General Summary  

This position within the Discovery/Eurosport Sports Events Engineering (SEE) team is to focus on all sporting rights coverage undertaken by Discovery/Eurosport, including the Olympic Games for Tokyo 2020 and Olympics beyond. The role is key to the success of both sporting events and the Olympics coverage.

The scope as related to the Sporting events involves planning, solution design and execution of all Onsite Engineering aspects, with close working with Discovery/Eurosport Homebase Engineering teams. This includes working well within the SEE team of people on specific events, and close collaboration with Operations, Production and Editorial departments within Discovery/Eurosport.
Creating relationships with Host Broadcasters, Telco companies and other vendors involved within the event is essential to ensure the smooth running and broadcast. This includes both the planning stages and the onsite presence of the team. Liaising with 3rd party vendors engaged by Discovery/Eurosport is important, ensuring that requirements are communicated as early as possible. Maintenance of technical budget and reporting to Production Management is important in maintaining a cost effective event.
The scope as related to the Olympics involves assisting in the planning and solution design of all Venue Engineering aspects. This includes Venue infrastructure design and advice to end users and making technology choices to meet business needs. Integration with the other members of the Olympics team is key to ensure that standards are maintained.

Whilst the Sports Event Engineering (SEE) team, based in Chiswick Park West London and Issy Paris, is relatively small in the design and planning stages, the team will grow for sporting events and requires augmenting with qualified contract staff for both Olympics and other major sporting verticals, so selecting and securing the appropriate individuals to ensure the expanded team works well together is essential.

Close collaboration with other departments is required as well as with the Discovery and Eurosport regional markets. Establishing effective working relationships with both internal groups and external vendors is a key requisite for this role.
As sporting event rights and contracts change or end, working with the Production, Editorial, Operations and Procurement departments on new RFP’s is very important. Providing input on the technical requirements for the RFP, scoring responses and assessing potential bidders is important. 
It ensures that Discovery/Eurosport maintains standards whilst achieving the best cost-effective solution that meets the requirements and needs. A proven track record of successful delivery of major sporting events is essential for this role. 
European and Global travel will be required to support Olympics and other events. 

Responsibilities

• Manage, plan, configure and execute engineering requirements for sporting events, to include Olympics as required.
• Evaluate and assess new technologies and equipment.
• Create, maintain, and update system documentation for all events.
• Design and propose fully costed technical solutions as required.
• Work collaboratively with, and direct, hired-in technical and engineering contractors as required.
• Provide specialist technical support and information to other departments.
• Work closely within the ETT BAU and project teams, liaising with System Integrators and vendors as required.
• Maintain working knowledge of ETT improvements, particularly those that may affect design and implementation of sports events.
• Work with Operations, Editorial, Production and Purchasing departments to create RFP documentation as required.
• Work within the SEE group to plan and execute improvements in remote events.
• Other ad-hoc duties as required.

Requirements

• Educated to degree level or with proven experience in a Broadcast environment, the applicant should be a broadcast or network engineer.
• Experience of working on major sporting events is essential and willing to work the anti-social hours often needed to achieve success.
• An understanding of the production process and requirements of a sports production team.
• Ability to build effective working relationships within and across departments.
• Thorough knowledge of both digital and IP broadcast technologies, and their implementation.
• Knowledge of and/or experience with SMPTE 2110 and AES 67.
• Planning and design of systems for event installations.
• Practical experience of broadcast facility installation practices and procedures.
• Management of staff during the planning, implementation and operation phases of events.
• Standard office IT skills – MS Office, MS Visio, MS Project.
• Self-motivation and the ability to advance projects without supervision are essential.
• The ability to deal with multiple workflows and to identify and prioritise their responsibilities in a changing environment.
• The successful candidate will be expected to communicate with and meet a wide variety of people within and outside of the organisation during their career at Discovery & Eurosport; therefore, excellent presentational and communication skills are essential.
   

Desirable Skills

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• Knowledge of workflows and processes in OTT platforms linear and non-linear.
• System drawing skills.
• Knowledge or training in project management, and project management tools.
• A familiarity with current and relevant health and safety regulations and training pertinent to the broadcast environment.