FIFA opens International Broadcast Centre for 2026 World Cup in Dallas

FIFA has opened the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) for the 2026 FIFA World Cup at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas.

The 45,000-square-meter facility will serve as the central broadcast operations hub for the tournament, which is scheduled to take place across 16 host cities in Canada, Mexico and the United States from June 11 to July 19. FIFA said about 2,000 broadcast media representatives will be based at the facility for up to seven months.

The center will house FIFA’s host broadcaster, Host Broadcast Services, FIFA media partners, the organization’s Video Content Production Department and its Football Technology and Innovation Department. The facility will also include the video assistant referee room.

Dallas previously hosted the International Broadcast Centre for the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

“When you’re back home and you watch a World Cup match on TV, you don’t realise that there are thousands of people working for it, not just in the stadiums but also, and in particular, in this International Broadcast Centre, which is the epicentre of bringing the FIFA World Cup to the entire world,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said.

The IBC will support infrastructure for camera positions, interview locations, mixed zones, studios, media tribunes, broadcast compounds and press conference rooms at tournament venues.

Lenovo, FIFA’s official technology partner, is deploying servers, devices and artificial intelligence-enabled systems for the tournament.

FIFA said more than 17,000 Lenovo and Motorola devices will be used across venues and team base camp training sites, with support from more than 200 Lenovo engineers.

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Lenovo ThinkSystem SR635 V3 servers will manage live video data from stadiums across North America and support FIFA’s IPTV feed. The system will deliver 10 channels to more than 1,000 screens at FIFA venues, with latency reduced to less than five seconds, according to FIFA.

FIFA also detailed two AI-enabled broadcast features for the tournament.

Digitally scanned 3D player avatars will be used to represent players in semi-automated offside technology graphics, while real-time stabilization software will smooth footage captured by referee cameras.

The referee-view system follows a trial at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.

“Thanks to AI, we’ve introduced some innovations that will be highlighted through the broadcaster for the fans,” Romy Gai, FIFA’s chief business officer, said. “These are just a couple of examples. We will have more to say, more to tell.”