TOKYO OLYMPIC GAMES: NBC
NBC Olympics Team Discusses How HDR Made Leap to Primetime
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ollowing the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games, the NBC Olympics team had one goal: to make the move to IP, UHD, and HDR. Initially, HDR would take a back seat, primarily existing in a shadow cut of the HD show. But then the pandemic came, delaying the Summer Games, and closing the development gap with the 2022 Beijing Games. “When we realized that we only had six months between the Tokyo Closing Ceremony and the Beijing Opening Ceremony, we realized that whatever we did here we would have to do there and that would mean missing out on HDR,” said Dave Mazza, SVP/CTO, NBC Sports Group and NBC Olympics. “So, we said, let’s pretend IP was already a raging success and also focus on UHD and HDR.” The result was a massive effort at the IBC in Tokyo and back home in Stamford around 1080p and HDR production for primetime, golf coverage, and Olympic Channel linear content. It also required new developments to serve both HDR and SDR viewers without compromise. First, OBS committed to producing every event in UHD and HDR. Mazza credited OBS for undertaking the Herculean effort to find 65 UHD flypacks and mobile units, let alone get them to Tokyo. “I don’t know how they did it and got all of that working in true 4K HDR,” said Mazza. “But our 1080p HDR production layer would not have been possible if OBS had not made the shift to HDR. And intermixing the OBS cams with our 1080p cameras is very seamless.” Many of the Olympic productions involve a mix of OBS UHD feeds as well as NBC unilateral cameras. It’s up to Chip Adams, NBC Olympics, VP, Venue Engineering, and the teams at each venue to bring all this
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SPORTSTECHJOURNAL / FALL 2021
From left: Dave Mazza, Todd Donovan, Michael Drazin, and Darryl Jefferson in front of the UHD/HDR demo area at NBC’s IBC facility. together. For example, at Athletics, the team takes UHD HDR split feeds from OBS, converts them to 1080p HDR, and integrates them into NBC’s unilateral cameras running in 1080p HDR. “That’s a pretty easy transition because it is just resolution, there are no look up tables (LUTs) needed,” said Adams. “We also take the OBS high speed cameras as 1080p SDR and [convert] them to HDR where we normalize them as HLG along with everything else. So that’s been very successful as working in one format is a lot easier than working in three. The NBC Tokyo trucks, flypacks, and edits are primarily working in 1080p HDR.” At the Tokyo IBC, NBC’s workflow requires taking the 4K HDR feed from OBS and down converting it to 1080p as the plant is built for 1080p HDR. NBC also sends a 1080i SDR signal to the broadcast center back in Stamford as the Stamford plant is in the process of transitioning 1080p HDR capable, but not there yet. “Due to the many production enhancements, the sheer quantity of feeds to the U.S. (221 feed to the States and 101 coming back to Tokyo), and replay and super mo servers, file-based workflows, RF links, etc.,” continued Adams, “it was not feasible for us to do 4K at the scale of an Olympics.” So, NBC elected to not reduce the overall storytelling ability simply for the sake of a resolution number. “The overall picture quality through the entire chain is not only about continued on page 26 resolution,” said Mazza.
