As far as satellite transmission is concerned, the particularity here is that we have two uplink positions - one space at the IBC where we have 3 antennas and a remote uplink point, connected by US-Teleport cable, some 15 km away from the IBC, for reasons of line of sight visibility to the satellites. 

How many satellites are being used for this operation?

Seven satellites to link the US to Europe, and then the Eutelsat 3 satellite for distribution of this signal within Europe. Astra is only being used for ORF's video returns.

Let's use the example of one competition, how is the live transmission handled?

In technical terms, we've put together 4 multilateral* connections which retransmit the assortment of competitions, so that's four signals retransmitting 24 hrs per day those competitions selected by the EBU Sports Group.

We further have at our disposal two unilateral** connections for those members who wish to send occasional individual signals to Europe.

And we finally have 17 exclusive connections reserved for EBU members.

In terms of circuit numbers, we're much closer to Sydney than we are to the previous Winter Games. We have some thirty connections per picture, which is comparable to the levels of the Summer Games.

Hervé Labuissière, Transmission Manager, stands in front of two of the five dishes at the IBC teleport, pointed at three different satellites. Hervé, who joined the EBU 11 months ago, is in Salt Lake City since 17 january heading a team of 20. His ambition and challenge: pulling off the transmissions.

Are the numbers of the operational group on the ground also comparable to Sydney?

The operational responsibilities on the ground rest with the operational group, our colleagues from Madrid, led by Fernando Pardo and Javier Polo. There will be a lot of people - this is after all a big operation for the EBU.

Are there any exceptional things in place for these games?

The big novelty is that we have a great deal of bronze liaisons. All connections where distance is a factor, but also those between the IBC master control room and the IBC satellite area are made using fibre optic cable. This is the first time that all the connections were made using fibre cable, including local liaisons.

We also have three transatlantic fibre optic cables, which is unprecedented.

And how long is this operation, from start to IBC closure?

Our first transmission is on 28 January, and we go on until 27 February, nearly a month!

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* Multilateral transmissions are a priori of interest to everyone. In principle, all members take them.

** Unilaterals: all members can receive it but there is only one member sender and it's destined for one single member recipient. There is no confidentiality with unilaterals, which are occasional bookings of anything from 15/20 min reports to coverage of certain competitions that are not transmitted over the multilaterals, often specific disciplines such as curling, for example.