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 ...
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...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
12/06/2026
Meet The Grumpy Onion Ireland's newest online sensation, all he wants is to ...
12/06/2026
RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast
Adding to the fun around 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, RT has launched a brand new d...
NEP Norway takes the Holmenkollen Ski Festival to new heights and extremes By Heather McLean 
