Paris 2024: NBC Sports' Comms Infrastructure Redefines Complexity' 24 trunked intercoms, 1,028 trunks between them, more than 15,000 trunk sources By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Thursday, August 8, 2024 - 11:48 am
Print This Story
The largest intercom system assembled for a single sports production in history. That's how John Pastore, senior director, broadcast communications, NBC Sports, describes the sprawling infrastructure connecting hundreds of technicians across the expansive Paris 2024 campus and the broadcaster's technical mothership in Stamford, CT.
NBC Sports' John Pastore: A seamless web of communication options [allows] the NBC production folks to create just about any workflow they could dream up.
Comms is one of the most complex things broadcast engineers have to deal with. Then, he says, there's comms for the Olympics, which completely redefines complexity. We're breaking records all over the place!
Pastore, who managed broadcast communications for nine previous Olympics productions, notes how NBC Sports' broadcast center in Stamford has evolved since replacing the IBC as the hub for the NBCUniversal's Olympics coverage. For instance, intercom trunking was introduced, and analog and copper gave way to digital and fiber. Miles of analog audio and RS-485 data via Cat 5e cable were replaced with Dante and OMNEO AoIP networking via the same Cat5e. Dozens of TIFs using analog telephone lines were upgraded to RTS VLink SIP and Telos VX SIP interfaces.
We brought Clear-Com's LQ VoIP into the mix to launch simple two-wire comms remotely via raw internet at smaller locations, he explains. Topping things off, we introduced an RTS VLink 128-port virtual intercom. This allowed us to use cellular connected iPhones paired with Jabra headsets to behave like portable intercom panels while roaming the streets of Paris.
The location change alone from Games to Games, he continues, forces us to be super-flexible and open-minded to new designs and ideas while capable of thinking outside the box. All of this together pushed our technical know-how and hardware outside [our] comfort zones at times, but it allowed us to find new and creative workflows that often surprised the manufacturer, inspiring future features and product ideas.
Innovative Trunk Design The massive use of intercom trunking for the large Paris Olympics campus was innovative and inflective.
RTS's trunking has been around for a while now, Pastore points out. We've used it more and more over the past few Olympic Games, but, for Paris, we went all-in: 24 trunked intercoms, 1,028 trunks between them, over 350 trunks in use on average at any given moment - not only historical for my team and NBC but possibly a record in the world's community of comms. However, the size alone doesn't win us the gold. That combined with a great design, organized deployment, and careful management sets us apart.
Venues in Paris are trunked to each other and to NBC Sports' broadcast center in Stamford.
Another innovation for the Paris Games was the use of cascaded trunking: traversing one intercom via a second intercom connection to communicate with a third intercom in series. A very complex plan was needed to ensure that no NBC intercom user ever ran out of trunks while communicating with any number of the 15,000-plus trunked resources in the system.
With most venues trunked to the new Olympics mothership in Stamford and each other, Pastore says, we engineered a seamless web of communication options, allowing the NBC production folks to create just about any workflow they could dream up.
He credits his team of a dozen operators and engineers: his Comms A-Team he calls them. The Olympics [are] my excuse to bring the most talented broadcast-communications engineers on the planet together every two years to make this happen. With the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics already in our sights, I'm excited to see where the world of broadcast comms will go next.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and playlists are filling up for the season. With summer around the corner, Spotify's global edito...
29/05/2026
New retro-inspired MPC announced
There are few devices that have gained the status held by Akai Pro's MPC range, and in recent years, the company have s...
29/05/2026
Save up to 30 on acclaimed titles
Following a successful launch at Superbooth 2026, Bjooks have revealed that they will be continuing the Kickstarter campa...
29/05/2026
Binaural monitoring application improved
Genelec have just released an update that brings some powerful new features to their HRTF-based binaural headphone ...
29/05/2026
6 June 2026 at SAE Institute, London, UK
IMSTA FESTA 2026 is almost upon us, with some of the biggest names in pro-audio set to descend upon SAE Institute i...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality
Kate Luvis May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...
29/05/2026
Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...
29/05/2026
GLOOKAST LAUNCHES CINNAFILM TACHYON PLUGIN FOR MEDIA PRODUCER AND MEDIA SERVICES
This release first appeared here.
Visit our Tachyon product page or contact...
29/05/2026
May 29 2026, 09:00 (PDT) Dolby and rednote Bring More Immersive Storytelling to...
29/05/2026
Something fundamental has shifted in how people consume media. Audiences aren't abandoning television or radio content; they're just expanding how, wher...
29/05/2026
Youtube exclusive special drops today
Watch now
UKTV today announces another e...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...
29/05/2026
Genelec announces V2.1 for Aural ID binaural headphone monitoring application posted: 29/05/2026
Aural ID 2.1 enhances binaural monitoring for stereo and ...
Paris 2024: NBC Sports' Comms Infrastructure Redefines Complexity' 24 trunked intercoms, 1,028 trunks between them, more than 15,000 trunk sources By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
