
Paris 2024: Inside WBD's Olympics broadcast operation By George Bevir
Friday, August 30, 2024 - 10:24
Print This Story
Studio 1 at WBD House with a view of the Eiffel Tower
Matt McDonald, group SVP EMEA Broadcast Services for Warner Bros. Discovery, explains how the broadcaster delivered thousands of hours of Paris 2024 content to linear channels and online platforms across Europe.
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) enjoyed a stellar Summer Olympic Games, reporting record viewership and engagement across its many platforms and channels.
Shortly after the closing ceremony on Sunday 11 August, WBD said it had achieved a cumulative reach of more than 215 million in Europe viewing Olympics content on WBD's platforms (23% more than Tokyo 2020), including Max and discovery+, as well as its Eurosport TV channels and free-to-air networks in Norway (TVNorge), Sweden (Kanal 5) and Finland (Kutonen, TV5).
In total, WBD aired more than 3,800 hours of live content, providing outputs to 47 rights territories, with 59 linear channels including 46 Eurosport channels across Europe in 19 languages and a digital offering (Max, HBO Max or discovery+, depending on territory) provided viewers with every moment - peaking at 54 parallel events on the busiest day. Plus, specifically for Paris 2024, seven HD pop-up channels and one UHD pop-up channel made available to 34 affiliates and partners across Europe.
Capturing, managing and delivering all that content was a mammoth task, and leading the department responsible for broadcast operations and technology across Europe was Matt McDonald, group SVP EMEA Broadcast Services for Warner Bros. Discovery (pictured above).
Our operations teams executed brilliantly to enable our editorial teams to tell the stories of the Games
Speaking with SVG Europe at the WBD House studio facility at Hotel Raphael during the Games, McDonald says there were two main elements to preparing for Paris 2024: the on-site prep (including the build of WBD House and the other on-site production facilities such as the mixed zones, venues, and the NOC houses), plus the scaling up of WBD's European sports platform.
He says: We have an enormous 2110 capability based upon two tech hubs, one in London and another in Hilversum in the Netherlands. They support our two main operational hubs, in London (Chiswick) and Paris (Issy-les-Moulineaux) that provide core capabilities for all EMEA. These hubs also provide studios and galleries, plus we also have 10 other production hubs across Europe (Munich, Milan, Stockholm, Oslo, Lisbon, Madrid, Hilversum, Warsaw, Copenhagen and Stockley Park) and for Paris 2024, we also had engineering support and some post-production out of Atlanta in the US.
The main thing for us is that the two main operational hubs run everything bookings, MCR, ingest, media management, playout so those are the centres of the operation and Paris has made all the difference for us during the Olympics, he says.
With previous Games taking place in China, Japan, South Korea and Brazil, Paris 2024 was a home fixture' for WBD, which has its EMEA HQ in Issy-les-Moulineaux, in the south of the city. The fact it was a local Games not only provided a boost to viewing figures thanks to the favourable European time zone, but because WBD already had such an established site and ready-made production facility in Paris it also provided the opportunity to reduce its presence at the International Broadcasting Centre (IBC).
WBD's base at the IBC on the other side of the city consisted of a small footprint manned by 28 staff across two shifts to provide the on-pass of host broadcaster Olympic Broadcasting Services' (OBS) feeds of the Games.
Stand up positions: Eurosport presenters prepare to go live
The Paris location also provided a chance for WBD to showcase the city's landmarks, with WBD House overlooking the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe. With four studios used by production teams from the UK, Sweden, France, Poland, Italy and Germany as well as three stand-up positions used by WBD's global news network CNN, and live broadcasts for Spain, Finland and Denmark, plus a bar area with three RF cameras and a Technocrane, the studio was a sizable facility. This was in addition to Eurosport France operating a separate studio at Club France in the Parc de la Villette.
And it was the build of the rooftop studio that provided McDonald and his team with arguably their biggest challenge, he says. It's a working restaurant on top of a prestigious hotel, so we had a very, very limited period to take everything off the roof and then get everything up here that we needed, and then assemble it. The build was four days, so that was a challenge of planning and organisation that involved a lot of pre-build, and then there was a plan that literally went in 15-minute blocks over four days to make sure everything happened seamlessly.
From its position on the 7th floor of the Hotel Raphael, WBD House was treated as an extension of WBD's core network with each of the 11 territories producing content in WBD House able to remote produce from their homebase galleries, for example for Germany via Munich, and Poland via Warsaw.
We're fully 2110 for this Olympics for the first time and I think what we're seeing now is a much more mature, reliable, robust state, so that it works in an end-to-end fashion. It's a lot more hardened, a lot more secure, a lot more robust.
Camera racking and vision control for WBD House was managed remotely from Stockley Park, while audio line-up and control was managed remotely from Chiswick Park. AR graphics were remotely managed from Stockley Park apart from the Swedish team which remotely managed a spin-off of WBD's Cube studio technology from their home-base setup in Stockholm, with live tracking data being r
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...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
09/04/2026
Staines-upon-Thames, UK, 09, April, 2026 - Yospace, the trusted leader in Dynam...
09/04/2026
just:play pro 2026 and just:live pro 2026 Sneak Preview News for NAB 2026
More Details:At NAB 2026, ToolsOnAir will showcase just:play pro 2026 and just:live p...
09/04/2026
just:in mac pro 2026 - The Next Level of Professional Recording on macOS at NAB ...
09/04/2026
Zixi will demonstrate IP-based live video workflow solutions at NAB Show 2026 (Booth W2057).
The industry is moving quickly toward IP-based distribution as br...
09/04/2026
Global women's elite sports revenues are expected to reach at least $3 billi...
09/04/2026
Monitor engineer Gavin Tempany mixed Kylie Minogue s Tension Tour on a Solid Sta...
09/04/2026
KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C5507), debu...
09/04/2026
With the 2025-26 NBA regular season concluded and the playoffs beginning next we...
09/04/2026
Telestream and Mimir have announced an integration connecting Telestream's V...
09/04/2026
Bitmovin has expanded its Live Encoding and Observability solutions to provide r...
09/04/2026
The Nashville Predators and Scripps Sports have announced a multi-year media rights agreement covering local preseason, regular season, and first-round playoff ...
09/04/2026
Advanced Systems Group, LLC has announced a partnership with Beam Dynamics to offer the Beam Asset and License Intelligence Platform to its clients. The platfor...
09/04/2026
Lawo has unveiled Edge One, a combined video and audio stagebox for broadcast and Pro AV workflows. The device will be on display at NAB Show (Booth C2108, Apri...
09/04/2026
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) will host the SMPTE ST 2110 IP Media Roadshow on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, at the Las Vegas Conven...
09/04/2026
The Atlanta Braves have completed upgrades to video displays in and around Truist Park ahead of the 2026 MLB season. The upgrades include the Delta Out-of-Town ...
09/04/2026
The University of Southern California has contracted Daktronics (NASDAQ: DAKT) of Brookings, South Dakota, to manufacture and install 22 LED displays across fou...
09/04/2026
Backlight, the media technology company behind Iconik and Wildmoka, will showcase its Creative Operations Platform at NAB Show 2026 (Booth N2829, April 19-22). ...
09/04/2026
MotoAmerica and V10 Entertainment have announced a partnership to broadcast MotoAmerica Superbike racing on VICE TV for the 2026 season. Coverage begins live on...
09/04/2026
Proton Camera Innovations has announced the appointment of Tod Musgrave as US Sa...
09/04/2026
Designed specifically for live sports broadcasting, new platform features IP-nat...
09/04/2026
Blending 1990s DNA, modern motion theory, and a distinctly colorful brand identi...
09/04/2026
Technical capability is essential, but long-term success often depends on how we...
09/04/2026
15 feature films, including fiction and documentaries, along with six short film...
09/04/2026
Spotify has always been about putting listeners in the driver's seat. Today, people don't just want more ways to spend their time; they want that time t...
09/04/2026
Our Chief Public Affairs Officer Dustee Jenkins shares how we're building a more positive experience for families on Spotify.
As Spotify's Chief Public...
09/04/2026
Festival season is upon us. From sun-soaked weekends out west to iconic stages in Chicago and New York, fans are getting ready to see their favorite artists liv...
09/04/2026
O Spotify sempre teve como foco colocar os ouvintes no controle. Hoje, as pessoas n o querem apenas mais formas de passar o tempo - elas querem que esse tempo s...
09/04/2026
Read the original note in English here.
Nossa Chief Public Affairs Officer, Dustee Jenkins, compartilha como estamos construindo uma experi ncia mais positiva ...
09/04/2026
New synth focuses on sci-fi scoring
Following their formation and debut releases in December 2025, Smokestack Sounds - the brainchild of composer and produc...
09/04/2026
Latest version set for May 2026 launch
Reason Studios have revealed that the latest version of their DAW software will be launching in May 2026. Currently a...
09/04/2026
New EQ aimed at mix-bus & mastering duties
Shy Audio's first two releases focused on the past, delivering recreations of the budget mixers that were com...
09/04/2026
Based on John Galsworthy's novels known collectively as The Forsyte Saga a...
09/04/2026
The Forsytes has been renewed for a third season before the period drama has even premiered on PBS Masterpiece.
The adaptation of John Galsworthy's novel, ...
09/04/2026
IThe BBC has commissioned new drama The Witch Farm, starring Gabrielle Creevy (T...
09/04/2026
The next big thing To help broadcasters fully embrace dynamic hybrid workflows, Calrec will make a major announcement that unlocks even more freedom for broadca...
09/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
09/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
09/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
09/04/2026
Purpose Built Monitoring From Live Production to Master Control to OTT, Across On Prem and Cloud Environments
At the 2026 NAB Show (April 19-22, Las Vegas Con...
09/04/2026
Purpose Built Monitoring From Live Production to Master Control to OTT, Across On Prem and Cloud Environments
At the 2026 NAB Show (April 19-22, Las Vegas Con...
09/04/2026
New advances meet surge in demand for broadcast-grade IP migration as C-band spectrum auctions approach
LTN announces major enhancements to its purpose-built g...
09/04/2026
Hitomi Broadcast has expanded its sales team with the addition of Nicola Milburn as Technical Sales Manager. In this role, Nicola will work with customers and p...
09/04/2026
Revolutionary combined solution brings sub-second latency, resilient delivery, and workflow orchestration to global broadcasters and digital platforms
Layercak...
09/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...