Telemundo Deportes, the Spanish-language home of the Tokyo Olympics in the US, has taken the wraps off its first multi-camera virtual reality set that’s serving as one of the studio homes of Telemundo’s extensive Olympics coverage. The new set, along with a fully revamped sports studio, complements the extensive production that originates from Tokyo, providing viewers with an immersive experience during the Games.
The Tokyo Olympics VR studio, fully developed in-house by Telemundo’s virtual production services (VPS) team, features three cameras, augmented reality capabilities, live graphics and custom interfaces to help the production team to go on air. The technology used also features a unique innovation in the way the directors and cameras work on the virtual sets: instead of moving the cameras, the team can rotate the virtual set to be more efficient with the green screen to get all the angles as if it was a regular studio set.
Telemundo Deportes’ main set has been fully revamped with Tokyo Olympics themed elements including lighting, graphics and augmented reality capabilities. The AR graphics will be shown as a Parallax effect into the big LED wall. All this new technology has been integrated with the regular sports graphics workflow.
Telemundo Deportes’ live coverage from Tokyo originates from a standing position featuring views of Tokyo’s iconic Olympic stadium that serves as the home of the opening and closing ceremonies. In addition, select soccer matches are being called from stadiums across Japan for both the men and women’s soccer tournaments.
“We are proud of the work our production and operations teams have done to embrace technology with the new VR set. We continue to leverage Telemundo Center’s resources in our coverage of big live events like the Olympics to complement the on-site production, delivering audiences the highest quality viewing experience.”
— Eli Velazquez, Telemundo Deportes
Close to 250 Telemundo personnel from production, technical and operations teams are working around the clock between Tokyo and Telemundo Center in Miami to provide viewers with authentic coverage of the Games. Ana Jurka and Miguel Gurwitz are anchoring coverage from Tokyo.
Also from Japan, Andres Cantor and Manuel Sol are calling select soccer matches, joined by a crew reporting live from the venues. There are also three additional production crews across the host city, to bring the Olympic experience in Japan to all viewers across all platforms.
More than 25 on-air talent, experts and Olympians are covering all angles of the Tokyo Olympics live from Telemundo Center. The team is led by Telemundo Deportes’ host of Boxeo Telemundo and TYM, Karim Mendiburu, and Al Rojo Vivo’s Jessica Carrillo who is anchoring Telemundo’s recap show airing every weekday at 1 p.m. ET/PT.
Universo’s live coverage is anchored by journalists Diana Rincon while the soccer competitions are led by the commentary and analysis of Telemundo Deportes’ Mexican goal scorer Carlos Hermosillo and renowned commentators Copan Alvarez, Sammy Sadovnik and Eduardo Biscayart.
“We are proud of the work our production and operations teams have done to embrace technology with the new VR set,” said Eli Velazquez, executive vice president of content for Telemundo Deportes. “We continue to leverage Telemundo Center’s resources in our coverage of big live events like the Olympics to complement the on-site production, delivering audiences the highest quality viewing experience.”
A division of NBC Sports Group, NBC Olympics is responsible for producing, programming and promoting NBCUniversal’s Olympic coverage. It is renowned for its Olympic heritage, award-winning production, and ability to aggregate the largest audiences in US television history.
Telemundo Deportes is also America’s home of the Olympic Games through 2032. For the first time in 20 years, since the 1996 Atlanta Games, the Summer Olympic Games were in the Western Hemisphere for Rio 2016.
The favorable time zone allowed for live coverage on all nine NBCUniversal Olympic networks. With a live Games, NBCU had the ability to expand its already vast coverage plan and give viewers the ability to curate their own Olympic viewing experience.
On Telemundo and Universo, Olympic coverage showcased the world’s best Hispanic athletes and teams, live, at the first games ever held in South America. With events like men’s and women’s soccer, indoor and beach volleyball, swimming, basketball, athletics and more, NBCU’s Hispanic networks and digital platforms produced more Olympic hours than ever before, bringing the stories of these athletes and the Rio Games.
Telemundo and Universo’s exclusive multiplatform coverage of the Rio Olympics reached 16.6 million total viewers and eight million adults 18 to 49 who tuned-in to watch the 278 hours of Olympic programming in Spanish-language, according to Nielsen.
The 500,000 square foot Telemundo Center facility on 21 acres in Miami integrates under one roof all Telemundo’s offices, broadcast and production operations including Telemundo Network, Telemundo Deportes, Noticias Telemundo, Telemundo Global Studios, Universo channel, Telemundo’s digital media operations and NBCUniversal Group’s Latin American offices.
