From architecture to reality: What CBC's Milano Cortina 2026 workflows tell us about DMF and MXL in live sport By Paul Markham
Tuesday, January 20, 2026 - 09:50
Print This Story
Architectural frameworks only prove their value when exposed to real-world pressure. For the European Broadcasting Union's Dynamic Media Facility (DMF), that pressure is expected to arrive early this year, as broadcasters begin applying elements of the architecture in live environments rather than laboratories.
One of the earliest publicly referenced scenarios involves CBC/Radio-Canada, with selected Milano Cortina Olympic workflows identified on the DMF/MXL roadmap for February 2026.
In Parts One and Two of this series, we outlined why DMF exists, how the Media eXchange Layer (MXL) underpins it architecturally, and whether the ecosystem is genuinely moving beyond theory. We examined broadcaster engagement, early vendor alignment, and the reality of hybrid, pre-commercial implementations. This final article moves from architecture and adoption to application, exploring what those ideas look like when tested under the operational pressure of a live Olympic event.
Why Milano Cortina 2026 matters
Large-scale sport remains the most demanding environment for broadcast technology to evolve. Olympic workflows combine extreme scale, hard real-time constraints, multi-format output, and a non-negotiable requirement for reliability. If a new architectural approach can work here, even partially, it can work anywhere.
Milano Cortina will not mark the end of the DMF journey, but it may mark the point at which DMF principles begin to shape mainstream live production, with MXL following as platforms and products catch up
Events of this scale also provide some of the clearest opportunities to benefit from dynamic compute and cloud capacity. Reducing reliance on fixed, peak-provisioned infrastructure, whether on site or remote from the event, offers tangible gains in cost efficiency, operational flexibility and sustainability.
As a technically progressive public broadcaster, CBC/Radio-Canada has been closely involved in DMF and MXL discussions from an architectural standpoint. Milano Cortina represents an opportunity not to deploy DMF wholesale, but to apply DMF thinking selectively, in ways that are realistic for a Tier-1 live event.
What DMF does and does not mean for an Olympics
DMF is a reference architecture, not a turnkey system. It describes how a broadcast facility can be decomposed into modular, software-defined media functions running on general-purpose compute, orchestrated dynamically across on-prem, edge and cloud environments.
At Milano Cortina, this does not mean replacing OB trucks, ST 2110 routing, or established Olympic production practices. Instead, DMF adoption is focused on introducing software-defined processing where it delivers clear operational benefit, while allowing existing infrastructure to continue doing what it already does well.
In practice, DMF-based workflows tend to emerge first inside internal processing domains rather than across end-to-end signal transport. These are the parts of the production chain where modularity, elasticity and rapid software iteration offer the greatest immediate return.
At events such as Milano Cortina, that typically means clusters of software-defined media functions handling tasks such as live clipping and highlights creation, multi-angle and iso-camera processing, graphics insertion and data-driven overlays. These workflows benefit from being loosely coupled, scalable, and easier to redeploy across productions.
Hybrid deployment is central to this model. Some processing remains close to venues, while other functions can be centralised or cloud-adjacent. DMF explicitly supports this topology, allowing media functions to be deployed where latency, resilience and operational efficiency make the most sense, rather than forcing everything into a single location or platform.
MXL's role: future direction, not event deliverable
As established earlier in the series, MXL is the media-plane component of the DMF architecture: an open, high-performance mechanism intended to enable interoperable media exchange between software-defined production functions.
For Milano Cortina, however, MXL should be understood as a direction of travel rather than a deployed component. Product availability, maturity and integration timelines mean that CBC's Olympic workflows are applying DMF principles today, while planning to evolve towards MXL-based exchange as platforms and vendor support mature.
This distinction reinforces that DMF adoption does not require every architectural component to be present from day one, and that meaningful progress can be made by aligning platforms and workflows ahead of full standard implementation.
Operational reality: hybrid by design
Milano Cortina reinforces a reality many broadcasters already recognise: hybrid operation is not a temporary transition, but the steady-state condition of modern live production.
DMF-based workflows at the Games are expected to combine software-defined processing with conventional IP devices and gateways, alongside vendor platforms at different stages of architectural alignment, running across both on-prem and cloud-native compute. That mix introduces new operational considerations around monitoring, observability and fault isolation.
Software-defined workflows may introduce new failure modes, but they also enable faster iteration, recovery and reuse. Milano Cortina will test how well those trade-offs are understood and managed under genuine live-event pressure.
Vendor collaboration under pressure
For vendors, CBC's Olympic deployment is not a marketing exercise. It is a test of engineering collaboration under real deadlines, interoperability between evolving platforms, and perfor
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
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...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
20/01/2026
SVG Sit-Down: BitFire's Jim Akimchuk on the Future of Cloud, Remote, Softwar...
20/01/2026
From architecture to reality: What CBC's Milano Cortina 2026 workflows tell ...
20/01/2026
Milano Cortina 2026: Making the Winter Olympics and Paralympics workflow work fo...
20/01/2026
Countdown to Milano Cortina 2026: SVG Launches SportsTechLive Blog in Lead-up to...
20/01/2026
Grand finale: Rally Saudi Arabia pushes WRC to make the most of cameras and dron...
20/01/2026
State of Change: What's Happening in the Remote-Production Business?NEP Group, Game Creek Video, Dome Productions, Mobile TV Group, Program Productions exec...
20/01/2026
CFP National Championship 2026: A Look Back at SVG's Complete CoverageGo behind the scenes with ESPN, Game Creek Video, Van Wagner, and the champion Indiana...
20/01/2026
The Gotham, Film Independent, and Creators Coalition on AI Join Alliance
by Michelle Satter, Founding Senior Director, Sundance Institute's Artist Programs...
20/01/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
20/01/2026
December, the first month of winter and the holiday season, has traditionally encouraged families to spend time together in front of the television. During this...
20/01/2026
During December, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.3%, an increase of 0.1 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YUMI TV,...
20/01/2026
Christmas Day is Most-Streamed Day Ever with 55 Billion Viewing Minutes, led by...
20/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/01/2026
Disguise and ASB GlassFloor today announced a strategic partnership that turns the arena floor into a fully customizable interactive digital surface. This will ...
20/01/2026
Last summer, ITV celebrated the tenth anniversary of its popular reality dating show, Love Island. To ramp up the excitement of series 12 (launched in the UK on...
20/01/2026
Berklee's Mark Ethier Named One of SPIN's Most Influential People in Mus...
20/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/01/2026
Emergent, a provider of AI-powered media production solutions, today announced its presence at ISE 2026 in Barcelona, taking place February 3 6, where it will u...
20/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery Amend Agreement to All-Cash Transaction
Business
20 January 2026
Global
Link copied to clipboard
All-C...
20/01/2026
Back to All News
Now You Can Play a Role in Our Live Events With Real-Time Voting
Elmar Nubbemeyer
VP, Member Product
Product
20 January 2026
Global
Link...
19/01/2026
CFP National Championship 2026: Indiana Football's Digital Crew Generate Hyp...
19/01/2026
CFP National Championship 2026: Van Wagner Relies on Experience for Indiana-Miam...
19/01/2026
CFP National Championship 2026: Game Creek Video Fields Premiere IP Compound for...
19/01/2026
CFP National Championship 2026: For a Slew of Studio Shows, ESPN Turns Hard Rock...
19/01/2026
CFP National Championship 2026: ESPN's Sweeping Live Game Production Leverag...
19/01/2026
The new L3Harris NOVA binocular system is the every-soldier goggle' - and the beginning of a new era for night-vison capability....
19/01/2026
The Majority of Those Surveyed Prefer to Buy Brands Who Advertise in Content Tha...
19/01/2026
Back to All News
Straight to Hell' Sets April 27 Premiere: Teaser Trailer,...
19/01/2026
New Workflow Enhancements for All Broadcast Pix Systems, Plus 4-Channel ISO Recording for Hybrid and Roadie Tyngsboro, Mass. - January 2025 - Broadcast Pix ann...
19/01/2026
Monday 19 January 2026
Sky News reinvents News at Ten for the modern audience with The Wrap
Sky News today announces The Wrap, a bold evolution of its 10pm ou...
19/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Announces the Series Nights & Days, Directed by Kamila...
19/01/2026
DPA Microphones is striking a new chord in piano miking with the debut of its DPK2015 Piano Stereo Kit, an out-of-the-box, plug-and-play miking solution that ta...
19/01/2026
DPA Microphones will present its 4099 CORE Instrument Microphone and redesigned...
19/01/2026
Trianel relies on Arvato Systems for future-proof data center operations
Moving to the cloud: Arvato Systems implements extensive IT migration project
Migrat...
19/01/2026
Celebrating 21 Years of the RT Choice Music Prize
RT Choice Music Prize
In association with IMRO and IRMA
Irish Album of the Year 2025 - Shortlist Announce...
18/01/2026
January 18 2026, 21:30 (PST) Dolby Cinema Arrives in Bengaluru: Dolby Laborator...
17/01/2026
Lightware, an industry leader in signal management, is helping to elevate the Google Meet experience with the introduction of an integration with Taurus UCX. Th...
17/01/2026
Clear-Com announced a strategic partnership with NETGEAR AV to offer four high-performance networking switches as original equipment manufacturer (OEM) solutio...
17/01/2026
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest contribution solutions, today announced a new U.S. distribution partnership wit...
17/01/2026
NUGEN Audio announces the latest evolution of MasterCheck, its industry-trusted optimization plug-in for cross-platform mastering and loudness verification. Des...
17/01/2026
BHV has announced that it will highlight its new SportsBox remote vision mixer and picture processor at ISE in Booth #4H900 marking its official introduction in...
17/01/2026
Clear-Com will return to ISE 2026 to demonstrate its latest intercom solutions for broadcast, live production, and AV professionals. Exhibiting at Stand #4P700...
17/01/2026
Grass Valley, a leading provider in live production solutions, will exhibit at ISE 2026 in Barcelona from February 3 6, presenting its vision for how modern Bro...
17/01/2026
Utelogy Corporation, the global leader in connected workplace management, monitoring, control, automation and analytics closes out a record-breaking 2025. The c...
From architecture to reality: What CBC's Milano Cortina 2026 workflows tell us about DMF and MXL in live sport By Paul Markham 
