Behind the scenes of broadcasting the Paris 2024 Olympics (2024)

A look behind the scenes at what is involved in producing a massive 11000 hours of content from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Summary

• This is the age of the streaming Olympics, with digital consumption growing fast
• Over 1000 cameras will be used to capture 11,000 hours of content
• Paris 2024 is being produced entirely in 4K UHD HDR and 5.1.4 immersive audio
• There are challenges in ensuring streams reach everyone and protecting content from piracy as the live streaming of all events move behind paywalls

The Opening Ceremony

If we know anything after the opening weekend of the Paris 2024 Olympics, it is that broadcast equipment is very good in the rain. While the commentator’s microphones were almost drowned out at several points by the noise of the deluge, the pictures never stopped streaming from Paris to the hundreds of millions watching worldwide.

Reaching a global audience

Viewing figures are, of course, still coming in. But in the US, NBC’s coverage of the Opening Ceremony was watched by ten million more viewers than watched the one from Tokyo 2020, peaking at 28.6 million. NBC said it was the most watched Olympics Opening Ceremony since London 2012, which drew in 40.7 million viewers.

How much of this content the different rights holding broadcasters will show depends on the individual rights packages and their own business models.Looking across the world’s broadcasters, where possible, most are trying to run two channels (often one linear and one digital) with approximately 12 hours of daily coverage on each. This enables broadcasters to show most medal events live, though inevitably there will be schedule conflicts, especially if they are trying to focus on athletes representing their individual nations.

Some, like NBCUniversal in the US, and Discovery+ across Europe, have the rights to show everything from the Games and have set up the back end to do so. NBCU is featuring curated live coverage on NBC network, with all 329 medal events streaming on Peacock, and more coverage on cable networks. Discovery+ promises 55 live channel feeds as well as coverage on Eurosport 1 & 2 and seven special pop-up channels focusing on specific areas.

Producing the content

Though not all broadcasters will carry it, Paris 2024 will be produced entirely in 4K UHD HDR and 5.1.4 immersive audio. It takes a lot of resources to do this, namely:

• Over 1000 cameras
• 3800 microphones
• 47 production units
• 70 production galleries
• 8300 games personnel

As ever with the Olympics there is also plenty of innovation on show. OBS has been developing a range of new AI assists for its coverage, including multi-camera replay systems, athlete and object tracking, and automated highlights generation. There are also more drones and sky cams than ever before, and while 5G is being used for some POV cameras, there is some limited 8K being produced from the Opening ceremony and a few other events, including an increasing use of cinematic lenses with a shallow depth of field to make shots such as athlete close-ups really jump off the screen.

Impressively, the OBS is doing all this with a deep commitment to sustainability. A move to cloud-based production has helped make the International Broadcast Center 13% smaller than the previous Games. It will also use 44% less power. Elsewhere, OBS is making sure the next generation of TV professionals will get invaluable experience with 1,300 students working on the Games. And it is paying close attention to gender equality. This includes efforts to increase the number of women in the venue production teams, especially in roles that originate images, which the organisation hopes will lead to more equal portrayal.

An Olympian effort

The Paris 2024 Summer Games and the Paralympics that will follow closely after, are going to be the biggest Olympics yet. And they highlight the move towards streaming live events that is happening worldwide. OBS has reserved over 4.2 Tbps (Terabits per second) outgoing capacity to make sure the streams get properly to everyone who wants to view them. There are going to be definite challenges in ensuring that happens and that CDNs around the world can cope, especially at peak times one the athletics starts such as the 100m sprints.

There are also challenges in other areas that we traditionally talk about when it comes to large sporting events. As the Games, and especially the live streaming of all the events, moves away from free-to-air broadcasters and heads behind paywalls, so there will be a new emphasis on protecting that content from piracy. This is a subject we will return to in a few weeks.

Main pic: ©IOC