NBC Will Host Olympics from a Cave

NBC is getting ready to broadcast 4 million hours of Olympic coverage from the games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Much of their coverage will be done from inside a cave, or at least it will look like a cave. 

NBC Sports’ primetime and late-night studio coverage will originate from a 3500 square-foot geodesic dome set, designed to appear carved out of the PyeongChang mountainside and showcase the natural beauty of South Korea.

The studio will feature a 40-foot by 16-foot LED wall, complemented by 18 55-inch high-definition monitors. The facility provides  space for a main anchor desk, interview areas, a news update desk, and more than 15 different stand up locations for host Mike Tirico to deliver analysis of the 18 days of coverage.

“We are using more technology than we have in the past,” said Michael Sheehan, coordinating director, Olympics production, at NBC Sports Group, in an interview. “We don’t want to do the expected, what you would traditionally have in a studio.” The LED wall will “pretty much work as the window out in the geodesic dome, and we will put various landscapes in there. We can use it as an editorial guide and show headshots, videos of the players,” he added. The high-definition monitors will “hang from the ceiling and look like shards of ice.” At some point during broadcasts, said Sheehan, those screens can be utilized to look as if “snow is cascading into the studio.” The facility is designed by HD Studio and Bryan Higgason.

The studio will  also have an additional facility – on the roof. This 1000 square-foot area, made to look like a winter lodge, will feature windows overlooking the ski jumping venue at Alpensia Ski Resort as well as panoramic views of the Taebaek Mountains.

H/T Variety 

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