For the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) required a scalable and resilient live contribution workflow to support coverage across multiple venues and platforms.
Using 40 Vislink LiveLink bonded cellular units deployed onsite, WBD delivered live content across Eurosport, TNT Sports UK, Discovery+ and HBO Max. The requirement was straightforward: maintain stable, broadcast-grade live feeds regardless of terrain, venue distribution or network conditions.
Vislink LiveLink backbacks being prepared for use at the Winter Olympics
The Challenge
The Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics presented a complex production environment. Venues were spread across mountainous regions and city locations, requiring camera operators to work simultaneously across ice arenas, ski slopes and urban settings.
Multiple camera brands and formats needed to integrate into a single contribution workflow while maintaining low latency and consistent picture quality. Any interruption during live hits was unacceptable, and full redundancy across production hubs was essential.
Public cellular infrastructure was also under significant pressure due to high tourist density, roaming traffic and geographically dispersed venues. In this context, maintaining stable bandwidth required more than a single-network connection. It required an intelligent 5G bonded solution capable of aggregating multiple networks into one resilient transmission path, maintaining throughput and enabling seamless failover under fluctuating conditions.
The Solution
WBD deployed 40 LiveLink backpacks across multiple venues. Each unit utilised advanced 5G bonded cellular technology, combining multiple cellular connections into a single managed data stream. This allowed operators to maintain stable uplinks even in congested or variable coverage areas, while delivering broadcast-quality video with controlled latency.
A wide range of professional cameras, including Sony FX3, FX6, FX9, A7SIII and Canon R5C and R6, were connected via SDI and HDMI. This interoperability enabled production teams to select the appropriate camera for each environment without being constrained by transmission infrastructure.
Live feeds were routed to 10 Vislink playout servers split across two data centres in London and Hilversum. This dual-site architecture allowed feeds to be presented simultaneously in both locations, eliminating single points of failure and providing operational redundancy.
Receive racks at the 2026 Winter Olympics
Return vision was delivered via Terralink servers, while Focusrite audio systems supported IFB workflows, enabling two-way live production with reliable talkback and monitoring.
Across the Games, the system supported continuous multi-hour live transmissions daily without loss of on-air feeds. The contribution chain from camera capture through bonded 5G transmission, decoding, playout and return vision, operated as a unified and resilient production workflow.
Centralised Technical Oversight
To support the deployment, WBD implemented a dedicated MESH (Mobile Engineering & Support Hub) team. Four engineers based in Chiswick managed remote line-ups, signal validation and live transmission checks, while an onsite engineer provided venue-level technical support.
The WBD MESH team at the Winter Olympics
Before each live transmission, operators coordinated with the MESH team to verify video and audio integrity. Production galleries managed two-way contributions in real time, supported by bonded 5G resilience and dual data-centre decoding. This structured process ensured consistent transmission quality across multiple territories and platforms.
Architecture for Tier 1 Sports Broadcasters
The Milan–Cortina deployment illustrates how a bonded 5G architecture built around LiveLink, Terralink servers and distributed playout infrastructure can function as a repeatable live contribution framework for large-scale events.
By combining multi-network 5G bonding, dual-site decoding and real-time return vision within a single integrated workflow, WBD achieved resilience at each stage of the contribution chain. Interoperability with third-party camera manufacturers and audio systems such as Focusrite ensured the transmission layer supported editorial and production decisions.
The modular nature of the system allows it to scale from single-camera live hits to large multi-venue deployments and to integrate with evolving public 5G environments.
The Results
The deployment supported 40 concurrent bonded cellular systems across multiple venues, with full redundancy across two European data centres. The workflow enabled reliable two-way live production with IFB and return vision while feeding both linear and OTT platforms.
The bonded 5G approach ensured stable performance even in high-demand network environments, allowing WBD to maintain uninterrupted coverage throughout the Games.
Cameras were positioned both inside and outside at multiple event venues
Beyond the Winter Olympics
The same bonded 5G LiveLink workflow is used by Warner Bros. Discovery across Tier 1 sports properties year-round, including UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Conference League fixtures, the FA Cup, at tennis, rugby and cycling events, and at previous Olympic Games including Tokyo 2021.
Across these events, the objective remains consistent: stable live contribution, operational flexibility and integration with existing production infrastructure.
Customer Perspective
“With the scale and geographic spread of Milan–Cortina, resilience was absolutely critical. Splitting our infrastructure across two data centres and validating every live hit through our MESH team meant we could guarantee delivery. The system simply worked when we needed it most.” David Cook, Lead Production Broadcast Engineer, Warner Bros. Discovery
You can follow David Cook on LinkedIn here.
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