ww Filming Le Tour b Insight STARS OF STAGE AND SCREEN As you watched the action of the Tour de France from the comfort of your living room, it would have been hard to imagine the technical and logistical complexities that were overcome to get those images onto your TV set Words FELIX LOWE Illustrations ROB MILTON 118 CYCLIST CYCLIST 119 Insight b Filming Le Tour eople only see what they are shown via the journalists ‘Sometimes the commentating on the race. But cyclists will tip off the behind all that there is a huge world. Yet you have no clue what it’s all for.’ cameramen, saying so- ‘PSince 1997 Ronan Pensec, the French former rider who once gamely defended the and-so will attack soon’ maillot jaune on Alpe d’Huez, has performed a unique role as consultant to the director of motorbike and helicopter shots ‘augments start and finish, and 35 vehicles including of the Tour de France. He doesn't report the viewing ten-fold’, while Dan Lloyd, the trucks and lorries. This list is as much a gross to Christian Prudhomme, the official race former British rider and current TV reporter, simplification of a complicated process as director and figurehead, but to the other describes their work as ‘outstanding’. the chain of command is baffling – so hold director – a man who scripts and directs Today the Tour claims a global TV your breath as we delve a little deeper. every stage of the host broadcast feed that viewership of 3.5 billion (although with is beamed to 190 countries and 121 different only seven billion people on the planet we A tangled web TV channels worldwide: a little-known chap would be eager to see exactly how that figure ASO, the Tour organiser, enlists Euro Media with huge vision called Jean-Maurice Ooghe. is calculated), making it the third largest France (EMF) to produce the raw video ‘Ah, is that his name?’ says ITV’s Ned global telly event after the World Cup and feed of each stage. With a team of around Boulting, a reporter once so hapless he called Olympics. But the race’s early outings on 70 people, EMF then passes on its images the leader’s jersey a yellow jumper on his French national TV in the ’30s and ’40s were to its ‘customer’ France Télévisions, which first Tour 12 years ago. ‘I never knew that. filmed using 16mm cameras, a Jeep and a through Ooghe selects, mixes and creates But what he does is quite brilliant. The Tour motorbike, and had to be flown to Paris for the single feed that is used by individual is as much about putting France in the shop editing before being aired the following day. broadcasters. These channels pad out the window and Og – is that really how you The first live broadcast came on the race coverage with their own original content pronounce it? – understands that perfectly.’ finale in Paris’s Parc des Princes in 1948 and such as interviews, commentary, graphics ‘My job is to broadcast as exactly as then, a decade later, the first live roadside and advertising. ‘We don’t provide all the possible the scenario of the Tour – both the pictures came from the Col d’Aubisque. coverage – probably 99.9 per cent,’ says EMF sporting aspect and the touristic aspect, ‘Things have developed quite a lot even director Luc Geoffroy. ‘France Télévisions because many viewers are more concerned since we started broadcasting the Tour does the finish line – like they would for a with discovering the beauty of France,’ says for Channel 4 around 30 years ago,’ says football match. We do all the other pictures Ooghe. It’s a job he does extremely well. producer Brian Venner, who still calls the right up to around the last kilometre.’ ‘The man’s a genius,’ gushes Yorkshire’s shots for the British terrestrial coverage at Key to capturing the sporting drama of the Tour supremo Gary Verity, who welcomed age 80. ‘The French host broadcast used to race are the motorbike cameramen. ‘The moto Ooghe ahead of the recent Grand Départ in be fairly basic. The signal broke up under men build a very good relationship with the Leeds. ‘Simply by watching him go about his trees and bridges – the weather used to create riders – they’re like family,' says Geoffroy. job you can tell he’s at the top of his game.’ such havoc.’ Nowadays, the technology is 'Sometimes the cyclists will actually tip off The actual racing may divide opinion but phenomenally advanced. With a staff of 300, the cameramen, saying so-and-so will attack Ooghe’s coverage for TV company France France Télévisions uses four helicopters, two soon and giving them information right from Télévisions and beyond is unanimously seen planes, five camera motorcycles, two audio the heart of the race.' Their top-of-the-range as masterful. Boulting believes this harmony motorcycles, around 20 other cameras at the BMW R1200RT bikes have been modified P 120 CYCLIST Filming Le Tour b Insight truck; the first point receives the live signal from above and sends it to a satellite and the second point forwards the signal via microwave link to the finish town, where it's picked up by four receivers mounted on a crane 50m high. The eight signals (two Tour TV by helicopter cameras, five motorbike cameras ‘Once a cameraman ran and one mounted on Prudhomme’s car – a numbers new addition in 2013) are decoded at EMF’s All this at the press of outside broadcast truck which processes over a spectator’s bike. a button… and colour corrects before sending it on to 1948 first live broadcast of the Tour Ooghe’s France Télévisions production suite They kidnapped him and on TV, from Parc des Princes next door in the zone technique. This whole 1958 first live coverage from the side process takes around half a second. demanded a ransom’ of the road, on Col d’Aubisque All part of the plan 3.5 billion estimated total annual worldwide audience of Tour P with special generators for the heavy VHF (an ‘exceptional tool’ that captures ‘wholly EMF and France Télévisions need eight former yellow jersey and prologue specialist untangle: ASO has two major deals in place wireless cameras and a more favourable gear stabilised images whatever the conditions’, months to prepare for the Tour. As soon as Chris Boardman – describes Pensec’s role – one with France Télévisions (thought to be 190 countries broadcasting the Tour box ratio to enable speeds as slow as 8kmh according to aerial cameraman Vincent the route is revealed, technicians are busy as ‘so important’. ‘Unless you’ve ridden in a worth around €24m a year until 2020) and 121 channels showing the Tour in third gear without touching the clutch. Houeix). Like the motorbikes on the ground, figuring out locations for the intermediate bunch then you’re totally unaware of all the another with the European Broadcasting around the world ‘Chapeau to the men on the motorbikes,’ pilots and cameramen work in pairs on trucks, scouting out potential pitfalls (such scenarios playing out. Former Tour riders Union (EBU) on behalf if its members in 56 60 channels showing live coverage says Boulting. ‘They’re extremely brave, races throughout the year, with the longest as high buildings and trees) and organising see things that are invisible to the naked countries in and around Europe (until at 86 hours of live footage during strong and proficient at their jobs – and serving couple stretching back for almost helicopter refuelling points. Meanwhile, untrained eye.’ Not only is there a fair bit of least 2019). In separate recent agreements, the Tour they read a bike race really well despite the two decades. One of the helicopters boasts Ooghe makes his own roadbook, scouting juggling the sporting side of the race with both NBC and SBS committed to 10-year 5,000 hours of programming around abuse they often get from the riders and a special wide-angle lens for the sweeping out the geographic and cultural places of what Geoffroy describes as the ‘geography deals until 2023, with Mike Tomalaris – the world commissaires in the heat of the moment.’ landscape shots. ‘My personal favourite is interest within a 15km radius of the route lesson’ that attracts viewers year after year, Australia’s answer to Gary Imlach – claiming 260 TV cameramen on motorbikes, Besides the additional gaggle of when the riders are descending into a valley so that he can ‘script’ each stage. Those but Ooghe has a difficult balancing act on his the ‘extraordinary’ deal (thought to be worth in helicopters and at the finish photographers, a handful of private and the helicopter draws alongside the elaborate displays in fields by farmers that hands satisfying both the domestic and the AUS$2m a year) is proof that ‘we’re in bed 12 length in kilometres of all the customers (such as ASO and the American road at the same altitude. It makes fantastic we see each year? They come from tip-offs ever-increasing global audience. with ASO big time’. In total, ASO sealed cables laid out each day in the channel NBC) run motorbikes during viewing,’ says Boulting. from the French farmers’ union complete ‘There was a time,’ explains Boulting, agreements with 121 channels covering 190 finish zone the race. Channel 4 once paid £15,000 Now for the technical bit. Transmitting with GPS co-ordinates so Ooghe can ensure ‘when, for example, the sight of Christophe countries in 2013.