Stamford, Conn., June 8, 2021 — NBC Olympics, a division of the NBC Sports Group, has selected Grass Valley to provide its IP Media audio and video routing solutions alongside control and monitoring systems for its production of the Games of the XXXII Olympiad, which take place in Tokyo, Japan, from July 23 — August 8. The announcement was made today by Todd Donovan, Vice President of Engineering Technology, NBC Olympics, and Tim Shoulders, CEO and president of Grass Valley.

Grass Valley has been supplying infrastructure solutions to NBC Olympics since the 2006 Torino Olympics and has delivered a range of open standards-based IP systems for the Tokyo Olympics, aimed at driving efficiency within NBC Olympics' studios inside the International Broadcast Center (IBC) in Tokyo. Grass Valley IP infrastructure will support seamless processing of live video and audio feeds — both from studios and remote event venues — ready for delivery to the broadcaster's production and editing control rooms ahead of live broadcasts. NBC Olympics will deploy Grass Valley's IP Media infrastructure at the Tokyo IBC, leveraging control of a Cisco Spine and Leaf switching topology through the GV Orbit NMOS compliant router control and configuration system.

The IP Media solution is SMPTE-2110, AMWA NMOS IS-04/05, SMPTE-2059, UHD, and HDR compliant, leveraging the full interoperability of industry standards. The system comprises over 70 IQUCP modular gateways using both the 25GbE and 50GbE product versions, 170 Densitè+ XIP-3901 IP audio/video, SDR/HDR, IS-04/IS-05 processing modules and 16 MV-820-IP multiviewers, underpinning a robust, reliable and future-proof infrastructure. System management is enabled via the GV Orbit dynamic orchestration system, allowing production teams to leverage the power of IP using familiar SDI workflows. Thanks to GV Orbit, production staff can ensure a seamless production process, speeding up operations while cutting down error risks.

"Given our long-term relationship and trust in Grass Valley and as we wanted to upgrade to a 2110 IP processing and routing core at the International Broadcast Center in Tokyo, it quickly became apparent that Grass Valley was the right partner for this important upgrade in our critical infrastructure due to their experience and product breadth and maturity," said Donovan. "Grass Valley partnered with us on designing solutions enabling our sophisticated venue and IBC facility workflows as we work to present the largest Olympic Games presentation ever. They have been deeply invested at all levels of their organization to the continued success of NBC Olympics in Tokyo and beyond."

"Today's sports fans want more in-depth coverage of live sporting events; they want to feel that they are getting an experience that is as good as being there," said Shoulders. "The Olympic Games take this expectation to even greater heights. The move to IP-based infrastructures deliver the scalability and flexibility needed to deliver new and exciting services and handle the sheer volume of signals coming in from multiple locations during the Games, smoothly and efficiently. We are proud to reinforce our close partnership with NBC Olympics cultivated over the past two decades. As well as delivering space and cost savings, the infrastructure will meet the needs for Tokyo and easily scale and adapt to support future Olympic Games events."

As part of the wider IP infrastructure, Grass Valley has also provided MADI audio gateway products, and the Audio Live multi-stream audio processing solution.

About NBC Olympics

A division of NBC Sports Group, NBC Olympics is responsible for producing, programming and promoting NBCUniversal's coverage of the Olympic Games. NBC Olympics is renowned for its unsurpassed Olympic heritage, award-winning production, and ability to aggregate the largest audiences in U.S. television history. NBCUniversal owns the U.S. media rights on all platforms to all Olympic Games through 2032. NBC Olympics also produces thousands of hours of Olympic sports programming throughout the year, which is presented on NBC, NBCSN, Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA, Peacock and NBC Sports digital platforms.

About Grass Valley

Grass Valley's end-to-end ecosystem of reliable, open standards-based solutions helps content creators, broadcasters and media organizations to produce brilliant content and build successful media businesses.

We are the trusted partner to many of the biggest and most creative names in the media and entertainment business, enabling the production of rich, high quality content that brings the viewer closer to the action; engages them with the story and connects them with each other.

Headquartered in Montreal, Grass Valley has been engaged in the media technology business for over 60 years and is owned by Black Dragon Capital.