or1980v2pt1

Television and Radio
Coverage
All the provisions made for broadcasting
the Games of the XXII Olympiad
had one common goal—to give
an opportunity to people of all the
countries in five continents possessing
radio and television networks to
receive a maximum of high-quality
pictures and sound from the Olympic
venues.
This called for an enlargement of
the Moscow Television Technical
Centre (TTC) in Ostankino, built as far
back as 1967, then the biggest in
Europe. Thus, the Olympic Television
and Radio Complex (OTRC) was
created. It transmitted simultaneously
21 television and 100 radio programmes
from the Olympic venues in Moscow,
Tallinn, Leningrad, Kiev, and
Minsk. The coverage of the Games
could be seen by an audience of 1.5
billion in all five continents.
Television coverage of the Games
of the XXII Olympiad was organised
and provided for by the USSR State
Committee for Television and Radio
Broadcasting and the USSR Ministry
of Communications.
The equipment for the OTRC was
supplied mainly by the Ministry of
Communication Industry, the USSR
Ministry of Communications, the
USSR Gosteleradio, and some other
government agencies and organisations.
In setting up the OTRC previous
experiences of the organisers of the
Games were taken into account. The
developments in broadcasting technology
expected for 1980 were also
borne in mind. The OTRC concept
was affected to some extent by the
broadcasting facilities already in existence
in Moscow and, particularly, by
considerations for post-Olympic usage
of the complex.
An analysis of television and radio
coverage of previous Olympic Games
had shown that, along with a steady
increase in the number of programmes,
requirements for their structure
were also changing. The organisers
of the Games in Moscow concluded
that there was no point in packaging a
general television programme for the
whole world because viewers in different
countries are interested mostly in
their own teams and in competitions
in sports traditionally popular in those
countries. It was decided, therefore, to
provide facilities enabling foreign television
companies to prepare their own
programming, to edit and finish their
unilateral programmes on the spot in
Moscow, and to telecast them, ready
made, to their respective countries.
The OTRC was designed proceeding
from the necessity:
153
— to organise high-quality telecasting
of Olympic competitions from
all the venues;
— to ensure extensive coverage of
the Olympic Torch Relay, of the Opening
and Closing ceremonies, and
events of the Cultural Programme;
— to provide the best possible
facilities to commentators for live
coverage on venues;
— to provide facilities for a sufficient
number of unilaterals packaged
in accordance with the popularity of
certain sports and participation of
competitors from the country concerned;
— to place sophisticated, highquality
equipment at the disposal of
broadcasters and to create conditions
necessary for preparing, editing, producing
and transmitting their programmes.
The OTRC which was established
prior to the Games of the XXII Olympiad
has fulfilled the tasks set. But it
took a great deal of technology to
equip it.
The OTRC comprised a new Olympic
Television and Radio Centre (abbreviated
OTVRC), the modernised
TTC, broadcasting equipment (including
TV mobile units) at the Olympic
competition sites and at other locations
covered by television, and communications
systems and facilities essential
for television transmissions—
the Olympic Switching Centre (OSC)
among them—as far as television and
radio links were concerned.
An important and basic feature of
the Television and Radio Complex of
the Games of the XXII Olympiad was
that it had been created to ensure
further development of the Soviet
domestic and international broadcasting.
It continues to be effectively used
after the Games.
The problem of equipping the
OTRC with highly efficient technology
was successfully solved due to the
development of third-generation television
devices in the Soviet Union,
completed in 1976 and 1977, and
rapid introduction of that equipment
into commercial production. As a result,
most of the equipment for the
OTRC was manufactured and supplied
by Soviet factories. At the same time,
some foreign companies, too, took
part in the supply of equipment for the
OTRC. Foreign suppliers were
selected taking into account efficiency
of the devices to be delivered and
previous cooperation with the company
in question. The foreign suppliers
included Hungarian enterprises,
such as BEAG, "Mechanical Laboratory",
and Hiradas-technika. They sup-