Sports news at SW19
No Andy Murray, new technology, Greg Rusedski's Wimbledon tour, ticket touts and all topped off with a thrilling win for Tim Henman … the sports news menu from Wimbledon has been as varied as the catering outlets at the site, and that's just in the first two days.
Throughout each day, the sports news team will be trying to strike the balance between unearthing news stories and providing match reports for all of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖs many sports news outlets.
Like all other areas of interest, the sports news team pitch their ideas to the output editors who have to weigh up the merits of all the other stories in the world that day and decide what to put in their bulletins. It would be fair to say that competition for space can be quite lively at times!
The presenters and reporters work on the roof of the broadcast centre at our live position with its view across to Number One Court. Before you get a mental image of them clinging on to the side of a pitched roof with one hand while holding the microphone in the other, this particular roof is flat, has grass and flower beds dotted around it and there's even a bar at one end, though clearly no one would be visiting that before they go on air!
We share the roof with other rights holding broadcasters from around the world and it's from there that we present the afternoon and early evening sports news bulletins on , provide reports for the main ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ ONE bulletins and sports output on .
Of course we don't just broadcast to a British audience … one of the big challenges for our teams is that they might have to provide a report for News 24 one minute and then for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World the next. While viewers to News 24 might be particularly keen to hear about the trials and tribulations of Henman, for our ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World team it's a complex balancing act between how the top seeds in each draw are doing irrespective of their nationality, as well as considering which part of the world has its peak audience at a particular time.
The production team don't tend to get out into the fresh air too much - our nerve centre is a room off one of the many corridors in the rabbit warren that is the broadcast centre. But it does have the advantage of one wall being almost entirely glass and looking out over Court 14. Squeezed in there will be the producers, the editors with all their kit, and all our computers for writing scripts and finding out the necessary background information … not to mention empty coffee cups and sandwich wrappers as balanced diets and healthy eating goes out the window for a couple of weeks.
For the early risers amongst you Chris Hollins is spearheading coverage and will be live from Wimbledon every weekday, with colleagues from the sports room covering him at the weekends. Breakfast news have four possible presentation positions for Chris, three outside and, of course, the crucial wet weather position which we hope won't be used too often over the next fortnight. Chris will be making sure Breakfast viewers know what happened on the court but is also trying to capture some of what makes this such a special tournament. Watch out for his report on spending the night outside with fans and keep an eye out for some of your favourite faces from the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Sport team being dragged out of bed bright and early.
The whole operation takes months to plan. Which office space can we use? How do we dovetail with the sport coverage on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ ONE and TWO? How many reporters do we need? Which cameramen can go where and when? And how do we edit all our different pieces at the same time?! The beauty of sports news is that all those plans can need changing at a moment’s notice, but hopefully however frantic things get behind the scenes you'll get a clear and accurate picture of what's gone on.
