SVG Saturday Fax: The Week in Sports Video Production
Sports Video Group
To advance the creation, production, and distribution of sports content.
The biggest college hoops weekend of the year has already tipped off, so let's get into all the action in Cleveland and Phoenix. Plus animated hockey in Chicago, the NHL goes to the cloud, live backcountry skiing in Revelstoke, and MLB Local Media embarks on year 2.
Catch up on all of the happenings in live sports production and operations in your latest edition of the SVG Saturday Fax.
Women's Final Four Hits Cleveland Amid Caitlin Clark Mania
All eyes will be on Cleveland this weekend for what promises to be one of the most historic chapters in the history of women’s basketball. Coming off mind-boggling ratings for the Elite Eight, ESPN is pulling out all the stops for coverage of the NCAA Women’s Final Four at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. It’s a revelrous moment for ESPN’s production and operations teams, who, between Women’s College Basketball and the WNBA, work tirelessly all year to grow the sport of women’s basketball.
“Our team has always recognized the excitement and athleticism of women’s basketball,” says Catherine Chalfant (Carroon) , manager, remote production operations, ESPN. “It’s special to be a part of this event when the rest of the world is just as focused on the event. To see the fruits of our labor pay off in such a historic manner, with unprecedented viewership, has been the icing on the cake to what has been a very special season. And we know the best is yet to come this weekend in Cleveland.”
SVG also sat down with ESPN Director Jimmy Platt , who will be directing his sixth NCAA Women's Final Four, to discuss what he expects from this weekend’s telecasts, the key cameras and production tools at his disposal, how he balances covering Clark with the rest of the game’s storylines, and how he has seen the women’s game explode in popularity over the past few years.?
SVG Is Live From the Men's Final Four All weekend!
The best men’s college basketball programs in the country are in Phoenix at the 2024 NCAA NCAA Men’s Final Four. Taking place at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ, the NFL venue will be buzzing with commotion and activity over the next four days that will culminate in Monday’s National Championship.
Sports Video Group’s Director of Digital Brandon Costa and Senior Editor Kristian Hernández are onsite as your go-to resource for all things production. Stay tuned to sportsvideo.org for real-time content from the desert throughout the weekend, including reports on TNT Sports U.S. , cbssports ,Crimson Tide Productions, NC State Athletics , Purdue Athletics , University of Connecticut, and much more!
NHL, NBC Sports Chicago Produce Animated Blackhawks Altcast
Animated alternative broadcasts are increasingly popular sports programming as leagues, teams, and media partners strive to reach new, younger, and more diverse audiences. The National Hockey League (NHL) , in particular, has showcased a national regular-season game with its Big City Greens Classic in each of the past two seasons. Now the league is bringing the format to the local-broadcast level.
The Chicago Blackhawks , NBC Sports Chicago , and the league are partnering to produce the first-ever local animated real-time sports broadcast when the Chicago Blackhawks host the Dallas Stars. The animated alternative broadcast, which is powered by Beyond Sports , Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd , and others, will air today at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Chicago Plus, with avatars of play-by-play announcer Chris Vosters and analyst Dominic Moore providing commentary.
“In many ways, this broadcast is going to be like a rush to the senses and in a good way,” said Jon Slobotkin , SVP, content and live programming, NBC Sports Regional Networks.
Inside the NHL’s Historic Live Cloud Game Production
When it comes to pivotal moments in the history of the National Hockey League (NHL) , the evening of March 22 won’t be remembered for a milestone on the ice, but it will be remembered as the start of a new era of broadcasting. On that date, the league, with the help of Amazon Web Services (AWS) , made broadcast history with a completely cloud-based live production of the game between the Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes.
For the game played in Capital One Arena in DC, all the camera and audio signals were encoded into the cloud and cut by two NHL crews wielding cloud-based production tools to create two shows: a regular broadcast, produced by an NHL Network crew in a control room at MLB NETWORK in Secaucus, NJ; and an alternative stats-heavy broadcast (NHL EDGE Unlocked), cut by the NHL Studios team in a control room at NHL Headquarters in Manhattan. The feeds from 10 JPEG XS cameras were sent to AWS Media Connect for re-encapsulating to NDI for cloud routing and distribution, according to Grant Nodine , SVP, Technology, NHL. The NDI routing fabric makes the signals available to the different broadcast tools in the cloud: the switcher, graphics, replay, and everything else.
"We’re on our way to a fully direct-to-consumer distribution model where [fans will create their own] experience,” explains David Lehanski , EVP, business development and innovation, NHL. “Do you want stats? No overlays? Want to play a game or bet? ...Maybe you want a kid’s version or even a lifestyle version like the Manningcast. And now the technology is there to efficiently be able to produce all that content.”
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Live From the Backcountry: Taking REMI Production to New Heights With Natural Selection Tour Snowboarding
The Natural Selection Tour has been referred to as “a manifestation of snowboarders’ wildest dreams.” When it comes to logistics, however, the live production of the backcountry freestyle competitions is more akin to a broadcasting nightmare. Despite the challenges, tour production partner Uncle Toad's Media Group pulled off a flawless two-day REMI production at the marquee competition last month at Revelstoke Mountain in British Columbia.
“Plenty of others have pulled off backcountry events like this with one or two cameras, and they do a solid job,” says Jordan Velarde , CEO/founder, Uncle Toad’s Media Group, who served as executive producer. “Our goal is to bring the same broadcast quality and style that you would have for a major live event."
Chris Steblay and the Uncle Toad’s team produced both days of competition in 1080p using a REMI-production workflow that linked the onsite operation in Revelstoke with a control room at Red Bull Media House in Santa Monica. CA. Onsite, the operation relied heavily on a pair of drones and several RF Wireless Systems Inc camera systems to cover the wide-ranging action.
MLB Local Media Hits Its Stride in Year 2 With D-backs, Padres, and Rockies Broadcasts
After taking over San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks broadcasts on the fly in the middle of last season, MLB will also be producing and distributing Colorado Rockies games this season. With last season under its belt, the league’s Local Media team is looking to level-up broadcasts for all three teams with a full arsenal of production tools and technological innovations.
“The key to the 2024 season has been the ability to plan,” says Doug J. , SVP/executive producer, local media, MLB. “Last year was more about getting our feet under us and ensuring these games were on the air and at a high production level."
Kendall Burgess and the MLB Local Media ops team is working closely with Mobile TV Group and MLB NETWORK this year. It has partnered with DEFY Products to add a WireCam system to Petco Park in San Diego, Chase Field in Phoenix, and Coors Field in Denver and is also closely with the league to deploy an Ump Cam across all three teams’ games this year.
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