NBC gets ready to face Turin.

"At the Turin Winter Olympics, we will face our hardest technological challenge yet, in addition to the problems involved when you work in mountain areas with snow and ice," stated David Mazza, senior vp of NBC Olympics.

The main challenge will come from the fact that the 2006 Winter Olympics will be entirely transmitted in high definition in the U.S. "We had 20 years for the digital transition, so that wasn't too hard," commented Mazza, "but this time we will only have 17 months."

During the Athens Olympics, the only events transmitted in HD were the opening and closing ceremonies, athletics, gymnastics, swimming, diving and some judo.

According to HD expert Leonardo Chiariglione, who is originally from Turin, "High definition is a marginal issue in Europe, but it is very important in the U.S."

Mazza is especially concerned with the potential incompatibility of pieces of equipment produced by different manufacturers: "They all claim they are following the same standard, but we have to see how they interpret these standards."

NBC is getting ready: 1,000 technicians will travel to Turin from different NBC offices and an additional 1,000 will be hired on site. All equipment will be redundant and placed in "critical" spots. NBC will use two satellites and three different fiber-optic systems to transmit the signal to the U.S. The company will invest U.S.$50 million in equipment, to cover 19 sports in 15 locations throughout the Turin area.

NBC paid $614 million for the exclusive U.S. rights to the games. TOBO (Torino Olympic Broadcasting Organization)--the technological arm of TOROC (the organizing committee)--will provide all feeds in 16:9, but not all signals will be in HD. When TOBO transmits a standard signal of 525i, NBC will convert it to 1080i 60 Hz (doubling the lines electronically). "It's a good expedient, but it's not the same thing," explained Mazza. In New York, NBC will convert 16:9 format into traditional 4:3 format for analog transmission. In some instances, especially for events popular in the U.S., NBC will use up to 12 of their own cameras and each event will be anchored by an on-site NBC sportscaster.

Mazza has already visited Turin four times, and will stay there for four months prior to the Olympics. The first pool of NBC technicians left for Turin in August (even though work has been underway since May), and a second pool will reach the Italian city this month. Mazza will continue to shuttle between NBC's New York headquarters and Turin, before finally settling in the Olympic Village with a third group of technicians.