The most critical information we are keen on delivering is that everything is going well, said Sun Weijia, Director of the Media Operations Department of the Organizing Committee of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on the eve of the 2007 World Broadcasters Conference.

The conference, which took place from September 23-29, is the last one before the Beijing Olympic Games, thus ushering in a final spurt for preparations for broadcasting of the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics, Sun pointed out.

It's television that fuelled interest in the Olympics and has sustained it for so long, said former President of the International Olympic Committee Samaranch. Television broadcasting and sponsorship have been dubbed as the major two financial pillars of the modern Olympics.

The past two world broadcaster conferences in 2005 and 2006 placed emphasis on work plans and range of services, while this year it delves into the implementation of the plans. The Organizing Committee of the Beijing Olympics has reported a satisfactory result in implementing plans, added Sun.

The Beijing Olympic Committee and concerned governmental organizations have co-established the Olympic Broadcasting Committee, responsible for affairs concerning broadcasters, such as entering or leaving the country, customs, taxation and work permits. Through its work it aims to build a sound work environment in line with Olympic practices and in pursuant of the requirements of international broadcasting institutions.

The building of an international press center for the Olympics is on track, with major construction already completed and interior installation underway. The press center resembles an exhibition center, and the installation is designed to turn it into a press center in accordance with Olympic reporting requirements. The press center is scheduled to come into use in February 2008, said Sun.

Beijing Olympic Broadcasting Co. Ltd. (BOB), a major broadcaster of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, will begin to set up work area for itself and other broadcasters in October 2007. It will be finished by February 2008.

Companies similar to BOB were established for recent Olympic Games by the host cities. Apart from building and running the international broadcasting center and facilities in other arenas and servicing rights-holding broadcasters, BOB also provides television and radio signals for Olympic events and activities.

Radio signals, supplied by the Organizing Committee of Olympics to every country, will be of the highest quality. Rights-holding television and radio stations will broadcast the signals after processing.

The Organizing Committee of the Olympics requires broadcasters to present audiences not only with the sense of being present, but also with a feeling of comfort. "It's an explicit target of broadcasting that watching the Olympics on television should be a treat, an experience different from attending the arena," said Ma Guoli, Chief Operation Officer (COO) of BOB. "Broadcasters should take into account all things that audiences wish to watch to minimize what they miss."

According to forecasts by AGB Nielson, a worldwide media research company, viewers of the Beijing Olympics will top 4 billion, a new high from 3.9 billion viewers of the Athens Olympic Games. Beijing will also see a gathering of 16,000 broadcasters from over 200 rights-holding broadcasting institutions, a record in Olympic history.

Since the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, the mode of making public signals for Olympic broadcasting has been shifted from relying on the host country to multinational cooperation. BOB has invited some Chinese broadcasting institutions, including CCTV and BTV to assume the responsibility for the international public signals of seven events in 19 arenas, including table tennis, badminton, modern pentathlon, football, basketball, volleyball and tennis. This is also the first specified team of Beijing Olympic broadcasters and the first large-scale participation of Chinese television media in Olympic broadcasting.

"The homeland broadcasting production scale will not be easily surpassed in future Olympic Games," commented Yiannis Exarchos, 41-year-old Senior Executive Officer of BOB. Before that, CCTV was in charge of international public signals for the table tennis and badminton events at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, the first time that China's television media had participated in international signal production.

"Olympic broadcasting will leave a great legacy for China," said Yiannis. It not only refers to the broadcasting technology per se, but also includes the production system of creative audio and visual products. Veteran television top gun Yiannis, who was involved in broadcasting work for the Olympic Games in Athens, Sydney and Salt Lake City, cited Greece as an example to illustrate his opinion. Greeks are creative in visual products but their television industry lacks an efficient cooperation system. The situation has been greatly changed since the Olympic Games came in. In this regard, China's television industry is also expected to benefit from the broadcasting experience.

Yannis thought highly of a project that will see around a thousand college graduates involved in the broadcasting for training purposes. "This is of great significance to China. The youth will have the chance to work with the best broadcasting staff, and they might take the Olympic broadcasting as the start of their future careers."

"For a long time China's sports television program production has remained at a low level," confessed Ma. Before becoming COO of BOB, he was director of the CCTV sports center and learned much about the business.

In the past when China's economic condition was not so good, the television signal producers in China were under-financed and poorly equipped. But in recent years things have got much better. "However, the quality of television signals leaves much to be desired, mainly because our standard is lower. But it's surely an improvement for China given its participation in the high standard of signal production in the Olympic Games," Ma noted.

Ma held that the Games will alter the attitude of Chinese television producers toward increasing investment. "Chinese television production will benefit from the high standards of the international television industry," said Ma.

Next year's Beijing Games will be a milestone in Olympic history: BOB will for the first time broadcast 3,800 hours of high definition television signals to the world.

"It will be a turning point as important as the transformation from black-and-white television to colored television," Ma said proudly, adding that the high definition signals can be converted into standard definition signals.