Ron Chakraborty, exec editor of BBC coverage of the Commonwealth Games tells Broadcast Sport how they did it

BBC Commonwealth Games

How did you present your coverage of the Commonwealth Games – what presentation/studio space did you create and how did you go about doing this?

We worked closely with the Birmingham 2022 Organising Committee and when we found out they planned to site their main merchandise store in Centenary Square, we asked if we could position our main TV studios on the floor above. So we got a great spot that’s only five minutes’ walk from the BBC offices at the Mailbox and looks out on iconic buildings like the Library and Baskerville House, the best of old and new Birmingham. You also saw the countdown clock for the Games and the huge mechanical bull used in the Opening Ceremony. We had the studios for the BBC1 and BBC3 coverage based there, and a few yards away the Town Hall was being used as a presentation platform which hosted crews from BBC News and our Nations and Regions teams plus other international rightsholders. It overlooked the live festival site in Victoria Square, which provided another great backdrop. This was a project led by the BBC Birmingham team and again in close collaboration with the organising committee.

Why did you decide against using virtual spaces, as witnessed for The Olympics and Winter Olympics

We were really pleased with the virtual sets we used for Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022, but for a home games we wanted to be in the heart of the action. It gives you a sense of the buzz around the city, gives you easy access to the medallists once they’ve finished competition, and immerses all our on-screen team in the atmosphere of the event. We had an Augmented Reality (AR) add on which really enhanced the look of the studio, with a simulated coloured glass floor and ceiling design – it gave it a sense of greater depth and scale and allows for some really interesting camera moves.

Birmingham 2022 Medals Commonwealth Games

Did you utilise remote production, or were your production teams based in Birmingham for the duration of The Games?

Yes, we once again had all our galleries and post-production in the BBC facilities at MediaCityUK in Salford. This Commonwealth Games had 20 sports which meant we had enough capacity in our Quay House facilities to handle the incoming feeds, editing and fast-turnaround. The facilities in Quay House were also our production base for the last Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast as well as the last three Winter Olympics. In the BBC Birmingham offices at the Mailbox we had a small team to look after logistics and filming, plus News and Nations & Regions, and at the International Broadcast Centre at the NEC we had a small area, predominantly to handle lines switching.

What original content did you produce for digital/social media?

We had a multi-platform team together for the last few months producing around 50 films to use around our coverage. The majority were athlete-based but some were around the culture and history of Birmingham. The overall approach was to produce content that worked on digital and social outlets first and in the vast majority of cases they fit in with the TV output too.

Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games logo

Sunset+Vine is the host broadcaster – what did the BBC do to supplement the coverage/content already supplied by Sunset+Vine?

Our main addition to the coverage was at the Athletics, where we had a small OB featuring a presentation platform and two additional cameras in the stadium. It’s the prime time sport so we really wanted to capture the atmosphere and make it sing. The additional cameras helped us focus on home nations athletes in the build-up and aftermath of track races, and followed their fortunes more closely in the field events.

We also utilised much of the content they filmed for use by international broadcasters, and like other rightsholders we worked closely with them when it came to areas like world feed commentary and event scheduling, as well as venue facilities and our space in the IBC.

Did you take part in Sunset+Vine’s host broadcaster training initiative, which aimed to skill up 150 people to work on the games and hopefully be offered permanent positions in the industry after the Games are finished?

While we didn’t take part directly in the S&V initiative, we will definitely stay in contact regarding how it’s gone and what the successes and learnings have been. We also worked with Birmingham 2022’s ‘Gen22’ scheme, which gives experience to young people from the West Midlands area to boost their employment opportunities. It’s aimed specifically for people who might normally miss out on opportunities like this due to challenging personal circumstances.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Only that it’s a really exciting time to be in Birmingham. The City Centre is in the middle of a huge redevelopment and is starting to look really impressive, plus there’s really positive moves happening with the media industry in Birmingham so it’s great to be in the middle of all that and hopefully show the city at its best.

Ron Chakraborty BBC

Ron Chakraborty was exec editor of BBC coverage of the Commonwealth Games