The senior project engineer at Charter Broadcast, Roy Callow has been involved in the event planning and will remain on site to as an operational engineer to ensure the smooth running of service. The main challenge is that this will be the first time that content will be produced in High Definition (HD) for ITV's HD trial. Charter will be managing the logistics for all the requirements of the world's feeds however some of this will be in Standard Definition (SD) and others in HD.
Charter's remit is to provide co-ordination, switching and transmission as well as providing equipment for Univision, the Spanish speaking US network. Charter is also providing Sporting Promotions with a presentation studio in Berlin for the Rights Holders and non-Rights Holders to do pieces to-camera with the Brandenburg gate in the background.
According to FIFA sources, a TV audience in excess of 30 million is expected to be drawn to the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Indeed television coverage at the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan reached 213 countries, virtually every country in the world, with over 41,100 hours of dedicated programming. This represents a 38% increase in coverage over the 1998 event and set a new record for a single sporting event. Contrary to some expectations, live audiences were not affected by the time zone differences for viewers in Europe and Central and South America. In fact, the cumulative live audience showed an overall increase on the 1998 figures.
(Lee Baldock)
