Paris 2024: NBC Sports Introduces Team USA During Opening Ceremony With the Help of Sony Crystal LED Verona

Paris 2024: NBC Sports Introduces Team USA During Opening Ceremony With the Help of Sony Crystal LED Verona Sets in Minnesota, Raleigh captured the stars of the U.S. Olympic Team By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor

Friday, August 16, 2024 - 11:45 am

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

Team USA put in a tremendous shift at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris with 40 gold medals out of their competition-leading total of 126, but prior to the start of the Games, the viewing audience on NBC were treated to a grand introduction to this year's roster of superstars during the Opening Ceremony on July 26. Featuring an appearance by 32-time Grammy Award winner Beyonc , as well as the most recognizable Olympians, the televised spot became even more cinematic with the inclusion of Sony's Crystal LED Verona.

NBC Sports introduced Team USA during the Opening Ceremony of the Paris Olympics with the help of Sony's Crystal LED Verona. Backdrops with iconic landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower, were also used.

We had been approached by our internal creative and production teams to provide a more compelling and unique backdrop for Team USA, says Darryl Jefferson, SVP, engineering and technology, NBC Sports and Olympics. We needed a partner that we could trust, and Sony did just that with the Crystal LED Verona.

With this creative challenge put into motion, NBC Olympics' engineering and technology team were tasked with leaning on a piece of technology that would thoroughly showcase their production crew's desired goal. Sony is no stranger to NBC Sports, as the provider was heavily involved with the network's test of cloud-based switching for these Olympics and is trusted with equipment on other sports properties. The 16-ft. by 9 ft. Crystal LED Verona was at the top of the domestic broadcaster's mind, but during the preparation process in the lead up to Paris, the product was going to be tapped by another department.

A full eight-hour workday was dedicated to constructing each set in Minneapolis and Raleigh.

The initial use case for the monitor wall was for NBC Remote Productions, says Andre Vawdrey, senior director, engineering & technology, NBC Sports and Olympics. They typically don't have an ideal or scenic background and have much notice as to when they might get talent to interview [an athlete].

This new creative endeavor, which would take place in a controlled environment of NBC Sports' choosing, was more ideal for the LED wall. With many of these athletes on Team USA scattered across the nation, the crew identified specific events on the calendar and specific locations that would bring these athletes together at one time.

Ahead of the Olympics, we leveraged the use of the Crystal LED Verona wall at the U.S. Olympic Trials and the Olympic Training facilities, adds Vawdrey. That way, we could shoot marketing and promotional videos as well as capture video used in the broadcasts of the 2024 Paris Games.

The team thoroughly tested out the Crystal LED Verona wall before each shoot.

After the conclusion of the Olympic Trials, the respective teams from NBC Sports and Sony had their sights focused on two main training facilities before Team USA departed for the City of Light: USA Gymnastics in Minneapolis and USA Swimming in Raleigh. Before the Games began, U.S. Women's Gymnastics were already heavy favorites to bring home their first gold medal since 2016 and the program's fourth overall. Armed with the greatest American gymnast of all-time, Simone Biles, and surrounded by a cast of stars like Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera, the eventual gold medal winners in the All-Around Team Final had to be included in this feature. The men's team, however, weren't a complete shoo-in since they haven't won a medal of any color since the 2008 Games in Beijing. The team finished with a surprise bronze medal after the heroics of pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik, but the audience was given a brief introduction to the squad during the Opening Ceremony.

As for USA Swimming, fans have become accustomed to the success of nine-time gold medalist Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel, the man who came home from Tokyo 2020 with five gold medals. They used these headliners to introduce other names from this discipline, as well as showcase athletes from other sports, like gold medalists Tara Davis-Woodhall, Gabby Thomas, and more. For both individual shoots, the crew leaned on the creative vision of NBC Olympics' SVP, Creative Director, Tripp Dixon; Feature Producer Marissa Boyajian; Senior Associate Producer, Features & Documentaries, Elinore Wright; Features Production Operations Soslan Zangiev and Paul Bateman; Associate Producer Amanda Stroh; Director, Photography, Eric Girgash; Director, Digital Workflows, Kamal Bhangle; and Production Assistants Andrew Nolan and John Soltesz, and the technological know-how of Sony's Senior Business Manager, LED, Jason Metcalfe; Engineer Motoharu Kawazu; Electrical Engineer Louis Le; and Sales Support Engineer Caine Thompson.

Team USA swimmers were placed in front of a hyper-realistic pool background.

The set-up time took a full 8-hour day to build, level, configure the pixel nit value with Sony's software application to achieve a perfectly flat and color perfect surface, and work around the testing for the set's lighting, continues Vawdrey. The taking down of the wall took 1.5 hours and included packing and loading a truck with a five-person crew. Overall, we had a very successful set of events in Minneapolis, Raleigh, and during the Paris Olympics.

For those watching the Opening Ceremony, this feature was one of the many poignant moments seen during the four-hour-long broadcast. The spot, accentuated by the Crystal LED Verona wall, was a dramatic

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2024/08/16/paris-2024-nbc-sports-introduce...
	See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines