Live from London: NBC Olympics tennis coverage enlists Visions OB10
David Storey says NBC Olympics tennis coverage feels very similar, abeit scaled down, to Wimbledon coverage.
NBC Sports is once again onsite at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club for coverage of Olympic tennis, and NEP Visions is once again supplying OB units for NBC’s presence at the home of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships.
“It feels very similar,” says David Storey, who is venue technical manager for NBC Olympics tennis coverage. “We have our own cameras out on Centre Court and Court One and then we get the main feeds and iso cameras from OBS to cut our own show.”
The tennis coverage is airing live on Bravo in the U.S. for more than 8 hours a day, covering five courts of singles and doubles play.
The coverage is a bit scaled down from a Wimbledon Championship, with NBC only having one unilateral camera position at the net and then cameras for the announcers and ENG crews.
“It gives director Jason Wald a bit of a different cut,” says Storey of the camera at the net.
NEP Visions HD10 OB unit is being used by NBC for Olympic Tennis.
One major change from the way the Olympics tennis event is run versus the Wimbledon Championship is there are a large number of commentary positions that have been placed in the stands. The Wimbledon Championships have broadcast booths located at the top of the stadium and also the famous commentary position located right next to the scoreboard that was home to NBC talent for decades.
“NBC was originally assigned commentary position 12 but now they are in the same commentary studio that they have always been in,” adds Storey.
Another change is there is only five courts of action, and in the early days of the tournament that meant that great players who would typically only appear on Centre Court or Court One could be on a smaller court. NBC Olympics relies strictly on the OBS multilateral feed for those courts and they are only covered with four cameras. NBC Olympics commentary for those courts is done off tube from within the AELTC Broadcast Centre.
“That separate booth is used pretty extensively,” adds Storey.
