We spoke with Isidoro Moreno, Head of Engineering at Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), to analyse the technical architecture of the Milan Games and the lines of evolution that will shape future Olympic events. The progressive reduction of the IBC, the consolidation of remote workflows, the virtualisation of infrastructures, the deployment of IP networks and the growing role of artificial intelligence outline a roadmap pointing towards an increasingly flexible, efficient and distributed model
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The scale of the Olympic Games requires meticulous coordination between all the actors involved, a process that begins long before the start of the event. In the case of Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), this work is structured in different phases that start practically from the awarding stage and go far beyond mere technical execution.
Before implementation, there is a process of consultancy, guidance and scope definition that is essential to contain the complexity and cost of an operation of this magnitude. “There are agreements that the International Olympic Committee defines for each organising committee regarding what needs to be delivered and done, but even so, we are usually a team that repeats itself, and that experience helps enormously when it comes to defining and limiting the scope,” explains Isidoro Moreno, Head of Engineering at OBS.
That continuity allows OBS, in Moreno’s words, “to put things into perspective to avoid requesting solutions that are very costly and, in many cases, unnecessary.” This approach is also aligned with the current agenda of the Olympic movement. “With the IOC’s focus on sustainability and efficiency, this also helps organising committees keep costs under control as much as possible.”
From there, a second phase begins in which the different departments translate that planning into reality. Venues are visited, production plans are reviewed, camera positions, cabling and infrastructures are assessed. But the moment when the operation takes on a more permanent character comes with the physical deployment of equipment on site. At that point, the first major player is the construction area, responsible for the fit-out of the IBC, the core of the entire operation.
In the last Winter Games, this deployment started well in advance. “In the case of Milan, if we count up to the handover of the space, they were there about six months before the Games. They moved in August 2025 and were the first team to arrive.” The installations team then takes over, responsible for all technical installation, from equipment to cabling. Once the IBC is completed, the work progressively shifts to the different competition venues.
An increasingly smaller IBC
One of the most visible axes of technological evolution in the Games is the progressive reduction of the IBC, the nerve centre from which all Olympic signals are produced and distributed. In Milan, this space was approximately 25% smaller than in Beijing. “Broadcasters can do much more with less physical presence,” summarises Moreno.
For years, Olympic coverage required the massive deployment of infrastructure and personnel. Moreno illustrates this with an example: “I remember that in Barcelona, the German broadcaster’s graphics infrastructure alone was larger than the entire setup of Spain’s public broadcaster, RTVE.”
The reason was simple: transmission capacity and remote access tools that make today’s model possible did not yet exist. The comparison with today is revealing. “Nowadays, for example, in Milan, a broadcaster like NBC has transmitted 564 channels to the United States. We are not talking about 564 programmes, but about the ability to send all the signals needed for remote production. Instead of moving an OB van with cameras and production equipment, you send the signals and produce from your home country.”
In this context, the IBC loses weight as a major physical production centre and is redefined as a space for work, coordination and control. This does not mean, however, that its role is no longer relevant. “In Milan, for example, there were 12 television studios and another 12 master controls, so there is still significant operation, but the weight shifts towards the venue or even locations within the city.”
In fact, many broadcasters reserve the IBC for planning, management or technical operations, while choosing to locate part of their on-screen presence elsewhere.
The underlying question is clear: how much further can this reduction go? In Los Angeles, studio capacity has already been adjusted to levels comparable to what previously corresponded to a Winter Games. But it is not only about technology enabling operations with less on-site presence. The geopolitical context and the pressure to reduce carbon footprint also play a role. “The trend is clear: reduction driven by technology and efficiency, but also influenced by the global context. Added to this is the pressure to reduce CO₂ emissions: moving large teams has a significant impact, and there is a general trend towards minimising travel.”
Use of drones
“The main problem has been noise. It is difficult to solve because the sound of the drone is not constant: it accelerates, slows down… and that makes it difficult to apply effective filters”
“In general, it has been a success. Negative comments were few and mainly came from radio, where noise is more disturbing because you don’t have a visual reference”
“I think we will have to use them more, but without overdoing it. Because there are things that, with four-point systems such as Spidercam and similar, can achieve a similar effect”
The role of the Madrid hub
Although Madrid has established itself as one of OBS’s strategic nodes, its role in Milan has been limited. The reason lies in the very nature of the event and the number of services that, in Games of this scale, still need to be deployed directly on site. “There has been very little remote operation from Madrid in this case,” summarises Isidoro Moreno.
Moreno explains that, in events such as Milan, Paris or Los Angeles, OBS not only provides services to broadcasters, but also to organising committees and federations, which requires maintaining a very strong infrastructure on site. One of the clearest examples is signal distribution for review and validation systems. “In Milan, we provided copies of approximately 70% of the cameras to the organising committee for review and validation systems: what in football (soccer) would be equivalent to VAR.”
Where Madrid does play a stronger role is in experimentation and in operations of a different nature. “What we do remotely are specific tests and developments. For example, we have worked on a virtualised master control.” This line builds on the path OBS began in Beijing 2022 with virtualised OB units and is now moving towards new layers of operation.
In fact, the next major leap already seems to be on the horizon. “For the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, the master control will be fully virtualised and operated remotely from Madrid. In that case it makes sense, because there is no significant presence of broadcasters on site.” There, remote work will go beyond master control. “It will be a much more intensive remote operation: not only master control, but also part of the production. It is a good example of how technology allows the model to be adapted depending on the type of event.”
“In the Milan IBC there were 12 television studios and another 12 master controls, but the weight shifted towards the venue or even locations within the city”
Virtualisation: from truck to software
Virtualisation emerges in the conversation as one of the main lines of technical evolution within OBS. The next step is the virtualised master control, still in the proof-of-concept phase, but with real possibilities of beginning partial implementation already in Los Angeles.
For Moreno, the advantage is clear, especially at a time when logistics and energy costs are becoming increasingly significant in any large international deployment. “Think, for example, about the geopolitical situation or fuel costs. All of that impacts energy, logistics… If instead of moving complete OB units you can work with servers — which, in a place like the United States, you can easily find — and virtualise the software, it is a huge step forward.”
Cost reduction is only part of the argument. The other relates to the overall efficiency of the system. “There is debate about data centre consumption, but I think it needs to be put into context. Consumption increases because digital content consumption has also grown massively. Data centres concentrate a lot of energy, yes, but they also concentrate a huge number of functionalities.”
Moreno argues that consolidation in centralised infrastructures has a clear logic. “If instead of centralised and virtualised systems you had discrete systems for each function, it would be much more expensive and less efficient. In a data centre you optimise resources: energy, backup systems, etc.”
“For Dakar, we want to launch an AI-generated Olympic channel”
Assessment of drone usage
Among the most visible innovations for viewers in Milan, the extensive use of first-person drones has probably been one of the most striking. Although it was not the first time OBS had used this type of resource, this edition saw a greater presence and wider deployment across more disciplines.
For Moreno, this evolution responds to a very clear logic: technological maturity and a radical improvement in safety conditions. “The key has been the evolution of drones: they have become much smaller and lighter. We have used drones weighing less than 250 grams, which is one of the key thresholds. That significantly reduces risk: they can cause harm, but it is not comparable to drones weighing several kilos.”
This hardware evolution was accompanied by an extremely careful operational framework. “We established very strict safety protocols. For example, the drone always stayed behind the athlete, so that in the event of an issue it would fall without impacting them. Emergency systems were also incorporated to minimise any risk.” OBS also sought highly specialised operators, with pilots who had an in-depth understanding of the disciplines they were covering. “We also looked for pilots with direct experience in the sport. In many cases, they were former athletes.”
In his view, the result has been particularly powerful from a storytelling perspective. “In bobsleigh, putting a drone inside the track and following the athletes is something impressive. And in disciplines such as slalom, it allows you to perceive the athlete’s real speed very clearly.”
The main drawback remains sound. “The main problem has been noise. It is difficult to solve because the sound of the drone is not constant: it accelerates, slows down… and that makes it difficult to apply effective filters.” Even so, he notes that the overall assessment has been positive. “In general, it has been a success. Negative comments were few and mainly came from radio, where noise is more disturbing because you don’t have a visual reference. In television there were some comments, but they were not significant. And, most importantly, the athletes did not complain. On the contrary, when they saw the result, they were very happy.”
Moreno believes that the key has been not overusing the resource. And that restraint will be important going forward. “I think we will have to use them more, but without overdoing it. Because there are things that, with four-point systems such as Spidercam and similar, can achieve a similar effect.”
“There is debate about data centre consumption, but I think it needs to be put into context. They concentrate a lot of energy, but they also concentrate a huge number of functionalities”
The invisible challenge: monitoring, support and distance
If one looks at the most spectacular side of the technical deployment, it might seem that the main challenge in Milan lay in new technologies or in the geographical dispersion of venues. However, Isidoro Moreno identifies the main challenge of this edition in a much less visible area: the logistical and technical management of an increasingly complex, distributed and automated network.
“The main challenge, without a doubt, has been the distribution of all the venues. Interestingly, from a technological point of view it was not a problem.” The reference to Paris helps put this into perspective. “Many people told me: ‘This must be incredibly complex.’ And I would reply: ‘Well, in Paris we had surfing in Tahiti, 9,000 kilometres away.’ In other words, today technology allows distance not to be a limitation.”
Where complexity does arise is at the logistical level. “We had to make a very significant effort to decide how to position key personnel and provide support. Technical support was essential, because network complexity increased enormously: an ST 2110 network, everything highly automated, paths that were no longer point-to-point as before, but very complex networks.”
This paradigm shift means that a localised issue can have effects in locations far from its point of origin. This is compounded by a common reality at the Games: much of the technical staff only joins during the operational phase and has limited time to become fully familiar with the infrastructure. “Even though we provide training, including remote training, you cannot expect someone arriving three or four days before operations begin to have an in-depth knowledge of the system. What you do want is for them to be operational, to detect if there is a problem and alert us so we can provide support.”
“For the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, the master control will be fully virtualised and operated remotely from Madrid”
OBS’s response was structured around two main fronts. The first was to reinforce remote monitoring of all critical elements. “One of the least visible but most important projects was the development of remote monitoring systems through which we could see network saturation, configuration and all kinds of critical parameters. The key was to have all that monitoring available remotely to detect problems even before they affected the on-air signal.”
Thanks to this system, it was possible to locate issues with a very high level of granularity. “We could identify, for example, packet loss on the transmission line and determine whether it occurred at reception, in the TOC (Technical Operations Center), or even in the truck.”
The second pillar was the creation of a centralised support centre. “We maintained an operational master control — for signal switching, audio control, colour, sharpness, etc. — but we also significantly developed a technical master control. This technical master control was not simply waiting for someone to call; it had an active role: it often detected potential issues before they impacted operations.”
According to Moreno, this layer of supervision was one of the decisive elements of the system. “That master control was fundamental. We even operated on a 24-hour schedule to continue providing support once the day’s events had ended.” In a scenario where it is no longer enough to “get in a car and arrive in ten minutes,” this centralised monitoring and response capability becomes essential. “I couldn’t set up a mini IBC in each hub, and we had four different centres, in Cortina, Livigno and other locations. That made the operation much more complex.”
“We have further developed a technical master control, which had an active role: it often detected potential issues before they impacted operations”
IP, AI and more flexible services for broadcasters
If there is one idea that runs through Moreno’s view of OBS’s evolution, it is flexibility. And much of that capability stems from the deployment of a fully IP-based network, which in Milan has made it possible to respond more agilely to changes, additional needs and complex configurations for broadcasters. “The development of a fully IP network has given us tremendous flexibility when it comes to delivering services to broadcasters.”
This same principle has also extended to other, less obvious areas, such as the work of commentators distributed across venues. “We started with video, but we have also taken it into the commentator space.” The geographical dispersion of venues required the creation of new signal paths to meet broadcasters’ editorial needs. “Many broadcasters wanted the same commentator for both events. Also, since the competitions were not held simultaneously but alternately, that same commentator could take part in one venue and then the other. That required us to create signal paths that we did not have before.”
Alongside IP, the other major line of innovation is, naturally, artificial intelligence. OBS has applied it in Milan both to visual support tools for viewers and to content automation workflows.
This was complemented by layers of information that helped contextualise the action from a technical perspective: entry speed, jump height, number of rotations or degree of difficulty. “All of that helps the viewer enormously. In countries where winter sports are less established, it is essential to help the audience understand what they are watching.”
Automated highlights and an AI-generated Olympic channel
Where OBS appears particularly determined to push forward is in the field of automated content generation. Moreno speaks about it almost as one of the clearest statements of where the organisation aims to evolve in the coming years.
“There is a project we are particularly proud of, which we developed with external support, although a very significant part was done internally at OBS with our own engineers. It is the automated sports highlights generation system.”
The starting point was a fairly obvious limitation in the previous model: the required neutrality of OBS-produced highlights, designed for a potentially global audience and therefore not very adapted to each country’s editorial priorities. “Our highlights were always very neutral, because our potential viewer can be from any country.” As a result, many broadcasters had limited room for personalisation.
To address this, OBS has developed an architecture that combines visual analysis, contextual metadata, results data and logging layers. “It does not analyse video continuously, but frame by frame, every few seconds.” This analysis is then cross-referenced with data from the organising committee, results and other descriptive elements to generate what they internally call AMD, Automatic Media Description.
“The system could detect tears, but also know who that person was and in what context it was happening.” This level of descriptive depth enables very precise searches and opens the door to semi-automated editing based on prompts. “We developed a plugin connected to an editing system, so that you could enter a prompt such as: ‘I want a 20-second highlight with the athletes’ entrance, the development of the event, the key moments and the outcome.’ The system would automatically select the content and assemble a first version on the timeline.”
The final layer goes even further: the possibility of generating automated narration. “As we also used the commentators’ narration as an additional layer of information, the system could even generate a voice and a script to tell the story. In one or two minutes, you had a highlight ready for any sport.”
This development directly connects with another, even more ambitious experiment: the idea of an AI-generated Olympic channel for Dakar. “For Dakar, we want to launch an AI-generated Olympic channel.” OBS has already tested a preliminary version of this concept with positive results. The system can prioritise events, decide which signal should go on air and even insert automatically generated highlights when a competition is extended and alters the planned rundown.
Final reflections: always listen to the user
In the final part of the conversation, Isidoro Moreno introduces a key reflection. “What I have learned, not just from these Games but from all of them, is that it is extremely important to listen to our users.” For OBS, this is not only a matter of customer relations, but an essential mechanism for deciding which services are worth developing and which are not.
“We held a workshop specifically aimed at asking what people want for the future. We have created a service menu, what we call our service directory, which is huge. But at the same time as we introduce new things, like the ones I mentioned, we also have to review whether some services we provided in the past still make sense.” This review is also part of sustainability. “Sustainability means having a broad offering, but not an infinite one.”
Moreno particularly highlights the value of feedback gathered during the Games from broadcasters already using tools such as automated highlights. “They gave us very valuable information. We created prompts, prompt templates that we distributed among them, and we saw that some worked very well in certain sports, but not so well in others. That is something you only really discover when you put the tool in the hands of the user.”
The conclusion is straightforward. “I have a fantastic team of engineers and we have very good ideas, but sometimes that idea that seems great to us is not useful to the user. And then, what is the point of offering a service that does not add value?”
From there, Moreno brings the entire conversation back to a foundational idea: innovation matters, but it can never be disconnected from the core mission of the host broadcaster. “We must never forget that our fundamental task is to deliver a product that works and helps the broadcaster.”
He concludes: “That has to do with things that are not very glamorous. When we talk about artificial intelligence, IP transmission, immersive audio and all of this, it sounds wonderful. But we must not forget that behind it there is infrastructure: cables have to be laid, fibre has to be deployed, installers have to complete connections, there is logistics supporting transport, there are support services providing accommodation and mobility… All of that team is fundamental.”
“One of the least visible but most important projects was the development of remote monitoring systems through which we could see all kinds of critical parameters”
A brief retrospective: from Barcelona ’92 to OBS
The current OBS structure cannot be understood without a historical evolution that has progressively redefined the Olympic production model. For decades, that responsibility fell to national broadcasters or structures created specifically for each edition, but the growing scale of the event ultimately made that approach unviable. “There has been an evolution. The first time an independent host broadcaster was established, separate from the organising committee, was in Barcelona ’92,” recalls Isidoro Moreno.
Barcelona therefore marked a turning point, although still within a temporary logic. The problem remained the lack of real continuity between editions. “Each edition involved a new committee, and although there was always someone from previous Games contributing experience, there was no real continuity.”
This gap was addressed with the creation of OBS as a permanent division of the International Olympic Committee. “In 2001, at an extraordinary session of the International Olympic Committee in Moscow, the creation of OBS as a permanent division was approved. OBS began operating in 2005, although still in parallel with Torino 2006, which was the last edition produced under the previous model. From Beijing 2008 onwards, OBS fully assumed production as host broadcaster.”
For Moreno, the value of that continuity is twofold. On the one hand, it allows a consistent quality standard across Games. On the other, it provides a much greater capacity to anticipate needs and avoid cost overruns. “I always explain it with an example: when I worked on Barcelona, there were many basic things we did not know because there was no accumulated experience. For example, services for broadcasters such as editing booths: you did not know whether you needed one, two or twenty.”
The results have been clear. “One of OBS’s founding objectives was to reduce broadcasting costs by around 50%, and that was achieved.”
More information
At TM BROADCAST, we have delivered extensive coverage of the Milan Olympic Games. These are some of the most notable reports:
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