The Four Hills Tournament (Vierschanzentournee) is composed of four Ski Jumping World Cup events and has taken place in Germany and Austria each year since 1952. The tournament is third only to the World Cup and the Winter Olympics as the most sought-after title on the ski jumping world circuit. The Four Hills Tournament comprises four individual World Cup events and points gained in the Four Hills Tournament are added to points gained in other World Cup events throughout the season.

After Austria’s first and only previous Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) victory in 1966, Conchita Wurst succeeded in bringing the ESC 2015 from Copenhagen to Vienna. The 60^th anniversary of the Song Contest is truly historic in many ways: Geographical boundaries have been broken with the unprecedented inclusion of Australia into the 2015 Eurovision family and the motto “Building Bridges” aimed at making connections across national borders, across cultures and indeed across decades celebrating tolerance and inclusion while promoting respect and tolerance.

During a meeting in Monaco in 1955, EBU Director Marcel Bezençon (1907-1981) launched the idea of bringing Europe together in a televised, pan-European music competition in the style of the Italian San Remo Festival. At the same time, the Eurovision Grand Prix (as it was named back then) would be an ambitious experiment to broadcast live to several countries at the same time. That’s how it all started...

Every four years the world’s greatest athletes get together at the Winter Olympics to accomplish competitive first and break records and the games in Vancouver, Canada in February this year were not different. But the athletes weren’t the only ones doing things better and faster: OBS, the Olympic Broadcast Services, created by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in May 2001, also stepped to the technology podium with a winning effort that included a number of Olympic broadcasting firsts. It was the first time OBS was fully in charge of operations as there was no longer a host broadcaster from the host nation organizing committee and it was the first time the Winter Games were fully HD and in Surround Sound.

Spectacular fireworks and impressive performances were the themes of the opening ceremony on January 8th in the Ruhpolding Championspark. Following the biathlon World Championships last year, the world again was watching the Biathlon in the Chiemgau Arena for five days. Tora Berger, Miriam Gössner and Martin Fourcade led the winner's parade in Ruhpolding. Berger anchored the winning women's relay team and then dominated the mass start on Sunday. In between, Gössner captured the fan's hearts by running away with the sprint. Then there was Fourcade; he anchored the relay, and flew to wins in the sprint and mass start. Norway and France with a bit of Germany thrown in was how the week went.

Every year on a weekend in May over 150 cars will race the ADAC Zurich 24h of Nürburgring on the combined Nordschleife and Grand Prix track. Cars range from the SP9 GT3 class (from which the winner is expected), to a humble Golf GTI and an Opel Manta. The top cars the past couple of years have been Porsche 911 variants, the Audi R8, Mercedes SLS, and BMW Z4. New this year was the Bentley Continental, with two cars from Bentley Motorsport. Notably absent is the McLaren 12c, which qualified well last year but failed to finish due to reliability and accidents this year.

The move to 4K is the biggest challenge faced by the live production industry since the advent of HD over a decade ago. And even though the majority of viewing is still in HD or even SD, demand for UHD – driven in part by a consumer market already hooked on 4K, HDR content from IP-based VOD providers such as Amazon and Netflix – is only increasing. This brings an unavoidable necessity for outside broadcast companies to be able to call upon the latest UHD technology – from cameras and lenses to production servers and monitors. In striving to support 4K live production by stocking a large and diverse 4K hire fleet, ES Broadcast Hire is helping to pioneer the UHD upgrade – and positioning itself as one of the UK and Europe’s leading 4K hire companies.

Host Broadcast Services (HBS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of sports marketing agency Infront Sports & Media, is a dedicated host broadcast organization that was initially created in 1999 with the core mandate of producing the coverage of the 2002 World Cup™. Ten years later, HBS has successfully established itself as one of the two industry leaders in the specialized field of host broadcasting and has been appointed by FIFA to be the host broadcaster for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa as well as the 2014 FIFA World Cup™ in Brazil.

Every viewer has a favourite TV sporting moment, whether it is watching an Olympian standing on a medal winning podium or a nail-biting football penalty shoot-out, they make lasting memories. Shooting each piece of live action is no mean feat and, behind the scenes, it’s no secret that each sports production has to be carried out with military precision.

Cologne based Filmwerk has been a leading player in television, digital media, corporate and commercials for more two decades and has worked on some some of Germany’s most watched television programs, including “Supertalent” and “Kleines Wunder großes Glück.” With a team of more than 45 production professionals, Filmwerk has gained a reputation as one of Germany’s leading media production specialists.

Schoeps offers microphone arrangements for almost every available surround recording technique. Many surround microphone arrangements can be assembled with our standard microphones. Special accessories then allow for optimal usage of these microphones.Since there is essentially an infinite variety of ways to design a surround microphone arrangement, only a selection will be presented here:
• Double MS
• IRT Cross
• KFM Surround
• OCT Surround
• ORTF Surround

EVS’ is offering new ways to maximize broadcasters News’ and Sports’ production workflows with the introduction of a new software based solution built to browse, review, clip, export and transcode instantly Sony XDCAM™ files, and make them available in any EVS XT[2]/XS server environment.

German rock titan Udo Lindenberg has started his “Keine Panik!” (“Don’t panic!”) 2016 German tour. Fans love the 70-year-old chart topper. More than half a million people have attended his concerts in the past three years, and in 2016 the stadiums and halls are packed again! It was not surprising that, in the run-up to the tour, an additional concert had to be scheduled at almost every venue. satis&fy, leading international provider of cutting-edge event, media technology and scenic design solutions from Karben near Frankfurt am Main, Germany, was responsible for the sound on Udo Lindenberg’s “Keine Panik! Tour 2016.” The company is international in scope, employing over 500 people. satis&fy’s fleet of vehicles and store of materials is one of the biggest and most up to date of German live event companies.

About Streamteam Nordic

One of the largest technical TV production companies in the Nordic region, Finland-based Streamteam Nordic provides live production support for a wide range of sporting events, including the Finnish Elite Ice Hockey League, or SM-liiga, tournament. Since first opening its doors in 2006, the company has become one of the leading broadcast service providers in the region, counting major broadcasters and content providers among its customer base.  Streamteam now handles production for Telia, Veikkaus, MTV3 and YLE as well as Netflix and DreamWorks.

More than 1.2 million meters of Belden® high performance cables were used for the new headquarters of SKY Italia during the world’s largest new installation in broadcasting, where the key focus is on High Definition (HD).