Generated in the Italian Alps, NBC's Olympics Audio Is Mixed in Stamford

At the Broadcast Center, 14 audio-control rooms handle the sound in a complex routing and processing regimen

We are exactly where we want to be, Karl Malone, director, audio engineering, NBC Sports and Olympics, told SVG. Where in this case is the NBC Olympics production area inside the IBC for the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.

From there, he and his team survey the sound of the quadrennial ultimate in winter sports as it's generated on the slopes hundreds of miles across Northern Italy and, ultimately, thousands of miles across the Atlantic to Stamford, CT. There, the audio mixing is being done out of 14 audio-control rooms, two of which are in trucks in the parking lot outside NBC Sports' Broadcast Center.

Michael DiCrescenzo, says NBC Sports has continued to build on the success of the recent AoIP redesign with a strong emphasis on scalability and flexibility. Where is also a kind of catbird seat, one from which the NBC Sports audio team can get creative with the sound, the testing of a complex routing and processing regimen behind them. That process began for Paris 2024: every tech element was prewired and pretested in Stamford before being shipped as a unit to Europe.

We did a lot of redesigning for Paris and kind of built off all those successes for Milan, explains Mike DiCrescenzo, director, audio and production workflow, NBC Sports. Some of the big ones there were the advances we made in immersive audio so that almost every venue can be aired and mixed in [Dolby] Atmos. Now we have USA daytime and primetime airing in Atmos audio, and every venue is traversing this building and facility, with Atmos audio to be mixed later on.

We designed that in Paris, expanded upon it now, he continues. We built everything before it left, had all the lead operators come train on the systems, and then shipped [the gear] to Milan. We shut it down [in Stamford] and turned it on back on in Milan, and it worked. That's a huge testament to everybody who was part of this plan and the operators who are pulling it off. [It] was a big step in terms of our ability to keep pushing forward with immersive audio.

System Based on Calrec's Impulse IP Environment

The system design allows up to 16 channels of audio from a single venue to be passed around the facility. And there's plenty to fill those channels: for instance, announcers are located both onsite and in Stamford but are able to communicate and interact seamlessly and quickly, as though they were right next to each other.

The 2026 Games are benefiting from lessons learned during COVID, when working remotely became the norm rather than novel. That experience is helping make the off-tube audio seamless.

Says DiCrescenzo, We kept rolling with that in a very dynamic and flexible place to put together audio and video signals and mix them as needed.

That seamlessness extends to the operational areas - not an easy task with an estimated 128 audio engineers: A1s, A2s, audio assistance, maintenance people across all the facilities on both sides of the ocean.

With the exception of Figure Skating and the Opening Ceremony, all audio is mixed in the U.S. DiCrescenzo notes that the audio guarantees on the Italy side put all the audio together and ships it to Stamford with a combination of embedded audio and MADI with incredibly minimal latency.

We work really hard, he says, to make the A1s here feel like, if they open up their production room, they could walk outside and be in Milan and that it's an extension of their console here. We've made really, really good strides in how we designed the workflows to make them feel unified and not separate as a remote production versus an onsite production.

Added Malone, I don't think we've ever used the remote protocols to the extent that we're using them this time. Every A1 in Stamford can basically dial in and do any routing or changes.

Karl Malone says the audio team is in full creative mode in both Italy and the U.S.In fact, explains DiCrescenzo, this kind of sophisticated remote workflow has migrated throughout broadcast sports for NBC, including the NBA games the network now broadcasts. It has been further facilitated by switching to next-generation consoles. In the case of the Olympics, that is to Calrec's Impulse IP audio environment - six Artemis consoles, four Argo M desks, Brio 12 console - which he says make REMi workflows more unified.

Everybody's getting more and more comfortable with these workflows, DiCrescenzo notes. I think a lot of the A1s enjoy mixing in the pristine environments we have here; some trucks are pretty noisy and hard to mix in.

We're building on our successes and the knowledge base and the repeated workflows that the A1s have, he continues. We take the wins that we have in sports and bring them into the Olympics and take the wins that we have in Olympics and bring them back to sports. It's a mutually beneficial learning process all the time.

The Noise Is Different This Year

With outdoor sports, noise is always a consideration in sound capture, but the Winter Olympics represents an inflection point. More of that noise comes from drones instead of helicopters hovering over expansive ski runs.

It's the same old challenge, different noise, says DiCrescenzo. Helicopters have become drones, but the drones are closer. The noise is a little bit more annoying than a helicopter would be. But the shots are unbelievable, so we're trying to figure out how to live with the noise and mitigate it the best we can.

Cold temperatures also pay a role in audio, as does wind noise. DiCrescenzo says the response is to make it part of the sonic picture.

Sometimes, the top of the mountain is blustery, and you're going to hear it be a little blustery, so embrace it when it's appropriate, he says.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/02/18/generated-in-the-italian-alps-n...
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