Where is the BBC Winter Olympics studio? Beijing 2022 Olympic Games broadcasting location in UK and features

The Beijing Winter Olympics edges even closer and the opening ceremony will commence tomorrow, Friday 4 February 2022.

With 15 sports being staged over three different venues fans will be treated to a variety of snow and ice sports for just over two weeks.

Certain qualification rounds have already begun, such as the Curling, the freestyle skiing and the skeleton but the main events will begin after the opening ceremony in Beijing.

Eve Muirhead and Laura Deas will head Team GB as they bring their bronze medal experience from 2018 with them in a bid to aim even higher in China.

The BBC is offering over 300 hours of coverage of the Games and will offer as much as it is able in order to keep fans up to date with the latest news from Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou.

With the current COVID-19 climate, it has become difficult for  broadcasters to have the same access to events and tournaments, with the Winter Olympics being no different.

The BBC has recently unveiled its new plans for how it intends to host all of the coverage from Beijing whilst remaining COVID safe and conscious.

Here is all you need to know about the new Studio and how to follow the BBC’s coverage…

Where is the BBC WInter Olympics studio?

The BBC will be using their MediaCity in Salford, Manchester where they have created a new virtual reality studio for their coverage of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

What will this VR studio entail?

Viewers will see a mountainside log cabin as well as a virtual ski resort as they tune in to follow the latest from China.

As the Winter Olympics is a much smaller scaled Games than the Summer Tokyo Olympics, BBC Sport will not be utilising the large Dock 10 Studio but will use its Pres 2 Studio.

BBC Sport’s creative director for motion, John Murphy, spoke to SVG Europe and said: “The innovative element of the studio is in the virtual design. Although the footprint of our greenscreen studio is only 84 metres square, we have managed to create a virtual ski resort and studio which has more than five different presenting positions both inside and outside. It will also reflect different times of the day and you may even spot some wildlife!”

“Our studio …is a four-camera greenscreen studio with a locked-off fifth ceiling camera which we have brought in for the Winter Olympics; it gives us a bigger viewpoint from one of the positions in the studio.”

What have the BBC said?

Executive producer for major events at the BBC Sport said “We did consider whether we’d be looking at some live shots from some of the venues in Beijing, but you actually come up with a more impressive environment if you kind of let your imagination run away and come up with something that might be your ideal log cabin in a snowy mountain environment.

“We’re pretty happy with the way the studio looks. And again, it’s clearly virtual and we’re not trying to pretend it’s actually real, but it does look pretty impressive, so we can have a bit of fun with that.”

“Not only do we have a number of different positions inside the studio, but we’ve actually got various places where we can actually shoot - virtually - outside.”

How to watch the Winter Olympics

The BBC is broadcasting live coverage across BBC One, BBC Two and even more coverage will be available on a second live digital stream on BBC iPlayer, the Red Button and the BBC Sport website.

Coverage will begin from midnight to 5am with Ayo Akinwolere. Jeanette Kwakye will take over from 5am to 9.15am before Hazel Irvine comes in until 3pm.

JJ Chalmers will takeover coverage from 3pm to 6pm and Clare Balding will present a highlights show from 7pm to 8pm.

BBC Radio 5 Live will be another source to keep fans well informed with all the latest events in Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou.

Go to our article on How to watch the Olympics to find out even more.

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