New Delhi:
For the first time in the history of Commonwealth Games, Doordarshan is providing 'high definition' coverage to its viewers and is all geared up with more than 350 ultra modern cameras and well-trained crew members who will be covering the events on road, by air and under water.
"We are fully geared up. For the first time in the history of CWG the coverage will be on high definition. We will have our presence at 18 places that includes 16 venues plus two road events. More than 350 cameras will be installed for this purpose. The coverage will be on road, by air and under water," Director General of DD Aruna Sharma said.
"For Aquatics events, we will have under water cameras. Opening, closing ceremonies and road events will be covered by helicopter and special moving cameras will be installed for some events. In short it will be altogether a delightful experience."
She said that for this type of coverage DD neither had the experience nor the equipment, so they tied up with a British entity SIS live.
"SIS is responsible for the production and coverage.
They bought all the modern equipment here. We also chose the opportunity to train our 300 staffers for handling sports coverage in HD. We divided those sports wise and trained accordingly. They have done all the test events and mock games on their own," she said.
DD also has made arrangements for non HD telecast.
"For maximum number of viewers, who don?t have the mechanism to watch it on HD, we would step it down. We have the SD format which is also far more superior of that we normally see," she said.
Elaborating on the telecast, Sharma said four DD channels plus one new channel DD HD will telecast the games almost round the clock.
"DD-HD will telecast CWG 2010 in High Definition format. DD sports will be virtually converted into CWG channel with round the clock transmission of the games. DD National will feature telecast of the finals of different events. DD Urdu and Bharti will telecast selective events. National channel will also produce half an hour highlights everyday exclusively on India's performance," she said.
When asked about the commentary team, she said legendary athletes will be there in the team. Stalwarts like PT Usha and Milkha Singh will be invited for discussions.
DD, as rights holding broadcaster, has made arrangements to deploy more than 600 personnel for the production and telecast of the Games.
"Total crew members will be around 2,700 that includes DD staff, SIS live people and other staff. DD staff will directly be involved in the coverage of Boxing, Wrestling and Weightlifting events." she said.
"Beauty cameras" has been installed at famous tourist destinations of the city like Qutub Minar, Jeevan Bharti (Connaught Place), Red Fort, India Gate and JNL Stadium. The commentary will weave in local flavour. Commentators will be briefed about the places that would be shown so that they can add value to the visuals.
India is hosting the first major mega sports event 28 years after the Asian Games, but DD is confident of providing much improved and delightful broadcast.
"It is true that this is the first ever major multi sports event after the Asian Games 1982 but we have enough experience. We did the CW youth games in 2008 which was an entire in-house exercise. We are sure people will enjoy watching DD this time," Sharma said.
The DG also warned all the channels against the misuse of DD feed.
"We have written to all channels that it will be unfair on their part if they use our feed.
According to the media access guidelines through the organising committee, they can use 10 seconds feed for news purpose. We will strictly monitor this time." she said.