diff --git a/src/ol_infrastructure/applications/ocw_studio/Pulumi.Production.yaml b/src/ol_infrastructure/applications/ocw_studio/Pulumi.Production.yaml
index 212dde312b..4d7bf0ecb7 100644
--- a/src/ol_infrastructure/applications/ocw_studio/Pulumi.Production.yaml
+++ b/src/ol_infrastructure/applications/ocw_studio/Pulumi.Production.yaml
@@ -40,6 +40,11 @@ config:
     OCW_STUDIO_LIVE_URL: https://ocw.mit.edu/
     OCW_STUDIO_LOG_LEVEL: INFO
     OCW_STUDIO_SUPPORT_EMAIL: 'ocw-studio-support@mit.edu'
+    OPENTELEMETRY_ENDPOINT: "http://grafana-k8s-monitoring-alloy-receiver.grafana.svc.cluster.local:4318/v1/traces"
+    OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES: "service.namespace=ocw-studio,service.instance.id=$(KUBERNETES_POD_NAME)"
+    OTEL_SERVICE_NAME: "ocw-studio-webapp"
+    OTEL_SPAN_ATTRIBUTE_COUNT_LIMIT: "128"
+    OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER: "parentbased_always_on"
     OPEN_CATALOG_URLS: 'https://open.mit.edu/api/v0/ocw_next_webhook/,https://api.learn.mit.edu/api/v1/ocw_next_webhook/'
     POST_TRANSCODE_ACTIONS: 'videos.api.update_video_job'
     PUBLISH_POSTHOG_API_HOST: https://ph.ol.mit.edu
diff --git a/src/ol_infrastructure/applications/ocw_studio/Pulumi.QA.yaml b/src/ol_infrastructure/applications/ocw_studio/Pulumi.QA.yaml
index b1adf5356d..79552ea4dc 100644
--- a/src/ol_infrastructure/applications/ocw_studio/Pulumi.QA.yaml
+++ b/src/ol_infrastructure/applications/ocw_studio/Pulumi.QA.yaml
@@ -44,6 +44,11 @@ config:
     OCW_STUDIO_LIVE_URL: https://live-qa.ocw.mit.edu/
     OCW_STUDIO_LOG_LEVEL: INFO
     OCW_STUDIO_SUPPORT_EMAIL: 'ocw-studio-rc-support@mit.edu'
+    OPENTELEMETRY_ENDPOINT: "http://grafana-k8s-monitoring-alloy-receiver.grafana.svc.cluster.local:4318/v1/traces"
+    OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES: "service.namespace=ocw-studio,service.instance.id=$(KUBERNETES_POD_NAME)"
+    OTEL_SERVICE_NAME: "ocw-studio-webapp"
+    OTEL_SPAN_ATTRIBUTE_COUNT_LIMIT: "128"
+    OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER: "parentbased_always_on"
     OPEN_CATALOG_URLS: 'https://discussions-rc.odl.mit.edu/api/v0/ocw_next_webhook/,https://api.rc.learn.mit.edu/api/v1/ocw_next_webhook/'
     PUBLISH_POSTHOG_ENABLED: 'true'
     PUBLISH_POSTHOG_API_HOST: https://ph.ol.mit.edu
diff --git a/src/ol_infrastructure/applications/odl_video_service/__main__.py b/src/ol_infrastructure/applications/odl_video_service/__main__.py
index 73d8fbae30..7b96d12e1a 100644
--- a/src/ol_infrastructure/applications/odl_video_service/__main__.py
+++ b/src/ol_infrastructure/applications/odl_video_service/__main__.py
@@ -816,6 +816,42 @@
 }
 app_env_vars.update(k8s_extra_vars)
 
+# OVS has no `vars:` block in its stack configs -- every non-secret env var is
+# literal here -- so unlike micromasters/xpro/ocw_studio the OTel block lives in
+# the program rather than in Pulumi.{QA,Production}.yaml.
+#
+# Gated on CI because `setup_grafana` (substructure/aws/eks/grafana.py) returns
+# early for `ci`, so no Grafana Alloy runs there and
+# grafana-k8s-monitoring-alloy-receiver does not resolve. Setting the endpoint
+# uniformly is not free: it buys a connection failure per span batch, forever,
+# in the one environment nobody watches.
+#
+# OTEL_SERVICE_NAME and OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES are read straight from the
+# environment; OPENTELEMETRY_ENDPOINT is a Django setting odl_video/settings.py
+# reads, which is why it carries the full /v1/traces path rather than a base URL
+# the SDK would append to.
+if stack_info.env_suffix != "ci":
+    app_env_vars.update(
+        {
+            "OPENTELEMETRY_ENDPOINT": (
+                "http://grafana-k8s-monitoring-alloy-receiver.grafana.svc"
+                ".cluster.local:4318/v1/traces"
+            ),
+            "OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES": (
+                f"service.namespace={ovs_namespace},"
+                "service.instance.id=$(KUBERNETES_POD_NAME)"
+            ),
+            "OTEL_SERVICE_NAME": "ovs-webapp",
+            "OTEL_SPAN_ATTRIBUTE_COUNT_LIMIT": "128",
+            # Alloy tail-samples (keep errors, keep >5000ms, 15% of the rest --
+            # substructure/aws/eks/grafana.py), so head sampling here would
+            # multiply with it rather than compose. `parentbased_` still honours
+            # an inbound "not sampled" so a trace crossing from APISIX stays
+            # coherent.
+            "OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER": "parentbased_always_on",
+        }
+    )
+
 # Unconditionally append k8s labels to OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES so all telemetry
 # signals carry organizational metadata regardless of stack environment.
 merge_otel_resource_attributes(app_env_vars, k8s_app_labels)