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PARIS — Radio France Internationale, an official broadcaster of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in France, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa — highlighted the key issues of the Games for its listeners and online followers. Through various dedicated appointments, RFI’s editorial teams covered the events and performances of French and African athletes in multiple languages, relaying the best of this grand celebration followed worldwide.
RFI had studios at Club France, located at Parc de la Villette — the meeting place of the French delegation’s athletes — and at Station Afrique, in Île-Saint-Denis, the location for African athletes. It also reported on events from the various sports venues.
Mobile system
Denis Chastel is head of mobile production for RFI and organizer of its 2024 Paris Olympic Games operations — a significant task. “We decided to relocate as many live broadcasts as possible to the Club France and Station Afrique studios so programming could cross over to the Olympics at any time. As soon as an event occurred at a site, reporting live was made possible thanks to the coordination between the International Broadcasting Center in Le Bourget, Club France and Station Afrique. We felt that the public was supporting us,” said Chastel.
“We had around 15 sites all multiplexed from our production studio based at the IBC, where we could send a single signal to our master control room. This also made it possible to coordinate the different sites with the producers of programs located either at Club France, Station Afrique or in our premises at France Médias Monde headquarters, based in Issy-les-Moulineaux,” Chastel added.
RFI’s preparatory operations for the Olympics began two years ago
Preparatory planning and the role of OBS
RFI’s preparatory operations for the Olympics began two years ago. Given that this event was in RFI’s “backyard,” accommodation planning, usually started a year and a half before an Olympics, was not necessary this year, except for the African radio correspondents who came to Paris and were housed in hotels submitted by the Organization Committee for Olympic Games (OCOG).
For Paris 2024, the two preliminary meetings for official broadcasters took place at Porte Maillot — the first in July 2022 and the second in early August 2023. The meetings were organized by Olympic Broadcasting Services — a subsidiary of the IOC and the host broadcaster providing the international signal — and covered production, accreditation, ticket distribution — particularly for certain “high demand” events — transport and other procedures involving OBS.
Chastel’s attendance at the IBC, where OBS was based, allowed him to ensure day-to-day coordination on matters such as changes in the competition schedule and transmitting them immediately to journalists and broadcast teams.
Live broadcasts in several languages
“We had the rights to broadcast in the official languages of the countries we broadcast to — English, Portuguese, Spanish and French, as required by the IOC — and in regional languages. We also had journalists broadcasting in major African languages — Hausa, Swahili, Mandenkan and Fulfulde — reporting on the main Games, but who were not there for the Paralympics,” explained Chastel.
He added, “This was very important because they could interview African athletes in the mixed zones, such as Hugues Fabrice Zango, an athlete from Burkina Faso and athletes from Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya.”
Chastel also explained, “Reporters were constantly on the move. This year, we also had two consultants — former double Olympic gold medalist Françoise Mbango and Sarah Daninthe, a well-known fencer, 2004 Olympic bronze medalist and double world team champion — who brought perspectives beyond their favorite discipline. Sarah has been involved in taekwondo and other events, and Françoise in gymnastics and athletics. It was very enriching.”
Technical tools
Chastel said that RFI remained “very traditional” in its operations and worked a lot with AoIP codecs, multiplexing all the sources from the IBC. “We used Tieline codecs. On the sites we had ViAs and at the IBC, we had Gateways that allowed us to multiplex all these streams with IP lines that we had ordered from Paris 2024.”
The costs of these IP lines were very high for broadcasters. Chastel pointed out this disproportion several times to OBS. “Compared to our need for two symmetrical megabits in radio, the 20 mega provided by OBS for the Olympic Games, at exorbitant prices, were oversized! Ten times less would have allowed us to have the same quality of programs.”
Behind the scenes
RFI could receive guests at its premises at the IBC or on sites like Club France. Chastel said the guests could appreciate the broadcaster’s technical operations. “Their point of view enlightened us.”
Chastel was at the IBC for the opening ceremony. “We were fortunate, with two positions on two different bridges over the Seine — Pont Notre-Dame and Pont Sully — a position on the piers of the different Olympic committees and the commentators’ position at the Trocadéro, which made the operations very lively.”
“For the closing ceremony, I was at the IBC, and my colleagues, who could access it, were at the stadium. We were lucky to have our commentator position and a mixed zone position, with three commentators on the site, one in Spanish and two in French. We also had three additional positions for journalists wishing to attend the ceremony.” There was also an observer journalist speaking Mandenkan and a reporter for the online editorial team, which featured three journalists covering all the Olympic events, including the opening and closing ceremonies.
Video memories
RFI also made many video clips, such as daily interviews, and post-produced them at Club France for social networks and online. It also produced the video series, “J’ai testé un sport,” which focused on a different Olympic discipline each week; “L’Afrique en or” — five episodes covering moments where African athletes shone; “Stars africaines,” RFI’s predictions on the medal hopes of African athletes; and “Le journal décalé des JO,” an offbeat look at the competitions and behind the scenes of the Olympic Games.
Through its international operations, RFI focused on the multitude of events of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and mobilized its teams to cover the best performances. This brought unforgettable events to its listeners and online followers around the world.
Radio Millésime and Broadcast-associates celebrate Olympic centenary for seniors
PARIS — As part of France’s celebration of the 2024 Paris Games, Radio Millésime and media project managers Broadcast-associés joined forces so the station’s listeners could participate. Radio Millésime is a digital station serving French-speaking senior citizens in France, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium. With AutonomY, an agency that promotes “aging well together,” Radio Millésime and Broadcast-associés retraced the centenary of the Games in Paris from 1924 to 2024 during a special three-hour live broadcast from Meudon (Hauts-de-Seine) on May 31.
It was an event full of emotions, with historic moments and a host of records for an audience of nostalgic seniors. The broadcast shared experiences of holding an Olympic flame; stories by former minister for sports and double Olympic saber medalist Jean-François Lamour, including reliving the details of his epic climb to the podium with his gold medal and stories from the Seoul and Barcelona Olympics; and France TV’s former chief sports editor Alain Vernon and his guests sharing their passion for sports.
The tech specs
Thanks to Radio Millésime and the technical resources of Broadcast-associés, several hundred spectators enjoyed an afternoon of video and audio broadcast in person. Thousands of remote spectators shared the experience via secure streaming to the Espace Robert Doisneau in the city of Meudon and all the AutonomY residences in the Hauts-de-Seine and Yvelines departments — a total of 80 locations.
Radio Millésime received the audio stream of the live event in 320 kbps in MP3 format using a Radiobox software encoder. The video was encoded and distributed via a closed internet network to sites equipped with 65-inch screens connected to PCs, streaming in an encoding quality of 6 Mbps in MP4 from an HD broadcast video management system. The video recording used NDI-compatible PTZ HD broadcast cameras.
Accessibility
Listeners can enjoy Radio Millésime via its mobile app or via interactive digital terminals equipped with speakers and headphones in residences and clubs. Radio Millésime broadcasts 24 hours a day and offers programming that includes personalized chronicles highlighting the residents’ daily lives, podcasts, information, dedicated messages, and live local events.
“It was a great moment to celebrate Paris 2024, dedicated to our sports-loving elders,” jointly declared Pascal Gigot, director of Radio Millésime, and Fabrice Gauthier, director of Broadcast-associés, both delighted and proud of this accomplished mission.
The author has worked in the radio industry for over 30 years. She has held posts as both a producer and presenter for French stations, such as Radio Notre Dame and Radio France’s France Culture. In addition to being involved with academic research and EU consulting in Brussels, she specializes in print journalism.
