Right now, OBS has crew and helicopters cabling the mountainous venues for the Winter Olympics which is set to begin on 6 February 2026. Milano Cortina marks the first Winter Games post-COVID, following Beijing 2022.
In his presentation, Duarte said Beijing was a very hard situation in which to work for the OBS team, and welcomed the prospect of operating his audio side of the massive operation this coming Games without restrictions.
OBS is working out of five key clusters across Italy, which is making this Games a huge remote operation. Duarte said that over the past four years improvements in remote production technology has greatly accelerated, which means that despite the logistical issues of working over such a wide area away from the IBC in Milan, it will be achievable.
OBS’ Winter Olympics 2026 broadcast plans in numbers (STC)
Broadcast hours:
- 6,500+ hours of content provided by OBS to media rights holders (+8.3% more than Beijing 2022)
- 900+ hours of live sports and ceremonies
- 5,450+ hours of additional content
Video, audio and radio feeds:
- 20 UHD contribution multilateral feeds
- 17 multi clip feeds
- 44 HD distribution feeds
- 44 UHD distribution feeds
Cameras and microphones:
- 770+ camera systems
- 12 live beauty cameras
- 1,800+ microphones
Production units:
- 20 production units, of which three are virtualised OB vans
- 25 production galleries
Footprint:
- 27,000 square metres IBC net broadcast area (-25% less than Beijing 2022)
- 60,702 square metres total broadcast compound space at sports coverage venues (-16% less than Beijing 2022)
- 4,000 KVA total IBC power request (-33% less than Beijing 2022)
- 8,200+ KVA total competition venues power request (-25% less than Beijing 2022)
Host broadcast workforce (estimated):
- 5,000+ OBS Games-time personnel
- 90+ countries represented in personnel
- 650 paid positions for Broadcast Training Programme (BTP) students
Connectivity:
- 1Tbps aggregated capacity connecting the IBC with Pops (corresponds to ~70% of the current peak of the Milan internet exchange)
- 200Gbps internet at IBC and venues (2.5x more than Beijing 2022)
- 3 PoPs (Paris, Frankfurt, Milan)
Media rights holders:
- 14 media rights holders
- 71+ media organisations
Duarte drew attention in particular to the fact that while there is set to be over 8.3% more hours of content from the Winter Games, the IBC will be 25% smaller than in Beijing, there will be 16% less broadcast compound space at the sports venues, and there will be significantly less power being used.
“That’s what we’re talking about,” he said. “There is another number that isn’t here, that is time to set up everything. We have much less time to set up all the systems on the venues and that is having a big impact on all of us,” Duarte added.
Immersive audio is a standard for OBS, along with a total IP infrastructure. There will be a lot of new people working for OBS on immersive audio, and Duarte is excited to work with them. The immersive audio and the IP will be invisible in many ways to rights holders, with hidden microphones and everything simply working on the day.
NBC’s Winter Olympics
Karl Malone then took the stage. Malone said the network has 19 million viewers watching the Olympics on its primetime show, and they are ready to pull off a spectacular Winter Games following off the back of Paris 2024.
On audio for Milano Cortina, Malone said that for audio, “Winter Games are a little bit better [for audio] because everyone loves the sound of snow and ice”.
NBC will be on air for the Winter Olympics on 4 February, with the Opening Ceremony on the 6 February. However, the broadcaster is also producing one of its biggest home events – Superbowl Sunday – taking place on 8 February, which is going to tax its resources somewhat. Yet Malone said the broadcaster is ready to take on the challenge.
NBC will be working from 14 venues over seven locations:
Milan: Opening Ceremony, figure skating and short track, speed skating, hockey x2
Cortina: Women’s alpine, curling, sliding
Valtellina: Snowboard and freestyle (Livigno x2), men’s alpine and ski mountaineering (Bormio)
Val di Fiemme: Cross country, ski jumping
Anterselva: Biathlon
Verona: Closing Ceremony
Cortina d’Ampezzo: Sliding
Malone pointed out that some of the venues are six or seven hours apart from each other, however what they lack in easy logistics, they gain in spectacular scenery.
NBC’s coverage will consist of:
Primetime in Milan: 8pm-11pm across the US with three hour long special glossy magazine shows with 19 million to 20 million viewers expected nightly.
NBC: Live competition throughout every day of the Games.
Peacock: Every event will be available to watch on the Peacock streaming service.
USA Network and CNBC: NBC takes over the two networks during the Games. CNBC will show the popular sport of curling.
Peacock and Goldzone: Live coverage mixed with a curated studio show moving from live event to live event.
NBC will have commentators on site for many of the events, as well as more working off-tube in the US for some sports that are not as high profile in the US. However, reporters will be on site for those events.
Malone added that there will be some collaborative commentating going on, with one off-tube commentator in the US and another on site. “Sometimes we do this collaborative off-tube, where you have one commentator in Stanford, Connecticut, which is where our base is, and another commentator in Milan or up in the mountains, and once again with the speed of light they can both commentate as if they’re sitting beside each other, and that sounds scary but we’ve done it so many times,” he said.
Everything for the NBC coverage of Milano Cortina will be carried out as a remote production in 2110, 1080p HDR and immersive audio. NBC does not mix Atmos on site, said Malone. All the A1s will mix in 5:1 and they will then pass all the height microphones – microphones used to capture the vertical dimension of sound for immersive or 3D audio recording – back to Stanford, Connecticut. The main A1 there will do the Atmos mix for the coverage.
Malone went into depth on the entire audio workflow and technologies being used, as well as a lot more, including the challenges of mic’ing up athletes for audio and effects.
Malone and Duarte then sat down with SVG Europe Audio’s Roger Charlesworth about how OBS is going to support the audio team throughout the event, to challenges being faced and future trends.
Watch it!
You can watch a video recording of the session featuring Nuno Duarte and Karl Malone. Viewing is free, but registration is required. Go here to get (almost) instant access: Sports Audio Summit 2025.
