More than 219.4 million Americans were captured by the graceful figure skaters, the aggressive ice hockey matches and the swift luge at Sochi this winter. But really, it is what goes on behind the scenes of the Olympics that allows the audience to experience the action.
Elon University communications professor Max Negin had the opportunity to work with NBC in its coverage of the Olympics. His official role was a digital playback operator, which involved training interns and monitoring different feeds throughout the day.
“I was basically a cog in the operation,” Negin said. “Basically, they record every event that happens and produce feeds of everything that happens. My job was to get the footage from the hard drive to the producers to use for editing. Once they are done editing they send it back to an area where they play it back. I monitor that transfer.”
After the process is set up and the team has a flow moving, Negin takes the role of a fireman, waiting for something to go awry.
“We were missing a feed from one of the venues, I believe it was figure skating,” Negin said. “I had to be a detective and ask four different people why there wasn’t a feed. Basically, there were two phone numbers that someone needed to call to get the feed. I needed to bridge a gap of communication to a group of people that think they are all right, but they are not all right.”
Negin’s work at the Olympics was nonstop, including 12-hour shifts and one-half to one hour of travel each day, plus the potential of working overtime.
“It’s a grind,” Negin said. “You go home, watch a movie, sleep, answer emails if possible and call the family. Then go again. Some people went sightseeing, but I was primarily there to work and maintain some form of sanity.”
According to Negin, the most difficult part of working Sochi was being away from his friends and family. Despite this separation, he was still rewarded with the opportunity to go to another country, improve himself and work with talented individuals.
“Professionally, the beauty of it is that there are so many highly skilled people,” Negin said. “It is one of the only places I work where everyone is hardworking and nice. It allows me to become a better professor and enlighten my students and colleagues.”
Additionally, he was able to put his own skills to the test by coming up with solutions to the various problems.
“The challenge is that there is not always a specific answer,” Negin said. “You need to come up with answers no one can tell you, which is one of the greatest skills that you can have: being resourceful and not just throwing up your hands. It is also one of the greatest rewards because I can share that information with 10 other people, [and] they have it the next time it happens.”
This is not Negin’s first time helping with the coverage of the Olympics, as he has done similar work for NBC with London, Vancouver and Bejing. He got this opportunity after covering golf for NBC and they needed people with knowledge of EVS broadcasting equipment, which was being used at a large scale at the next Olympics.
“Every time I have gone it changes a bit,” Negin said. “From Beijing to Sochi it has developed technically. I have gotten to shape that workflow in my own tiny way through training and streamlining the process.”
The biggest difference of his experience between the countries was the time differences. For example, with Sochi being nine hours ahead there was less urgency than Vancouver, where it was only a four-hour difference.
Negin’s advice to anyone who wants to pursue something similar is to get involved with the experience.
“Get close,” Negin said. “If you cannot get in, get as close as you can and be patient. People start as interns to assistants to producers. It doesn’t happen overnight. Some of the time you find that what you want isn’t really what you wanted in the fist place and things change. Just keep your eyes on the prize and go for it.”