BBC Sport Olympic presenters Jeanette Kwakye and JJ Chalmers on the sofa with Heather McLean from SVG Europe in Paris, chatting between takes

With just days to go until the closing ceremony of the Summer Olympics here in Paris, SVG Europe caught up with Ron Chakraborty, Head of Major Events and Sport at BBC Sport, to see how the event is going on the ground, rain and shine.

Chakraborty says the rain not only caused problems for some broadcasters in the OBS studio block at the Trocadero, but also showed viewers that the Eiffel Tower in the background was real and that the on-site team was in central Paris.

Speaking from the production office in the OBS broadcast studio building at the Trocadero in Paris, he explains: “The first two days – oh god – it was one of those things. We were lucky because we were on the top floor, the rain was coming down, but the Australians are right below us and unfortunately their studio got a little flooded and they couldn’t broadcast for a while. But I dare say having the rain there was almost a good thing; it made people realise ‘oh, this is a real view, this is not virtual reality’. We didn’t get so complicated and sophisticated that there are virtual raindrops on the screen too! So it was actually a bit of a positive. Of course we wanted the weather to be great, but at least it showed ‘yes, my goodness, here we are, we’re in the heart of Paris’, and since then the view outside has been absolutely fantastic.”

Ron Chakraborty, Head of Major Events and Sport at BBC Sport, in the production office in front of the wall with the medal winners from Teams GB and France in the studio building of the OBS broadcasting operation at the Trocadero in Paris.

Coverage diversity

A team of staff in the streets surrounding the studio provide variety in the coverage, using RF cameras to capture unique shots. He says: “We have to remind people that we are here sometimes too. That’s why we also have small mobile radio cameras (and yesterday) we had the British triathletes in a little cafe right outside the studio. It’s just nice to have that variety.”

Chakraborty says news crews are spread out at the various venues around the city to ensure viewers get first-hand insight into what is going on: “As wonderful as the view is, we are online 16 hours a day. There are lots of opportunities to be somewhere else; we are at the athletics events, we are at the swimming, we just get so much of Paris and the venues. The atmosphere was obviously great. I think when I speak to the other international broadcasters, unless something weird and wonderful happens in the final days, these Games will go down in history as a great Games.

“I think people are watching Barcelona, ​​Sydney, London and now Paris, with full stadiums everywhere, everything working well, wonderful performances from the home nations; there’s a great atmosphere in the city.”

The BBC Sport Paris studio is where all the magic happens

Captivating footage

This access to venues spread across the city makes for captivating footage for UK audiences, as predicted by Chakraborty before the Games. He explains: “Before we started the Games, I said these venues are going to look amazing no matter what and that has proved to be true. We go to beach volleyball because it looks spectacular. Versailles, my God, the showjumping yesterday with that backdrop; incredible! Fencing is another one in the old Grand Palace. When (the athletes) all come down that balcony at the start of the session, it looks fantastic.

“I think everyone was just blown away by how wonderful Paris looked as a backdrop for the Games. So it’s just been a pleasure so far because we’ve been completely won over. And obviously the medals from GB are a huge help from our point of view but also the crowds have been absolutely wonderful. So here we are, sort of doing a health check on day 12 and all is well.”

Full resources

By using all the resources of the BBC’s regional operations, the team were able to cover everything. Chakraborty explains: “BBC Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland send their established sports teams here, but for the English regions there is basically a selection process. People say, ‘Oh, I’d like to go to Paris’, so even if you’re from BBC South, BBC North West Tonight or whatever, you have to gather interviews and content for all the regions. I did that interview process and there was this one guy – Lewis Coombes – who was just missed out from BBC South, (but I realised) that maybe we could use someone who was a one-man band on filming.

“Lewis has been absolutely brilliant because he takes the photos, he gathers the footage, he does the interviews and then he does the live coverage for the highlights. And he sets it all up as well. Just to send a guy there who can do it all is just brilliant. It gave us a massive advantage. Things like Amber Rutter, her husband and her little boy – he’s three months old – we knew that and we knew we were going to do the footage when she came out. So Lewis just gave us a head start.

“As much as we want to talk about spectacular studios and all that stuff, little things like that help you tell the story much faster,” Chakraborty continues. “To capture the magic of the moment rather than just being in the world feed; we really claimed that little area (of the shoot) for ourselves, which was brilliant.”

The green screen at the back of the BBC Sport Olympic studio

He continues: “Then there’s the guy from BBC Wales, Tom Brown, he’s brilliant. He’s doing the Olympics coverage from Wales again. We and Warner Bros. Discovery were given a camera on the Great Britain team’s boat for the opening ceremony and we thought, ‘OK, Tom, are you OK with that? Can you take the camera, set up Starlink until we get a live feed from there and interview the athletes?’ He said, ‘Yeah, no problem.'” So we had great interviews with Tom Daley and Helen Glover on the boat.

“Just knowing that you can send just one man, these people in the countries and regions are amazing. They are so used to doing this as part of their daily work, it’s fantastic.”

Chakraborty concludes: “These are just small wins. And sometimes you want a real show, you can be half reporter, half pundit and kill five minutes because the sports are delayed. But sometimes you need someone who has a kind of Swiss Army knife of skills and you can just get them to do anything. So those small decisions we thought, ‘Oh yeah, we can do that too.’ And actually it turned out to be a real success. So as I say, it’s not just the big decisions; some of the small decisions have really paid off massively too.”