NBC Olympics plans 4K content for Rio 2016


Details

Gabriel Miramar-Garcia

| 29 May 2016




NBC Olympics will distribute portions of its Rio Olympics coverage in 4K/Ultra HD to cable, satellite, telco providers and other partners.



rio“The Olympics have been a consistent driver of technological advancements, and Rio will be no different,” said Gary Zenkel, president, NBC Olympics. “The stunning backdrop of Rio combined with the world-class competition of the Olympics will give the American audience a spectacular early look at this impressive new technology.”

The 4KTV feed, which will be down-converted from the original 8K feed produced by Olympic Broadcast Services (OBS) and Japan’s NHK, will be available on one-day delay. The plans are to offer one event from the previous day’s competition, including the opening and closing ceremonies, swimming, track and field, basketball, the men’s football final and judo, as well as Rio scenics.

Also, the coverage of the opening ceremony will include high dynamic range (HDR).

“Since the London Games, OBS and NHK have been working together, experimenting on the future standard of 8K,” added OBS CEO Yiannis Exarchos.

“Substantial recent technological advancements have allowed us to pursue this opportunity further for the Rio Games and to offer a 4K feed for a number of sports, down-converted from the original 8K, to NBC and other interested rights-holding broadcasters around the globe.”

NBC Olympics is embracing new video models in other ways too. It recently announced that it and Snapchat will partner to present what they say will be ‘unique’ perspectives from this summer’s 2016 Rio Olympics and the US Olympic Team Trials.

The plans include daily Snapchat Live Stories and an NBC Rio Olympic Discover channel. Both the Live Story experiences and Discover channel will be available to Snapchatters in the US for the two weeks around the Games.

NBC Olympics will co-produce the NBC Rio Olympic Discover channel with Buzzfeed, a regular contributor to both the Snapchat Discover platform and NBC’s content projects.