Live from Tokyo Olympics: NBC Studio Designs Embrace AR and VR By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Thursday, July 29, 2021 - 5:59 pm
Print This Story
The effort NBC Olympics has put into the various studios over the years is hard to miss. Homey indoor locations and lively and stunning outside locations are just a couple of the consistent themes one sees while tuning in.
The Tokyo Olympics is no exception as this year Mike Sheehan, NBC Olympics coordinating director, Atila Ozkaplan, VP, production operations, Olympics, have worked closely with the internal team as well as external partners to create sets that span from Tokyo Bay to Stamford and Miami.
Explains Sheehan: Four years ago when we started this journey to represent Tokyo on television, we knew that we wanted to do something different and we didn't want to be in a hermetically sealed environment. And we thought, let's look for an outdoor set and we looked at a couple of different locations that fell apart and didn't work.
What did work was someone from the team was staying at the Tokyo Bay Hilton and visited the gym on the fifth floor. Ozkaplan then went into action, working with Lillian Cereghino, the Operational lead for the outside studio location, the site owner, scenic partners and structural engineers to figure out weight loads, support systems, and structural parameters for the fifth-floor location.
It was hey, this might be a good place to do a set,' says Sheehan.
The NBC Olympics main outdoor set for the 2020 Games has a dramatic backdrop.
Ozkaplan says that Sheehan is the visionary while partners like designer HD Studio, lighting experts Lighting Design Group, fabrication company Black Walnut, system integrator Greg Gerner, Inc. and LED and technology provider Planar turn vision into reality.
It's helped that we have all functioned within the Olympics model as a group for so long, says Ozkaplan. It's been the same group since Sochi and for some even longer.
The centerpiece this year is the Olympics primetime set located on the fifth floor of the Hilton Tokyo Bay. Fabrication took place in the U.S. and then it was broken down and shipped to Tokyo where it was reassembled earlier this month.
The only way to load it on to the fifth floor was with a crane in the overnight hours, says Ozkaplan. Black Walnut worked in the rain for a solid week or 10 days, and they were really great.
The use of AR elements, with the help of Ross Video graphics and a Stype camera, also have been a game changer, allowing the team to give new dynamic looks without needing physical pieces.
It integrates with the set design and adds a beautiful element that doesn't interfere with the natural backdrop and adds to the stories host Mike Tirico and others go through during the day, adds Ozkaplan.
Sheehan says Dave Barton, senior art director, NBC Sports & Olympics and Mark Levy, Senior Vice President, Original Productions and Creative, NBC Sports Group, had a good plan in place for the virtual elements.
We didn't want them to be a 50-foot giant overlooking Mike on the set, explains Sheehan. We want to take advantage of some of the geometry and some of the angles on the set to be able to pin different graphic elements into right angles and around the front part with the woodwork that we have. We can have front elements that go across and compliment the angles, not necessarily fight against them.
As for designing the Tokyo Bay set, Higgason is happy with the results.
Bryan Higgason, owner and principal designer at HD Studio and HD Studio Designers Paul Benson, and Sid Wichienkuer, looked to create a set that gets out of the way of a dramatic backdrop.
The function of the studio works really well and I'm really happy with how it looks on air, says Higgason. It was similar to an outdoor set we did in Rio that had Sugarloaf Mountain in the background and at times like that you just get out of the way. You want to provide accents scenically that helps frame the viewer without taking away the star of the shot which is the backdrop.
A virtual set is also in the mix this year as Telemundo in Miami has a virtual set that is designed to look identical to studio A at the IBC in Tokyo. HD Studio worked closely with Telemundo on the World Cup and Higgason helped them interpret his design of studio A, gave them dimensions, and ultimately the files that were used to design a graphical representation of studio A in Cinema that was then transferred into the Unreal graphics engine. That engine powers the virtual studio.
It's a mimic of what we have here in studio A, and it looks great, says Ozkaplan.
It's spectacular, says Sheehan. [Telemundo VP, Sports Content] Robert Pardo called me one day and just said, Hey, what would you think?' and we worked together on the whole thing to figure it out. Robert worked with their team, and it turned out beautiful. The irritating thing is some of the things that we had to cut out of our studio they were able to keep it because they had the advantage of a being virtual.
Sheehan says the communication and honesty between all involved has been a difference maker when it comes to solid set designs.
We can be very honest with each other about what works and what doesn't and where the possible trouble comes are, he says. We work under very tight restrictions of time on stuff and o we don't have a lot of time. We get over the romancing very quickly and jump right in.
North America Stories
20/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Cisco and the USGA have announced a multiyear extension of their partnership, which began in 2018. Cisco serves as the Official Technology Partner of the USGA, ...
19/05/2026
Urban Edge Network (UEN), a streaming platform for NAIA sports, has announced a partnership with Spiideo to provide streaming and production tools to UEN's ...
19/05/2026
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) will provide live coverage of all 900 Roland-Garros matches across its platforms beginning with qualifiers on May 18. In Europe, 21...
19/05/2026
Tubi, Fox Corporation's free streaming service, has announced the launch of the FIFA World Cup 2026 FOX Hub, a dedicated destination for World Cup programmi...
19/05/2026
Telef nica, in collaboration with Sony, has conducted a 5G connectivity trial at the Movistar Arena in Spain using the 26 GHz millimetre wave (mmWave) band. The...
19/05/2026
Ross Production Services (RPS) has installed a Calrec Argo M console into its new Hypermax-1 remote production truck, replacing one of three Argo S consoles pre...
19/05/2026
Panasonic Projector and Display Corporation has announced the acquisition of 100% of the shares of UK-based media technology company Hive Media Control Ltd. (HI...
19/05/2026
Globecast has announced the completion of a nine-month renovation of its Singapore facility, converting it from a traditional linear broadcast operation into a ...
19/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced a three-year enterprise agreement with Phoenix Broadc...
19/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that Watch Brasil, a streaming platform operating across Brazil and Europe since 2018, has replaced its legacy systems with Bitmovin'...
19/05/2026
Ateme has announced the migration of Dish Home Nepal's Nepal Premier League (NPL) streaming infrastructure to Ateme's TITAN Live solution deployed on Ak...
19/05/2026
CMSI provided workflow, media management, and HDR support for ESPN during coverage of the NCAA Gymnastics Semifinals and Championships. The company supported fi...
19/05/2026
In advance of this year's Sports Emmy Awards, SVG is taking a deep dive into the six production-technologies nominated for this year's George Wensel Tec...
19/05/2026
In advance of this year's Sports Emmy Awards, SVG is taking a deep dive into the six production-technologies nominated for this year's George Wensel Tec...
19/05/2026
Featuring a fully IP infrastructure, Supershooter 11 is intended for large-scale events. Enabling remote and distributed workflows, Supershooter 65 joins the RE...
19/05/2026
By Jessica Herndon
The line wrapped around the building outside Denver's La...
19/05/2026
When all companies in the market are allowed to compete under the same set of ru...
19/05/2026
Battle-proven technology withstands electronic warfare threats across air, maritime surface and subsea domains....
19/05/2026
WESCAM MX-Series EO/IR systems provide high-precision targeting across domains, including counter-UAS applications...
19/05/2026
Champaign, IL - March 16, 2026 Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufa...
19/05/2026
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. April 16, 2026 - Cobalt Digital today announced a partnership ...
19/05/2026
Las Vegas - April 18, 2026 Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufactur...
19/05/2026
LAS VEGAS April 18, 2026 - Advanced HDR by Technicolor and Cobalt Digital are ...
19/05/2026
LAS VEGAS - May 4, 2026 - Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing products, and a founding partner in the openGear initiativ...
19/05/2026
London - 11 May 2026 Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufacturer of award-winning signal processing products, and a founding partner in the openGear...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Grass Valley has entered into a three-year enterprise agreement with Phoenix Broadcast Solutions as the Singapore-based company expands its live production oper...
19/05/2026
Clear-Com supported Musikal Perahu Kertas, a large-scale musical theater production in Indonesia adapted from the acclaimed novel by Dee Lestari, through the d...
19/05/2026
Actus Digital, a LiveU company, and a leading provider of intelligent media monitoring and broadcast compliance platforms, announced today that METEO CONSULT ha...
19/05/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of managed services for the broadcast and media industry, today announced the completion of a major renovation of its Singapore fa...
19/05/2026
Following a major upgrade to its Connecticut remote production centre with the installation of three 60-fader Argo S consoles in 2023, RPS has switched one of t...
19/05/2026
PlayBox Technology today announced the launch of Celebro Play, a browser-based media orchestration platform designed specifically for broadcast facilities and p...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
LYNX Technik, provider of modular signal processing solutions for broadcast, post, and professional AV will showcase its latest signal processing solutions at B...
19/05/2026
Media Links, a leading developer and manufacturer of IP media transport solutions, has announced the integration of its Xscend platform with Skyline Communicat...
19/05/2026
Collaboration expands regional partner ecosystem as Media Links showcases IP media transport solutions on stand 4M4-4 and alongside Clearcast Asia on stand
Me...
19/05/2026
Company Highlights Labor-Saving Control and Custom Branding Opportunities Designed to Increase Integrator Profitability
LynTec, a leading manufacturer of ele...
19/05/2026
Mago Studio Moves AI Video Beyond Prompts with New Production-Focused Tools
Brie Clayton May 18, 2026
0 Comments
New Capabilities Bring Controllable, ...
19/05/2026
It May be Time to Stop and Take an AI Breather
Brie Clayton May 19, 2026
0 Comments
If the rock you stay on starts to roll, jump clean. Or you'll...
19/05/2026
At this year's Google I/O conference, NVIDIA and Google Cloud are accelerating the work of more than 100,000 developers in the companies' joint develope...
19/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils the Trailer for RAFA, the Documentary Series A...
19/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Expands Consumer Products Footprint with Strategic Con...
Live from Tokyo Olympics: NBC Studio Designs Embrace AR and VR By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
