On This Day, 1948: the opening of the first televised Olympics
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Images of the BBC coverage of the 1948 Olympics
The broadcasting and televising of the London 1948 Olympiad, which started on July 29 with the transmission of the Opening Ceremony, was described by Radio Times as "the biggest operation of its kind that the BBC has ever undertaken." Viewers were able to watch the main events at Wembley live - which included the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, the athletics, the boxing, the swimming, the diving, the football, the hockey and the riding, while Television Newsreel cameras captured highlights of other sports.
EMI mobile television control room, first used for televising the events at the Empire Pool
Outside Broadcast Manager Ian Orr-Ewing described the difficulty of selecting commentators for the TV broadcast: "Regular viewers will understand that television commentary demands a technique different from that which has been established for sound broadcasting; a television commentator is not merely describing what he can, see but is explaining the picture in the light of his expert knowledge of the subject."
You can watch this clip of the Olympic Newsreel which reports on the BBC operation at Wembley Stadium:
