
France T l visions has successfully launched France 2 UHD featuring Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos technologies for the broadcast of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics 2026, marking a significant milestone in immersive sports broadcasting.
This deployment represents a comprehensive implementation of next generation audio and video technologies designed to deliver exceptional viewing experience to audiences.
For the video stream, France T l visions is utilising Dolby Vision with SMPTE 2094-10 dynamic metadata, built upon a base layer of PQ HDR10. This approach ensures optimal picture quality with enhanced brightness, contrast, and colour accuracy, while maintaining backward compatibility with HDR10-capable devices. The SMPTE 2094-10 metadata enables scene-by-scene or frame-by-frame optimisation, ensuring that viewers experience the full creative intent across diverse Olympic content, from indoor ice skating events to outdoor alpine competitions.
On the audio front, France T l visions is distributing Dolby Atmos using the AC-4 codec, taking full advantage of AC-4's advanced capabilities to deliver multiple immersive audio experiences. The broadcaster has implemented three distinct Atmos presentations using AC-4's presentation framework.
The first presentation offers the standard French broadcast experience. The second presentation incorporates Dialog Enhancement with a 6dB voice boost, providing improved speech intelligibility for viewers who prefer clearer commentary. The third presentation features an innovative dynamic stadium mode that intelligently switches between audio configurations: commentators are present during journalist reports and pre-event coverage, while during live sports competitions, the commentators are removed to provide an authentic stadium atmosphere with natural crowd ambience and environmental sounds.
This dynamic stadium mode and the seamless switching between AC-4 presentations is orchestrated using Serial ADM (S-ADM) transported via SMPTE ST 2110-41, enabling real time metadata-driven audio routing and presentation selection.
France T l visions' audio and commentary desk at the IBC for Milano Cortina in Milan. Pictured at the top of this story, the France T l visions main studio, which is also at the IBCFirst for France T l visions
Speaking to SVG Europe in Milan, Yannick Olivier, leader technique 2110, service ISP exchanges at France T l visions, comments on why France T l visions has decided to do this, Olivier says: Our goal is to provide the best quality for our viewers. Because we are producing with Atmos, and also because we are doing personalisation, our viewers are able to have a better experience, better quality of audio, but also we provide three presentations with audio.
The first one is a normal one, the second one is for accessibility because the dialogue is boosted, so if you have hearing problems you are able to have a better understanding on what our commentator or anchor is saying. And the third one is giving an experience for our viewers to be inside the stadium, because it's stadium mode without dialogue during sports. So sometimes we [don't wish to hear] commentators because they are always talking; we want only to have the ambience. Now we are able to have it.
As to how it is going so far, Olivier says that while the system is working, it has required the broadcaster to develop new workflows and it is still a learning curve. The first real trial of the technology that France T l visions ran was at Roland-Garros 2024, prior to the Summer Olympics that year; one trial of many at Roland-Garros that the broadcaster has run for different technologies over the years. However, says Olivier, it was only a lab; now it's real life, a first for France T l visions .
He explains how it is going live at the Winter Games: It's working. We had a little problem at the beginning because we are managing a lot of channels, a lot of audio channels. It's still a new process and we are only doing it first for this Olympics and sometimes [as a trial at] Roland-Garros, so it's not a common process right now.
On the new workflow for this production regarding the Dolby contributions, he says: We still have to fix things [as we see them]. Having more presentation for this Olympics is really new, so we had to update all the workflows, all the setup in Paris, and to test everything. We also had some troubles with TVs because sometimes TVs are able to show the presentation name, the label, sometimes not, so we have to talk to manufacturers to update the TVs, but that's a long process.
Sophisticated workflow
Olivier runs through the audio workflow: Regarding the workflow, we get 5.1.4 from OBS and our TV set. We get dialogue (mono) from TV set and commentary position. All audio is sent to our PCR (UM3) in Paris, with a Lawo console working in Dolby Atmos.
At the output of this PCR, we send the Atmos Bed (5.1.4 - 10 channels) plus one channel of dialogue to France 2 UHD Playout.
On the metadata workflow, we generate sADM (inside SMPTE 2110-41) in a Junger AIXPressor at UM3. This signal is sent to France 2 UHD playout. At the playout system, we have a Junger AIXpressor getting signals (2110-41) from UM3.
On the workflow Olivier notes there is succession of:
TV set: 3 Atmos presentations (Normal: M&E D(0dB), Boosted: M&E D(6dB), Stadium: M&E D(0dB)) - sADM pass-through from UM3
Ads or upscale from HD legacy channel: Three Stereo presentations (CM VF, CM AD, CM VO) - sADM generated by playout's AIXpressor
Olympic sport with commentary: 3 Atmos presentations: Normal: M&E D(0dB), Boosted: M&E D(6dB), Stadium: M&E D(silence)) - sADM Pass-through from UM3
He adds: Audio and metadata is finally sent to Ateme Titan Live for Dolby AC-4 Encoding
On this Titan Live we generate also the HDR metadata for Dolby Visi
More from Sports Video Group
14/04/2026
Haivision has announced the Falkon X4, a 5G mobile video transmitter for live broadcast and remote production. The device will be showcased at NAB Show 2026.
...
14/04/2026
Founded by veterans of the production-truck world, Stripe TV was born out of a d...
14/04/2026
Grass Valley has expanded its partnership with Studio Berlin, supplying 12 LDX 135 UHD/HDR camera systems and 12 LDX 180 Super 35mm cinematic cameras, including...
14/04/2026
LTN has announced two senior appointments ahead of NAB Show 2026: Mark Romano as Vice President, Multichannel Platforms, and Edward Cox as Vice President, Sales...
14/04/2026
Sennheiser and Italian rental company Agor have begun preparations for their Eu...
14/04/2026
DAZN and ADI Predictstreet have announced a partnership to integrate ADI Predict...
14/04/2026
Deltatre has announced the completion of a direct-to-fan website and app for Leg...
14/04/2026
Daktronics, will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 in partnership with Grass Valley at Booth C2408, Las Vegas Convention Center, April 19-22.
Daktronics will showcase a...
14/04/2026
Backblaze will host a series of partner presentations at NAB Show 2026 (Booth N1259, North Hall), open to all exhibition hall badge holders. Showcase partners i...
14/04/2026
BRAHMA AI will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth W2415, West Hall), demonstrating its Enterprise AI Content Platform for media, entertainment, sports, and technol...
14/04/2026
Bridge Technologies has announced that its VB440 production probe has been integrated into NEP Platform, NEP Group's software orchestration system. The inte...
14/04/2026
Clear-Com will introduce new products and demonstrate its communications ecosystem for broadcast and live production at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C5807, April 19-22)...
14/04/2026
EZDRM will use NAB Show 2026 (Booth W2260) to introduce the Revenue Security Prism, a framework for combining multiple security technologies to protect streamin...
14/04/2026
Telos Alliance will introduce the following products at NAB Show 2026:
TV and Media
Telos Infinity MK2 Panels: A new generation of hardware control panels for...
14/04/2026
Panasonic Video and Audio Systems North America will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C3509), demonstrating IP- and IT-based production solutions for sports, bro...
14/04/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
14/04/2026
Blackmagic Design will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth N2502). CEO Grant Petty s product announcement livestream is available at youtube.com. The company announ...
14/04/2026
The deal establishes a close strategic alignment' between the iconic cinema...
14/04/2026
BIGSHOT Media, with support from Teradek, produced untamed African mountain-bike race' with daily coverage and highlights show
The 2026 Absa Cape EPIC, an...
14/04/2026
The Sports Video Group (SVG) today announced the launch of the SVG AI Innovation...
13/04/2026
Telos Alliance has announced that J nger Audio has joined the EBU ADM Implementers Group (ADM-IG) as a founding member. The group is focused on advancing ADM an...
13/04/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate its Alliance Partner ecosystem at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C2408, Central Hall, April 19-22), showing AMPP integrations across live pr...
13/04/2026
Media Links will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth W2033), demonstrating IP transport solutions for live production including hitless protection technology, Xscen...
13/04/2026
NBC Sports has announced a programming, distribution, and sales partnership with...
13/04/2026
FloSports has promoted Chief Operating Officer Jayar Donlan to President, effective immediately. In his new role, Donlan will lead the company's commercial,...
13/04/2026
PanCam Pictures, the documentary production company founded by Paul Camarata, us...
13/04/2026
Mimir will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (North Hall, Booth N2850), demonstrating its cloud-native media production platform with new capabilities including Mimir Cu...
13/04/2026
BBright has announced that its IP Gateway now supports the Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST) protocol. The addition will be introduced at NAB Show 2026 ...
13/04/2026
Net Insight has been awarded a development project through the European Space Agency's Navigation Innovation and Support Program (NAVISP), with co-funding f...
13/04/2026
intoPIX will exhibit at NAB Show 2026, marking the company's 20th anniversary. The company will demonstrate its JPEG XS compression portfolio and IPMX-appro...
13/04/2026
Starting from scratch, the team built an in-house content platform comprising ga...
13/04/2026
Here's a look at some of the new products and updates, along with audio-centric conferences, that attendees will find next week at the show
When the 2026 N...
13/04/2026
Avid will launch new integrated newsroom capabilities for Avid for News at NAB Show 2026 (Booth N2226, April 18-22), demonstrating how Avid Content Core connect...
13/04/2026
Synamedia has announced a new version of Quortex PowerVu, an IP-native, software...
13/04/2026
Mediaproxy has developed a suite of AI-powered tools for brand and advertisement tracking, integrated into its LogServer compliance logging and analysis platfor...
13/04/2026
Disguise will demonstrate its media servers and software at NAB Show 2026, appearing across five partner booths in Central Hall: MRMC, B&H, Planar, CarbonBlack,...
13/04/2026
OpenDrives is introducing OpenDrives Edge at NAB Show 2026, a hybrid cloud-edge performance accelerator for distributed video and rich media workflows. The prod...
13/04/2026
The show will deploy 18 cameras across two sets and the draft floor, including a...
10/04/2026
Imagine Communications will showcase its multiviewer portfolio at NAB Show 2026 (April 19-22, Booth N1328, Las Vegas Convention Center), including Prismon and t...
10/04/2026
Chyron has released PRIME VSAR 2.3, an update to its virtual set and augmented reality solution for broadcast. The release adds compatibility with Unreal Engine...
10/04/2026
Techex will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth W2267, April 19-23, Las Vegas Convention Center), demonstrating new tx darwin features including consumer multiview,...
10/04/2026
NDI will exhibit at NAB Show 2026, demonstrating its IP video ecosystem through live partner integrations, NDI 6.3 features, AI metadata workflows, and creator ...
10/04/2026
FOR-A has announced the acquisition of all shares of Tamu Radiance Corporation, a new company spun off from the Information Equipment Business of Tamura Corpora...
10/04/2026
InSync Technology will showcase new and updated video conversion products at NAB...
10/04/2026
TNT Sports and DAZN have announced a partnership to air monthly boxing events in the United States under the brand The Fight. The series will be promoted in p...
10/04/2026
Panasonic Projector and Display has announced the SQ3 Series of 4K LCD displays as part of its MEVIX professional display portfolio. All sizes will be available...
10/04/2026
Amagi has announced the addition of Agentic Media Operations to its Amagi NOW platform, integrating AI reasoning agents across its media supply chain workflows ...
10/04/2026
LTN has announced enhancements to its global IP video network targeting broadcasters transitioning from satellite distribution. The updates come ahead of US fed...
10/04/2026
Daktronics has installed new LED displays at Yankee Stadium, upgrading the main centerfield board, two flanking boards, and two ribbon displays spanning the 200...
10/04/2026
Harmonic has announced updates to its hybrid streaming solution, including Model Context Protocol (MCP) connectivity for AI applications, cloud-native deploymen...