Paris 2024: Inside Look at OBS Plans for 11,000 Hours of Games Coverage The effort ranges from the largest live-TV effort ever to personal Athlete Moments By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Wednesday, July 17, 2024 - 8:00 am
Print This Story
The Paris Olympics are less than 10 days away, and, for the team at OBS and the thousands of sports-production professionals descending on Paris, it's time to make sure all systems are go for everything from the Opening Ceremony, which will be the largest live-TV effort ever (with more than 1,000 cameras expected to be capturing it), to the 329 events to be played in Paris and beyond.
The Paris 2024 Summer Games Opening Ceremony on July 26 promises to be a showstopper.
OBS expects to produce more than 11,000 hours of content around the Games, with upwards of 4,000 hours of sports and ceremony coverage and 2,350 hours of additional content available to rightsholders via the multi-clip feed (MCF). With 72 native UHD contribution multilateral feeds, 28 MCF feeds, 81 UHD distribution feeds (and 82 HD feeds) produced via 47 production units out of 70 production galleries, the effort is immense and the largest Olympics effort ever.
OBS has three distinct goals for the Paris Games. To capture the distinct city feel of Paris, with iconic locations and landmarks providing a scenic backdrop for broadcast. To use technology for the benefit of storytelling, with increased access to data enabling more-immersive coverage for all distribution platforms and all ways of consuming media. To further push to achieve gender-balanced coverage: for the first time ever, an equal number of men and women will be participating.
At the core of OBS's efforts is an internal staff of approximately 160 representing 28 nationalities. The group will oversee an army of 8,300 OBS games-time personnel from more than 110 countries. The team has relocated from its Madrid headquarters to Paris and has been hard at work setting up the 40,000-sq.-meter International Broadcast Centre in four halls at Paris Le Bourget Exhibition Centre and the 36 venue compounds. The IBC is the center of production efforts and signal acquisition and distribution not only for OBS but also for more than 30 media-rights holders (MRHs) and 100 broadcast organizations, who took possession of spaces there in May. The IBC was operational as of June 26.
OBS continues efforts to reduce the footprint of IBC and venue operations. The Tokyo 2020 footprint, for example, was 23% smaller than the Rio 2016 footprint, and this year's IBC is 13% smaller than Tokyo (space across 36 venue compounds is down 11%). Deployment of OBS Cloud has enabled significant reductions in physical-space and power requirements. As a result, Paris 2024 saves space and infrastructure and, with certain venue optimizations, offers additional opportunities for ticket sales.
Numbering 160 people, the internal OBS team will be at the center of production and technical operations for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
In addition, new workflows, along with the introduction of more remote-production options, have helped MRHs reduce resources and personnel requirements without lessening the quality of the OBS coverage or services to the MRHs.
Efforts to reduce power demand have also worked. Olympic Committee-provided power will be down 44% from Tokyo, and venue broadcast power will be down 29%.
While OBS has been hard at work building out the IBC and other facilities around Paris, it has been gathering plenty of pre-Games content, including aerial footage and Paris landmarks. This footage was made available for the MRHs to use in their promotional programming.
A Historic Opening Ceremony Four customized camera boats will help cover a unique Opening Ceremony for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Next week's Opening Ceremony will be the first ever to be held outside of a stadium. The parade of athletes will take place on the Seine, with 200 Olympic teams transported more than 3.5 miles on more than 80 boats. It will be the largest broadcast production at an Olympic Games in terms of broadcast equipment and resources, and new technology and camera systems have been developed (OBS participated in an operational test, organized by Paris 2024, last July). Four custom-made stabilized boats, fitted with specifically designed camera systems will be at the center of the efforts, and 100-plus camera systems (three times the number of cameras used at Tokyo 2020) will include drones, robos, cranes, and cable cams. Also, look for more than 200 mobile phones to be deployed on the athletes' boats.
Extending beyond the IBC, the OBS presence comprises TV-studio facilities in the Place du Trocad ro and stand-up positions across the city. Also, in collaboration with Paris 2024 and French authorities, OBS has developed a provisional production plan for aerial coverage of the Games: up to 12 beauty cameras, highlighting the most iconic images of Paris, are planned to be installed.
Production Philosophy OBS's production efforts are based on the goal of delivering clear, objective coverage of all Olympic sports. International TV and radio signals or world feeds are delivered to rightsholders via the Multi-channel Distribution Service (MDS). At that point, rightsholders complement the feed with their own images, interviews, data, analysis, and commentary.
These guiding principles drive OBS coverage: improve the quality of the production and the level of service to broadcasters; use technology for the benefit of storytelling with more athlete-centric coverage and immersive solutions; make content more accessible and scalable (supporting remote operations and digital production); and increase efficiencies in workflows and tools, allowing OBS to do more with less and in smarter, more cost-efficient ways.
On the delivery and technology side, OBS will
North America Stories
13/11/2026
The UIM E1 Series wraps its third season this week with the Bombay Sapphire E1 Miami GP, Nov. 11-14, on Biscayne Bay at the Miami Seaplane Base on Watson Island...
13/11/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
13/11/2026
Singer-songwriter Benson Boone will headline entertainment for the Discover NHL Winter Classic between the Utah Mammoth and Colorado Avalanche at Rice-Eccles St...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone, a 7th order ambisonic microphone array that captures spatial audio for immersive video prod...
13/11/2026
SMPTE has announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infrastructure and communications technology for the Solutions Hub at t...
13/11/2026
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) has announced the theme and program focus for the 2027 HPA Tech Retreat, which takes place Feb. 14-18, 2027, in La ...
13/11/2026
Football Manager 27 Touch is available on Apple Arcade starting today. The game ...
13/11/2026
MotoGP has announced a two-year media rights agreement with ESPN covering the Un...
13/11/2026
Apple Sports, the free iPhone app, has added the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to its lineup of supported sports, in time for Saturday's UFC 334. The...
13/11/2026
The NBA and Fanatics Studios, the joint venture between Fanatics and entertainme...
13/11/2026
ESPN held its annual EDGE Innovation Conference last night and offered up an ove...
13/11/2026
Regional sports network gives Ithaca College, SUNY Cortland students a platform to thrive
One of the biggest games in Division III college football will be pla...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Blue Lucy, the workflow orchestration and integration platform for broadcasters, rights owners and localisation companies, today announced an integration with c...
13/11/2026
Krotos announces Black Friday offers on Studio Pro and Studio Max
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
First-year annual plans start at US$195.99...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design Announces Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
New 7th order ambisonic microphone with 108 MEMS...
13/11/2026
Meet the Berklee Student Setting Planetary Motion to Music With his compositional platform SoniKosmos, Javier Roqueni aims to make the universe the ultimate i...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Amagi, the media industry cloud company, today announced a partnership with Golden Times Media Technology (stock code 920021.BJ), a Beijing-based media and tech...
13/11/2026
CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB), one of the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world, together with its Malaysian partner, Cedar ...
13/11/2026
SMPTE, the home for media professionals, technologists and engineers, today announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infra...
13/11/2026
iWedia, a global leader in connected TV software solutions, will present its software-first approach to DRAM optimization at Android TV APAC Summit 2026 in Bang...
13/11/2026
From pediatric research to smart hospitals, AI is helping care teams spend less time on routine tasks and more time with patients.
Health systems and startups...
12/11/2026
Industry leaders examine how Dynamic Media Facility, Media eXchange Layer, and c...
12/11/2026
The junior Tar Heel is embracing the technical and creative challenges of live production while emerging as a leader and mentor in the control room...
12/11/2026
Gracenote, Nielsen's content intelligence business, has released its fifth a...
12/11/2026
RTL Deutschland will bring the NHL to free-to-air TV in Germany starting Nov. 30...
12/11/2026
Clear-Com supported On Air 2026, a 24-hour student-led broadcast connecting 45 u...
12/11/2026
uniqFEED has opened a Remote Operations Center (ROC) in Madrid, Spain. It is already operational, delivering virtual advertising for LaLiga matches. The ROC is ...
12/11/2026
Disney, ESPN and the NBA will present Dunk the Halls, the third real-time animated NBA game using Sony's Beyond Sports data visualization technology, on Chr...
12/11/2026
Van Wagner has launched Van Wagner RELAY, a digital platform for official athlet...
12/11/2026
Deal brings together two of the industry's most established graphics brands and significantly expands Vizrt's footprint in U.S. sports and regional broa...
12/11/2026
Euro TV Production GmbH of Austria has upgraded its outside broadcast vehicle with Lawo technology. The mc 36 Classic console in service since 2019 was replaced...
12/11/2026
Tagboard has launched Spark Resize, an AI-assisted tool now in beta that takes an existing graphic and produces a new version for a different aspect ratio or sc...
12/11/2026
Ben Winston, Glenn Weiss, and FIFA's Jenni-Lee Van Gelder headlined a day fo...
12/11/2026
Free interactive platform visualizes team tendencies, formations, and schemes, updated weekly...
12/11/2026
Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Charlie Jablonski's broadcasting career is...
12/11/2026
Gracenote's 2026 State of Play report signals a rising retention risk: More ...
Paris 2024: Inside Look at OBS Plans for 11,000 Hours of Games Coverage The effort ranges from the largest live-TV effort ever to personal Athlete Moments By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
