350 modern cameras, 2700 personnel, Doordarshan all geared up for C'Wealth Games

For the first time in the history of Commonwealth Games, Doordarshan is providing 'high definition' coverage to its viewers and is all geared up with more than 350 ultra modern cameras and well-trained crew members who will be covering the events on road, by air and under water.

"We are fully geared up. For the first time in the history of Commonwealth Games the coverage will be on high definition. We will have our presence at 18 places that includes 16 venues plus two road events. More than 350 cameras will be installed for this purpose. The coverage will be on road, by air and under water," director general of DD Aruna Sharma said in an interview.

"For Aquatics events, we will have under water cameras. Opening, closing ceremonies and road events will be covered by helicopter and special moving cameras will be installed for some events. In short it will be altogether a delightful experience."

She said that for this type of coverage DD neither had the experience nor the equipment, so they tied up with a British entity SIS live.

"SIS is responsible for the production and coverage. They bought all the modern equipment here. We also chose the opportunity to train our 300 staffers for handling sports coverage in HD. We divided those sports wise and trained accordingly. They have done all the test events and mock games on their own," she said.

DD also has made arrangements for non HD telecast.

"For maximum number of viewers, who don’t have the mechanism to watch it on HD, we would step it down. We have the SD format which is also far more superior of that we normally see," she said.