By Michael P. Hill
Even before the unprecedented delay to the 2020 Summer Olympics due to the coronavirus pandemic, NBC and HD Studio knew the set’s for Tokyo would take a different approach — channeling a unique combination of environments while still incorporating a sense of global unity through sports that ended up taking on an even more fitting tone than usual.
“The day we got the call of ‘pencils down’ from NBC was coincidently the same day we delivered files to the fabricator,” said Bryan Higgason, HD Studio’s lead designer and founder, referring to when news began to circulate the Olympics wouldn’t take place in 2020 as planned.