With the 2016 Paralympic Games just complete in Rio, we can say goodbye to another cycle of the world’s biggest sporting event. The 31st Olympiad in Rio saw not only great sporting achievements dominated by the exploits of athletes like Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt…but also in technology and broadcasting.
When it comes to NBC, the American Olympic broadcaster chose to tackle the games slightly differently than perhaps in the past with the addition and expansion of remote broadcasting…using the house feed produced by Brazil and overlaying their own announcers from a closet-sized studio in Connecticut. Tom Hoffarth with the Orange County Register took a look at this practice and just why stations may be moving in this direction.
The secret isn’t dirty, nor is it very little. It may not be all that secretive, even if the viewer isn’t always in tune with it.
But the fact that about half of all the 6,700-plus hours generated by NBC and its platforms during its 19 days of Summer Olympics coverage are being delivered by broadcasters and technicians in a super-sized studio in Stamford, Conn., instead of onsite in Rio de Janeiro, shouldn’t raise a red flag as much as it reveals this being a sign of the times as well as a road map to the future of sports coverage.
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