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.
Most recent headlines
22/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
22/12/2025
Hitting the bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts ...
22/12/2025
Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with...
22/12/2025
Gravity Media prepares for a flight of fancy with the PDC World Darts Championsh...
22/12/2025
One hundred and eighty: Gravity Media on hitting the production bullseye at the ...
22/12/2025
The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content...
22/12/2025
ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Spo...
22/12/2025
ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next ...
22/12/2025
For a decade, popular German podcast Fest & Flauschig has hosted an annual Chris...
22/12/2025
Paramount Scores Largest Share Increase Among Distributors as Paramount and CBS...
22/12/2025
New multi-year deal integrates Roku's data to fuel Nielsen's measurement suite
Roku gains access to Nielsen's streaming ratings, showing The Roku C...
22/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
22/12/2025
Berklee Wrapped 2025: Our Top News and Stories A look back at a year highlighted by faculty milestones, major film and television projects, Bob Dylan's ho...
22/12/2025
Partnership integrates complementary satellite data and AI analytics to enhance security, infrastructure, and environmental monitoring solutions for global cust...
22/12/2025
Workflows allow you to create a sequence of planned events which may be added to your template(s) or inserted directly into your sequential or background playli...
22/12/2025
Monday 22 December 2025
Sky extends PGA TOUR partnership until 2029, as Sky Spo...
22/12/2025
Back to All News
Global Anime Hits and New Releases Take Center Stage at Jump Festa 2026
Entertainment
22 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to clipboar...
22/12/2025
Siobh n McSweeney, Rory McIlroy, Elon Musk, Catherine Connolly, Jim Gavin, Ivan Yates and Traitor Paudie Moloney lead new characters for Callan Kicks the Year 2...
22/12/2025
Winner announced in the picturesque surroundings of Wicklow's Avondale Tower and Treetop Walk
Andrew Trimble wins the show in his first series as coach
Th...
22/12/2025
The 2025 winners have been announced today, Sunday 21 December, for Ireland's largest choral competition Choirs for Christmas hosted by RT lyric fm.
Ove...
21/12/2025
Back to All News
Legoshi and Haru's Story Reaches Its Finale: BEASTARS Fin...
21/12/2025
John Shortt named Young Sportsperson of the Year Kerry are the Team of the Year
...
20/12/2025
Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking ProRes RAW recording from the...
20/12/2025
CJP Broadcast has completed the digitisation of the European Gymnastics tape archive, converting 328 tapes containing more than forty years of recorded material...
20/12/2025
Bitmovin, the leading provider of video streaming solutions, today announced the launch of the Stream Lab MCP Server, to give AI agents and large language model...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Barack Obama Includes Laufey on His 2025 Favorite Music List The former presidents roundup of books, music, and movies includes a song from the Berklee alums ...
20/12/2025
Study reveals a key hormonal circuit in the kidneys Scripps Research scientists identify the protein that helps kidney cells regulate renin, providing foundatio...
19/12/2025
With Playout Release 2025.4, ToolsOnAir continues to push professional playout w...
19/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Diversified's Jared Timmins on AI for Broadcast Sports and Cre...
19/12/2025
2025 SVG Summit Audio Recap: Say What?The Audio Production and Distribution Workshop at the SVG Summit 20 took on issues including speech intelligibility, Next-...
19/12/2025
Gamified fun: Channel 5 on its NFL Big Game Night ambitions with Hungry Bear Med...
19/12/2025
College Football Playoff Preview: For ESPN, Round 1 is a Fantastic Yet Familia...
19/12/2025
AWS's Jason Dvorkin on Developing Partnerships With the NBA and PGA Tour, Em...
19/12/2025
Netflix Kicks Off Packed Sports Week with Paul-Joshua Fight Before Shifting to N...
19/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Nareev Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
19/12/2025
Mounted to the pylon of an AH-1Z Viper helicopter, a Red Wolf vehicle successful...
19/12/2025
L3Harris technology for the SDA Tranche 3 Tracking Layer program will provide in...
19/12/2025
Partnership brings Nielsen ONE measurement activation directly into XR's adv...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
19/12/2025
Berklee Announces Spring 2026 Signature Series This season's highlights include the Gospel Extravaganza, the 40th International Folk Festival, special gue...
19/12/2025
Performing arts centres across the globe have doubled down on live production infrastructure in recent years. For venues like the Queensland Performing Arts Cen...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
Live from Tokyo Olympics: NBC Studio Designs Embrace AR and VR By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
