Paris 2024: Videlio at the Heart of the Olympic Games’ Audiovisual Infrastructure
For the Games to be held in Paris in the summer of 2024, Videlio Events contributed to several of the event’s major audiovisual installations, from the opening and closing ceremonies to the competition venues.
Opening ceremonies, sports presentations, giant screens, audiovisual setups at all competition venues, and TV sets for broadcasters: For several weeks, Videlio Events teams were on the ground to bring the event to life for the public at the venues and help ensure its coverage for millions of television viewers around the world.
An audiovisual challenge worthy of a global event
Dozens of venues to set up simultaneously, iconic locations temporarily transformed, tight deadlines, major logistical and security constraints, and an absolute requirement for continuity.
The challenge for Videlio Events: to design, deploy, and operate complex audiovisual systems in a wide variety of environments, while ensuring their reliability throughout the duration of the competitions and ceremonies.
From Paris to Tahiti, this effort required close coordination between Videlio’s teams, the organizers, the various service providers, and the technology partners involved in the event.
Videlio Events served as a technical service provider—either independently or as part of consortia bringing together complementary areas of expertise—for several major aspects of the event:
Ceremonies held throughout Paris
Videlio Events contributed to the technical setups for the opening ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, in a context unprecedented in its scale and complexity. Never before had the ceremonies been held in the city.
For the opening ceremony held on the Seine, the teams helped deploy an audiovisual infrastructure spanning nearly six ten kilometers. Audio, video, intercom, and IP networks connected the various technical zones and control rooms along the route to the central command center.
Videlio Events also managed the Q-SYS system and audio matrixing, deployed in the technical facilities along the Seine, as well as the development of a specialized interface to control the audio system from the command center set up at the CESE.
This complex, custom-designed system was created to enable the coordination and execution of the show in real time, while remaining invisible to the audience.
Bringing the excitement of the competitions to the venues
Another major component: the sports presentations, which set the pace for the competitions and directly contribute to the experience of spectators in the stands.
Videlio Events, in partnership with Creative Technology, provided the video, audio, and lighting equipment needed for the sports presentations at the competition venues. Screens, sound systems, content capture, content distribution, and production control rooms helped support the events, keep the audience informed, and create the unique atmosphere specific to each sport.
The service also relied on a large-scale team effort. Videlio Events identified and mobilized specialized professionals in France and internationally, handled the selection of multilingual hosts, managed accreditations, and coordinated teams working simultaneously across multiple venues.
Giant Screens at the Heart of the Viewing Experience
Videlio Events also participated, as part of a consortium, in the deployment of giant screens at sports venues.
Integrated into the infrastructure for the various competitions, these screens allowed the public to follow the events, watch slow-motion replays, view highlights, and access other content broadcast during the event.
In total, 2,500 m² of LED screens were deployed as part of the setup.
TV studios right in the heart of the Games to bring them to life on the air
Videlio Events also supported France Télévisions in its coverage of the Games, continuing a collaboration that began during the 2000 Sydney Games.
To enable the networks to provide continuous coverage of the competitions without tying up their permanent studios, Videlio designed and deployed fully equipped temporary TV studios to accommodate journalists, commentators, guests, and athletes.
In Paris, the facilities were set up as close as possible to the events, notably at Club France in La Villette and at the Trocadéro, and were later expanded for the Paralympic Games. The Videlio Events teams handled their installation, operation, and adaptation to the specific constraints of each venue.
Videlio Events also provided support in the mixed zones—areas dedicated to interviewing athletes as they exited their events—with the necessary equipment for video and audio capture.
And when the coverage of the Paralympic Games was expanded to include new sports, Videlio Events mobilized additional production control rooms and film crews within a matter of days to support this expansion.
Large-scale coordination across multiple sites
In addition to these various services, Videlio Events handled the entire organization: engineering, equipment preparation and setup, logistics, installation, operation, maintenance, and team coordination.
The organization also had to be flexible enough to adapt to changes and last-minute requests, while maintaining the same level of quality and reliability across all systems.
At the height of the Games, 900 men and women were on the job simultaneously.
The Scale of the Initiative in a Few Figures
- 900 people involved
- 39 Olympic and Paralympic venues + 4 non-competition venues
- 15 broadcast control rooms
- 57 cameras
- 200 km of cables
- 4,000 network ports
- 2,000 speakers
- 2,500 m² of LED screens
On-air ceremonies, the same high standards
- Major Sporting Events
- Live Events
- Ceremonies
- Sports Presentations
- Temporary TV Studios
- Audiovisual engineering
- Video Production and Broadcasting
- Audio
- IP Networks
- Intercom
- LED Screens
- Multi-site logistics
- Operation and Maintenance
From ceremonies to competition venues, from grandstands to television studios, Videlio Events has drawn on its expertise to create audiovisual experiences that bring all the intensity and excitement of the Games to life, both on-site and on screen.
