NEP Norway takes the Holmenkollen Ski Festival to new heights and extremes By Heather McLean
Friday, March 17, 2023 - 09:49
Print This Story
NRK camera capturing a climb in front of large crowds in Saturday's Men's 50km Cross Country race
The FIS World Cup Cross Country Skiing, Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined at the Holmenkollen Ski Festival in Norway took place last weekend from 9 to 12 March.
This event was a huge effort by host broadcaster, NRK of Norway, which used its own OB units as well as being supported by technical provider, NEP Norway.
The Holmenkollen Ski Festival is wildly popular in Norway, where people are born with skis on the their feet an inherent love of winter sports. This is one of the biggest OBs of the year in Norway, with cameras spread over a wide area to cover the 8.3 killometre lap Cross Country course and also the Holmenkollen ski jumping hill, which provides extremely impressive coverage.
We have such great experiences doing these kind of productions, that whatever challenge we face, we always manage to deliver the wow . It's just a big, beautiful event to make the unity of the country. That's what Norwegians are. We love our ski stuff. We're born with it. I'm born with it!
This event also had the first-ever FIS Women's 50 kilometre Cross Country race on Sunday racing the same distance as Saturday's Men's race and saw a popular home Norwegian winner in Ragnhild Haga.
The FIS Ski-Jumping is also the first leg of the Raw Air' tournament, covering three hills in Norway this month. This Holmenkollen 134 metre hill was rebuilt and reopened in 2010 and staged the World Championships in 2011.
Tossief Jafri, head of sales at NEP Norway and project manager for the Holmenkollen Ski Festival, spoke to SVG Europe about the broadcast of the event, but first commented: Any ski event is a huge event in Norway, [but combine] ski jumping, and cross country and it's a really big day for Norway. A big, beautiful event which unites the nation.
There's passion and love for the sport and respect for the people behind the sport. It makes it amazing to watch on TV and is beautiful.
Camera capturing a long shot of the Holmenkollen ski-jump
Capturing juicy pictures
NEP had three OB trucks on site and NRK had a further two trucks of its own, Host and National, on location. Adds Jafri: Our client has their own trucks, because it's a national broadcaster in Norway, so we had a wide of range of trucks to be able to cover such a big event.
Tossief Jafri, head of sales at NEP Norway
He comments on the cameras used for the Festival: We used EVS to get all the footage recorded. We had five EVS's in total, with three of them supported by NEP. We also had two super slow motion cameras. The slow mo cameras were capturing those really juicy pictures that we like! So you're really in there and capturing the moment in slow motion, especially on the ski jump; you want to see that in slow mo, especially when they're in the air.
Then we used four of the big, large lenses, called 90x lenses. They were capturing those beautiful close ups of the cross country guys and the women and the people jumping, and giving you those beautiful amazing shots.
And then we used one wireless camera. Wireless cameras capture literally in the moment where the audience is. We also used it to interview the [athletes] who were skiing, and also the cross country. We had a lot of famous reporters that were working on this event.
NEP Norway also used a Polecam to capture the up close action at the top of the ski jumps, where the space available is narrow, but the facial expressions of the athletes are a must see as they prepare to jump.
On the ski jump, we used around 15 cameras, and on the cross-country event, we have around 30 cameras. So it's quite a large amount of cameras to be able to cover such a big event, adds Jafri.
Steep climb in the Women's Nordic Combined 5km Cross Country
Avoiding shaky shots
There are a myriad of challenges for this event, but the temperature is the main one says Jafri: So the challenge we face is the cold weather, which is somewhere around -10 degrees Celsius. It's very cold, especially in the morning, so our camera crew uses heating pads inside their gloves and actually on the feet as well, on the inside of their shoes, because they're standing there for hours and hours working and getting those beautiful shots; they have to keep themselves warm. It doesn't matter how well dressed you are, the part that gets cold first is the fingers and the toes.
So we're making sure that the people who are working there are, first of all, not freezing because as soon as they freeze, they're starting to get shaky shots; it's absolutely amazing how hard the camera people work.
Then we do the same thing with the cameras. To protect our cameras, we use something called arctic rain covers, for rain and snow. As soon as the sun comes, then obviously all the covers goes away, but it's just a way to protect the equipment because overnight they are outside.
The reason why they stay outside is so they are declimatised. If you take [a camera indoors and outdoors] it will be a big temperature difference for the equipment, and we would then face challenges with the camera not working. So you just protect in such a way and it's ready to go in the morning.
Camera with independent viewfinder for rapid pan and tilt
Sound of powder
On the audio, Jafri notes that NEP Norway does and has historically used sampler effects for this event. He explains: The sampler effects give the audience a very unique experience, because it's very challenging to record [certain sounds on the slopes], especially when the ski jumper jumps; that swoosh sound. And then when they land, it
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
23/07/2026
Download Now!
To receive a short case study showcasing Vivid Broadcast's audio setup, please enter the following details:
--
First Name* First Name ...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Witbe brings its AI-native testing and monitoring infrastructure to Amsterdam: demonstrations on real devices, a peer-reviewed technical paper in the conference...
23/07/2026
Quickplay, Caretta Research, Evergent, and Yospace have announced that the renowned IBC Pride Happy Hour will once again bring the vibe and fun back to IBC on F...
23/07/2026
At IBC2026, Interra Systems will present this year's focus: operational AI at scale for QC, monitoring, and captioning workflows. The industry has moved pas...
23/07/2026
Illusionfx is finally coming!
Alex Perea July 23, 2026
0 Comments
The new website is now live to mark the occasion.
Since the last update, feedback h...
23/07/2026
Evergent (5.A86) will showcase its Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platform for streaming services, sports leagues, pay-TV operators at IBC2026 (RAI Amsterdam, 11...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
David Dvir, 2D founder (left), Sundeep Reddy (center), and Jean-Marc Bouchut (right), both of Zeiss...
23/07/2026
Screen Australia announces new national documentary accelerator program 23 July 2026
Screen Australia has today announced the Above the Line Documentary Accel...
23/07/2026
RT Commercial has today announced Centra as the official food partner once again of The Traitors Ireland, coming to RT One and RT Player later this year.
Ce...
23/07/2026
RT Commercial today announced Honda as sponsor of Today with David McCullagh RT Radio 1, weekdays 9am 11am.
Broadcasting directly after Morning Ireland in ...
23/07/2026
RT News is pleased to announce Barry Gallagher has been assigned as the new journalist covering news from Cork, Kerry and the wider Southern region
Working al...
23/07/2026
Lock in and load up the cloud. GFN Thursday brings fresh updates and new adventu...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
NEP Norway takes the Holmenkollen Ski Festival to new heights and extremes By Heather McLean 
