Olympics Broadcasting Thread

[Weeters 1916]

NBC's Olympic Studios are so beautiful likely in the tens of millions in terms of design, technology, the assembly, the striking, packing it, shipping it around the world and finally rebuilding it. It's a shame they don't last longer or are repurposed on air.

 

It's weird that this used to be the norm. Bejing 2008, Vancouver 2010, and London 2012 all used the same set with slight modifications. Sochi and Rio have been totally different sets.

 

Since there are rumors coming out that Comcast is regretting how much money they sank into the coverage this year, I wouldn't be surprised if the concept of recycling the set reappears.

[rkolsen 1684]

It's weird that this used to be the norm. Bejing 2008, Vancouver 2010, and London 2012 all used the same set with slight modifications. Sochi and Rio have been totally different sets.

 

Since there are rumors coming out that Comcast is regretting how much money they sank into the coverage this year, I wouldn't be surprised if the concept of recycling the set reappears.

 

I imagine a lot of the set technology (displays) are rentals as well as all of broadcast equipment. Bexel broadcast has had huge auctions and sales at the end of these events.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if NBC virtualized a lot more of their coverage via IP and ran a barer bones operation. I imagine a lot of sports and their live coverage on channels need a full control room which mainly passes through OBS content with local commentary and a unilateral camera or two. I read that many channels such as TV2 in Norway and even GloboSat in Brazil used VizRT Opus to play out their coverage (I assume their union contracts prohibit such an operation).

 

I know a lot of people were complaining that the games were treated as an entertainment show rather than a sporting event. I almost think if they treated more as a sporting event they would lose viewers. It also would probably help Comcast's bottom line if they offered Live Extra as a subscription for the duration of the event - after all NBC has the rights to ALL media platforms.

[skbl17 188]

Are all news alerts styled like that in Japan - seems a bit barren compared to how high tech Japan is? I'm curious why their logo is NHK and not Japanese.

 

1) Yes, all alerts, including the (in)famous earthquake alerts, are like that. I honestly don't mind it - NHK gets the job done in emergency situations (and absolutely has to as the reception fee-supported public broadcaster,) and they don't need any flashy or over-the-top graphics to do it. Viper550 is right about the clutter, though.

 

2) Most East Asian broadcasters (NHK, TBS, SBS, MBC, KBS, etc.) use the English abbreviations because (if I had to guess) they're shorter and easier to remember. You won't hear or see "Nippon Housou Kyokai" (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) used very often in NHK broadcasts or publications unless it's a legal or corporate document in Japanese, and even then, I've seen a tendency for them to just use "NHK" instead of the full legal name.

[rkolsen 1684]

2) Most East Asian broadcasters (NHK, TBS, SBS, MBC, KBS, etc.) use the English abbreviations because (if I had to guess) they're shorter and easier to remember. You won't hear or see "Nippon Housou Kyokai" (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) used very often in NHK broadcasts or publications unless it's a legal or corporate document in Japanese, and even then, I've seen a tendency for them to just use "NHK" instead of the full legal name.

 

Would the people of Japan or employees of NHK pronounce their company NHK as we would in English?

[Viper550 291]

I wouldn't be surprised if NBC virtualized a lot more of their coverage via IP and ran a barer bones operation. I imagine a lot of sports and their live coverage on channels need a full control room which mainly passes through OBS content with local commentary and a unilateral camera or two. I read that many channels such as TV2 in Norway and even GloboSat in Brazil used VizRT Opus to play out their coverage (I assume their union contracts prohibit such an operation).

 

I know a lot of people were complaining that the games were treated as an entertainment show rather than a sporting event. I almost think if they treated more as a sporting event they would lose viewers. It also would probably help Comcast's bottom line if they offered Live Extra as a subscription for the duration of the event - after all NBC has the rights to ALL media platforms.

 

Firstly, CBC has actually been doing something similar since Sochi. They off-load much of the production resources to their existing infrastructure in Toronto (English) and Montreal (French), meaning that much of the stuff at the IBC is just studio stuff. It's remotely-run.

 

And Seven in Australia experimented with a similar model, charging about $20 ($15 US) for "premium" access to all live events and on-demand on its mobile app, outside of the 900 hours shown across its three OTA channels (main network plus sister diginets 7Two and 7Mate) and 300 hours digital-only, instead of partnering with a pay TV provider as Nine did in London (which was apparently a financial disaster). It was offered free to subscribers to Telstra (kind of reminds me how Rogers all but gave out NHL GameCentre Live during its first season as rightsholder).

 

A rather prominent industry group complained that this was a loophole around their listed events law: it said the rights to the Olympics must be held by a free-to-air network (optionally sub-licensed in part to pay-tv), but it doesn't say anything about the free-to-air network charging to view part of the Olympics on platforms that aren't legally considered broadcast TV in the eyes of said law.

[Samantha 2896]

1) Yes, all alerts, including the (in)famous earthquake alerts, are like that. I honestly don't mind it - NHK gets the job done in emergency situations (and absolutely has to as the reception fee-supported public broadcaster,) and they don't need any flashy or over-the-top graphics to do it. Viper550 is right about the clutter, though.

 

2) Most East Asian broadcasters (NHK, TBS, SBS, MBC, KBS, etc.) use the English abbreviations because (if I had to guess) they're shorter and easier to remember. You won't hear or see "Nippon Housou Kyokai" (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) used very often in NHK broadcasts or publications unless it's a legal or corporate document in Japanese, and even then, I've seen a tendency for them to just use "NHK" instead of the full legal name.

 

I think there's also something of a contrast issue. Japanese text, especially when kanji come into play, can be hard to read, so a presentation with appropriate contrast is almost a must. Additionally, computer generated text came a little late to the scene because of the complexity of all the characters, so there could be some tradition at play too.

[Viper550 291]

And now we shift from the topic of Japanese fonts to the topic of ratings. CBC says that a record of at least 32.1 million viewers watched some part of the Games overall (in a country of 36,155,487), and their peak was during the 200m final with Andre De Grasse, at 7.2 million.

 

It's still a far cry from the Men's hockey final at the 2010 Olympics (which was the most-watched broadcast in the history of Canadian television, behind only the opening ceremony of said Games, . It was a perfect storm of a tentpole moment matched only this decade by Brazil's football victory), but those are still pretty impressive numbers for a Summer Olympics in a country where the majority of the national sports are of the winter variety.

 

See, NBC? This is what happens when you are pro-viewer: tons of options, no authentication, actually covering the Games as sports rather than practically a reality show, etc.

[skbl17 188]

Those CBC numbers are fantastic. Of course, it also helps that CBC is (despite the commercials) a public broadcaster, so they have to put greater focus on providing the best service to Canadian viewers as opposed to simply maximizing profits. If the CBC is including streaming numbers, I wonder what proportion of those viewers were VPN users?

 

Would the people of Japan or employees of NHK pronounce their company NHK as we would in English?

 

In all the NHK videos I've seen, it's always "NHK" (as in the English name). I've also seen some clips with Japanese politicians using the English abbreviation instead of the full legal name.

[rkolsen 1684]

Worth taking a look at this brief BTS video:

 

http://www.nbcuniversal.com/article/behind-scenes-nbcs-2016-rio-olympic-games-coverage

 

Thought I'd include some of the staggering facts of coverage I included in a post at TVForum in case the video was geoblocked:

 

There were 2000+ employees (likely including hundreds from affiliates) in Rio and 1000 or more in Stamford. It took them two years of planning; 102 40 foot shipping containers; 120,000 tons of freight; more than 1000 cameras; 40,000 m of fiber optic cabling in the IBC; 132 HD streams sent back via fiber to Stamford ; 2700 monitors (wonder if it's physical monitors or monitors in a multi viewer); 1,800 TB of hard drive space (enough to hold 8.5 years of video storage ~ 75,000 of video); 31 EVS machines, and 52 edit rooms.

 

In addition to VR, 4K, HDR they offered VDS service during Primetime. I'm listening to a TiVo recording right now with the VDS on and they offer a bit more information "the tallest competitor, Kiprop, has beanpole legs".

[Viper550 291]

The Paralympics are starting next Wednesday, and CBC has dome something I don't think anyone has ever done before: they actually put a Paralympic emblem on their bug.

 

Okay, actually, it's not the Paralympic emblem by itself, but the logo of Canada's Paralympic team next to the bug (it's the Paralympic emblem along with a stylized maple leaf). This is very significant; yes, a ton of broadcasters (NBC included) make branding themselves as their country's Olympic network in the final months before the Games a top priority, but this is the first time I've seen this done for the Paralympics.

[Viper550 291]

Tonight is the OC for the Paralympics;

 

CBC has it going live (on the east coast, that is, still better than tape delay!) with a pre-show just now. Scott Russell is hosting, but from the Toronto studio rather than in Rio. (Last time, CBC kept their Sochi studio up) Same presentation/etc. from the Olympics and that's not a problem (cause CBC's look was quite nice to begin with).

 

Also those OBS graphics are still ugly. I think maybe they should have recolored them more of a dark orange to match the Paralympics' emblem this year rather than going down the one-size-fits-all strategy.

[Georgie56 3307]

Bumping because The days of NBC tape delay are finally over.

[MidwestTV 1232]

Bumping because The days of NBC tape delay are finally over.

 

It only took them how many Olympics to finally listen to viewers/realize that this is a better idea?

[Journalist 894]

Bumping because The days of NBC tape delay are finally over.

The fact they are making this decision now...for the 2018 games... 13 hours ahead of Eastern Time... is beyond me.

 

The Olympics live on NBC at 2 am. Couldn't get any better than this.

[Action Newsroom 1283]

The Olympics live on NBC at 2 am. Couldn't get any better than this.

I'm 95% sure almost everyone has #NBCfail at the ready at this point.

[NEOMatrix 1299]

Bumping because The days of NBC tape delay are finally over.

I'm hoping this means the end of those sob stories before an event begins too.

[Journalist 894]

I'm hoping this means the end of those sob stories before an event begins too.

That's inevitable. Those are staples of NBC, like sponsor billboards and ridiculously overdone graphics.

 

Who knows what they'll pull next? Telling us that we're watching in 5.1 SURROUND sound?

 

 

Gah!

[rkolsen 1684]

That's inevitable. Those are staples of NBC, like sponsor billboards and ridiculously overdone graphics.

 

Who knows what they'll pull next? Telling us that we're watching in 5.1 SURROUND sound?

 

 

Gah!

 

That's always driven me crazy. 5.1 is expected for all except news.

[David Salter JR 66]

didn't nbc carry the 1988 summer olympics live at 2am?

[ToriElectra 292]

Here's hoping they don't make us try to pay for additional coverage, though- they tried that in 92 with the Triplecast (as a co-venture with Cablevision), and that was just a bomb all around.

[LoadStar 364]

Here's hoping they don't make us try to pay for additional coverage, though- they tried that in 92 with the Triplecast (as a co-venture with Cablevision), and that was just a bomb all around.

I remember that... the "Red", "White", and "Blue" channels, if I remember correctly.

[Eat News 4745]

I remember that... the "Red", "White", and "Blue" channels, if I remember correctly.

 

I love those colors...

They remind me of the America I love, and still believe in.

(I should write those facebook sayings)

[Georgie56 3307]

The OBS Pyeongchang graphics look like a darker version of Rio’s.

[Journalist 894]

The OBS Pyeongchang graphics look like a darker version of Rio’s.

 

In typical fashion, the OBS transition to PowerPoint 2010 continues...

 

Vizrt and ChyronHego couldn't handle today's technical advancements of small capped Arial Narrow, obviously.

[Newstudent 43]

Note that Mike Tirico has moved out of the giant studio that looked like an ice fortress and into a much smaller studio with windows over looking the ski slopes and a familiar fireplace