NBC Olympics Calls Team USA House Home for Paris Studio Coverage of Paralympics 1,500 hours of coverage across 22 sports begins today with Opening Ceremony from Place de Concorde By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Wednesday, August 28, 2024 - 8:00 am
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NBC Olympics today will turn its attention to the Paralympics which will have its opening ceremony at the Place de Concorde in the heart of Paris beginning at 2 pm EST (coverage begins at 1 p.m.). And while the production efforts have scaled down a bit compared to the Olympics there is still much to be done to deliver an estimated 1,500 hours of coverage across 22 sports on Peacock which will once again feature the GoldZone and Multiview.
The goal for the Paralympics movement is to build towards a real launching point in Los Angeles [in 2028] and we're excited to put it on equal footing to the Olympic effort as we have a breathtaking American team that I wouldn't say makes our jobs easier to cover but makes it more fun, says Darryl Jefferson, SVP, engineering and technology, NBC Sports and Olympics. Peacock will take the lion's share of the programming and then stream it and then GoldZone continues because it was a big hit.
Of course, one thing that isn't lost on Jefferson or the rest of the team is that the Paralympics, unlike the regular Olympics, coincide with a lot of other sports content creation efforts from the NBC Sports team.
One of the interesting things, and by interesting, I mean terrifying, is that this collides with the fall sports like the NFL kickoff, our game in Sao Paulo, a triple header for college football, golf, and more, says Jefferson. It will be exciting having all of that concurrent energy.
At the center of the Paralympics coverage will be all the VANDA feeds provided by OBS which will begin their journey to Stamford via the IBC in Paris where the operations have shrunk but are no less critical.
Even though the RIB (Rack-in-a- Box) system is leaving we've broken out a bunch of transmission gear in Paris like our MediaLinks frames that will stay as the core of the system, says Jefferson. Those frames will send the OBS VANDA package of feeds to Stamford where three control rooms will be used to create the finished product for viewers. Commentary will be a mix of in-house color and play-by-play as well as relying on the OBS commentary. And one interesting technology tweak from the Paris Olympics is that during that massive effort the whole Stamford facility ran at 50 Hz. But because there are less in-bound signals for the Paralympics the house format reverts to 60 Hz and all of the incoming 50 Hz feed will be converted to 60 Hz while they are heading into the plant. They will also be SDR.
That will make it easier to move from one control room to the other and we will also have a mobile unit outside that will give us a control room for the GoldZone, adds Jefferson.
Commentary is always a big lift for an event like the Paralympics and Jefferson says that NBC Olympics will have a mix of NBC talent as well as relying on the OBS commentary which accommodates the VANDA feeds.
For viewers at home one of the most visible aspects of Olympic coverage is the studio show. During the Olympics, NBC focused its studio operations on the Trocadero and while NBC and OBS have taken down the massive studio operations at the Trocadero, NBC Olympics is still committed to a Paris presence. For the next two weeks NBC will call the Team USA Olympics house home while studio coverage in Stamford will provide some wrap-around content.
It will be interesting to see how the Team USA house is used but my hunch is it will come up big as it's really a gathering spot for the athletes as it is centrally located in Paris, says Jefferson. Our hope is it will have more of a party atmosphere and with celebrations that are in the moment with people watching the competitions on the big screens.
NBC Olympics will also have plenty of coverage from the venues as well as ENG crews covering various storylines and athletes. Many of the same iconic venues used for the Olympics will be transformed to host a whole new set of athletes competing in the Paralympic Games. For example, the Eiffel Tower Stadium's beach volleyball courts will become a grassy stadium for blind football and the Champ-de-Mars Arena that hosted Olympic judo will be transformed into a court for wheelchair rugby. And the Stade de France will once again be home to track and field events.
With things like LiveU we will be able to get into the nooks and crannies and do things like going to a caf with an athlete or just follow stories more nimbly, adds Jefferson. Also look for the Friends and Family videos to continue, connecting athletes with those who cannot make it to Paris. And those moments and stories, in many respects, are more inspiring than the stories of athletes at the Olympics given the tremendous obstacles athletes have overcome to compete in Paris.
Our marketing teams and our social media teams are getting the word out so that people can know some of these amazing athletes that are competing, says Jefferson. Even things like our partnership with Roblox continues on to get the event into a broader audience and youngsters.
The closing ceremony of the Paralympics on Sept. 7 will also officially get nearly all attention focused on the 2026 Winter Olympics which will be a challenging one for everyone. Hosted in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy, the clusters are upwards of four hours apart meaning that everyone, from OBS to NBC and all of the rights holders and service providers (and even fans) will find it almost impossible to have staff floating from one venue to the next.
The initial story of the next games is the distance as you'll lose them for a day [if they need to go to the other clus
