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The COVID-19 pandemic has denied people many things. Visits with friends and family, special events, travel, and many other things we love.
However, there has been one passion that has been able to continue, albeit without crowds – live sport.
Telstra Broadcast Services have been doing a lot in the world of sport over the past 12 months. New technology is driving digital transformations to not only the broadcast of sport to more people in more places, but also preserve its history for future generations.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
Even though this year’s Games took place in front of largely empty stadiums and arenas, the world was still able to cheer, cry and revel in the success of the athletes.
For many of us, the Games were a beacon of hope, unification and coming together for the world.
Whether it was Ariarne Titmus coming from behind to win gold in the 400m freestyle final or Jessica Fox’s gold in the C1 canoe slalom final, after falling so agonisingly short in Rio and London – Aussies were glued to their small and big screens to catch all of the action live and on-demand.
The untold story here is how Telstra Broadcast Services seamlessly brought the action to Australian broadcast right holders Seven West Media so you could tune in on your tablets, phones and television screens.
More than, 55% of official broadcast traffic passed through the Telstra network using 12 subsea cables. Telstra Broadcast Services beamed the Games to customers in the Asia-Pacific, European broadcasters, and India.
The team had to deal with significant challenges throughout the period with major flooding in Germany; in the UK a major backhaul link was damaged; and similarly in Poland, construction contractors damaged a major fibre cable.
However, owing to our global network resiliency, not a single broadcast partner had a drop out of Games vision. Now that’s a medal-winning performance!
Telstra is not an official sponsor of the Olympic Games, any Olympic Committees or teams.
The America’s Cup
The America's Cup is without doubt the pinnacle of sailing, and the 36th edition of the America’s Cup was the most-watched America’s Cup of all time. It was also a major technical challenge for the broadcast team involved in ensuring that the coverage was distributed reliably from Auckland around the world to 55 networks covering 190 countries and global online distribution through YouTube, Facebook and the America’s Cup website.
The bespoke network solution designed by Telstra Broadcast Services for The America’s Cup coverage was a complex, multi-layered offering encompassing a wide range of different services – this year’s race introduced not only an entirely new class of boats but an entirely new range of broadcast challenges sailed smoothly by Telstra.
