Burnsville, MN--A familiar name from the Greek pantheon once more held sway beneath the Acropolis during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Zeus, the RTS/Telex matrix named after the Greek god of weather and atmospheric phenomena, reigned supreme in the communications systems of broadcasters from as far afield as Denmark (DRDK), Korea (NBC), Japan (TV Asahi and Japan Consortium), and the U.S. (NBC). According to Telex, Zeus, at only two rack units high, is the world’s first compact digital matrix. Another RTS/Telex tool with a major presence at the Games was the Advanced Digital Audio Matrix (ADAM).
Athens Olympic Broadcasting used two 256 x 256 ADAM matrices, one to liase with the various competition venues and the other to provide communication in CD quality with the International Broadcasting Center (IBC), which was relaying the images to networks all over the world.
The largest of these networks, NBC, was not only using Zeus but also the largest of all the ADAM-based systems on show in Athens. Comprised of three 136 port matrices and a five-frame matrix with 600 x 600 connections, it provided a communications capacity commensurate with NBC’s role as the host broadcaster not only for the U.S. but also for a sizeable chunk of South America.
Manuel Brico, product manager Telex E.A.M.E., commented on Telex’s supremacy in broadcast communications: "Ever since the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996, the broadcasting networks have given Telex equipment pride of place in their communications systems. This gives us an enormous advantage in terms of ongoing R&D, because it means that we are present on all these occasions, gathering more and more practical experience of the way the systems perform under the most extreme conditions. This experience plays a vital role in the development of new products, allowing us to build constantly on our lead." On the basis of his experience at several Olympic Games, Brico confirmed that "the demands are greater each time around--more participants, more cameras, more keypanels. Where correspondents had to make do with a simple telephone line in the past, now nothing less than ISDN and Voice-Over IP will suffice. Telex/RTS is reacting to this exponential growth in demand with ever more efficient and powerful tools."
Telex
www.telex.com
