The European Para Championships brings dozens of para-athletes from across Europe to a multi-sport event that runs for two weeks straight. The media operation has to keep up from the opening of competition through the closing ceremony, and then turn what it produced into something that lasts.
Most events at this scale handle their media operations with a patchwork: one tool for broadcast distribution, another for press access, a third for internal asset management. Each tool has a different login, and each archive decision lands months later, often with content that's already been lost track of.
With so much action and excitement captured in just two weeks, EPC faced a tremendous challenge: managing, organizing, and sharing terabytes of media content. This included managing thousands of files uploaded in a single day, hundreds of hours of video content, and an active user group of over 100 people all while maintaining a hosted broadcast solution for viewers to tune in to.
The platform had to do work that's normally split across multiple tools:
- Serve as a hosted broadcast hub during the event
- Function as a press portal for media organizations across Europe
- Hold a structured archive of every asset produced
- Carry a custom metadata system so tens of thousands of files stayed findable
- Integrate with the PR.co newsroom so press access could run through one public link
- Transition into a long-term archive after the event without a migration
The result had to scale into a two-week intensive use window, then settle into a long-term archive without losing the through-line. The same platform that handled live broadcast had to be the one teams could come back to in three years.
MediaLab had one property that ruled out most alternatives: a single deployment could be configured as the working hub during the event and the archive afterward. It offered a single system covering the full lifecycle of the event's content.
Implementation was done in close collaboration with EPC ahead of the event. The MediaLab deployment was configured around EPC's specific shape: a clear folder structure to organize content as it came in, and a customized metadata system to keep individual files findable across what would eventually be tens of thousands of assets.
A PR.co newsroom integration sat alongside the platform, giving press a single public link to access event content as it became available, without separate credentials or additional vendor in the chain for journalists working to a deadline.
By the opening of competition, the platform was live. Broadcast teams, communications staff, and press partners were all working from the same source from day one.
The MediaLab deployment is the central hub through which broadcast, press, and archive all run. The platform bent to fit EPC's specific event shape, not the other way around.