Milano Cortina 2026: Focusing in on the Parabolic' Sound of Skis on Snow at NBC Sports

At the Winter Games IBC in Milan, NBC Sports and Olympics' director of audio engineering, Karl Malone, spoke to SVG Europe from the NBC listening room about the set up and workflow of the broadcaster's audio production, from contending with drone noise to maxing out the immersive sound in what Malone calls, probably the best Winter Games sound we've ever had .

American broadcaster NBC is running a massive Winter Games operation between Italy and the US, bringing a new meaning to remote production.

Fourteen audio control rooms in Stamford, Connecticut, US - including two based in trucks in the carpark - are managing the mixing of all the sound from Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) on the world feed, plus the multiple sources coming in from the disparate locations of all of NBC's crews on the ground at the Games, including the studio at the IBC. Audio operations in the US are overseen by Mike Dicrescenzo, director of audio production and workflow.

So Karl, here we are in your listening room! Can you tell me about the NBC listening room setup?

Malone: We have a listening room back in Stamford managed by my counterpart, Mike Dicrescenzo. He oversees all audio engineering and creative mixes for the A1s working in Stamford, ensuring they are mixing to our standard. He has a listening room that has been moving with us through all previous Games, but is now based back in Stamford because that's where all the primetime shows are being produced.

Almost everything except figure skating and the Opening Ceremony is produced out of Stamford; it features a flexible setup with four height speakers and professional monitoring.

How does the setup we are in now compare to the one in Stamford?

Malone: The setup here is closer to a home environment. It's based around a 5.1 soundbar with a subwoofer and up-firing Atmos speakers. The idea with that is we chose a standard soundbar because want to get a typical home listening environment because we realise most people aren't listening on high-end 5.1.4 systems with ceiling speakers.

We're thinking about people who aren't necessarily audiophiles, but who see audio as being important and aren't listening with the speakers that come out of the back of the TV, that are listening with a soundbar. It's not the lowest common denominator, but the mid-denominator. And that's why we've chosen a fairly mid-range soundbar. If it sounds good here, it's going to sound great in Mike's professional room.

What exactly are you listening for in these mixes?

Malone: Here I'm listening to NBC-produced programming coming out of our 14 control rooms in Stamford. Our daytime show, our USA Network, and our primetime show are all mixed in immersive 5.1.4, so I listen to the mixes coming out of those production control rooms.

Those mixes are a blend of OBS splits, plus the OBS programme mix, plus effects mics from our own cameras, plus our own crowd mics, so it's just a very US-centric mix.

There are certain venues where we'll completely take the host mix, but more than half the venues will be doing their own mixes, taking the OBS splits and using our own camera microphones and some ambience microphones, some surround microphones, and some immersive microphones that we have in NBC positions, like mixed zones or announcer platforms, or commentary booths; anywhere we're allowed to put microphones, because we're not allowed to put them on the field of play.

What has been the most challenging aspect of the production so far?

Malone: Drones! It's the best thing about this Games, and the worst thing. From a production point of view, we love the views that drones give the viewers at home. The drones really show the speed of the athlete and provide a very good camera view - beautiful shots - and it's a new way of showing things like sliding; you're seeing a view you've never seen before. It's visually stunning and everybody likes it.

Unfortunately at this stage, without artificial intelligence (AI) being able to get rid of the noise in a live environment - there's nothing that can rid of the noise in a live environment at the moment - we are stuck with the noise of a drone.

The unfortunate thing about that is, this is probably the best Winter Games sound we've ever had. You can hear every single detail on the snow and on the ice. It's absolutely perfect and the conditions have led to that, with the great base of snow and in some places, ice, we're getting a parabolic effect. You're able to pick up the sounds from the skis in this Games than ever before. The micing techniques have got better and OBS has got a lot of experience just perfected the micing of something like downhill skiing.

It's unfortunate the drone noise sometimes gets into the edge of that, because you're missing the edge of the skis at times on some of the downhills.

It's a trade-off; the trade-off is from the director's point of view is not to use the drone if you're not going to use it in the actual shot. We're hoping that directors now and in the future will start to only use the drone in a situation where they're going to use the shot, then get the drone to go away. Sliding is a good example; you see the drone and hear the drone for the first two turns, but then the drone peels off.

What does the NBC-specific creative mix entail?

Malone: It's about making sure that in the front left and right, we're hearing the field of play, we're hearing the edge of the ski, we're hearing the under-ice mics in figure skating, we're hearing the chatter and the board bindings at the top of slopestyle, people clamping themselves into their skis or their snowboards. It's all those details; making sure you have all of them creatively in your front l

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/02/18/milano-cortina-2026-focusing-in...
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