SNG at the G20

On the 2nd of April 2009, 32 heads of state arrived at the ExCel Centre in London's Docklands for the London Summit to discuss the current global economic situation and how to resolve it. With Barack Obama on his first visit to the UK as President of the United States plus demonstrations planned across the capital, security was at an unprecedented level.

The media interest in this event was intense and as a result EBU asked SNG to provide 9 transmission paths, 8 live camera positions, 2 edit suites plus extensive production facilities. With a crew of over 50 people, SNG was operational at full capacity over a period of 48 hours whilst dealing with the logistical and security difficulties of an event of this magnitude.

However, SNG didn't just provide services at the London Summit itself. Supporting the EBU ExCel facilities were three more operations at Buckingham Palace, City Hall and President Medvedev's press conference in Kensington. Additionally, clients such as Al Jazeera and Press TV took advantage of SNG's latest service - wireless cameras - to get right to the heart of the action as demos turned to riots in the city.