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Resident produces Olympics broadcast By SYDNEY DANGREMOND sydney@appenmedia.com JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — While hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide tune into the Beijing Winter Olympics Feb. 4, Johns Creek resident Bob Lanning will be in a control room in Stamford, Connecticut, calling the shots. Six-time Emmy Award winning Lanning is leading the production of “Friends & Family,” a recurring segment in NBC’s broadcast of the Olympics that highlights the athlete’s support systems and backgrounds. The segments interlace coverage from athletes’ family homes, practice facilities and viewing parties with footage of the competitions. Instead of watching athletes medal, then seeing their parents celebrating in the stands, viewers see footage of the families in their living rooms jumping for joy with loved ones. “Friends & Family” originated out of necessity prior to the first COVID19-stricken Olympics in Tokyo last year after spectators were barred. It is returning for the games in Beijing. While organizers of the Beijing Games have announced that limited numbers of “selected” spectators will be present at the competitions, no fans from out of the country will be allowed to attend. As a result, NBC decided to bring back the successful “Friends & Family” segment with Lanning at the helm. Beyond inviting the many millions of Olympics viewers into athletes’ homes and communities, NBC also set up something called “mix zones” near competition areas. The zones have an announcer and a camera for interviews, but they also have monitors where the athletes can see and talk to their families in real time, right after the competition. “Caleb Dressel, who competed and won the gold medal [in the 100-meter freestyle]
Council members assess transportation sales tax projects By SYDNEY DANGREMOND sydney@appenmedia.com
BOB LANNING/PROVIDED
Video feeds from watch parties all over the country were fed to Bob Lanning’s NBC control room in Stamford, Connecticut. The timing of cuts had to be perfect, Lanning said, there were no do-overs. After he selected which shots and when, the feeds were sent to Tokyo to be broadcast live. gets out of the pool and walks over to the mix zone,” Lanning said. “So, this is two minutes after he just won the gold medal, we connected him to his parents and his wife… and he’s crying and she’s crying, and you never would have had that.” For athletes who couldn’t stop by the mix zones, Lanning recorded family members’ messages to share on social media for the Olympians to watch after they returned to the Olympic Village. The Tokyo Olympics were marked by their isolation. In preparation for the
games, athletes and coaches had to quarantine and were required to spend weeks away from family, making their virtual interactions that much more special. “We were able to make it much more intimate through ‘Friends & Family’ than it might have been if we had fans in the stands,” Lanning said. Prior to the games, producers and NBC staff spent weeks compiling a list of hundreds of athletes, contacting families
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JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — As Fulton County’s current transportation sales tax comes to a close, Johns Creek is assessing where it stands with ongoing road projects and what lies ahead. Brian O’ Connor, Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax manager, detailed the program’s progress at a City Council work session Jan. 24. So far, he said, the city has completed six major transportation projects funded through the 2016 transportation sales tax. Another 13 are underway. Each of the completed projects, O’ Connor said, has come in on time and within budget. The .75-percent sales tax has brought in more than $69 million to the city for transportation-related projects. Referred to as TSPLOST I, the sales tax ends March 31. Voters approved a five-year extension to the tax, TSPLOST II, last November. That tax is expected to bring in another $77 million over its term. The money will target pedestrian, bike and streetscape improvements, along with roadway upgrades. O’ Connor said money from the current sales tax has funded comple-
See COUNCIL, Page 21