what Goyne called an "about 90 percent" Panasonic house. Other equipment includes the Pinnacle Commotion Pro 4, which is used for compositing and track matting; an Adobe suite, with Illustrator; Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere; the Softimage XSI for 3D work; and the Sonic Fusion for DVD authoring.

THE GAME PLAN

Also noteworthy is that the USOC is the primary domestic licenser of Olympic footage and consults with the International Olympic Committee if the licensee plans to use it internationally. Requests made outside the US are under the domain of the Olympic Television Archive Bureau (OTAB), London, which consults with the USOC if the license includes any US territory.

When the games end, the division embarks on creating a highlight video that is given to many US athletes. "That takes a couple of weeks," Zappi continues Then, other sporting organizations contact us when looking for footage to incorporate in their videos. For instance, last fall USA Hockey produced six or seven :30 pieces to show on the scoreboard during games they played."