Alumni spotlight: Douglas Weisman

The 2024 Paris Olympics was a tremendous success for Douglas Weisman ’15. Instead of winning medals, though, he added to his trophy case. Weisman was manager of digital streaming solutions and ingest, working in the Stamford, Conn., headquarters of NBC Sports, and earned three Sports TV Emmy awards for the events, giving him a total of six.

“I handle the equipment and processes of receiving video and audio feeds from sporting venues all over the world for distribution to the NBC Sports app, as well as Peacock, for live content,” Weisman says. “My team also helped in recording every competition from start to finish, which our productions used for highlights, live shows and edited pieces.”

As a cinema student, Weisman was hoping to break into the entertainment industry through editing gigs. He struggled to find such work and got his “in” with NBC Sports through logistics. Weisman assisted with shipping and receiving equipment for the 2016 Rio Olympics and filled in as a media manager, which enabled him to work closely with engineers. Those connections helped him join the transmission engineering department and work multiple Olympics (2016 to present), the 2018 World Cup and Super Bowl LVI.

“[Editing] interested me the most because I enjoyed refining the story and making sure all elements come across as intended in my vision or the client’s vision,” Weisman says. “But, after starting at NBC and seeing the more technical roles in production, I realized that’s what I wanted to be part of.

“I’ve spoken to a few cinema grads about how they can go about breaking into the industry. I tell them it’s not getting the right job the first time, but making the most of it when you get to a company you want to grow in.”