Paris 2024 Olympics: How Reemo Helped France Télévisions Overcome Technical Challenges for Live Weather Broadcasts from a Remote Studio

Challenge

France Télévisions, the leading broadcasting group in France, manages public television services from production to distribution. During the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, France Télévisions set up an ephemeral studio on the rooftop of the Trocadéro (Olympics) and next to the Arc de Triomphe set (Paralympics), overlooking the Eiffel Tower. This stunning location was the heart of live broadcasts featuring journalists and sports celebrities. Among them was the weather reporter, responsible for delivering accurate, real-time weather updates to millions of viewers for the daily morning show, named "Télématin" on France 2 channel.

However, presenting live from a remote studio presented several technical challenges. The weather reporter needed access to France Télévisions' computers in order to amend the weather forecast editorial software, including complex weather animations. The weather presenters also needed to control these remote systems live, with no latency, to present the animations smoothly. Meanwhile, the engineering, security, and network teams faced the challenge of deploying and managing a lightweight onsite solution (by using heavy remote servers connected to the main core of France Télévisions' broadcast infrastructure) that was both quick to set up and easy for non-technical users to operate.

Solution

Reemo Desktop provided the perfect answer to these challenges. By leveraging Reemo's high-performance, low-latency remote access technology, the weather presenters were able to connect directly to France Télévisions's robust playout machines and render animations in real time. From the ephemeral remote studio at the Trocadéro, they controlled the remote system as if they were on-site, delivering dynamic, live weather updates without any lag.

For the engineering teams and the onsite support team, Reemo Desktop proved to be extremely simple to deploy and manage. No heavy client installations were required—just a browser, making it effortless to provide access to the remote systems. "Finally, a solution that meets the needs of journalists, network security, and broadcast engineering teams," they remarked, acknowledging how Reemo bridged the gap between technical demands and user-friendly operations.

Results

With Reemo Desktop, France Télévisions successfully relocated its weather presenters activities during the Paris 2024 Games. The reporter freely operated remotely, in a secured broadcast environment. This setup allowed for:

• Real-Time Control: Seamlessly controlled weather animations without latency.
• Ease of Use: The presenters accessed complex remote machines through an intuitive interface, despite having no technical expertise.
• Streamlined Integration: The engineering teams quickly deployed the solution and handed over the key information to the support team, reducing downtime and ensuring a smooth live broadcast experience.
  
  

Questions to France Televisions' team:

Could you briefly introduce yourselves and your roles in managing IT projects and live broadcasting at France Télévisions during the 2024 Paris Olympics?

Baptiste Morin: "I work for France Télévisions as a broadcast engineer, dedicated to post-production tools (video editing and related infrastructures).

By the end of 2023, we started to use Reemo Desktop for collaboration and video editing over the ten remote post-production locations based in several French regions. With my other colleagues involved on this topic, we tested the solution in order to match our internal needs and requirements. The goal was to provide a smooth and simple solution for the video editors, but also match with the enterprise security, network, and access management needs. This is now used daily, before and after the Olympics.

For the Olympics, the management team raised this remote weather presenting challenge for an offsite television set. I provided the Reemo Desktop feedback, used during several months for video editing, and helped the dedicated team to adapt the France Télévisions Reemo Desktop managed solution to match with this new need."

Yvan Enjolras: "I've been working as a project manager contractor for France Télévisions since March of 2024.

Faced with a remote set during the Paris 2024 Games, I was charged with providing a solution to the weather team of the “Télématin” morning show.

I worked hand in hand with my colleague Jean-Maurice DI BATTISTA, a broadcast engineer, who was responsible for the different tests and validations. He raised several technical questions early, which simplified the delivery of the setup a lot.

I started using Reemo from scratch a few months before the beginning of the Olympics. My role was to liaise with every stakeholder including non-technical internal editorial departments, the engineers, the onsite production team, the network, and the cybersecurity teams.

It was a pleasure to discover and provide the power of Reemo to the weather presenters. By the way, they really appreciated the tool, which allowed them to confidently work on their daily system."

What were the most challenging aspects of the live broadcasts from the Trocadéro during the Olympics, and how did our solutions help address them?

"The key aspects for this project were the following:

• Simple and efficient solution for the non-technical end users: no latency, easy to access on a browser through a corporate laptop.
• Highly secured solution, approved by the cybersecurity team, with several authentication steps including 2FA.
• Simple integration within our broadcast infrastructure: once the network prerequisites are followed, a small component to install on the needed production broadcast environment.

The handover to the support and production team was easy, even with all the constraints due to the television set located in a highly secured Olympics area. For the Paralympics, even if the television set was moved to another location, it was transparent for the Reemo Desktop configuration."

What is your feedback about this project and what is ahead about our collaboration?

"With this Olympics project, we chose the Reemo Desktop product out of the box, without any specific new features.

The benefit of the collaboration we have had for months with the Reemo Desktop production team allowed us to quickly use, due to a major event need, a well-known product already used at France Télévisions.

The previous fixes and new features provided by the Reemo development team on our regular daily video editing needs were also an incredible benefit to the weather presenter end user.

We enjoy a strong collaboration with the Reemo Desktop product team, which easily understands all the challenges we can face in our broadcast-intensive usage. Our new needs are analyzed and balanced, then often added to the future development roadmap.

It’s always a pleasure to work with the Reemo team. They are experts in secured remote solutions, and also always kind to amend their tools based on customer feedback."