At-Home Production Provides Bevy of Logistical Benefits, but Connectivity Challenges Remain In a discussion at the LiveTV:LA conference, broadcasters and vendors explain how they are meeting them By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Friday, August 11, 2017 - 10:06 am
Print This Story
Story Highlights
At-home production, along with the IP technology that makes possible, is no longer emerging. It's here, and it's being deployed by many of the major broadcasters and sports leagues across the country, whether their viewers can tell or not. As the industry moves forward with growing confidence, how are they leveraging these opportunities, and what technological challenges remain?
The topic of at-home production and IP was addressed during a panel discussion at SVG's LiveTV:LA conference. From left: Deluxe's Rick Phelps, Pac-12 Networks' Leon Schweir, NFL Media's Dave Shaw, Aspera's Jonathan Solomon, and The Video Call Center's Larry Thaler
In San Francisco, Pac-12 Networks has been one of the early success stories in at-home production and IP technology. The five-year-old network produces 850 events for live television distribution per year, all featuring some element of IP and more than 400 produced with a full at-home workflow. To make it possible, Pac-12 Networks has established an Internet 2 network that connects nearly 100 venues on 12 campuses across the conference.
In the world that we're in, the network is where you start, said Leon Schweir, SVP, production, Pac-12 Networks, on a panel at LiveTV:LA. The network that we have is robust enough that we don't have to worry about how many cameras we're bringing; we don't really worry about latency, packet loss, or jitter. It's a very stable network.
For an at-home production, Pac-12 Networks will roll up to the venue with no more than a Sprinter van and six or seven cameras. The only people needed onsite are the camera operators and an A2 to test audio. The camera and audio feeds are sent to a control room in Pac-12 Networks' San Francisco facility, where it's cut as if it had gone to an onsite production truck .
In Schweir's view, this offers multiple benefits, including the ability to use top production and operations talent on more events than geography would normally allow. It means not only that the scale of programming is greater, with broadcasts that could never have been done in traditional production models, but that the quality of those shows is greater.
In San Francisco, we have our core group to do all of these events, he pointed out. We think that's an important component of why we're able to get quality into events that we maybe normally wouldn't be able to get such quality [into]. We have our regular skill positions all the time. It's always hard to hire - depending on what cities you are going to - TDs, A1s, replay [operators], graphics [operators]. So, for us, we are getting much better quality and consistency in at-home productions than if we tried to do this in 96 venues over six states.
Even the NFL and NFL Media are heavy users of IP technology and at-home workflows. Although NFL Network no longer produces any live NFL games, the network does provide hours per day of live studio programming, and for major events, such as the Super Bowl, the NFL Draft, or Thursday Night Football, at-home models are critical to the live network-produced shows from those sites.
Mostly, it was [done] to save money originally, but we bring it in for our digital packages; we bring it in for our highlights, said Dave Shaw, VP, production, NFL Media. We bring in a clean feed and a dirty feed. So we package nine muxes in every game from a single fiber.
Although this may sound like an operations manager's nirvana, the technology is still its infancy. From reliable networks to firewalls to finding connectivity in non-traditional venues, at-home production and IP technology still have plenty of hoops to jump through before becoming mainstream.
Perhaps no greater challenge remains then that of the first mile : getting broadcast-quality connectivity from a place that may not be very conducive to it. Numerous tech vendors are developing solutions to this problem, including Deluxe. Known primarily across the entertainment industry as the big creative-services and postproduction house, Deluxe also has an extensive IP network for broadcast distribution and cloud playout.
We use contested internet activity that's available at the venue, so each venue could, potentially, have an issue with that, said Rick Phelps, SVP, broadcast sales, Deluxe. We're experimenting with 4G and 5G technology to overcome any obstacles that you have with the connectivity. Once we get [the content] into our encoded environment and get it onto our broadcast-delivery network, that mitigates all the problems you would have. But that first connectivity at the venue is still the main issue.
For such vendors as Aspera, one of the industry leaders in transmission and high-speed file-transfer software, the solution for the time being is commoditized transport.
Not every event is going to be in a major venue, where you have [a connection to] The Switch or Level 3, noted Jonathan Solomon, senior sales and systems engineer, Aspera. So I think [we enable] it by going to commodity and working over the problems instead of around the problems.
Want to hear more about the current and future state of at-home production and IP technology? Watch the entire conversation from a panel on the topic from our LiveTV:LA conference below:
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
06/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
06/04/2026
From high school sports all the way up to the major leagues, building high-quali...
06/04/2026
Quickplay, an AI company for the media and entertainment industry, has been accepted into the Advanced tier of the TwelveLabs Ecosystem Partner Program. Quickpl...
06/04/2026
Grass Valley has announced the Future Playmakers Program, a global initiative to...
06/04/2026
El l der de operaciones impulsa la producci n en estudio mientras encuentra insp...
06/04/2026
The ops leader helps lead the charge in studio for the Spanish-language broadcas...
06/04/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
06/04/2026
The National Hockey League (NHL), in partnership with Verizon and the New Jersey Devils, today announced the opening of the NHL Innovation Lab powered by Verizo...
06/04/2026
Rock League, a new professional curling league, has announced that ESPN+ will stream its inaugural 2026 season for fans in the United States. The first Rock Lea...
06/04/2026
Advanced Systems Group has announced the appointment of Andrea (Andy) Cummis as Vice President of Systems Design and Engineering. In this role, she will lead de...
06/04/2026
Backed by Bolt Ventures, the venture brings Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat, and...
06/04/2026
With this environment we can start that collaboration even earlier because we ca...
06/04/2026
Like the immortal lives of vampires, some stories never really end. That's t...
06/04/2026
As podcasting continues to evolve, growth increasingly means building beyond aud...
06/04/2026
Multiband dynamics plug-in enhanced
California-based developer FSK Audio have released a significant update for their innovative multiband dynamics processo...
06/04/2026
Share official & user-created full-rig presets
IK Multimedia's latest TONEX update makes it possible for users of the popular amp and effects modelling ...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Dalet Showcases Dalia Agentic AI and End-to-End Media Workflows at NAB Show 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Dalet, a leading technology and...
06/04/2026
OpenDrives Shows Off Sports Expertise in Sports Business Hub located in NAB Show...
06/04/2026
Proton to Demonstrate 3D Application at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Yet further creative potential unleashed through innovation in ...
06/04/2026
Autoscript Highlights Voice-Driven Prompting and PTZ Solutions at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Experience Autoscript Voice, PTZ prom...
06/04/2026
Mediaproxy Highlights Significant Enhancements to its LogServer suite at NAB Sho...
06/04/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Expands Kids Entertainment Lineup With Playground App ...
05/04/2026
Tackles all reported bugs!
SoundBridge have just announced the launch of a new update that introduces a couple of minor changes to their remote collaboratio...
04/04/2026
The University of Arizona's Men's Basketball team has only loss twice th...
04/04/2026
1080p HDR arrives, a new generation of storytelling tools takes center stage, an...
04/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
04/04/2026
Faster, cleaner and more intuitive than ever
The control software for Flock Audio's digitally controlled patchbay systems has just been treated to an up...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
DHD Introduces AI-Based Audio Noise Reduction to XD3 IP Core
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
The accompanying image shows the rear panel of the ...
04/04/2026
Macnica Redefines ST 2110 Flexibility with Two Speeds on One Card
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
New for NAB Show 2026, MEP100 SmartNIC now sup...
04/04/2026
Unified Media Workflows for Story-Centric Production
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
Framelight X unifies field capture, editing and publishing ...
03/04/2026
Michigan's Fab Five will reunite for an alternate presentation of the Mich...
03/04/2026
Avid will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (April 18-22, Booth N2226, Las Vegas Convention Center), demonstrating its Content Core platform and new AI-driven workflow c...
03/04/2026
Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has announced the appointment of Nick Barthee as Chief Operating Officer.
The announcement follows MRMC's transition fro...
03/04/2026
Interra Systems has announced that Elite Media Technologies has selected its BATON file-based QC solution for media workflows. Elite Media Technologies speciali...
03/04/2026
Ateme has announced that Moldtelecom has deployed Ateme technologies across its streaming workflow, covering encoding, delivery, operations, and analytics.
Mol...
03/04/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate Framelight X, its content management platform, at NAB Show 2026. The platform connects capture, ingest, editing, and publishing in...
03/04/2026
Encompass Digital Media and Techex have announced a cloud-native Master Control ...
03/04/2026
Live Vertical Video automatically track the action on the court via AI technology and delivers a fully optimized, 9 16 live feed for viewers...
03/04/2026
As the Illini make their first trip to college basketball's biggest stage si...
At-Home Production Provides Bevy of Logistical Benefits, but Connectivity Challenges Remain In a discussion at the LiveTV:LA conference, broadcasters and vendors explain how they are meeting them By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
