MIAMI—For more than a decade, Telemundo has been a leader in providing original Spanish-language content for direct-to-consumer platforms, delivering more than 14,000 hours of original content to streaming partners last year alone. Additionally, our sports brand, Telemundo Deportes, is the designated home for Spanish-language coverage of the world’s most popular sporting events.

Given Telemundo’s global presence and its three distinct brands for sports, entertainment (Telemundo), and news (Noticias Telemundo), it’s become imperative in the last few years for everyone—from graphic artists to producers and production assistants—to have complete access to our graphics database. There, they must be able to fully customize templates, execute segments quickly and efficiently, and integrate data for use on social media. For the last two years, Flowics, which is part of the Vizrt Group, has provided these capabilities and more. 

Customization in the Cloud
Before choosing Flowics, Telemundo was planning to switch to a more flexible product that would allow us to maintain cohesive graphics packages across our software applications. Unfortunately, while the product we had used before managed to keep our third-party and post-production packets the same, it could never do so with our social media packets. Additionally, we needed better data integration for live stats for sports.

Flowics Graphics easily achieved this—for one, the customization options enabled us to literally copy and paste templates from one third-party software to another without errors. The data integration was also more fluent and quicker, allowing us to link our social media accounts directly to the platform. Stats data did not have to be linked to social media, either— the data could be integrated with third-party companies by feeding them our templates directly from the cloud.

Using Flowics Graphics in this way, we significantly cut down on the length of time to prepare graphics. The platform reduced errors because the data integrated bypassed human intervention in the middle. It also improved broadcast quality because we now have a lot of more data available than what we could do manually.

For example, we’ve used the Flowics platform in our coverage of the Premier League, the Mexican League, the Olympics, and the FIFA World Cup.  For the World Cup in particular, we use Flowics Graphics in both original and special programming, like the Women’s World Cup for under 17 and under 20. With other platforms, it used to take us months to design and integrate data for our FIFA coverage. With Flowics, we can do it in less than five days.

Segments From Anywhere
Because Flowics Graphics gives every producer an individual account to set up and execute segments in the cloud, the platform provides everything the team needs from anywhere in the world.

This function became critical when I got Covid in the middle of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics last year. Fortunately it was mild but I did have to stay home, but in just 2-3 days, I was able to run a whole social media segment from my house with just my computer, which was connected through the phone with the line producer. With any other platform, this process would have been far more complicated for me and the other team members working remotely.

Overall, Flowics Graphics has given my team the flexibility to create from anywhere with full customization, data integration, and efficiency of execution. We are also impressed with the service—Flowics is always just one phone call or email away, and they respond super quickly to all our needs. We are grateful for their help in making Telemundo a recognized superpower within broadcast.  

For more information, visit www.flowics.com. 

STAMFORD, Conn.—Molly Solomon will now carry the torch and lead NBC Olympics’ coverage, as NBC Sports Group has named her the executive producer and president of NBC Olympics Production. She will also continue to serve as the executive producer for the Golf Channel.

Solomon has worked at NBC Sports for three decades, which has included working on 10 Olympics, including being the coordinating producer of the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony and primetime show. She has been with the Golf Channel since 2012.

In her new role for NBC’s Olympics coverage, Solomon will be tasked with overseeing all day-to-day editorial production for the Games, as well as Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA. She will report to Pete Bevacqua, president of NBC Sports Group.

“As a broadcast partner at the PGA of America, and now as a colleague at NBC Sports, I’ve had a front-row seat watching Molly skillfully and creatively lead a tremendous GOLF Channel production team,” said Bevacqua. “We are excited to put oversight of our Olympic presentation into her exceptionally-qualified hands, and are especially proud to see a long-time and well-liked member of our NBC team return to her roots.”

“I can’t wait to dig in and work more broadly on the Tokyo Olympics, which will be the biggest media event in the world,” said Solomon.

The Tokyo Olympics will take place in the summer of 2020.

Solomon will now be based at NBC Sports Group’s International Broadcast Center in Stamford, Conn.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—Intel has announced plans for a 5G-based VR, 3D and 360-degree platform for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 and the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

In collaboration with SoReal, Intel Core and Intel Xeon processors will bring immersive experiences to the Olympics, including 5G-based VR/AR solutions, experiences and training assistance, as well as esports events and even a theme park.

Rick Echevarria, Intel sales and marketing group vice president and general manager of Intel’s Olympics program, said: “Intel is committed to help bring technologies including AI, 5G platforms and VR into the Olympic Games to provide innovative experiences for athletes, participants, spectators and stadium operators, as well as demonstrating how technology promotes successful business transformation.

“Working with an organization with deep expertise in VR/AR-related technology development as well as VR/AR content production, combined with Intel’s VR/AR expertise and 5G technology, we are confident in helping to bring more immersive experiences to participants.”

TOKYO—Intel hopes to offer fans a gold medal viewing experience for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo with its technological offerings, building off what it provided on-site and to fans around the world at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.

One of the new technologies that Intel will deploy during the games is 3D Athlete Tracking, a computer vision system that uses artificial intelligence to provide viewers real-time insight and overlay visualizations during events. 3DAT, in partnership with Olympic Broadcast Services, uses four pan-tilt mounted cameras to capture the form and motion of athletes, then apply pose estimation algorithms to analyze the biomechanics of athletes’ movements. The data will then be transformed into broadcast overlay visualizations available during replays. Intel and the OBS plan to use this technology during the 100M and other sprinting events.

Virtual reality will also continue to be a part of Intel’s Olympics plan following its debut at the 2018 PyeongChang games. Intel’s True VR technology will be used to create immersive experiences for a number of sports and venues during the games, including the opening and closing ceremonies, track & field, gymnastics, boxing and beach volleyball. The content will be distributed by rights-holding broadcasters.

In addition, the Intel World Open esports tournament will be hosted and powered by Intel prior to the games in Tokyo. Intel will provide live coverage of the tournament, which will be powered by Intel Core i7 gaming processors.

Intel’s technology plan expands beyond providing the above experiences for fans, but to also help with training and other services needed during the games. This will include VR training for the organizing committee to practice situations at competition venues; NeoFace facial recognition technology powered by Intel to help with security; and assisting Cisco with providing network technology to connect competition venues, the athlete’s village, broadcasting setups and more.

“We’re excited to be partnering with Intel to make Tokyo 2020 the most innovative Olympics in history,” said Masaaki Komiya, vice director general of the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games. “Working together with Olympic partners like Intel will be how the Olympic Games is ushered into the new age of technology and innovation.”