The Hindu : High quality television coverage on the cards

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 30, 2004

Sport

Sport - Sports : General

High quality television coverage on the cards

By Our Special Correspondent

ISLAMABAD, MARCH 29. For the first time in the history of the SAF Games there will not only be high quality coverage but considerable profit from the sale of the television rights.

The performance may not be great in many disciplines as compared to world standards, but the coverage by Transworld International (TWI) in collaboration with PTV is expected to be world class.

About 35 cameras would be used in beaming the main events, football, athletics, volleyball, boxing, badminton and squash. Of course, the other disciplines would be covered but not as comprehensively as the ones mentioned.

In fact, swimming followers may be in for a disappointment as there may not be much coverage because of the constraints, with regard to the ban on shooting the women's events in this part of the world.

The technical officials have dropped the idea of `live' coverage for the men's swimming events as well, as it would have otherwise meant moving the cameras around to various venues far too often.

The opening ceremony itself was covered by 15 cameras including two remote-controlled ones, one of which was shooting from a parachute.

In all, there are about 100 television personnel, including 65 from India headed by Shantanu Chatterjee. The rest have come from the UK.

It is understood that the production cost of the SAF Games would be about one fifth of the television rights money that Doordarshan would pay for six hours of `live' feed every day.

With most of the events being held in and around the Islamabad Sports Complex, three Outdoor Broadcasting (OB) vans would handle the job of efficiently transmitting the signals across Asia and elsewhere.

You can sit back and enjoy the thrills and tensions of the SAF Games, in the comforts of your living room.

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