Legendary February: Production Leaders at NBC Sports Pull Back the Curtain on Olympics, Super Bowl, NBA All-Star PlansTech innovation will mark a month of extraordinary productionsBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. Thursday, January 8, 2026 - 3:32 pm
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As NBCUniversal heads into an unprecedented month of live sports programming, several NBC Sports production leaders gathered at 30 Rock on Wednesday to provide a sneak peek at some of the innovations viewers can expect during coverage of the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Games, Super Bowl LX, and the broadcaster's first NBA All-Star Game.
I think we look at [the Olympics] as the absolute holy grail of what this company can do and what we can do for the nation, said Comcast Chairman/Co-CEO Brian Roberts, describing the Olympics as the company's laboratory for technology. It's the proudest part of the year. And, oh, by the way, there's a Super Bowl and an NBA All-Star game, too. It's just legendary. We can't wait for it to be here.
Milano Cortina 2026: Our Most Technologically Innovative Winter Games Ever' We're going into these Winter Games [with the] mantra that we want to make the best seat in the house even better, said Molly Solomon, executive producer/president, NBC Olympics Production. How do we do that? Well, this is going to be our most technologically innovative Winter Games ever.
The broadcasts will feature more-extensive use of live drones, she said, noting that the broadcaster is working with Olympic Broadcast Services to enhance aerial coverage. In addition, NBC is looking to enhance its access to athletes during competition, including miking U.S. men's and women's hockey players for the first time, along with freestyle skiers and snowboarders. In addition, NBC will tap into team radio communications during such events as Alpine skiing (using AI-powered translation when needed) to get behind-the-scenes audio.
Imagine Lindsay Vonn calling back up to the top of the hill; we're going to have that instantaneously, said Solomon. We're so excited about access. We've pushed everybody to go places they've never seen before because winter [athletes are] covered with goggles and head gear; we need to [have access] into a place before they put the stuff on. We need to see faces. The International Olympic Committee has been great about granting us that access.
Similar to NBC's philosophy for Paris 2024, that access will also apply to athletes' friends and family on hand. In addition to miking loved ones in the stands, NBC will add a LiveU camera to all its venues to capture cutaway shots of friends and family and, to enhance the drama, will periodically use heart-rate monitors on family members with a corresponding on-screen graphic.
We doubled down on audio and miking friends and family in Paris and will do same in Milan Cortina, said Solomon. Our team has been meeting with all relevant parents, coaches, and loved ones about miking them and building up that trust in advance. We won't use it live so they know we're not going to compromise them, but it will be featured a lot because that's the richest storytelling we can offer.
Super Bowl XL: Hyland To Take Front Bench; New Graphics Package To DebutHaving worked on five Super Bowls - including as replay producer for three of them - Sunday Night Football Coordinating Producer Rob Hyland will be at the front bench as lead producer for the first time on Feb. 8. He takes over for Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Fred Gaudelli, executive producer, NFL coverage, NBC Sports, and will be working alongside another Hall of Famer: Drew Esocoff, directing his eighth Super Bowl.
Freddy has set the standard, said Hyland. We'll have every camera angle, every replay source, every microphone covering Levi's Stadium, and we will cover the game expertly. We will have some new technological advances available should the game take us in [a new] direction.
He noted that NBC tested several of those advances when at Levi's Stadium during last month's Sunday Night Football Bears-49ers matchup: among them was Weather Applied Metrics, which provides reports that quantify how much past, present, and future weather conditions affect the outcome of sports events.
They have an interesting way of interpreting wind data and presenting it graphically three-dimensionally, Hyland explained. If we were to get wind on Super Bowl Sunday, for the first time, we could graphically illustrate how the wind affects the flight of ball. The problem is, there was no wind [during the test], and we might get zero wind on Super Bowl Sunday. But, if the [opportunity] presents itself in the game, we will use some things that you haven't seen on Sunday Night Football [this season].
In all, NBC will deploy 80-plus cameras (including SkyCam, jib, live drone, and Steadicam systems), more than 150 microphones, and augmented-reality graphics on multiple cameras. However, Sunday Night Football is such a massive production that NBC's camera count will be largely similar to its week-to-week complement.
My monitor wall for the Super Bowl as it exists for Sunday night is not changing [since] we do a very big show right now, noted Hyland. There's a whole other row of monitors for the supplemental cameras, which are really enhancement cameras. It's a big show already, but, yes, we will have a lot of fun bells and whistles to have at our disposal if the game takes us there.
One big change will be on the graphics side, where NBC is debuting a brand-new insert package and scorebar on its Chargers-Patriots Wild Card Weekend game this Sunday. It marks a departure from other Super Bowl broadcasters, who have waited until the Big Game to debut new graphics packa
