
Live From Paris 2024: NBC Olympics Venue Operations Shine at Aquatics, Gymnastics, and Athletics Dedicated unilateral resources ensure NBC Olympics can tell the best stories for fans back home By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor
Wednesday, July 31, 2024 - 5:20 am
Print This Story
NBC Olympics is relying heavily on the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) world feeds for a good portion of their event coverage in Paris, but for three specific venues where Team USA is frequently seen on the podium, NBC has deployed additional resources for those competitions so it can produce its own coverage. Through their relationship with OBS, these enhancements include various unilateral cameras and onsite production facilities provided by NEP which are located in the venue compounds.
The big three - swimming, athletics, and gymnastics - are where we have our biggest presence, says Chris Connolly, VP, venue technology and engineering, NBC Olympics. [These resources] help us concentrate primetime and the best moments from that days competitions, which air live on the networks of NBC and streaming on Peacock.
At the core of the operation is a fleet of NEP trucks at the trio of venues, including NEP Caspian and Albiorix at Stade de France for athletics, which moved from the Trocad ro to the stadium after Friday evening's Opening Ceremony; NEP Venus and Mercury at Bercy Arena for gymnastics; and NEP Ceres at Paris La Defense Arena for swimming.
NBC's unilateral handhelds at the women's gymnastic final last night allowed viewers in the U.S. to fell all the emotion surrounding team USA's victory.
With their own production teams on site NBC is putting a clear focus on American athletes. The production teams are utilizing OBS camera splits to help augment their own unilateral cameras to tell a more U.S.-centric story.
In addition, NBC has a domestic mobile unit at their headquarters in Stamford, CT specifically dedicated to Daytime Live Gymnastics and later for Semi-Finals & Finals of both Men's & Women's Basketball.
Of the three venues, the most challenging production will be athletics because there are simultaneous events happening with both track and field.
The three top venues also have dedicated editing facilities for turn around show editing. Those edit facilities will allow the NBC Olympics production team to edit the morning sessions and get them ready for primetime coverage on NBC (those events will also stream live on Peacock, leveraging OBS's original world-feed production). Although NBC Olympics has this added wrinkle of tech firepower, it will still be relying heavily on OBS's world feed coverage of athletics.
The three main venues will also have dedicated and direct connectivity back to Stamford via 10Gig circuits, but NBC has a massive amount of connectivity from the IBC to Stamford in order to get other event coverage signals back to the control rooms in Stamford that is handling the other events.
We have a total of 240G of connectivity that is sending video from the IBC to our U.S.-based control room, adds Connolly. We also have a full redundant network that goes between Stanford, 30 Rock [in New York City]; Englewood Cliffs, NJ; Denver, CO and Telemundo Deportes in Miami.
Diving deeper into the technical execution of primetime, NBC Olympics is using 32 total LiveU bonded-cellular flypacks to compile ancillary content that surround any of the venues as well as other feature elements around Paris.
At most venues and around the city of Paris, our ENG crews will tap into these devices to capture the atmosphere around the stadiums or show athletes upon their arrivals before they compete and display the amazing sites of Paris continues Connolly. These will also be used in mixed-zone interview areas for the smaller competitions to send these feeds back home.
The NBC Olympics aquatics production team has been busy producing tons of swimming coverage during week one of the Olympics.
This is Connolly's first Olympics heading up venue operations as previously he oversaw the transmission side of things. He still configured the transmission puzzle for Paris, but the being involved in venue operations gives him a new appreciation of the massive undertaking it takes to produce an Olympics.
Other tentpole event like the U.S. Open, Ryder Cup, or the Super Bowl is one event where you can put all of your resources towards that one production, he says. I never realized how difficult it is to coordinate a dozen productions at one time and make sure that every single thing goes correctly.
One good bit of news for this Games is that because Paris had so many pre-existing venues (only two of the 35 venues, the 5,000-seat Aquatics Centre and Le Bourget Climbing Wall, are the only permanent venues that had to be built) Connolly and the team could visit venues earlier and make request for things like camera positions much earlier.
From a venue preparation standpoint, it was really nice to be able to get an idea of where our camera positions were going to be, continues Connolly.
It Takes an [Olympic] Village Most importantly, the planning and outlining by OBS is a major factor as to why NBC Olympics is able to upgrade these specific venues. Without their overall guidance, this layer of the production wouldn't be possible.
It's key to have the relationships that ensue that things get executed as well as know the right person to go to [for help], says Connolly. This takes a lot of effort, and I'm not sure you can ever fully explain it to anyone that's never experienced it before.
Internally, Connolly leans on the experienced staff of co-workers that have been to previous Olympic Games or have had their skills put to the test.
Ultimately, you have to trust that you're hiring the right people, he adds. I have a great gro
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
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
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
New Charging, Connectivity, and Mounting Solutions Now Available
LAS VEGAS, APRIL 8, 2026 Pliant Technologies will highlight a range of new accessories at th...
09/04/2026
As live production continues its shift to IP, the challenge is no longer adoption it's reliability. At NAB Show 2026 (Booth W2033), Media Links will demon...
09/04/2026
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest contribution solutions, launches its new AI-powered add-on for its StudioPro p...
09/04/2026
The Hive Group has published a new white paper, No Safe Harbor: Why the FCC's Upper C-Band Auction Demands Early Action from Broadcasters ahead of NAB Sho...
09/04/2026
Saranyu Technologies today announced the renewal of its Optimizer VoD subscription with VisualOn. The announcement coincides with NAB Show 2026, taking place Ap...
09/04/2026
New technique for synthesizing branched molecules could accelerate the development of future medicines Scripps Research chemists solve a longstanding problem in...
08/04/2026
The deadline to enter the 18th Annual SVG College Sports Media Awards in association with NACDA is rapidly approaching! Submit your entries to this year's c...
08/04/2026
The Pittsburgh product helps lead more than 100 annual ESPN broadcasts as part o...
08/04/2026
Dynamic ad insertion, AI-based technologies, programmatic advertising are some o...
08/04/2026
Seven Fellows Selected for Second Year of Residency in Honor of Social Justice L...
08/04/2026
On March 7, Bad Bunny made history with his first-ever performance in Asia, taki...
08/04/2026
El 7 de marzo, Bad Bunny hizo historia con su primera presentaci n en Asia, subi...
08/04/2026
New channel strip plug-in revealed
The latest plug-in to be added to the Fuse Audio Labs line-up emulates a selection of vintage hardware units, combining c...
08/04/2026
Guitar & bass multi-effects software overhauled
Blue Cat Audio's flagship guitar and bass multi-effects software has recently received a significant upd...
08/04/2026
PanNoir mixer integration, Dolby Atmos Renderer & more
Merging Technologies have just launched Pyramix 16, the latest major update to their renowned DAW sof...
08/04/2026
Applicable Products Part number Description
QUARTZ-22-LTE (EU) Dual Port Dual SIM LTE Router (EU)
QUARTZ-COMPACT-11-LTE (EU) Single Port Compact LTE ...
08/04/2026
The September 19, 2025 YEP Newsletter highlights a group visit to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, where participants explored exhibits showcasing the art...
08/04/2026
The L3Harris HBTSS satellite is proven on orbit, successfully demonstrating trac...
08/04/2026
Image Credit: NASA. Artist rendering of a space communications satellite in orbit, representative of the resilient, multiband infrastructure supporting mission ...
08/04/2026
Latest evaluation validates image quality, Inertial Navigation System performance and long-range tracking in operational flight conditions....
08/04/2026
New Gracenote study finds behavioral change well underway, but trust in AI-gener...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Integration eliminates ingest bottlenecks by ensuring content is immediately usable across cloud and hybrid editorial workflows. See it at NAB 2026.
Nevada Cit...
08/04/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the commercial availability of Dalia, its media-aware, agentic AI...
08/04/2026
Leading video software provider Synamedia today announced Senza Ignite, a cloud-based platform that transforms existing connected devices through a single firmw...
08/04/2026
Modernised architecture increases operational control and agility, while reducing cost and simplifying nationwide media transport across affiliates and news bur...
08/04/2026
Company to Feature DMX Dual Relay, High-Density 48-Channel Relay Panels, and New Private Label Power Program
LynTec, a leading manufacturer of innovative ele...
08/04/2026
Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE), a European media technology and services partner, today announces a technology partnership with BCNEXXT, a Netherlands-based c...
08/04/2026
Encompass Digital Media today announced the expansion of its Master Control Room (MCR) facility in Riga, Latvia, establishing it as one of the most advanced and...
08/04/2026
Leading video solutions provider Synamedia is back at The 2026 NAB Show with innovations that connect tomorrows audiences today. On display will be a range of t...
08/04/2026
COW Jobs: Director Needed for WWII Indie Docudrama
Brie Clayton April 8, 2026
0 Comments
Director Needed for WWII Indie Docudrama
March 17, 2026COW ...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Marshall Electronics introduces its latest POV camera with the new CV376 Compact NDI |HX3 HDMI POV Camera at NAB 2026 (Booth C8339). Designed for versatile 4K c...