THE YARD SUPPORT SPECIAL OLYMPICS COVERAGE

THE Yard, one of the Ireland's leading broadcast facilities providers, have teamed up with the organisers of the 2003 Special Olympics World Games.
Committing over half a million pounds in services and facilities to the project over the next three years, The Yard is to provide editing and broadcast support in the countdown to and during the event.
Through their partnership with the 2003 Special Olympics World Games, The Yard will have the opportunity to work with over 160 countries who will be sending pictures of their athletes competing in Ireland to all corners of the world. A historic occasion for all involved the June 2003 Games will be the first time that the event has been staged outside the US.
Liam Cabot, Managing Director of The Yard, said: "It has been a real joy working with Special Olympics and seeing the emergence of the World Games as a major event for this country. We have over 50 staff here at the Yard and I can honestly say that they all want to help in whatever way they can to ensure that the World Games will be a huge success and that as many people around the world as possible will see them."
Throughout March, The Yard will be providing their services to Special Olympics to make another documentary. The crew will work at the World Winter Games in Anchorage, Alaska where Ireland will be represented by six Special Olympics skiers. While television coverage of the Games in Ireland will be provided by games sponsors - RTÉ, The Yard will be providing camera crews, editing and satellite services to international broadcasters attending the event. The Yard's role will be to co-ordinate the needs of these broadcasters who will be generating their own coverage back to their respective countries.
The 2003 Games will be the first time where the Internet will play a major part in presenting the Games to a worldwide audience. With a dedicated server system and bandwidth directly into the Internet backbone, The Yard will be providing a comprehensive range of compression and hosting facilities for delivering audio and video on the Internet. (SP)