Much effort needed to cover Games in colour

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32407, 21 September 1970, Page 4

Much effort needed to cover Games in colour

The announcement by the Post Office that it has begun advance preparations for the Commonwealth Games in 1974, published on Saturday, is a reminder of the huge task which winning the Games for New Zealand has set the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation.

Each of the competing countries which has a television service will require coverage of. the Games. It is an unwritten law that countries which are hosts for Commonwealth Games must provide full television coverage. To meet these requirements, there is going to be a tremendous demand for equipment and staff; and the organisation is beginning already. In Edinburgh there was a complete coverage, providing a pool from which New Zealand and the other visiting countries could select the material for the compiling of their own programmes day by day. There is a faint possibility that live transmissions will be arranged by some overseas television groups. Satellite transmission It is unlikely that satellite transmission will be used, unless it becomes cheaper in the next few years. A satellite transmission of a particular event is a possibility, but to cover the full 10 days in that fashion would involve enormous costs. The N.Z.B.C. will have to produce a total pool of film covering all the Games activities, which will be available to the 8.8. C. or 1.T.V., or both, Canada and Australia; Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore, and some of the African countries will also be buyers. The N.Z.B.C. will have to film, or cover by electronic camera with outside broadcast units, all events and feed them into a television centre. In the centre there will have to be recording and producing facilities for all the countries participating, and the purchasers will do their own editing and recording, based on the demands of their own programmes.

For the Edinburgh Games there was a New Zealand team in London producing a daily package programme. New Zealand’s programme was flown out of London every afternoon. Australia and Canada will probably fly their programmes out from Christchurch, but the 8.8. C. is most likely to require its programmes to be fed to Auckland by microwave circuit and recorded there; if satellite transmission is used there would be a specified period each day, based on a suitable viewing time for British viewers.

The Broadcasting Licensing Authority will be sitting again in October, and the recommendations it will make

to the Government on the advisability of a second channel, and on colour transmission, are of vital importance to the television planning for the Christchurch Games. It is certain that the visiting countries will want colour coverage of the Games. Colour by 1972 New Zealand would have to be operating in colour for at least 12 months before the Games in 1974 to produce an effective service, and to give experience to producers and technicians.

The outside broadcast colour units required are much bigger than the familiar ones now in use—probably half as big again. Each of the main centres now has a unit, and it is reasonable to assume that if colour is brought in, four more will be required, and all four colour units would have to be assembled in Christchurch for the Games. And for coverage of the various events, cameramen will have to be trained as specialists for swimming, track and field, boxing, and the other events. The staff needed for this expansion of endeavour would certainly have to be at strength well before the introduction of colour, which should come—if it is to be used at all —by the end of 1972. So within about 18 months the practical side of training—and recruitingwill have to have started The decision of the Broadcasting Licensing Authority can surely not come soon enough for those responsible for putting these massive plans into operation. The cost of conversion to colour would be high: the colour outside broadcast units cost about $350,000 each, and the full cost of conversion would run into several million dollars. It is possible that the Broadcasting Licensing Authority will recommend that colour should not be introduced and that there is no need at present for a second channel.

Spending a deterrent? The probable expenditure on colour receivers, and its effect on the economy, may be regarded as a deterrent by the Government. Millions were spent on television receivers in the first few years after transmissions began. There is no reason to believe there would not be at least a comparable rush for colour sets. The alternatives, so far as the Commonwealth Games are concerned, are not appealing. The necessary equipment could possibly be hired, but the hire cost and transport charges would be fantastically high, and at the end of the Games, New Zealand would be no better off for equipment. Cine films is regarded as a poor second-best; quality is lost, and definition is not as good. Processing laboratories would be needed. A third possibility, but again one which would cost an immense amount, would be

to hire an overseas firm to do the whole job. It does not really seem likely that the Games will be covered for television in black and white: it would certainly be a poor advertisement for New Zealand. Done by the N.Z.8.C., it would mean that crews and equipment were ready for a full conversion to a colour channel.

Planning for television coverage of the Games does not begin and end with the provision of cameras and crew. There will have to be a central press office, with a great quantity of telex and teleprinter equipment, duplicated for each venue. Similar facilities will be needed for radio and television coverage. Each competing country will need a radio control room and production studios, television recording and control rooms. The requirements and the problems which go with them seem endless. But until the Broadcasting Licensing Authority makes its recommendations, and the Government announces its intentions, action lines cannot be taken. The conversion of planning into practicalities is going to require an all-out effort by everyone concerned.—PANDOßA.