Paris 2024: Behind the Scenes at NBC Sports' Record-Setting At-Home Operation in Stamford The ST 2110 and Dante facility produces 1080p HDR, 50-Hz content By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Friday, August 2, 2024 - 11:36 am
Print This Story
Since cutting the ribbon on its Stamford, CT, broadcast center following the London 2012 Games, NBC Sports Group has escalated the facility's role in its Olympics broadcast operations with each successive Games. Implementation of the at-home efforts were accelerated for the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Games because of COVID-related challenges, and NBC hasn't looked back. Stamford is squarely at the center of NBC's Paris 2024 production with more technical infrastructure, crew, and live shows located there than ever before.
The period of COVID production expedited a lot of technology and infrastructure that would have been implemented down the road but out of necessity were fast-tracked, says NBC Olympics Production Executive Producer/President Molly Solomon. We are now one unified team: there's no evidence of distance between us [in Paris and Stamford] because of three years of planning between production, operations, and engineering. There is no latency in our interaction. Aren't you always on a headset anyway [no matter where you are]?
The heart of NBC Sports' Olympics broadcast operations in Stamford, CT
Nearly 2,000 NBC Sports staffers - nearly two-thirds of the entire Olympics coverage team - are working at the division's headquarters in Stamford, handling what ultimately will be more than 7,000 hours of programming across NBCUniversal's linear and digital platforms. While the team in Paris is focused on capturing the Olympic action as it plays out, it's up to the crew in Stamford to take in thousands of live and ENG feeds from Paris and package them for the millions of viewers watching.
During the 19 days of Paris 2024 coverage, Stamford is housing 17 production-control rooms, the lion's share of NBC's live studio productions, 28 off-tube announce booths, a dozen flex rooms that can serve a variety of needs, 24/7 live ingest and editing, the massive Highlights Factory operation, the broadcast-operations center, and more.
Game-Changer: The Move to ST 2110 and 1080p HDR Across the Board Like NBC's Paris effort, the Stamford operation is a fully 1080p HDR, 50-Hz production with 10 channels of Dolby Atmos across the board. In addition, nearly the entire operation relies on SMPTE ST 2110 for video and ST 2110-30 for audio, with a separate Dante network for audio, thanks to significant upgrades in IP technology following Beijing 2022.
NBC Sports' Kevin Callahan: Production members get quickly acclimated to the new systems and new facilities, thanks to the flexibility we've created here.
The biggest shift for these Games, says Kevin Callahan, senior director, system engineering, NBC Sports, is that everything flows through Stamford in some form. There's not a single control room in Paris that can go to air without passing through Stamford. We're able to do that largely because of the [upgrades] we've made since Beijing, with about 95% of our control rooms being native 2110 and the entire facility [running in] 1080p HDR 50.
Stamford's routing core has grown exponentially with the move to 2110: from roughly 3,000 3,000 to 5,000 11,000 sources/destinations with the new IP router (a Cisco switch with Grass Valley orchestration and EVS Cerebrum router control). Switchers in the larger control rooms went from having 20 router feeds to 128 feeds. Each control room is outfitted with a Densitron 2RU touchscreen router panel, streamlining operations for the production teams.
With all the rooms being 2110, the sky's the limit, says Callahan. That has really unlocked our remote workflows. We're now able to do all our REMI workflows with split video and audio levels. Every control room gets their own source list that they can share across the board so they can name every source whatever they want - just like they do in the trucks. That's a simple thing, but it has been huge for our production teams.
Control Rooms: Record Number of PCRs Drive Stamford-Based Productions The 17 production-control rooms in Stamford comprise 12 full PCRs, four Riedel Simplylive rooms, and one mobile unit. That is up from the 11 PCRs and three mobile units deployed for Tokyo 2020.
PCR2 serves as the home of NBC's Primetime in Paris, marking the second Olympics that the primetime show has been produced in Stamford. The fully ST 2110 control room is outfitted with a Sony XVS-9000 switcher, Evertz ev670 multiviewers, EVS Cerebrum router control, and Calrec ImPulse audio-routing core.
[The crews in PCR2] are in preproduction most of the day, says Callahan, watching all the feeds and compiling [content] to go into the Primetime segments that evening. They are watching it happen as it comes in and compiling the best of' [content] to put in the Primetime show.
With technical infrastructure and layouts similar to PCR2's, PCR3 handles USA Network's round-the-clock broadcasts (being made available to distribution partners in 4K HDR with Dolby Atmos audio), and PCR4 serves the NBC broadcast network's daytime segments.
Parked at the loading dock, Mobile TV Group 49 Flex serves as PCR17.
Two new fully ST 2110 IP control rooms, PCR11 and PCR12, were completed just prior to the start of Paris 2024. PCR11 is the home of diving during the day, NBC's live Spotlight on Paris TikTok show from Team USA House in the evenings, and the late-night show closing out the day. The much-hyped Gold Zone whip-around show is produced out of PCR12.
PCR6 is shared by E! network, which carries daily Olympics coverage, and CNBC, broadcasting Olympics content on Sat
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
28/11/2025
Nadia Fall attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Brides at the Egyptian Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Donyale West/...
28/11/2025
It's easy to ignore those little red update available badges. But when it ...
28/11/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 18, 2025 ...
28/11/2025
The Professional Fighters League is looking to super-serve fans of mixed martial...
28/11/2025
Fubo has released in beta on select Roku devices a new feature that lets users display up to four simultaneous streams at once....
28/11/2025
The WNBA playoffs and Week 4 of the NFL regular season highlight the list of live sports events airing on television this weekend....
28/11/2025
The 32nd class of honorees to the B+C Hall of Fame took to the stage at New York's Ziegfeld Ballroom on September 26 for a gala induction event. Click below...
28/11/2025
We hold in our hands the very last Next Text for Next TV, the weekly back-and-fo...
28/11/2025
DirecTV said it made a deal with EchoStar to buy EchoStar's video businesses, including satellite-TV provider Dish TV and virtual MVPD Sling TV, for $1 plus...
28/11/2025
The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame, the premier industry event paying tribute to the influencers, innovators and shining lights of broadcast, cable and streami...
28/11/2025
Friday 28 November 2025
Sky Sports x Slawn drop limited-edition football jersey...
28/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz shows resilience in a challenging environment, revenue exceeds t...
28/11/2025
Unwrapped: The Toy Show Appeal - airing this Sunday on RT One and RT Player- s...
27/11/2025
LONDON Vizrt has added several AI-driven advanced features offering improved speed, intelligence and accuracy in the newest version of its media asset managemen...
27/11/2025
Prime Video has launched AI-powered video season recaps in a beta version for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S., a move Amazon is callin...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders Marks a Grand...
27/11/2025
27 Nov 2025
GSMA brings M360 Eurasia 2026 to Samarkand in partnership with VEON...
27/11/2025
Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle star in the gripping six-part Sky Original from Acad...
27/11/2025
Thursday 27 November 2025
Sky Arts Reveals the Nation's Greatest Basslines - and Queen Reign Supreme
The UK's most iconic basslines have been revealed...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things 5': Prepare for One Last Adventure With O...
27/11/2025
The media industry has a paradox at its core. It's an industry built on light, color and imagination, yet behind the scenes, it's powered by one of the ...
27/11/2025
Rating reflects rating progress across areas including policies, diversity & inclusion, health & safety and Net Zero leadership
Winchester, UK, 27 November 202...
27/11/2025
What are the industry standards for Retail Media? Kathryn explains that certification is based on the IAB Europe Retail Media Measurement Standards and the IAB ...
27/11/2025
World champion boxer and Irish sporting icon Katie Taylor will be in studio this...
27/11/2025
Roblox, one of the world's most popular online gaming platforms for primary ...
27/11/2025
Black Friday is leveling up. Get ready to score one of the biggest deals of the season - 50% off the first three months of a new GeForce NOW Ultimate membership...
26/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Prime Video EP Mike Muriano Previews Massive Black Friday Slate Fe...
26/11/2025
A cinematic snow sculpture at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Randall Michelson...
26/11/2025
Book podcasts are booming. On Spotify, you'll find everything from celebrity book clubs to deep dives with bestselling authors. And in markets where audiobo...
26/11/2025
Mumbai, November 24, 2025: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, JioStar, in collab...
26/11/2025
LONDON Factual content producer ITN Productions has launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins....
26/11/2025
MIAMI TelevisaUnivision said it struck a new multiyear distribution agreement with YouTube TV that includes distribution of TelevisaUnivision's U.S. network...
26/11/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leader in software-defined data storage and data services, today announced the launch of the Atlas Corporate Creative Solution. This new Atl...
26/11/2025
Disguise, the industry-leading company powering the world's biggest live performances, is partnering with pioneering LED wall manufacturer DVS to give atten...
26/11/2025
HighField AI, the pioneer in agentic and multimodal automation for broadcast and media production, today announced the expansion of its global channel partner n...
26/11/2025
As high-stakes Premier League fixtures approach and additional premium content launches, with MONO positioning themselves to dominate Thailand's sports stre...
26/11/2025
Hosting a wide variety of events from high-intensity NHL games to complex live music concerts and major entertainment productions, Montreal's 21,000 capacit...
26/11/2025
Vizrt, the leader in live production technology revolutionizing viewer engagement and experience, releases AI-driven advances focusing on speed, intelligence, a...
26/11/2025
ITN Productions, an award-winning factual content producer, today launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins. Responsible for delivering a leading...
26/11/2025
Ikegami reports ongoing advances throughout 2025 in developing and delivering coordinated television production solutions that maximize quality, versatility and...
26/11/2025
Following the Nov. 21 blackout of NBCUniversal channels on Fubo, the two sides have traded barbs about their inability to reach a new carriage deal....
26/11/2025
LONDON As TV sports rights become increasingly important for both broadcasters and streamers, Ampere Analysis predicts global investment in the genre will surpa...
26/11/2025
LOS ANGELES Vubiquity said it has achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Media & Entertainment Competency as part of the AWS Partner Network (APN). This designa...
26/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau said it has entered into a consent decree with Comcast calling for the cable company t...
26/11/2025
Berklee Named to the Hollywood Reporters Top Music Schools List The publication highlights the college's screen scoring program, industry partnerships, and ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
Animated Series Love Through a Prism' Casts New Light on ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
NALIP Unveils Fifth Cohort of Director Incubator
Social Impact
26 November 2025
United States
Link copied to clipboard
The National Assoc...
26/11/2025
YouView Achieves Greenly Gold Certification for SustainabilityNov 26, 2025
YouView is proud to announce a Gold Certification award from Greenly for our perform...
Paris 2024: Behind the Scenes at NBC Sports' Record-Setting At-Home Operation in Stamford The ST 2110 and Dante facility produces 1080p HDR, 50-Hz content By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. 
