Equipment
How Photographers & Videographers Bring the 2024 Olympics Together
There have been some incredible photo and video moments from the 2024 Paris Olympics this year – highlighting incredible moments of victory for the world’s greatest athletes. However, many people don’t realize the amount of pre-production that goes into gearing up for the Olympics, so much so that major manufacturers like Canon, Sony, and Nikon often structure their product releases with the Olympics schedule. ‘Sports focused” cameras like the latest Canon R1 and the Sony a9 III play a major role in this once every four years event, so let’s dive into some of the gear used at this year’s Olympics.
On the Video Side
Broadcasting the Olympics live to millions of homes all over the world is no easy task, and requires some of the latest and greatest in broadcasting technology. Some time ago, we spoke a bit about how productions like the Super Bowl go to great lengths to broadcast the game to millions of homes, and the Olympics takes that and cranks it up to eleven. For some fast facts, NBCUniversal diligently offers coverage on all 329 medal events available for streaming on their Peacock platform, with up to 55 live channel feeds covering these events. To cover such events, and in 4K UHD HDR video with 5.1.4 immersive audio, we’re talking over 1000 broadcast cameras, approximately 3800 microphones, and 47 production units. Olympic Broadcast Services (OBS) have also implemented state-of-the-art AI assists to offer multi-camera replay systems, with full athlete tracking and automated highlight feeds. And that’s just talking about the on-the-ground coverage – there is also a full fleet of drones and skycams to cover the events in all new angles.
To handle all of this coverage, the OBS has reserved over 4.2 Terabits per second of outgoing capacity to ensure the broadcasting streams get to everyone’s living rooms. With over 3 billion people who watched the 2020 Tokyo Games, it’s expected that this year’s Olympics to beat those records – largely watched on streaming and other digital platforms.
Photographing the Olympics
All of the major camera manufacturers go to great lengths to set up shop at the Olympics, offering the latest cameras and lenses to the respected photographers to use to capture the Olympic games. With these manufacturers’ help, photographers can rent out camera bodies that have not yet been released and have access to millions of dollars in lenses and equipment.
Undoubtedly, several iconic photographs have already come from this year’s Olympics, from Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina’s iconic airborne pose to Simone Biles’ incredible Gymnastics performance. But to capture these incredible moments takes a lot of effort, skill, and gear. Highlighting this effort is Olympic photographer Jeff Cable, who shows all the behind-the-scenes footage of Canon Professional Services, as well as the day-to-day life as an Olympic photographer.
While the highlight of Jeff’s behind-the-scenes post of the Olympic Press Center is the walls of lenses and camera bodies, Jeff also noted that there is a full technical team offering up camera body and lens repairs. Jeff writes in his blog —
“They also have a team of people repairing all the cameras and lenses we break while on the job. And let me tell you, I have seen people bang them into walls and drop them and it makes me cringe. But it is so awesome to know that this team is there to support us. And yes, Nikon and Sony have their crews in the Main Press Center too.”
While the gear room of the hundreds of camera bodies and lenses free for the taking (at least, on short-term loans) might be the highlight for most photographers and videographers, we’ve also seen some incredible technology used to capture the Olympic games in new ways. Of my favorites, has to come from the cameras situated at the bottom of the pools and the underwater photographer who was allowed to shoot during the surfing events. Through the use of underwater camera systems, photographers have been able to capture these iconic moments in sports from exciting and interesting new perspectives.
Though photographing the Olympics this year hasn’t gone without some controversy. Most notable is a photographer’s negligence that broke Olympic Gold medalist Wang Chuqin’s table tennis paddle during the celebration of his winning match, which is an important reminder to document these exciting moments without interrupting or disrupting them.
In total, the Paris 2024 Olympics have given out press accreditation to 6,000 media professionals. These press accreditations were applied for back in 2022 through an arduous process, and are given to people who fall under a few different categories – Journalist, Sport Specific Journalist, Photographer, Sport Specific Photographer, Technician, and Support Staff. If you’re lucky enough to earn one of these press passes, you’re likely working for a large publisher and working with a team of people to ensure the photo and assets are backed up and safe. While we’re not entirely sure how these teams work directly, we have discussed how photographers photograph events like the Super Bowl, and suspect they work in largely the same way at the Olympics.
If you want to learn more about the photography process directly from photographers working at the Olympics this year, check out this piece from the Washington Post, or this piece from Time Magazine. If you’re looking for a more day-to-day look into the Olympics, be sure to give Jeff Cable’s blog a read. What has been your favorite moment from the Olympics this year? Be sure to chime in using the comments section below. The Olympics are continuing on, exclusively on NBC/Peacock until August 11th, 2024.
