Paris 2024: NBC Sports' Amy Rosenfeld on Stamford Workflows, Gold Zone, and Serving an Array of Audiences She oversees a complex production spanning two continents By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. Friday, August 2, 2024 - 9:54 am
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When Amy Rosenfeld joined NBC Sports as SVP of Olympics and Paralympics production in June 2022, she brought with her a wealth of experience in big-event production. During a long tenure at ESPN, she had overseen numerous large-scale international sports events - including Men's and Women's World Cups, the X Games, and Indy 500 - as well as the launch of ACC Network in 2019. Despite that extensive r sum , however, Rosenfeld describes her first Olympics in her current role as unlike anything I've ever experienced in my career.
It's true, Rosenfeld is no stranger to the Games, having produced soccer and curling at four Olympics for NBC Sports early in her career. But her current role dwarfs any of her previous work: she is overseeing an ultra-complex, two-continent approach to producing coverage of Paris 2024.
SVG sat down with Rosenfeld at NBC's Stamford, CT, broadcast center this week to discuss how the Paris 2024 production has gone so far, the exponential growth of NBC's stateside at-home operation (and how it expands opportunities to enhance the on-air product), appealing to different types of viewers, the overwhelming success of NBC's Gold Zone whip-around show, and much more.
NBC Sports' Amy Rosenfeld: We've got the basics down and are exploring what that next level looks like.
Does having such a large presence at home in Stamford impact your production strategy? What challenges and opportunities does the at-home operation present from a storytelling perspective?
I give NBC a ton of credit because they had to manage under really tough circumstances [during COVID prior to my arrival]. I think COVID expedited a lot of technology that would have come along anyway. NBC had to fast-track a lot of that, and we haven't gone back.
If you can save some budget because the infrastructure is more nimble or more efficient or you don't need as many people in-country, you can redeploy those resources to the screen. We want the infrastructure to be as efficient as possible so we can give the best presentation on-air. I do believe that NBC has done a great job of doing exactly that. My boss [NBC Olympics Production Executive Producer/President] Molly Solomon is always asking, What do you need? Not What can you get rid of?
We have put the infrastructure in place to the point that we don't need everyone to be in-country anymore. We have screens in front of us where we can wave at someone at the IBC and see them as if we were all in the same room. When I did [the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004] Olympics, I was in-country, but I never left the IBC. Did it make sense to pay for me to be in a broom closet in Sydney or Athens? How about we put that money into content instead?
Can you cite any specific examples of how these resources are being redeployed to enhance the on-screen product?
Molly has put a huge emphasis on additive technology, especially when it comes to better educating the viewer on sports that are not part of our everyday lives. We refer to it as relatable awe : how do you express what the g-force is for a gymnast doing a vault? I remember, back in my X Games days, we used the analogy that a snowmobiler doing a back flip was like strapping a refrigerator to your back, standing on a diving board, and doing a double back flip. We try to convey the power, the strength, and the speed of competition. The cameras don't always properly capture that, so we're working on ways to provide viewers with visuals to demonstrate just how amazing these athletes are.
We also have gone completely HDR this year; in the past, NBC was a blend [of SDR and HDR]. The results have been stunning, especially in a place like Paris, which is its own character in the story. What's the best way to show Paris in all its glory? By using the best possible technology to create the best possible visuals. That's exactly what we're doing.
But it all comes back to that strong, efficient infrastructure that provides us the paths between [Paris and Stamford] with almost no latency. We have feeds from Paris breeding like bunnies out here, and all of those resources add to the content on the screen.
NBC Sports' Stamford, CT, broadcast center is producing the Paris 2024 Olympics.
How are you producing content to appeal to a variety of viewer tastes? For example, live daytime coverage varies drastically from primetime coverage, and Gold Zone is another animal altogether.
With NBCSN and The Olympic Channel sunsetting, I think, it has streamlined the ability to navigate people to the right place. That's so important. Yes, we still have [the NBC broadcast network], USA, and E! churning all day long plus CNBC on the weekend, but it's definitely more streamlined because Peacock can be the hub for everything we do and the networks can spin off that.
The European time zone presents challenges that we view as opportunities. It doesn't make sense to hold back [any live coverage]; that time has passed. We are embracing the live element while also understanding that there is still very much a place for that deeper storytelling. What we've tried
