Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Live from Rio: David Mazza Discues How NBC Olympics Team Finds Games Groove

12/08/2016

The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio are now in day six and historically for NBC Olympics that means that the team is just now settling into its grove as the sheer amount of moving parts that have to be put through their paces at the IBC and the venues settle into place. But this year's effort has been a bit different thanks to a combination of pre-planning, contingency workflows, and, perhaps most of all, veteran leadership. This is the hardest games we have done to date and has been the most challenging effort before an Opening Ceremony we have had anywhere, says David Mazza, NBC Sports Group and NBC Olympics SVP and CTO.

Dave Mazza says the NBC Olympics production team was able to get to full speed quicker than usual this year.

Ironically, Mazza quickly adds that as difficult as it was getting things in line for the Opening Ceremony, the entire operation was able to smooth out any of the typical early kinks a full day and a half earlier than usual.

It smoothed out much sooner than in recent history as by 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon things were going well, says Mazza. So right now we're quite happy.

The build out at the IBC was also smoother than it has been in the past six Olympics as Mazza credits OBS's decision to put a huge amount of time, effort, and money into building a transportable wall system.

We reaped the benefit big time as it was the first time in a long time that we arrived on the date we were supposed to with our racks and wiring and the IBC was ready, says Mazza. The walls were up, it was clean, and there was no dust so we only had to worry about our own stuff and not the walls or power that wasn't installed. So that's a huge credit to OBS.

The steps taken by OBS were complemented by NBC Olympics' veteran leadership and experience the NBC Olympics team has built over the years. First, the team knew there might be possible logistical and power delays that could cause some hiccups in the weeks ahead of the games.

We did a lot of pre-fabrication and testing in the U.S. so that when equipment arrived here it was ready to go, says Mazza.

But most importantly, the team is ready for just about anything as they pretty much have experienced everything over the years. The veteran leadership has made a big difference on the 25 productions that typically have smaller crews and require problems to be solved via creativity and innovation.

I couldn't be happier with where we are and it's a testament to the team that we are fortunate enough to have assembled, that even as the complexity of the show grows each games, they all grasped the changes and things smoothed out quickly, says Mazza.

And we're lucky enough to bring back many of the same ops/engineering folks that are familiar with the many weird ways that we have had to invent in order to cover the small venues.

Veteran leadership also meant the team was well versed in the possible challenges related to logistics, power, and even venue and IBC design that can trip up any production at any time.

One of those emergency situations happened on the second day of the Olympics when one of the two power generators at the Beach Volleyball venue on Copacabana Beach went down prior to primetime coverage. The NBC unilateral operation had to run off of one generator until a new one was allowed to be brought in at 3 a.m. and up and running a couple hours later.

We had to get through primetime so we sent some tieline codecs out there so that if the generator failed we could get the commentary from the announce booth back to the IBC and then drop it on top of the host video feed from the venue, says Mazza.

Flipping the Switch

Mazza says the days leading up to the Opening Ceremony can be terrifying at times because only 10 days prior to the start of action, not a single of NBC's remote production units was on site. And while that was the plan, it still doesn't mean waiting is not without its own set of stress.

The NBC Olympics Broadcast Operations Center is a beehive of activity all day long.

The IBC was running happily and everything was all pre-staged and ready to deploy, but with the trucks not there till so late it still is very unnerving, says Mazza. And then as you go into the countdown of that week there is a massive amount of activity getting the trucks up and running at the venues.

The stress was compounded prior to the start of the Games when the one of the primary 10 Gbps circuit to the U.S. was rerouted adding some more latency to the signal as well as noise.

And then the next morning the B and C circuits went out an hour before the Today Show was going on air, recalls Mazza. So things like the trucks arriving and access to the venues can be nerve wracking, while things like the 10 Gbps circuits disappearing can be terrifying.

The Live Advantage

It's been more than 20 years since an Olympic Games has lined up time zone wise with the East Coast of the United States and that means that there is plenty of truly live production being offered up by the NBC Olympics team. And that is just the way Mazza likes it.

Everybody in our industry performs better when you're live because that's what everyone is used to and you know you only have one shot to get it right, he explains. And like anything in life, if you have the option to redo something then it causes people to rethink, change their mind, and be overly critical. So live is better on all fronts as you don't have hours and hours to re-edit, rethink, and readjust. You obviously can't control the flow of the show as well, but everyone in our business performs better live. It's more fun reacting to live stuff.

That isn't to say that there isn't plenty of editing still being done in Rio and back home in Stamford. Every edit system is performing at peak output creating n
LINK: http://www.sportsvideo.org/2016/08/12/live-from-rio-david-mazza-discus...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

13/03/2025

Evolving EO/IR Technology For All-Domain Airborne Law Enforcement

Every time airborne law enforcement (ALE) teams fly, they expect their equipment to perform. Whether airborne units are conducting support for ground teams, bor...

13/03/2025

Craft Interview: Jamie McCombs, Audio Consultant / Sr. Audio

Sunday February 9 saw the annual return of the US' biggest television event, the Super Bowl LIX. Jamie McCombs, Fox Sports Audio Consultant / Sr. Audio capt...

13/03/2025

Craft Interview: Paul Sandweiss, Production Sound Mixer/Audio Director

On Sunday March 2, stars across the film industry gathered at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles for the 97th Academy Awards. Production Sound Mixer Paul Sandweis...

13/03/2025

Riedel To Showcase New StageLink Smart Edge Devices At 2025 NAB Show

WUPPERTAL, Germany Riedel Communications will feature its new StageLink family of smart edge devices, Smart Audio and Mixing Engine (SAME) and Virtual Smart Pan...

13/03/2025

TAG Video Systems and Harmonic Partner to Deliver Enhanced Real-Time Monitoring for VOS360 Streaming Workflows at the 2025 NAB Show

TAG Video Systems and Harmonic Partner to Deliver Enhanced Real-Time Monitoring ...

13/03/2025

DigitalGlue Invites NAB Visitors to Experience New Features in Managed Storage Platform that Empowers Video Teams to Scale Effortlessly

DigitalGlue Invites NAB Visitors to Experience New Features in Managed Storage P...

13/03/2025

FOR-A America Theme - Connecting the Present, Building the Future - Comes to Life at NAB 2025 Exhibition

FOR-A America Theme - Connecting the Present, Building the Future - Comes to Lif...

13/03/2025

Ajit Pai Appointed President of CTIA

CTIA, the wireless industry association, has named former FCC Chairman Aji Pai as its President and Chief Executive Officer, effective April 1. He replaces Mere...

13/03/2025

NAB: FCC's 60 Minutes Investigation Is Unconstitutional, Invalid

he National Association of Broadcasters is urging the FCC to end its investigation of that controversial CBS interview with Kamala Harris stating there is no ...

13/03/2025

CBS Miami to Launch AR Coverage of Weather and Sports for March Madness

MIAMI CBS News & Stations continues to expand its use of augmented and virtual reality technologies with the planned launch of an augmented reality/virtual real...

13/03/2025

Meet the co-founder and chief customer success & innovation officer

Srividhya Srinivasan, co-founder and chief customer success & innovation Officer at Amagi, tells TVBEurope how staying ahead of the latest trends is essential f...

13/03/2025

FCC Chairman Carr Launches Massive Deregulation Initiative

WASHINGTON FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the agency has launched a massive, new deregulatory initiative that could potentially subject virtually all ...

13/03/2025

SDVI Integrates Rally With Spectra Vail

SUNNYVALE, Calif. SDVI has announced that it has integrated its Rally media supply chain management platform with the Spectra Vail multi-cloud data management s...

13/03/2025

FCC Approves Gray's Acquisition of KXLT

ATLANTA Gray Media has announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted a waiver of its local ownership rules to permit Gray Media to acqu...

13/03/2025

NAB Show 2025 Exhibitor Insight: Blackmagic Design

TV Tech: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2025 NAB Show?...

13/03/2025

Watch Student Naomi Soleils Folk Pop Performance on The Voice

Watch Student Naomi Soleils Folk Pop Performance on The Voice The songwriting major sang Stars by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals during the blind auditions. ...

13/03/2025

The ICG Marketing Survey 2025

We asked the questions, analysed the answers and now we're excited to share the results of the fifth edition of the ICG Marketing Survey. Our 2025 survey p...

13/03/2025

Harmonic Amps Up Video Streaming Efficiency with New Origin Capabilities

SAN JOSE, Calif. - March 13, 2025 Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced a breakthrough in video streaming innovation with the launch of new origin capabilitie...

13/03/2025

Haivision Showcases Mission-Critical Video Solutions at SOF Week 2025

Haivision Showcases Mission-Critical Video Solutions at SOF Week 2025 Haivision's video wall systems, ISR technology, and DoDIN APL-certified video distri...

13/03/2025

FOR-A America Theme Connecting the Present, Building the Future Comes to Life at NAB 2025 Exhibition

Company Leads the Way with New Software-Based Production Platform, 12G Switcher,...

13/03/2025

2025-03-13

A new Apple Immersive concert experience, Metallica, is coming to Apple Vision Pro this Friday, March 14. Filmed in Mexico City during the sold-out second-year ...

13/03/2025

Italia 90 Republic of Ireland Squad, Riverdance, Cian Ducrot & B*Witched on Friday's Late Late Show

Here is your host, Patrick Kielty! Shake your Shamrocks, Patrick Kielty will be...

13/03/2025

RT Celebrating all things Irish this St. Patrick's Weekend

This St. Patrick's weekend, RT invites you to celebrate all things Irish, showcasing the very best of Irish sport, entertainment and live coverage from the...

13/03/2025

GTC 2025 - Announcements and Live Updates

What's next in AI is at GTC 2025. Not only the technology, but the people and ideas that are pushing AI forward - creating new opportunities, novel solution...

13/03/2025

T-Mobile, Thales and SIMPL ease IoT deployments with a flexible and secure connectivity solution

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn By combining T-Mobile's robust network, Thal...

13/03/2025

Relive the Magic as GeForce NOW Brings More Blizzard Gaming to the Cloud

Bundle up - GeForce NOW is bringing a flurry of Blizzard titles to its ever-expanding library. Prepare to weather epic gameplay in the cloud, tackling the genr...

13/03/2025

Gaming Goodness: NVIDIA Reveals Latest Neural Rendering and AI Advancements Supercharging Game Development at GDC 2025

AI is leveling up the world's most beloved games, as the latest advancements...

13/03/2025

Drop It Like It's Mod: Breathing New Life Into Classic Games With AI in NVIDIA RTX Remix

PC game modding is massive, with over 5 billion mods downloaded annually. Mods p...

12/03/2025

Como o Impacto Cultural e Financeiro da Indstria Musical Define Seu Sucesso em 2025

O Spotify acaba de lan ar o relat rio Loud & Clear deste ano, uma vis o transpar...

12/03/2025

Cmo el impacto cultural y financiero de la industria musical define su xito en 2025

Spotify acaba de presentar el informe Loud & Clear de este a o, una mirada trans...

12/03/2025

Nourish Mind, Body, and Soul This Ramadan With Spotify

Ramadan, a period of profound spiritual significance for Muslims worldwide, is a time for fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. Enrich your experience thi...

12/03/2025

How the Music Industry's Cultural and Financial Impact Define Its Success in 2025

Spotify has just unveiled this year's Loud & Clear report, a transparent loo...

12/03/2025

FAST now transcends back catalog content

More than 70% of FAST programming has been produced since 2010, according to new Gracenote report NEW YORK March 12, 2025 Gracenote, the content data busin...

12/03/2025

Viamedia Adopts ShowSeeker Pilot To Streamline Ad Workflows

GEONA, Nev. Independent digital and linear advertising rep firm Viamedia will adopt cloud-based ShowSeeker Pilot as its primary ad campaign and order management...

12/03/2025

Mediagenix Appoints Wael Yasin as Sales Director Central Europe

BRUSSELS Mediagenix has announced that Wael Yasin has joined the company as sales director Central Europe....

12/03/2025

Omdia: Global Online Consumer Expenditure to Hit $6.6 Trillion by 2029

LONDON A new study highlights opportunities for shoppable TV and the massive impact online consumer spending is having on the economy, with Omdia predicting tha...

12/03/2025

Comcast Technology Solutions Upgrades to Interra Systems BATON Version 9

CUPERTINO, Calif. Interra Systems has announced that Comcast Technology Solutions has integrated recent updates to BATON Version 9 into its operations....

12/03/2025

Nevion announces new 400G addition to its eMerge SDN media fabric offering

Nevion announces new 400G addition to its eMerge SDN media fabric offering Brie Clayton March 12, 2025 0 Comments High-capacity switch enhances existi...

12/03/2025

DaVinci Resolve Studio Delivers Cinematic Sound for Adam Bol

DaVinci Resolve Studio Delivers Cinematic Sound for Adam Bol Brie Clayton March 12, 2025 0 Comments Feature film relies on DaVinci Resolve Studio for ...

12/03/2025

SVT Leverages Ateliere Live to Pioneer 100% Software-Defined Production at Rally Sweden 2025

SVT Leverages Ateliere Live to Pioneer 100% Software-Defined Production at Rally...

12/03/2025

Berklee Awards Fenway Neighborhood Improvement Grant to Four Organizations

Berklee Awards Fenway Neighborhood Improvement Grant to Four Organizations A total of $17,000 will be distributed among the Boston-based nonprofits. By Madd...

12/03/2025

Offering a broad umbrella for IP standards

TVBEuropes Jenny Priestley sits down with new SMPTE president Richard Welsh to discuss his aims for the organisation going forward, its efforts to attract a you...

12/03/2025

Warner Bros Belgium takes a new approach to its post production workflows

The new process has significantly enhanced operational efficiencies, with automation freeing up creators to concentrate on higher value tasks By Matthew Corrig...

12/03/2025

Another VFX company suspends operations

Jellyfish Pictures, which has offices in London and Sheffield, said it has been battling hard in the face of strong headwinds over the last 12 months By Jenny ...

12/03/2025

Bitcentral to Showcase AI-Powered Innovations for Smarter...

Visit Booth #W2213 to Experience the Latest in AI-Driven Content Discovery and Workflow Automation Bitcentral, a leader in media workflow solutions, is set to ...

12/03/2025

Jeff Lilly Named WGN-TV Director Of Technology

CHICAGO Jeff Lilly has been named WGN-TV director of technology effective March 17, 2025, according to Ric Harris, WGN-TV vice president and general manager....

12/03/2025

Survey: Consumers Want More Shoppable TV Experiences

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. A new study from LG Ad Solutions indicates that consumers want more features that would allow them to shop for products on the connected T...

12/03/2025

IP Showcase To Focus On IP, Broadcast Tech Convergence at 2025 NAB Show

BOTHELL, Wash. The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the Video Services Forum (VSF) will once again present...

12/03/2025

Comcast Boosts Internet Speeds for More Than 20 Million Customers

PHILADELPHIA Comcast announced that it has upgraded Xfinity Internet speeds for more than 20 million customers for no additional cost....

12/03/2025

Create with Maxon: Cinema 4D Fundamentals Workshop - March 12-14

Create with Maxon: Cinema 4D Fundamentals Workshop - March 12-14 Brie Clayton March 11, 2025 0 Comments Makin' Waffles with Elly Wade During Marc...