SVG Sit-Down: RWS Global’s Kim Henshaw, Scott Horton Reflect on the In-Venue Experience of the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics in Paris

More than 700 staffers drive in-stadium productions of 54 sports in 37 venues

Since the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, RWS Global — a production and entertainment company at the center of international sporting events, live performances, and more — has been responsible for the in-venue activations and overall fan experience in the host nation. With the eyes of the world set on the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics in Paris, their onsite team of 450 French staffers as well as support from afar helped create a magical environment for spectators of all 54 sports within 37 venues across the City of Light and France this past summer.

This included generating over 7,000 hours of in-venue content created, curating and programming more than 2,000 music tracks, arranging more than 40 new and original compositions to compile the ‘Symphony of Sport’ project, hosting 878 victory ceremonies that distributed over 4,700 medals, delivering 12,415 headshots graphics of athletes, and leveraging the power of their PV4 integrated software system with 70 operators, sports producers, content programmers and global support staff.

SVG sat down with RWS Global’s EVP, Sports Business Operations, Kim Henshaw, and RWS Global Sports’ EVP Scott Horton to discuss the process of planning and executing the in-venue portion of Paris 2024, how the in-stadium entertainment of this competition compares to the other global sports tournaments that they’re involved in, and how technology has evolved since their first Olympic Games.

More than 700 staffers drive in-stadium productions of 54 sports in 37 venues.

What were your responsibilities in Paris and how does the multi-sport nature of these Games make your job different?
Horton: We were responsible for a huge footprint and a massive team that we needed to build across the Olympics and Paralympics. We work very closely with the organizing committee to ensure that the number of venues had consistency with our delivery and would allow fans to know that they were at the Olympics no matter what stadium or arena they were in. This included our branding, messaging, music, flavor, and experience was of high quality and synced together but most importantly, we wanted the spectators to have fun. We needed our presentation to be neutral, but also have fans understand what’s going on if it was their first time watching a particular sport.

Henshaw: There’s a big differentiator between productions for a franchise and producing for an Olympic Games. When you go to a specific team’s stadium, their fans understand the rules of the game, know how gameday works, and are ready to be entertained. For a major multi-sports competition like the Olympics, these games are in a one-off location with new and different variables. Fans want to be a part of this global celebration but may not know the intricacies of a sport like fencing. Our job is to find that balance between entertainment and fan engagement while also educating these new fans in a way that’s easy to digest.

Can you take us back to the pre-planning phase and what it’s like working with the International Olympic Committee (IOC)?
Horton: We had a very short lead in, which made it difficult, but we luckily have the team and experience to get going right when we signed the contract. We embedded our producers and project managers at the LOC (Local Organizing Committee) and worked with their presentation department. We have what we call cluster managers, split them up amongst their dedicated sports, talk through the protocol of each event, and build our show around those parameters. In line with the Creative Strategy of the LOC, we intertwined these creative elements into each of the individual sports. . With a bunch of Functional areas within the organizing committee, we had to integrate [our staff] into venue management, broadcast, logistics, marketing, brand management, and other departments as well. For example, the area for 3×3 Basketball at La Concorde needed to transition into Breaking. We needed to prepare our technology and plan with both sports in advance to schedule rehearsal time and do the appropriate tech checks. It’s a very big program with a lot of things to juggle.

How did the team adapt to last minute changes in Paris?
Henshaw: One of the things that RWS Global Sports is an expert at is mobilizing teams into foreign environments and creating an entire show on the run. We have our own content creating teams that are producing all of the graphics that go on the numerous LED displays in each stadium. With venues having their own challenges and specific deliverables, being flexible and adaptable is a specialty of ours. From the IOC and broadcast teams to every international federation wanting their athletes to be presented in the best way possible, there are so many stakeholders at an Olympic Games. You also have to add in difficult working situations that may come up like ordinary day-to-day challenges and getting production teams to and from different venues when transport isn’t running properly. Those were operational challenges, but we were also tasked with executing a synchronized light show for the 100-meter final. This was decided less than a week away from the race, so we had to program the show on the fly, get thousands of light-up wristbands delivered to the stadium, and distribute them to the spectators as they entered into the stadium.

How were productions at venues with multiple events, like various games of Rugby Sevens or simultaneous Track & Field events at Stade de France, stitched together to create one cohesive show?
Horton: It’s a very good point because these events taking place in the same stadium are produced differently. There’s one broadcast feed for Rugby Sevens but five broadcast feeds of the various events going on in Track & Field. We have to get in sync with [these broadcast feeds] and w ork together , so our show callers and production team in the control room are communicating with competition management. This helps with understanding the timing of each individual event and knowing if something needs to be held up. If there’s a false start on a race, we’ll have time to update on a field event as that race gets reset. It’s a high-intense environment, but it’s important to have a lot of experience in Track & Field, being comfortable with pacing, and being ready to react when something happens.

Why was important to learn from the Olympics to finetune productions for the Paralympics two and a half weeks later?
Henshaw: The first two weeks of the Olympics is the most pressurized period because all of the venues are rolling out with new teams for the first time and everyone’s finding their rhythm. Because of the length of events, our teams can be onsite anywhere from 12 to 18 hours per day, so we needed to put in proper rest periods so that they’re ready to go when the Paralympics start. I’m never going to say that it’s easy going from Olympics to Paralympics, but we have our legs under us. It’s not always the same production teams on both events, but we try to maintain consistency and knowledge of events from one competition to the other since everyone is already rehearsed. Since we’re familiar with each venue, it also allows us to be more creative with our productions and have more fun with the audience.

When does planning for the next Olympic Games begin?
Horton: It depends on the host nation’s organizing committee and their procurement process. It should really be a minimum of 24 months, but with each individual sport growing in popularity, it’s imperative that we produce each in-venue show above World Championship level. In order for these shows to run smoothly, we believe that the sooner the better to get some planning in place.

RWS Global’s PV4 platform streamlined operations in Paris.

Paris 2024 had permanent venues, but other competitions that you’re involved in like the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, had a temporary venue in Nassau County International Cricket Stadium. How do those production responsibilities compare to an Olympics?
Horton: There’s some venues that are done from scratch and we’ll have to bring everything in and there are others where there’s a pre-existing infrastructure and we’ll augment it with our own systems and content playback. For the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, we managed all venues with five teams and moved around since there were venues in both USA & the West Indies. For the Rugby World Cup, it’s a bit bigger again since there are usually 12 venues across an entire country.

How does your proprietary PV4 technology help with these large-scale shows?
Horton: It’s a unique and specialized system, and it’s enabled us to reduce the number of operators to one or two in these venues. The cost savings across the Olympics were significant and the output was exactly the same as [the control room setups] that go into stadiums. It’s a nonlinear system, which is very important in what we do since we need to react extremely quickly. We’re able to bring it to different venues and replicate the production across the board, so shows will be the same no matter what tech infrastructure it has. We also had a central operation center in the IBC in Paris, so we had connections to every venue and every presentation manager, including a backup system if there was a delay/ issue [at the stadium] and we needed to take over the screen from the IBC.

Henshaw: Since it’s a cloud-based programming tool, we can update content and control distribution from anywhere with a single operator. It’s an exciting piece that we have under the RWS Global Sports banner, and there’ll be a lot more growth and development for that along the way.

Can you describe the evolution of technology since RWS Global’s first Olympics in 2000?
Henshaw: Back in Sydney, we were printing CDs and putting video on cassette tapes. When we’ve got something like 4,000 to 6,000 music tracks to play inside the venues and duplicate sets of each tape, that’s a lot of physical elements to keep track of. Technology has undergone a massive improvement where packages can be put together overnight and distribute everywhere with ease.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.