Interview with Production 360. Original article published here

The theme of this issue is outside broadcast (OB) and remote production (RP). How would you assess the general health of these markets at the present time? 

The market is healthy and evolving quickly. Demand for live content remains strong – particularly in sports – but broadcasters and rights holders are under increasing pressure to deliver more content across more platforms while keeping costs under control. 

Traditional OB remains essential, especially for premium productions and major international events where maximum onsite capability is required. What has changed is how the industry views remote production: it’s becoming a core part of modern live production rather than an alternative workflow.  

What I find particularly exciting is the move toward software-based remote production. More production workflows are shifting from fixed hardware to software-defined environments, creating new opportunities for scalability, flexibility and resource sharing. I expect that trend to continue. Software-based remote production will play a much bigger role, even for large international events that have traditionally relied on extensive onsite OB infrastructure. 

I don’t see traditional OB and remote production as competing models; I see a hybrid environment where the production model is determined by the specific needs of each event. 

The expansion of RP has been attributed to a variety of technical, economic and practical factors. From your perspective, why has RP grown so rapidly in recent years? 

Several factors have come together at the right time. Firstly, the technology has matured. Better IP connectivity, improved contribution links and lower latency have made remote workflows reliable enough for demanding live productions. 

The economic case is equally compelling. Broadcasters need to produce more content, but budgets aren’t growing at the same rate. Remote production allows them to scale far more efficiently. 

There’s also a people aspect. Skilled operators are valuable resources. Instead of spending time traveling between events, they can support multiple productions from centralized facilities. 

Software has probably been the biggest catalyst. As live production has moved from dedicated hardware to software-defined infrastructure, entirely new production models have become possible. For me, that’s where the real acceleration started. 

Remote production today has moved beyond saving costs to creating new ways of producing live content.  

There is huge pressure on broadcasters and service providers to make OB and RP more streamlined and cost-efficient. What steps has DMC taken in this regard? 

We’ve focused on removing inefficiencies without compromising production quality. One of the biggest steps has been investing in our new remote production vehicles, built around Grass Valley AMPP running on high-performance servers inside the trucks. That has changed how we think about mobile production. 

Instead of relying entirely on fixed-function hardware, much of the production processing now happens in software. That gives us much greater flexibility. We can scale switching, replay, audio and graphics to match each production instead of designing every truck for maximum capacity. 

We’ve also invested heavily in standardizing workflows across the DMC Group. It may not be as visible as new technology, but it has a significant operational impact. Standardization simplifies engineering, improves support and reduces setup complexity. 

In my experience, efficiency rarely comes from one major breakthrough. It’s usually the result of many smaller improvements in workflow, automation and smarter use of resources. 

On a related note, the software-based production facility opened by DMC in 2025 was designed to provide a “scalable, cost-efficient” approach to sports production. Can you tell us about the workflow of this facility, how it delivers more streamlined sports production, and the role of Grass Valley technology? 

Our software journey with Grass Valley AMPP started before many people realized how committed we were to software-based production. 

DMC launched its first AMPP-based production platform in Hilversum in 2024 to support our Dutch operations. It proved that software-based live production was already capable of supporting demanding productions at scale. 

We’re now building a fully software-based Broadcast Center in Stockholm, which will go live in September, while a similar platform for our German operations is scheduled to launch in 2027. 

In terms of the bigger picture, this is very exciting. Within the next six to twelve months, all DMC broadcast centers will be compatible with production control rooms that connect directly to our AMPP-based remote production trucks. 

A production can be handled entirely within a remote vehicle or extended into any of our broadcast centers. Just as importantly, we’ll be able to allocate operators regardless of location: a vision mixer in Stockholm, a replay operator in Hilversum and an audio engineer in Germany can all work on the same live production. That level of flexibility changes how production teams can be built and deployed. 

We’re also seeing major gains in bandwidth efficiency. Modern software-based workflows make it possible to produce a full-scale multi-camera production using around 100 Mbit of public internet bandwidth without compromising production quality. 

That changes the economics of live production. Events that were previously too expensive to produce remotely suddenly become commercially viable. 

Instead of thinking in terms of trucks versus centralized facilities, we think about one distributed production ecosystem where compute resources, production tools and operators can move wherever they’re needed. 

It’s been a very busy summer for RP and OB, especially in live sports. Can you outline some of your recent projects in this area? 

It has been a busy summer for us. Across the DMC Group, we deliver thousands of live sports productions every year, and the past few months have included everything from football and horse racing to large studio-based sports broadcasts. Many of these are high-volume productions where remote workflows deliver clear operational and commercial benefits. 

Football is a good example. Broadcasters want more matches covered, and not just premium fixtures but secondary leagues and additional editorial programming around the games. Remote production makes that possible while maintaining the production quality audiences expect. 

Beyond our day-to-day sports production, our work supporting MagentaTV’s coverage of the FIFA World Cup 2026 is a good example of where live production is heading. 

DMC Production Germany is delivering key elements of the production infrastructure for the tournament, supporting a highly distributed production model spanning studios in New York and Munich, together with remote production from stadiums across Canada, Mexico and the United States. 

The scale speaks for itself: 104 matches, more than 1,000 hours of programming, three dedicated tournament channels, and delivery in UHD, HDR and Dolby Atmos. 

The real difference is how the production is brought together. Rather than treating every location as a separate production island, the workflow connects multiple studios, remote venues and centralized production resources into a single production ecosystem. 

For me, that’s a great example of where the industry is heading: combining traditional OB with software-defined remote production to deliver major international events with much greater flexibility. 

Finally, please give us a hint of what lies ahead for the company in the second half of this year. 

The second half of the year will be an important period for us. A major milestone will be the launch of our new Stockholm Broadcast Center, another significant step in our software transformation. We’ll also continue expanding our remote production capabilities while investing in automation and AI-assisted workflows. 

What excites me is the broader transformation taking place across live production. We’re still in the early stages of software-based broadcasting, and over the next few years the lines between broadcast engineering, IT infrastructure and software development will continue to blur. 

At DMC, we’re focused on making that technology practical, but with one principle in mind: technology should serve storytelling, not the other way around. 

Every live event starts with a defining moment. A camera captures the game-winning goal, the dramatic replay or the crowd celebration. But capturing the moment is only the beginning.

What happens next is just as important.

Today’s venues are expected to deliver engaging experiences simultaneously to fans in the stadium, viewers at home and audiences across digital platforms. Replays, graphics, statistics and LED displays all need to work together in real time. Yet many production teams still rely on separate systems that add unnecessary complexity and slow down operations.

This is where connected workflows make a difference.

One connected workflow

The collaboration between Grass Valley and Daktronics brings together two essential parts of the live event ecosystem.

Grass Valley provides the live production technology that captures and produces content, while Daktronics delivers the display and show control technologies that power the in-venue experience. Together, they create a connected workflow that moves content from camera to production and on to venue displays with fewer manual steps.

Instead of managing disconnected systems, operators can work within an integrated environment where video, graphics, data and control stay synchronized throughout the production.

Built for today’s venues

Whether it’s a professional stadium, collegiate athletics venue, entertainment venue or esports arena, production teams are being asked to do more than ever, often without adding more people.

They need to create more content, support more displays and deliver increasingly engaging experiences, all while keeping productions running smoothly.

A connected workflow helps simplify those operations, making it easier for teams to work efficiently while staying focused on the event itself.

Better experiences for every audience

Fans don’t think about where the broadcast ends and the in-venue experience begins. They simply expect everything to work together.

When a key play happens, replays, graphics, LED displays, statistics and venue presentation all need to respond instantly. By connecting production and display workflows, Grass Valley and Daktronics help operators deliver a more coordinated experience that feels natural to the audience.

The result is a better experience for fans in the venue while maintaining the high production standards expected by viewers everywhere else.

Ready to grow

No two venues operate in exactly the same way.

That’s why the solution is designed to fit into existing production environments while supporting a broad ecosystem of technologies and partners. Rather than requiring teams to overhaul established workflows, the integrated approach builds on the systems they already use and provides the flexibility to grow over time.

As live production continues to evolve, connected workflows will play an increasingly important role. They help venues simplify operations, make better use of existing technology and create more engaging experiences for fans.

From lens to pixel, every step in the workflow matters.

Leading North American mobile production facility provider standardizes on Grass Valley’s fully IP-native K-Frame production switchers for its fleet of next-generation trucks   

MONTREAL, CANADA – July 09, 2026 – Game Creek Video, one of North America’s largest mobile production providers, has reached an agreement with Grass Valley to purchase 10 fully configured K-Frame production switchers as part of a two-year fleet expansion program. 

Game Creek serves major professional sports leagues and premium live event productions across the United States, and the agreement continues a long-standing relationship between the two companies. Two K-Frame systems have already been delivered, with the remaining eight scheduled over the next two years.  

“We have always invested in technology that gives our clients the flexibility and performance they need for the most demanding productions,” said Pat Sullivan, President and Founder, Game Creek Video. “The K-Frame platform and its fully IP-native configuration reflects our commitment to serve our demanding customers by building customers by building a fleet of trucks ready for modern live production workflows.”  

Each K-Frame system will be deployed with a Kayenne 4ME control surface and configured identically, featuring nine MEs and a fully loaded 192×96 IP-architecture. The common specification provides Game Creek with a consistent operational framework across its fleet to support high-end sports and entertainment productions. 

“The combination of scale, reliability and IP capabilities made K-Frame the right fit for our next generation of trucks,” said Jason Taubman, SVP, Technology, Game Creek Video. “Standardizing on a common architecture gives our engineering and production teams the same unique capabilities, regardless of which truck is on-site.” 

The project continues a relationship that spans multiple generations of Game Creek production trucks and further expands the presence of K-Frame in the North American mobile production market. “Game Creek is known for being ahead of the curve with technology investments and setting an exceptionally high bar for production standards,” said Greg Doggett, Vice president of Sales, NAM Sports at Grass Valley. “This commitment reflects the strength of our relationship and the confidence the industry has in K-Frame as Game Creek continues to advance the capabilities of their respected fleet.” 

Grass Valley will showcase its latest live production solutions, including the K-Frame production switcher family, at Booth 219 at the 44th Annual IDEA Conference, taking place 12–15 July at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center, Cincinnati, OH.

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About Grass Valley 

Grass Valley empowers over 90% of the world’s top media brands to create and deliver compelling stories that captivate audiences. At the heart of its solutions is the GV Media Universe (GVMU), combining advanced hardware solutions, with the agility, elasticity, and adaptability of the AMPP Media Operating System. Together, they form a seamless, scalable ecosystem for efficient and innovative workflows. 

With a portfolio spanning from camera to consumer, Grass Valley provides the flexibility to build solutions for every need – from a single creative harnessing immense production power to globally distributed teams collaborating seamlessly. This breadth of capability enables customers to craft efficient workflows that inspire and engage their audiences. 

With over 65 years of expertise, Grass Valley has consistently driven the evolution of live content creation and storytelling. Headquartered in Montreal and supported by Black Dragon Capital, the company remains dedicated to shaping and leading the media revolution.

Delivering Olympic coverage across Europe requires production teams to manage hundreds of feeds, multiple editorial teams and simultaneous live events. For Warner Bros. Discovery, the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 provided another opportunity to operate and refine a production platform, driven by Grass Valley’s AMPP using Framelight X and Playout X, designed to support that scale.

Milano Cortina was my seventh Olympics working with Eurosport and Warner Bros. Discovery. Each Games brings different operational challenges, but this one highlighted how much our production infrastructure has evolved in recent years. 

Over several Olympic cycles we have moved towards a shared production platform connecting editorial teams, operators and engineers across our operations. The aim has been to support both major live events and day-to-day sports production through the same infrastructure. 

Earlier Olympic workflows were organised differently. Production environments were often built around individual events or teams, which meant systems and capacity were spread across multiple locations. Over time, we moved towards a unified platform – built on Grass Valley’s AMPP and underpinned by Framelight X and Playout X – that was capable of supporting Olympic coverage alongside our regular sports output, as well as adding capacity for new channels and capabilities.

Today, through Grass Valley’s Framelight X, teams can access the same production environment from multiple locations. During the Milano Cortina Games we saw around 650 concurrent users working on the platform at peak, with an average of more than 600 users per day across Europe and the US. 

Supporting that level of collaboration requires infrastructure that can evolve without interrupting live production. The core platform powered by Grass Valley’s AMPP operates on a microservices architecture, with the Framelight X workflow engine connecting ingest, content management, central LiveTouch replay management, playout (Playout X) as well as post production. This allowed engineers to update individual components without affecting the wider system. 

In the past, system upgrades were often lengthy processes requiring updates to each individual user’s computer, but changes can now be introduced gradually while production continues. With the GV team, we reconfigured the core AMPP platform through software-defined production for the event instead of rebuilding it as a one-off workflow. This also changed how we introduced new services, by extending existing resources rather than deploying new infrastructure. 

During Milano Cortina, this approach supported the launch of additional pop-up channels alongside our core services. 

Central to all of this was the Framelight X story-centric, continuous media production environment, which is specifically designed for high-demand and distributed operations like ours. Framelight X federated all of our content into a single system, giving us streamlined access to everything we needed – from ingest through to editing and publishing – from any location.  

Scaling ingest and managing content 

One of our priorities ahead of Milano Cortina was ensuring the platform could handle the volume of content we expected to record. Unlike a summer Olympics where most other major competitions are no longer running, the Winter Games sit right in the middle of an extremely busy global sports calendar. So in addition to our Winter Olympics coverage, we were also delivering our regular sports output across Eurosport and TNT Sports, which meant managing multiple events simultaneously. That complexity is added to by the Winter Games being more susceptible to weather delays and last minute rescheduling, as we experienced this year with events being postponed by snow delays. 

Across the Games, the platform handled more than 62,000 hours of recorded content, with peaks of over 4,000 recording tasks in a single day. 

Working with Grass Valley, we completed a migration project that modernised our ingest workflow and expanded recording capacity, moving us away from legacy GV I/O recording workflows using CMF formats and towards an architecture based on MXF and Elastic Record X. 

With this model, the ingest layer remains local while the resources required to run the recording services and connect to Framelight X can scale through distributed infrastructure. At the same time, the platform operates as a single production environment, with media asset management, playout, production tools and post-production capabilities all connected to the same core storage. Content doesn’t need to be moved between systems, and is accessible from any tool, even during ingest, across 22 supported languages. 

This simplifies operations and support, while ensuring content is immediately available to editorial teams. It also reduces duplication across systems and helps teams deliver more content, more efficiently. This allowed us to add 80 additional recording ports to cope with the recording peaks during the Games.  

Alongside ingest, we also identified specific requirements around playout and commercial break handling. Working with Grass Valley, we developed dedicated user interfaces within Playout X to support live operations and simplify how commercial breaks are managed. One of these is the Sports UI, which allows operators in the PCR gallery to manage commercial breaks directly during live production, without needing to be connected to the central playout system. This gives production teams more flexibility during live events while allowing central teams to remain focused on international and master playlists. 

We also extended our approach to regionalization. Alongside a primary international feed, we operate multiple regional channels that can either follow the main feed and replace breaks with local content, or opt out entirely to deliver rights-specific programming. This allows us to maintain a single master playlist while supporting multiple localised outputs in a more efficient and scalable way.

At the same time we reviewed how operators interacted with the platform itself. Following the Paris 2024 Games, feedback from users highlighted the difficulty of locating specific clips within large volumes of recorded content. 

When hundreds of feeds are recorded simultaneously, search and discovery become critical parts of the workflow. Together with Grass Valley we focused on improving Framelight X’s search capabilities and metadata handling within the system, and during Milano Cortina the difference was noticeable. ​​Operators were able to locate relevant material much faster, which helped editorial teams publish content more efficiently across both digital and linear platforms. 

Resilience and distributed production 

Operational resilience is another essential requirement for large-scale live production. For the Winter Games, Paris and London served as our main operations centres for Olympic coverage. The system is designed so that either location can assume control if required; for instance, if an operational issue occurred in Paris, our teams in London could immediately manage recording operations through the same scheduling interface. And vice versa.  

Rather than relying on disaster recovery processes that activate only during emergencies, the platform operates in a balanced mode where redundancy is already built into day-to-day operations. 

The same infrastructure also supports more distributed production models. Across the Games, we delivered 42 linear channels in 22 languages, alongside more than 100 digital channels, supporting over 4,000 live events across linear and digital platforms. 

For some workflows it is no longer necessary to move large numbers of people or equipment to every event location. Infrastructure can remain in central data centres, cloud environments or any hybrid, while production teams connect remotely. For the Milano Cortina Games, I was based in Paris rather than being on site in Italy. From a production perspective this approach allows us to coordinate resources more efficiently across multiple events.

Collaboration and continuous improvement 

Technology provides the framework for these workflows, but large productions ultimately depend on the teams operating them. Our engineering and operations groups are stationed in Paris, London, the US and across Europe with each region handling its own dedicated editorial requirements, and collaboration between those teams is essential during major events. 

Engineers also need to think from the perspective of operators and editorial teams. A workflow that appears simple from a technical point of view may become inefficient if it needs to be repeated many times during a production day. Feedback from operators after each major event helps guide improvements ahead of the next production cycle. 

Looking ahead, our focus now moves to upcoming productions such as [the French Open Tennis Championship at] Roland Garros, while we continue to evolve the platform itself. One area we are exploring is the increased use of 1080p HDR as a mezzanine format for production workflows. We are also building additional media platforms for other parts of the Warner Bros. Discovery portfolio, including free-to-air channels in Nordic markets. 

Each event adds experience that feeds into the next stage of development, and the AMPP-powered platform – driven by the innovative capabilities of the Framelight X and Playout X systems – continues to evolve alongside the production requirements it supports.

John Howard is one of the most experienced Technical Directors in live sports, working week in and week out on NBC’s Sunday Night Football and contributing to 10 Super Bowl broadcasts over the last 20 years. Here, he shares his perspective on the craft behind live production and why the role of the switcher is often overlooked.

When people talk about big championships, everyone talks about the cameras. The new angles, the pylons, everything they added this year. That’s all great. I love that side of it, but that’s not what makes the show work.

The vehicle that ultimately tells the visual story is the switcher. And nobody really talks about that.

And the job itself is often misunderstood. It’s not just cutting cameras. A Technical Director is involved throughout the entire planning PROCESS, not just building the show and setting it all up, but making sure everything works to plan before it ever goes to air.

I’ve been doing this a long time. Sunday Night Football on NBC, week in and week out, that’s my office. I’ve also worked on 10 Super Bowls. The scale is enormous, but that’s not really the challenge.

On this year’s show, we had three fully loaded K-Frame XPs in the compound. One dedicated to pre-game, one I used to cut the live game, and another in a separate unit handling replays and additional elements. All of them were essentially full.

You think 192 inputs is a lot. On a show like that, it’s not. You need that and then some.

What experience teaches over time is how to structure it. What stays close, what moves elsewhere, how everything is organized so it works when the show is live. That’s the job.

“Elegance is the standard. Not flash. Not complexity for its own sake. Elegance.”

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the real challenge isn’t the technology. It’s not overthinking it.

There’s a lot of firepower available. A lot of options. And it’s very easy to go too far. It’s easy to over-plan, to overbuild, to try to account for everything. But that complexity comes back in the moment when things get busy.

Most of the work is muscle memory. Sitting at a panel, everything needs to be exactly where it is expected to be. No searching, no hesitation.

That only works if it has been built properly beforehand.

That’s where discipline comes in. If something doesn’t need to be complicated, it shouldn’t be.

A lot of it also comes down to the relationship with the director. There’s an understanding there. Sometimes a call comes in, and holding a shot just a fraction longer helps the moment. That kind of communication isn’t written down anywhere, but it’s critical.

Every show is different. A football show is not built the same way as a golf show. The layout changes, the priorities change, the approach changes.

The system has to adapt to that. The setup needs to follow the show, not the other way around.

On Sunday Night Football, I try something every week. It might be small. It might not even make air. But the goal is always to make something better.

Over time, that becomes a creative back-and-forth. A transition, a look, something subtle that fits naturally into the show.

Not everything needs to be used. If something doesn’t add to the story, it doesn’t belong there.

That’s really what it comes down to.

Sunday Night Football goes up against prime-time entertainment. It’s not just a game. It’s a show. And the audience is broader than people think.

So the question always comes back to the same thing. If the show is watched with no sound, does it still make sense? Does the story come across just from the pictures?

If the answer is yes, then it’s working.

I don’t think we talk about this enough.

Grass Valley, the name alone, it means television. It means broadcast. But what matters is that it keeps moving forward.

The company continues to evolve, continues to innovate, and does it at every level, not just at the very top end. That matters.

And it works because it’s not one-way.

There’s a constant exchange. Feedback goes back to the engineers. Ideas come from real use. Nothing is built in isolation.

A lot of the time, what is needed is actually simpler. It just has a clear purpose.

That’s the relationship. It works both ways.

Every live frame of NFL football in the United States, CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN, AMAZON PRIME, every single one goes through a Grass Valley switcher.

Think about that.

Seventeen years, across every broadcast, at that level.

That doesn’t happen by accident.

It happens because the product keeps evolving, and because the people using it are part of that process.

And that’s what keeps us all moving forward.

UHD HDR image capture, scalable workflows, and future-ready live production at scale

MONTREAL, CANADA – March 26, 2026 – Grass Valley today announced the successful completion of a major live production deployment with NVP, a leading European media company specializing in live sports production, delivering a significant leap forward in image quality, production flexibility, and technological innovation for LALIGA broadcasts.

This deployment responds to LALIGA’s RFP, which prioritized maintaining leadership in broadcast production through modern technology and scalable workflows. In meeting that requirement, NVP and Grass Valley have implemented a camera and production system designed to enhance visual quality and support the scale of live match coverage.

The project supports the production of more than 760 matches per season across Spain’s top professional football divisions (LALIGA EA Sports and LALIGA HYPERMOTION) and marks a new benchmark for live football production at scale.

Founded in 2007, NVP has built a strong reputation delivering large-scale international sports productions for global broadcasters and production partners. Building on a long-standing collaboration, NVP developed its proposal in line with LALIGA’s RFP, focused on advancing innovation and premium image quality. With that objective, NVP selected Grass Valley to deliver camera systems and workflows designed to scale and evolve over time. Following LALIGA’s decision to entrust NVP with the production of both -first and second- division matches, the challenging opportunity was to deploy a unified production infrastructure capable of handling a very high volume of live content while further boosting premium image quality. All camera systems were delivered and deployed within an exceptionally short timeframe, meeting the demanding production schedule ahead of the season’s start. Working closely with Grass Valley and systems integration partner Video Progetti S.r.l., NVP implemented a high-performance production ecosystem, spanning traditional OB operations and advanced remote production environments.

The deployment includes 144 Grass Valley cameras, with LDX 135 and LDX 150 systems forming the backbone of seven high-end OB trucks for LALIGA EA Sports (first-division) matches as well as eight OB trucks optimized for remote production in the LALIGA HYPERMOTION (second division). All cameras deliver native 4K UHD images, with the LDX 150 systems providing additional native 4K UHD high-speed capture to enhance live action and replay storytelling. The solution also enables simultaneous UHD HDR and HD SDR production, ensuring consistent visual quality and delivering the required flexibility across all matches.

The camera systems combine SDI and NativeIP connectivity, to support hybrid workflows. JPEGXS directly from the camera head helps address bandwidth constraints in remote production scenarios, providing optimal deployment flexibility. The à-la-carte licensing further allows NVP to dynamically add advanced capabilities such as super slow motion as audience demands evolve.

“Innovation is in NVP’s DNA,” said Ivan Pintabona, CTO at NVP. “With the LDX 150 and LDX 135, we are not only investing in cameras, we are investing in the future of live production. In particular, the LDX 135 cameras have demonstrated exceptional performance in real-world field operations, delivering a clear step forward in terms of image quality, HDR handling, and overall consistency in demanding live environments. These systems allow us to deliver UHD HDR productions with the highest level of reliability, while ensuring we can scale quickly.”

Carlos Ferreira, VP of Sales for Southern Europe at Grass Valley, added: “This project with NVP highlights the power of close collaboration across the entire production ecosystem. Working alongside Video Progetti, we delivered a solution that combines outstanding image quality with the scalability and reliability required for top-tier football production. We’re proud to support NVP in raising the bar for LALIGA broadcasts.”

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About Grass Valley

Grass Valley empowers over 90% of the world’s top media brands to create and deliver compelling stories that captivate audiences. At the heart of its solutions is the GV Media Universe (GVMU), combining advanced hardware solutions, with the agility, elasticity, and adaptability of the AMPP Media Operating System. Together, they form a seamless, scalable ecosystem for efficient and innovative workflows.

With a portfolio spanning from camera to consumer, Grass Valley provides the flexibility to build solutions for every need – from a single creative harnessing immense production power to globally distributed teams collaborating seamlessly. This breadth of capability enables customers to craft efficient workflows that inspire and engage their audiences.

With over 65 years of expertise, Grass Valley has consistently driven the evolution of live content creation and storytelling. Headquartered in Montreal and supported by Black Dragon Capital, the company remains dedicated to shaping and leading the media revolution.

Producing Die 100 is always a challenge. The format depends on real people, real opinions, and real emotions, and that leaves little room for technical uncertainty, especially when one of the shows goes live on air. From a production management perspective, reliability is not a feature, it is a prerequisite. At the same time, the visual language of the show plays an increasingly important role, and audiences clearly expect more than just functional pictures.

For the December 2025 productions (one pre-recorded on December 6th and one live on December 8^th), our editorial team has once again asked us to expand our camera equipment to generate a cinematic look. Our brand new Outside Broadcast Trucks are all equipped with Grass Valley’s LDX 135 systems, so this time we decided to integrate Grass Valley’s new cameras, the LDX C180 for our Steadi-Cam and LDX 180 as a handheld camera into our existing environment. From experience, adding cinelook cameras is usually the moment where additional complexity starts to creep into an production: Different camera generations or different brands often mean more setup time, more coordination between departments, and almost every time compromises in image matching.

In this case, that did not happen. The cameras integrated into our workflows without friction and behaved exactly as we expect broadcast cameras to behave. Operation was familiar for the crew, technical supervision was straightforward, and from the first rehearsal onward there was a strong sense of confidence in the system. That may sound unspectacular, but in live television it is probably the most important quality you can ask for.

What became apparent very quickly was the additional creative flexibility the cameras offered. The possibility to work with a shallower depth of field allowed us to create more intimate images and clearer subject separation in a visually complex studio environment. This supported the format extremely well, especially in close conversations and emotional moments. At the same time, the look never felt disconnected from the rest of the production. The images matched seamlessly with our other LDX cameras, without the need to fight inconsistent looks or compensate for flat images during shading.

The image quality itself was consistently convincing. The pictures were clean, detailed, and natural, even under demanding lighting conditions. Color reproduction was reliable, and camera matching remained predictable throughout the production. The feedback from both the production team and the editorial staff was very positive, which is always a good indicator that technology is supporting the content rather than drawing attention to itself.

What I personally appreciate most is that these cameras feel like proper broadcast tools in the best sense of the word. There was no tinkering, no experimental setup, and no additional risk introduced into the production. They simply worked exactly as expected. That reliability made it easy for us, as production management, to trust the technology fully and focus on delivering the show.

Looking back, the experience with Grass Valley cameras on Die 100 was extremely positive. The entire team, including our editorial colleagues, was and remains very enthusiastic about both the visual results and the operational ease. When new technology integrates this smoothly into an existing broadcast environment while offering genuine creative benefits, it adds real value to a production. I am confident that these cameras will play an important role in future projects, and I look forward to working with them again.

Visit: www.ndr.de/

Original content published on NBC.Sports.com

NBC Universal to Present XXV Olympic Winter Games Feb. 6-22 and Milan Cortina Paralympics March 6-15

NBC Sports to Utilize Grass Valley’s Frame Rate Conversion, Routing, and Orchestration Technologies for its Production in Italy to Provide Viewers with the Highest-Quality Live Coverage Across All Platforms

NBC Sports has selected Grass Valley to provide advanced infrastructure, routing, orchestration, and frame rate conversion solutions for its production of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics and Paralympics, Feb. 6-22, and March 6-15, respectively.

With Milan and Cortina, Italy, in the same time zone as Paris, France, the programming plan for the 2026 Winter Games will be similar to NBCUniversal’s massively consumed and critically acclaimed coverage of last year’s Summer Games, including:

• the best events live during the day on NBC
• the entire Olympics streaming live on Peacock
• an enhanced Olympics primetime show, Primetime in Milan, featuring top events, stars, and stories
• comprehensive coverage across numerous cable and digital platforms
• return of Gold Zone and Multiview on Peacock

Click for more on NBCUniversal’s Milan Cortina programming.

The Opening Ceremony from San Siro Stadium in Milan will be presented on Friday, Feb. 6, live on NBC and Peacock. NBCUniversal is presenting its 20^th Olympic Games, 13^th consecutive overall, and owns the U.S. media rights on all platforms to all Olympic Games through 2036, which are scheduled for Milan Cortina (2026), Los Angeles (2028), French Alps (2030), Brisbane (2032), Utah (2034), and the Olympic Games 2036 (host yet to be determined).

NBC Sports will utilize Grass Valley to deliver advanced signal conversion, routing, and orchestration technologies for its production of the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. These solutions will be deployed onsite in Italy, at NBC Sports’ facilities in Stamford, Conn., and 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York, helping NBC Sports route the excitement in Italy back to viewers watching coverage of the Games in the United States.

“Grass Valley has worked with NBC Sports for more than two decades, assisting NBC Sports’ production efforts at previous Olympics and other major international sports events in Europe, Asia and the Americas,” said Tim Canary, SVP Engineering. “Their technology and engineering support are key components in delivering the unmatched quality and reliability that audiences expect from NBC Olympics’ coverage.”

We’re honored to extend our long-standing partnership with NBC Sports for Milan Cortina 2026,” said Jon Wilson, CEO of Grass Valley. “With Alchemist, Orbit, and the power of AMPP OS working together, backed by our leading infrastructure products and on-site support expertise, we’re enabling NBC Sports to deliver the scale, quality, and reliability audiences expect across every screen.

ABOUT NBC SPORTS

NBC Sports connects sports fans to the moments that matter most with premier live events, insightful studio shows, and compelling original programming. As the sports division of NBCUniversal, NBC Sports produces, programs, and promotes premier content across numerous linear and digital platforms, including NBC and Peacock. NBC Sports presents events from many of the world’s most prestigious properties, including the International Olympic Committee, International Paralympic Committee, United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, the NFL, NBA, WNBA, Major League Baseball, Notre Dame, Big Ten Conference, Big East Conference, Big 12 Conference, NASCAR, PGA TOUR, USGA, PGA of America, The R&A, Churchill Downs, Premier League, and many more. It is renowned for making big events bigger and has produced some of the most-watched sporting events in U.S. media history, including Olympic Games, Super Bowls, and Sunday Night Football, primetime television’s No. 1 show for 14 consecutive years.

About Grass Valley

Grass Valley empowers over 90% of the world’s top media brands to create and deliver compelling stories that captivate audiences. At the heart of its solutions is the GV Media Universe (GVMU), combining advanced hardware solutions, with the agility, elasticity, and adaptability of the AMPP Media Operating System. Together, they form a seamless, scalable ecosystem for efficient and innovative workflows.
With a portfolio spanning from camera to consumer, Grass Valley provides the flexibility to build solutions for every need – from a single creative harnessing immense production power to globally distributed teams collaborating seamlessly. This breadth of capability enables customers to craft efficient workflows that inspire and engage their audiences.
With over 65 years of expertise, Grass Valley has consistently driven the evolution of live content creation and storytelling. Headquartered in Montreal and supported by Black Dragon Capital, the company remains dedicated to shaping and leading the media revolution.

Late last year, Corrivium supported one of the world’s largest cloud computing summits. From a production perspective, the defining challenge at that scale is flexibility under pressure: expectations around reliability are extremely high, with zero tolerance for downtime.

When you are delivering an event of this size, the focus quickly shifts to resilience and operational control. We needed workflows that could be stood-up quickly, monitored centrally, and adapted in real time without introducing risk. That requirement shaped every technical decision going into the project.

As events grow in size and complexity, traditional hardware-led production models start to show their limits. Physical infrastructure brings constraints around capacity, logistics and speed of change, particularly when adjustments are required late in the process.

For this event, we needed to treat production infrastructure more like a utility – available instantly when required, adjustable in real time, adjust routing and monitoring without re-cabling or re-engineering and shut off & tear them down afterwards

This led us to expand our use of AMPP, building on our existing relationship with Grass Valley.

Platform-driven delivery

Using AMPP has changed how we approach large-scale live events. Instead of engineering each production as a one-off, we now work from a platform mindset: focussing on the specific components that need to be assembled for a given use case, rather than rebuilding infrastructure for every event. That shift has improved consistency across projects and increased confidence during delivery, particularly when running multiple workflows in parallel.

Two aspects of the platform stood out early on. The first was modularity, allowing us to deploy only what is required for each workflow. The second was centralised visibility, giving us a single operational view across the entire environment.

At this scale, monitoring and routing flexibility are essential. Operators need to see what is happening across many concurrent workflows and respond immediately when requirements change. During our most recent event, we needed to reconfigure routing and add new monitoring outputs while live, and we were able to do this without touching the physical infrastructure, keeping changes contained and controlled.

Operational considerations and skills

One of the questions we are often asked is whether cloud-based production requires teams to become IT experts. In practice, operators don’t necessarily need deep infrastructure knowledge to run workflows day to day. However, organisations do need people who understand infrastructure well enough to design and deploy these systems correctly.

At Corrivium, this has influenced how we think about skills and training. We increasingly look for operators who understand cloud concepts and can think in terms of software-defined workflows, particularly how feeds are transmitted and managed.

Software-defined production removes many physical limitations, but it introduces different operational challenges. When things don’t behave as expected, strong troubleshooting skills are essential. The key difference is where constraints now sit. With software-defined workflows, limits are largely defined by design choices rather than physical availability.

Planning and delivering at scale

Operating in this way has delivered clear benefits. We have seen faster deployment times, improved consistency across projects, and the ability to support more concurrent productions without increasing operational overhead.

It has also changed how we plan events. We now work from templates rather than bespoke builds, which allows us to focus earlier on client experience and resilience instead of rebuilding infrastructure for each project.

For our customers, this approach enables scale and flexibility without adding complexity. Clients are increasingly moving beyond a single live stream towards multiple outputs designed for different audiences and platforms. Having a platform that supports this makes those conversations practical and achievable.

A long-term approach to cloud production

As cloud-based production continues to mature, the organisations that succeed will be those that combine broadcast discipline with software-defined thinking. Reliability, operational control and consistency remain fundamental, but they are now delivered through more flexible architectures.

Our partnership with Grass Valley reflects that long-term view. We see it as a strategic relationship built around shared investment in software-defined production that maintains broadcast-grade standards.

Large live events are a stress test for production infrastructure: they highlight where systems hold up and where they do not. Platform-based approaches have proven to be an effective way of meeting those demands, and they are shaping how we design and deliver live events at scale going forward.

Collaboration brings resilient IP networking and software-defined live production together for corporate studios, town halls, and hybrid campus workflows

MONTREAL, CANADA – January 28, 2026 – Grass Valley®, the leading technology provider for live production solutions, and NETGEAR Inc.® (NASDAQ: NTGR), a global leader in network solutions, today announced a strategic partnership to serve the rapidly growing Broadcast AV segment. The collaboration combines NETGEAR AV’s live media optimized switching and secure IP networking with Grass Valley’s software-defined production tools and hardware platforms to make it simpler for enterprises to produce, manage, and distribute high-quality content. 

Enterprise organizations, including corporations, universities, houses of worship, esports, and venues, increasingly require broadcast-quality production capabilities but have historically faced prohibitive costs and complexity. This partnership directly addresses that gap. Both companies share a common vision of interoperability, built on major standards including NDI, SMPTE ST 2110, Dante, and SRT, alongside a customer-first approach that simplifies user experiences and delivers powerful tools.  

Matthew Yates, Director, Strategic Alliances, Grass Valley, said: “The Enterprise Media sector represents one of the fastest-growing opportunities in our industry, yet these organizations have been forced to choose between consumer-grade tools and broadcast systems designed for major networks, with the associated cost and complexity. By pairing cost-effective, user-friendly NETGEAR AV products with the industry’s most advanced software-defined production platform in AMPP, Enterprise organizations can deliver video experiences that match modern broadcast productions, while retaining the simplicity and flexibility customers expect.”  

“NETGEAR has long focused on making high performance AVoIP networks easy to deploy and manage,” said Laurent Masia, Senior Director of Product Line Management, NETGEAR. “Our partnership with Grass Valley aligns perfectly with the needs of enterprise customers who want reliable, secure, and scalable video operations without the friction traditionally associated with live media workflows.” 

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About Grass Valley 

Grass Valley empowers over 90% of the world’s top media brands to create and deliver compelling stories that captivate audiences. At the heart of its solutions is the GV Media Universe (GVMU), combining advanced hardware solutions, with the agility, elasticity, and adaptability of the AMPP Media Operating System. Together, they form a seamless, scalable ecosystem for efficient and innovative workflows. 

With a portfolio spanning from camera to consumer, Grass Valley provides the flexibility to build solutions for every need – from a single creative harnessing immense production power to globally distributed teams collaborating seamlessly. This breadth of capability enables customers to craft efficient workflows that inspire and engage their audiences. 

With over 65 years of expertise, Grass Valley has consistently driven the evolution of live content creation and storytelling. Headquartered in Montreal and supported by Black Dragon Capital, the company remains dedicated to shaping and leading the media revolution. 

About NETGEAR 

Founded in 1996 and headquartered in the USA, NETGEAR® (NASDAQ: NTGR) is a global leader in innovative networking technologies for businesses, homes, and service providers. NETGEAR delivers a wide range of award-winning, intelligent solutions designed to unleash the full potential of connectivity and power extraordinary experiences. For businesses, NETGEAR offers reliable, easy-to-use, high-performance networking solutions, including switches, routers, access points, software, and AV-over-IP technologies, tailored to meet the diverse needs of small and medium enterprises. More information is available from the NETGEAR Press Room or by calling (408) 907-8000. Connect with NETGEAR: Facebook, Instagram, and the NETGEAR blog at NETGEAR.com.