Live From Paris 2024: Telemundo's Eli Velazquez on Miami Virtual-Studio Effort and Why In-Venue Commentators Matter For the first time, Telemundo broadcast the Opening Ceremony; soccer is big part of coverage plans By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Monday, July 29, 2024 - 4:27 am
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With a team of more than 30 onsite in Paris and nearly 100 at home in Miami, Telemundo is ensuring that the U.S. Spanish-speaking audience has more than 300 hours of dedicated Olympics coverage. For Telemundo EVP, Sports, Eli Velazquez, the mission is simple: celebrate and highlight Hispanic athletes' achievements while making sure that the vast soccer-loving community gets their fill.
We are leaning in heavily on the soccer tournament, he notes, both men's and women's, of course. We're very excited about the women's event for obvious reasons. The one time we may deviate from a soccer match will depend on other events that are going on simultaneously and whether they have Hispanic relevance or high viewer-interest relevance.
Telemundo's Eli Velazquez (bright blue jacket) chats with anchor Miguel Gurwitz at the broadcaster's set in Paris.
With the Group Stage of both the men's and the women's tournaments taking place now, those decisions are complicated by the overwhelming amount of soccer being played. But, once the Group Stage ends, the Telemundo team will have more time to focus on other Hispanic athletes and teams.
If there's an event where we can showcase one of those athletes, it should be prioritized, Velazquez says. We'll also tap into big storylines that become trend-setting, and Team USA goes without saying. Then there is the local team, France, because the enthusiasm of that is also a story. But we are trying to make sure everyone gets the same sort of quality proposition of a Spanish-language Olympic experience.
Helping in those efforts is that Telemundo has been working more closely than ever with NBC Olympics. For the first time ever, the broadcaster aired the Opening Ceremony (its talent team - Miguel Gurwitz, Jessica Carillo, and Julio Vaquiero - was located in the media tribune at the stadium where the ceremony ultimately took place), and Telemundo also is providing live coverage of gold-medal events and swimming, gymnastics, and track and field as in the past. One big difference from NBC Olympics is that, because Telemundo does not have pre-produced content or primetime programming, live coverage will be a big part of the value proposition for viewers at home.
We feel like we're giving the Hispanic audience a full accounting of what it means to be in an Olympic Games, says Velazquez. That's really exciting.
Today, the Telemundo team shifts gears a bit as the main hosts, Gurwitz and Carillo, head home to Miami, where they will host the action from one of Telemundo's sets. We've created a virtual studio in Studio L at the Telemundo Center, says Velazquez. It is really cool and can offer day and night looks with the Eiffel Tower. The virtual background has been created for all lighting conditions so, as lighting conditions shift in Paris, they will shift in the virtual studio in Miami.
One thing I've been marveling at, he continues, is how the trees and plants [on the virtual set] move and there are even cars driving up toward the Eiffel Tower. A lot of hard work [has been] put into it, and I'm very impressed.
A standup location at the Telemundo set offers backdrops of either the Arc de Triomphe or the Eiffel Tower (or both).
Meanwhile, a rooftop studio location in Paris near the Arc de Triomphe is used for news and live hits. It's always active for us, he says. If our reporters or our crews need a place to hunker down and do a live shot from a controlled environment, they can go to the studio. We also have an insert studio at the IBC.
Like many rightsholders in the IBC, Telemundo does not have a control room because all core production work is done remotely in Miami. Remote production today is part and parcel of our executions as we understand the value of it, says Velazquez. The team at the Telemundo Center feels a sense of pride: they are where everything comes together and then gets dispersed out to our audience.
The last time Telemundo was in France for an event near this size was the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2019.
[The Word Cup and the Olympics are] similar in that they bring the world together, attract attention on a global scale, and elicit a passionate following for the sport, says Velazquez. The difference is from a logistics perspective: with the World Cup, we're focused on one discipline. And the World Cup schedule is made in such a way to cater to storytelling so there's time between matches to talk about the match you just saw, to tell the stories of the match you're about to see, and to have some key interviews, features, and things of that nature to create engagement. But here, with all the events, you're reacting a lot more to what the events are giving you.
And, as with the World Cup, Olympic soccer matches are scattered across France, creating logistical challenges that the production team is familiar but with both men's and women's teams and a much tighter schedule.
Here, in the Group Stage, Velazquez points out, the games are literally starting one right after the other. There's this challenge where we've got to get off a game, obviously, when it finishes to get to the next game and so on. We've had to do a picture in picture because we're still wrapping up the previous game when the anthems are being played.
As always, Telemundo is committed to onsite commentary for all those matches. I'm a big fan of in-venue announcers, especially for soccer, he explains. I don't thin
