
Tour de France 2020: NBC Sports Group Leverages Stamford Broadcast Center for At-Home Production Instead of three mobile units, the broadcaster travels a satellite-uplink truck over the route By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Tuesday, September 15, 2020 - 3:42 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Shifting locations is nothing new for NBC Sports Group's Tour de France production team. Each year, the crew follows the race from one stage to the next, performing a full set and strike each day, moving its caravan of trucks to the next finish-line location overnight, and doing it all over again the next day. This year, however, the production team has moved a bit farther away from the 21-stage course in France: more than 3,500 miles west to Stamford, CT.
NBC Sports' Joel Felicio and the majority of the production team are producing the broadcast from a control room in Stamford.
With the pandemic wreaking havoc on travel and logistics, NBC Sports has opted to produce its Tour de France coverage out of its International Broadcast Center (IBC) in Stamford with a limited footprint in France. As a result, the Peacock sports team was tasked with devising a wholly new production workflow that matched the production quality of past years.
We are all usually onsite for this, so everyone has had to figure out a new way to do all their jobs with COVID protocol, says NBC Sports Coordinating Producer Joel Felicio. We've had to pretty much rethink everything. It was a little scary in the lead-up, but, after that first show, we knew it was all going to work. I'm really proud of how it has turned out, and we've continued to improve throughout.
A Connecticut Broadcaster in Tour de France's Court Instead of three onsite mobile units (main production unit, edit unit, and truck for the studio show) as in years past, Felicio and the majority of the production team are producing the broadcast from a control room in Stamford. The production crew replicates what would be inside the truck in France: producer Felicio, a director, TD, associate director, three EVS replay operators, graphics operator, graphics PA, and audio mixer.
To send camera/audio feeds to Stamford, NBC parks a satellite-uplink truck at the finish line each day with connectivity to the IBC. A TD inside the uplink truck is in direct contact with the control room in Stamford, which indicates which feeds should be sent at any given moment.
NBC is using its International Broadcast Center in Stamford, CT, as the home for its Tour de France production.
NBC has three transmission paths from France: a clean feed provided by race organizer Amaury Sports Organization (CLICK HERE for SVG Europe's story on the world feed), a multiviewer that allows the production team to view all the available sources, and a path to switch between individual camera feeds depending on the situation. A TD inside the uplink truck is in direct contact with the Stamford control room and has access to two helicopter cams, five RF motorcycle cameras, and several other sources to send.
At the finish line, all the [sources] that we would normally have onsite in our OB production truck is going into an uplink truck, says Felicio. And the full production workflow is based in our control room in Stamford.
Live From France: Small Crew Goes Inside the Peloton Onsite in France, NBC has deployed a five-person crew at the start line each day: onsite reporter Adam Blythe, a producer, ENG cameras, audio mixer, and production assistant. This crew produces start-line interviews each day and delivers them to the SPOC via a LiveU bonded-cellular transmission system.
NBC has brought back several of the production elements deployed for the Tour de France in previous years, including live coverage from cameras mounted on several competitors' bicycles. NBC deploys eight 5G-based bike-cam systems each day, rotating them among the riders.
SMT is once again providing virtual-pointer graphics for NBC's coverage.
We're excited to have that back, and it's getting into the show a lot, says Felicio. That's really cool because you get a different angle and can get the perspective from right in the peloton. Sometimes, I ask the [announcers] to stay silent so we can actually listen to what's going on in the peloton, which is always interesting, because you can hear the brakes and the wind and the nat sounds. It's really amazing.
NBC's popular 3D animated maps, which track where the riders are on the route in real time, are back again this year (with the operator located onsite) along with real-time data on course gradients.
SMT Pitches in Graphics, Data Feeds From Durham NBC's multi-site workflow isn't limited to Stamford and France, however. SMT, which provides graphics and data feeds for NBC's coverage each year, is handling its portion of the show out of its own remote control room in Durham, NC. (CLICK HERE for SVG's story on SMT's role.)
SMT provides broadcast graphics that display the ever-changing road gradients and the cyclists' speeds. Time-trial graphics include predicted finish times, the time each rider must finish to take the yellow jersey, and a comparison of two riders to determine who is fastest on specific sections of the course. SMT's Iso Track System allows viewers to follow the cyclists with an on-screen pointer graphic that displays names, rankings, headshots, real-time speeds, and gradients.
NBC has a small footprint onsite at the start and finish lines each day in France.
Other broadcast features from SMT include prompters for commentators, featuring storytelling elements (including a leaderboard that tracks riders for each group based on the stage profile); full-screen graphics with race-stage profiles showing the layout of the current stage and rider progres
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
07/08/2025
July 8 2025, 22:30 (PDT) Tata Motors & Dolby Bring Dolby Atmos to Harrier.ev, R...
12/07/2025
Ryan Coogler accepting the 2013 Vanguard Award. Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez.
Editor's Note: In honor of Fruitvale Station s 12th anniversary, we're d...
12/07/2025
Key Code Education, the professional training division of Key Code Media, proudly announces a major update to its Adobe Premiere Pro Engineering and Advanced Op...
12/07/2025
Key Code Education, a leader in instructor-led post production training for over...
12/07/2025
As the death toll continues to mount, with at least 120 killed and more than 170 people still missing on July 10 from devastating Texas floods, a number of broa...
12/07/2025
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., and MIAMI -DirecTV and TelevisaUnivision have signed a deal that will make the ad-supported premium subscription tier of ViX, ViX Premium wi...
11/07/2025
PARK CITY, UTAH, July 11, 2025 - The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the 11 producers chosen for its annual Producers Labs, returning to Ucross Fou...
11/07/2025
If you've ever wondered what might be playing in Clark Kent's headphones...
11/07/2025
L3Harris Technologies President of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Jason Lambert and General Manager of L3Harris Waco facility Sean Ling held a ce...
11/07/2025
ARLINGTON, Va. WETA, the flagship public media station in the national capital area, has launched WETA+, a new streaming service tailored for the local Washingt...
11/07/2025
The Federal Communications Commission has emerged as one of the central players in the broadcast TV landscape in 2025, with its deregulatory policies sparking h...
11/07/2025
Calrec will introduce usability, customization and system enhancements across its entire range of Argo consoles during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Amsterda...
11/07/2025
LONDON Encompass Digital Media said it will support live and on-demand viewing of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup across multiple global regions for sports enterta...
11/07/2025
Two-thirds of broadcast engineers reaped the benefits of a pay raise within the last year....
11/07/2025
CARY, N.C. SmallHD has launched the Quantum 27, a new 26.5-inch Quantum-Dot OLED monitor designed to deliver postproduction image quality in a compact, set-frie...
11/07/2025
The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau and Tegna have entered into a consent decree that will settle an investigation into the accidenta...
11/07/2025
WASHINGTON Following news in early July that Paramount had settled President Donald Trump's lawsuit, Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Ben Ray Luj n (D-N...
11/07/2025
Model/Actriz Performs Lead Single Cinderella on The Late Show with Stephen Colbe...
11/07/2025
Behind the Mic: Amazon Prime Preps for First Season of NBA Action; MSG Networks ...
11/07/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Suite Studios' Craig Hering on Adapting to Client...
11/07/2025
2025 SVG Content Management Forum Breaks Down AI's Impact, Continued Transit...
11/07/2025
A Journey HOME: University of Nebraska's HuskerVision Goes IP Leaders from the HuskerVision and Lawo share their IP learnings By SVG Staff
Friday, July 1...
11/07/2025
CMSI, Remote Picture Labs, Ace ESPN's Cloud-Based Editing Efforts for Wimble...
11/07/2025
Netflix Enters the Live-Boxing-Production Ring for Round 2 With Historic Taylor-...
11/07/2025
Back to All News
Too Hot to Handle: Italy Is Coming on July 18 Only on Netflix
Entertainment
11 July 2025
GlobalItaly
Link copied to clipboard
July 11, 20...
11/07/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Will Release Death Inc. Seasons 1, 2 and 3
Entertainment
11 July 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Season 1
Season 2
Se...
11/07/2025
AI and Multimedia Authenticity Standards Collaboration launches two papers to guide the future of AI integration, today at the AI for Good Global Summit
The...
11/07/2025
Ceramics - the humble mix of earth, fire and artistry - have been part of a global conversation for millennia.
From Tang Dynasty trade routes to Renaissance pa...
10/07/2025
The current holder of the prestigious Thomson Foundation Young Journalist of the Year Award has been forced to stop reporting over fears for her safety in Afgha...
10/07/2025
Spotify is turning up the volume on Australian music with a multipronged initiative designed to highlight the dominance of Australian artists on the global stag...
10/07/2025
This is not a drill: Oasis is back on the road-marking its first live performanc...
10/07/2025
The music industry depends on fresh ideas, bold voices, and emerging talent. Yet across the U.K., too many young musicians lack the space to develop their craft...
10/07/2025
NEW YORK - July 10, 2025 - Nielsen, the global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, today announced that it appointed Richard Pacheco as head of ...
10/07/2025
Local newscasts don't exist in a vacuum. News directors and station management constantly evaluate what's working, what isn't and perhaps most impor...
10/07/2025
Lawo has announced that Stuttgart Media University (Hochschule der Medien, HdM) has comprehensively modernized its central recording studio after selecting an I...
10/07/2025
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) has opened early-bird registration for the Media Technology Summit, which will take place in a ne...
10/07/2025
NASHVILLE, Tenn. TNDV Television has launched Aspiration 35, a new version of its 40-foot Aspiration truck reimagined for cinematic multicamera productions....
10/07/2025
BURBANK, Calif. Key Code Education, a provider of instructor-led postproduction training, is growing its curriculum with new programs for beginner and intermedi...
10/07/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. Actus Digital will demonstrate how broadcasters can transform compliance monitoring from a necessary expense into a strategic revenue driver at...
10/07/2025
The Federal Register has published a summary of the Federal Communications Commission's Public Notice seeking comments on its ownership rules that lists a d...
10/07/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Presents the Official Trailer for SuperestarPlay Video
Play Video
Entertainment
10 July 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard...
10/07/2025
In the race to understand our planet's changing climate, speed and accuracy are everything. But today's most widely used climate simulators often strugg...
10/07/2025
As one of the world's largest emerging markets, Indonesia is making strides toward its Golden 2045 Vision - an initiative tapping digital technologies and...
10/07/2025
10 Jul 2025
VEON and Cohen Circle Secure Investor Commitments for Kyivstar Listing Kyiv, New York, Dubai, and Philadelphia - July 10, 2025 - VEON Ltd. (Nasdaq:...
10/07/2025
5G for all? What the DFL's use of Easy5G and RefCam could mean for events in...
10/07/2025
Save the Date: PGA TOUR Studios Welcomes SVG Remote Production Summit on Oct 14-...
10/07/2025
Cloud on the Road: How Remote-Production-Service Providers Are Adapting to a New...
10/07/2025
Seattle Kraken's Ryan Schaber on the NHL Team Taking Live Game Productions I...