Ready for Rio: how Dutch viewers will watch the Games

Building the NOS facility in Rio.

In common with most broadcasters, NOS (Nederlandse Omroep Stichting) in The Netherlands started planning its 2016 Olympic coverage shortly after the previous Winter games in 2014. “These Olympics will mark the 60th anniversary of our Olympic broadcasts,” reveals Monique Hamer, executive producer, NOS Sport. “We covered our first Olympic events in the 1956 Winter Olympics, which were held in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. This was followed in 1960 by our first broadcasts from the summer Olympic Games – also in Italy at Rome.”

She says that the Dutch broadcaster will have 35 people technical staff, three producers and two assistant-producers on site in Brazil. In addition, there will be two presenters, and a total of 29 commentators for both television and radio coverage. In all, there will be 118 NOS staff in Rio, while a further 150 will work 24/7 at the Hilversum base for the Olympic coverage.

Central to the NOS coverage is a studio that has been built at the Olympic Park in Rio. Hamer says there are no plans for remote production or to take any 4K feeds that may be available.

“We will also be using facilities within the International Broadcasting Centre that include a 180 square metres office, plus a master control room, two Avid edit suites and a video room (provided and operated by Broadcast Rental). All this will be manned by our own staff brought in from The Netherlands. Some of our material will be edited back in Hilversum. We have also shipped our own outside broadcast van which is provided by United Broadcast Facilities (UBF) based in Hilversum. Our ENG-crews are provided by Dutch division of NEP.”

That OB unit from United will be used by NOS for its coverage of matches in the hockey tournament to be held in the Deodoro Olympic Park. “We have been appointed as the Host Broadcaster for this particular activity at Rio 2016,” states Hamer.

She concludes: “The biggest challenge is always that you have to book the facilities, commentary positions, interview positions, and so on far in advance. At that stage you don’t know yet which Dutch athletes have qualified. But with just a few days to go, we are looking forward to providing Dutch viewers with the very best possible coverage.”