Beijing 2022: NBC Sports Leverages Audio-Technica for Microphones, Headphones
NBC Sports has selected Audio-Technica to provide microphones, headphones, and broadcast headsets for its production of the XXIV Olympic Winter Games, from Beijing, China, February 2–20, 2022.
NBCUniversal provides coverage of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games from Feb. 2-20, featuring a Winter Olympics-record 2,800+ hours of coverage across NBC, Peacock, USA Network, CNBC, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app. The Opening Ceremony was presented on Friday, Feb. 4, live in the morning and again in primetime on NBC and Peacock. Similar to recent Winter Games, NBC’s primetime Olympic coverage began the night before the Opening Ceremony on Thursday, Feb. 3. Coverage began on Wednesday, Feb. 2, on USA Network and Peacock. NBCUniversal is presenting its 18th Olympic Games, 12th consecutive overall, and sixth straight Winter Games, all the most by any U.S. media company.
“We are delighted to have Audio-Technica working with NBC Sports once again for this event, marking 20 years of cooperation between our two organizations,” says Karl Malone, Director, Sound Design, NBC Sports & Olympics. “As I’ve always maintained, the initial capture of sports audio is still the most important aspect of good quality sound, and this winter, I’m particularly excited to be working with feeds from the Immersive Microphone. As we continually drive to deliver a premium and all-encompassing audio experience to our viewers, technological advances such as those from Audio-Technica help us towards these goals.”
This collaboration will help capture and monitor the audio aspects of the Games, from the detailed sounds of the competition itself, to the related crowd noise, expert analysis, and athlete interviews. In particular, NBC Sports relies on these specialist microphone solutions, which are widely used to capture the ambient sound of the Olympic Winter Games at the various on-site venues. NBC Sports will also be utilizing over 200 Broadcast Headsets and Headphones in its broadcast production of the Winter Olympics as the only headphones trusted by NBC Sports to accurately reproduce audio from their recording and playback equipment.
“We are proud of our role in the continuing development of broadcast audio technology, an evolution that has made stereo and immersive microphones an integral part of sports broadcasting,” says Manabu Aoki, President and CEO of Audio-Technica U.S.. “We look forward to providing NBC Sports with these solutions to capturing high-quality audio, as the industry continues to raise the bar.”