What’s Inside the Television Truck? EN, AR, FR, DE, IT, ES, PR, RUS

Working as a football Broadcast Venue Manager for Lagardère Sports in the Middle East, I have always seen people standing outside the television truck with their children trying to have a peek inside. I remember being in the same position of bewilderment and curiosity until I started working in sports television production.

Making sure television viewers have uninterrupted live sports entertainment is a huge responsibility, especially when a standard production level has to be maintained across venues while working with different Host Broadcasters (HB). Other than providing the production and transmission of the international signal, the HB provides services upon request from Broadcast Right Holders (BRH) such as stand-ups, flash interviews, and commentary positions.

In preparation for providing these services, a technical assessment of the venues’ infrastructure, production and transmission capabilities has to be done to mitigate risk. Furthermore, Broadcast Service Managers (BSM) responsible for servicing requests by BRH, have to be knowledgeable of all potential technical and logistical problems that might occur and know how to solve them on the ground with limited resources while being cross-culturally sensitive. 

A significant amount of investment has to be put into training BSMs. This can be costly and risky since a high level of problem-solving capabilities can only be attained through exposure to hurdles on the ground through time. The purpose is to help those entering the industry, and satisfy those curious to know how sports broadcast production is done.

In a series of posts, I will explain with graphic representations what goes on in the background of televised sports. This first post is about the Outside Broadcast van (OBvan) provided in eight languages: EN, AR, FR, DE, IT, ES, PR, RUS. Finally, I hope my posts will bring entertainment and educational value to readers be it sports enthusiasts, sports business professionals or others who are curious about this industry.

Thank you,

Hassan Jabali

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Attachment: English. Best viewed on a laptop.

If you are interested in knowing more about camera distribution on the football field click here

If you are interested in knowing more about types of cameras and microphones click here