Milano Cortina 2026: Listening to the Sounds of Powder and Ice With a Behind the Scenes Tour of OBS and NBC's Audio Set Ups

SVG Europe Audio: Listening to the sounds of powder and ice at Milano Cortina with a behind the scenes tour of OBS and NBC's audio set ups By Heather McLean

Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 15:08

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SVG Europe Audio's Roger Charlesworth [L to R] on stage at the Sports Audio Summit 2025 with Karl Malone, NBC Sports and Olympics senior director of audio engineering and Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) sound design and audio manager, Nuno Duarte, for the keynote Powder and ice: Looking ahead to the sound of Milano Cortina'

At SVG Europe Audio's Sports Audio Summit 2025, Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) sound design and audio manager, Nuno Duarte, and Karl Malone, NBC Sports and Olympics senior director of audio engineering shared their audio plans in the keynote Powder and ice: Looking ahead to the sound of Milano Cortina'. The pair each provided a preview of what we can expect to hear from the slopes.

Right now, OBS has crew and helicopters cabling the mountainous venues for the Winter Olympics which is set to begin on 6 February 2026. Milano Cortina marks the first Winter Games post-COVID, following Beijing 2022.

In his presentation, Duarte said Beijing was a very hard situation in which to work for the OBS team, and welcomed the prospect of operating his audio side of the massive operation this coming Games without restrictions.

OBS is working out of five key clusters across Italy, which is making this Games a huge remote operation. Duarte said that over the past four years improvements in remote production technology has greatly accelerated, which means that despite the logistical issues of working over such a wide area away from the IBC in Milan, it will be achievable.

The Milano Cortina Winter Olympics 2026 venue locations click to view a larger version

OBS' Winter Olympics 2026 broadcast plans in numbers (STC)

Broadcast hours:

6,500 hours of content provided by OBS to media rights holders ( 8.3% more than Beijing 2022)

900 hours of live sports and ceremonies

5,450 hours of additional content

Video, audio and radio feeds:

20 UHD contribution multilateral feeds

17 multi clip feeds

44 HD distribution feeds

44 UHD distribution feeds

Cameras and microphones:

770 camera systems

12 live beauty cameras

1,800 microphones

Production units:

20 production units, of which three are virtualised OB vans

25 production galleries

Footprint:

27,000 square metres IBC net broadcast area (-25% less than Beijing 2022)

60,702 square metres total broadcast compound space at sports coverage venues (-16% less than Beijing 2022)

4,000 KVA total IBC power request (-33% less than Beijing 2022)

8,200 KVA total competition venues power request (-25% less than Beijing 2022)

Host broadcast workforce (estimated):

5,000 OBS Games-time personnel

90 countries represented in personnel

650 paid positions for Broadcast Training Programme (BTP) students

Connectivity:

1Tbps aggregated capacity connecting the IBC with Pops (corresponds to 70% of the current peak of the Milan internet exchange)

200Gbps internet at IBC and venues (2.5x more than Beijing 2022)

3 PoPs (Paris, Frankfurt, Milan)

Media rights holders:

14 media rights holders

71 media organisations

Duarte drew attention in particular to the fact that while there is set to be over 8.3% more hours of content from the Winter Games, the IBC will be 25% smaller than in Beijing, there will be 16% less broadcast compound space at the sports venues, and there will be significantly less power being used.

That's what we're talking about, he said. There is another number that isn't here, that is time to set up everything. We have much less time to set up all the systems on the venues and that is having a big impact on all of us, Duarte added.

Immersive audio is a standard for OBS, along with a total IP infrastructure. There will be a lot of new people working for OBS on immersive audio, and Duarte is excited to work with them. The immersive audio and the IP will be invisible in many ways to rights holders, with hidden microphones and everything simply working on the day.

NBC's map of what sports it will be covering, from which venues, at the Winter Olympics 2026. Onsite commentary booths are outlined in red

NBC's Winter Olympics

Karl Malone then took the stage. Malone said the network has 19 million viewers watching the Olympics on its primetime show, and they are ready to pull off a spectacular Winter Games following off the back of Paris 2024.

On audio for Milano Cortina, Malone said that for audio, Winter Games are a little bit better [for audio] because everyone loves the sound of snow and ice .

NBC will be on air for the Winter Olympics on 4 February, with the Opening Ceremony on the 6 February. However, the broadcaster is also producing one of its biggest home events Superbowl Sunday taking place on 8 February, which is going to tax its resources somewhat. Yet Malone said the broadcaster is ready to take on the challenge.

NBC will be working from 14 venues over seven locations:

Milan: Opening Ceremony, figure skating and short track, speed skating, hockey x2

Cortina: Women's alpine, curling, sliding

Valtellina: Snowboard and freestyle (Livigno x2), men's alpine and ski mountaineering (Bormio)

Val di Fiemme: Cross country, ski jumping

Anterselva: Biathlon

Verona: Closing Ceremony

Cortina d'Ampezzo: Sliding

Malone pointed out that some of the venues are six or seven hours apart from each other, however what they lack in easy logistics, they gain in spectacular scenery.

NBC's truck and flypack audio map for Milano Cortina click to view a larger version

NBC's coverage will consist of:

Primetime in Milan: 8pm-11pm across the US with three hour long special glossy magazine shows with 19 million to 20 million viewer

LINK:	https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/svg-europe-audio-listening-to...
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