Olympic Curling Broadcasting in Cortina

It’s happening in Cortina d’Ampezzo today.

Practice ice and the opening draw of mixed doubles both take place tomorrow (Feb. 4) but for all intents and purposes there is “Olympic curling” underway in the glorious 1956 Olympic Stadium on this lovely Tuesday afternoon.

Today marks the dress rehearsal for the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) crew and equipment, at around 2:00 p.m. local time. Typically they will have invited local curlers out to the venue to play a three- or four-end game, with everything plugged in and switched on and voices delivering test commentary.

I was with OBS for curling at two Olympic Winter Games, Turin (actually Pinerolo) in 2006 and at Sochi, Russia in 2014.

The dress rehearsal is fun because you’re using the font names of real competitors – like Niklas Edin, for example – even if the rock thrower the camera is following is a 16-year-old local girl named Giulia.

It’s not that much fun for the tech crew if problems crop up – but that’s why there’s a dress rehearsal, right?

I remember, at the Sochi dress, the turn of one particular blonde woman to throw a stone for her throw-together team of Russian event volunteers. She slid out like a laser beam and released the stone perfectly. I liked how high she was in her delivery, like I was when I competed.

On my monitor, the name on the font board said JENNIFER JONES (SKIP) CANADA.

I could almost believe it; she threw that well.

I recognized her again, less than two years later. Victoria Moiseeva was soon skipping the Russian national team to European gold in 2016, and at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang.   

Most curling fans reading these words will soon be listening to familiar voices commentate Olympic curling in their own countries – like Jackie Lockhart in the UK (TNT Sports, discovery+) and three-headed monsters in Canada (Mike Harris, Jennifer Jones and Joanne Courtney for CBC) and the United States (Tyler George, Jamie Sinclair and Kevin Martin for NBC).

But OBS also provides a universal commentary crew for nations that don’t have much in-house curling expertise. Those announcers are working live in the arena on site, announcing in English, and you just might get to hear some of their voices as fill-ins if your domestic talent needs a break – which they will, as streaming services mean:

So. much. curling. is. coming.

They have an impressive lineup this year.

The Curling News’ own Hans Frauenlob – a New Zealand Olympian – is back, and if you missed his earlier two-part series on the secrets of Olympic curling commentary, you’ll want to catch up right away.

Also returning is Norway’s Sander Roelvag, a stylish youngster (I still consider him young) with medals at the world mixed and European championships – and who is a favourite of World Curling’s “Curling Channel” subscribers.

The U.S. is represented by Olympian Ann Swisshelm, making her second appearance with OBS.

Canada’s Joan McCusker and another TCN columnist, Chelsea Carey, will make their OBS debuts. For 1998 Olympic champ McCusker it’s the first trip back to the Winter Games since her CBC days, and for Carey it’s an overall Olympic debut.

Carey will miss the mixed doubles competition; she’ll start with men’s and women’s team fours on Feb. 11.

The fourth woman on this six-person crew is Scotland’s Rhona Howie, the 2002 Olympic champion skip and another WCTV/Curling Channel veteran.

OBS is always keen to deliver broadcast innovations and we’ve heard of a new curling coverage tech tool. Here’s hoping the testing goes well today and we’ll see it in action this month.

That in addition to the return of the hogline sensor handles, which we first announced  last September and which successfully passed all tests at the European Championships and Olympic Qualification Events.

It’s getting really close now, folks.

The Olympic Winter Games are basically here.