Archive notice: This article was originally published on July 9, 2009. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Sony Professional is planning to provide special support services for the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Berlin in August. As at the football World Cup, the manufacturer of professional media and broadcast technology is equipping special teams of service technicians for on-site deployment and activating a central telephone hotline. According to the company, special stocks of certain spare parts and loan equipment will also be available shortly before and during the major event in Berlin. This gives production teams on location a direct way to contact competent specialists quickly in the event of equipment defects, technical questions, or the failure of complete components.
Bernd Rauch, Senior Manager Field Operation in Service & Support at Sony Professional Solutions Europe, explains the concept: “We are activating a service hotline reserved exclusively for questions relating to the World Athletics Championships. It is a normal Cologne landline number that can be reached without special charges.” Telephone support will be available daily until 10 p.m. from the start of setup on 10 August and can be contacted until the championship’s closing event on 23 August. The number is 0221/29262 333.
Special Sony Advanced Support contracts are normally required for such services. For the World Athletics Championships, the company has decided, as part of a service-marketing initiative, to demonstrate the special quality and capabilities of Sony support and to provide equipment and personnel free of charge. “Customers who use our services during the championships therefore pay only for the materials actually consumed and the technicians’ service hours actually worked,” Bernd Rauch summarises.
The campaign focuses particularly on operators of HD outside-broadcast trucks equipped with the latest components in HD switchers (MVS series), HD camera chains (HDC series), and recorders (HDW or SRW series). Industry insiders expect a high two-digit number of recording teams and OB trucks at the championships in Berlin. “Obtaining good service in an emergency, particularly for these new components, can be very difficult amid the hectic pace of live reporting,” says Oliver A. Helfrich, Product Marketing Manager Broadcast at Sony in Berlin and responsible for service marketing. In advance, Sony had therefore already coordinated with customers such as TopVision - responsible for host broadcasting on behalf of ARD and ZDF - and incorporated their ideas for ideal on-site support into the concept.
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