Live From MLB All-Star 2024: With Full Slate of Events in Arlington, MLB Network Settles In for Multi-Day MLB Draft at Cowtown Coliseum League's production arm is embracing the western theme at the Fort Worth Stockyards By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor
Sunday, July 14, 2024 - 11:37 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
This year's starting pitcher for the 2024 National League All-Star squad, 22-year-old fireballer Paul Skenes, began his Major League Baseball journey by walking across the stage of the MLB Draft nearly one year ago. The next class of potential superstars and Hall of Famers will grace that same stage starting with Round 1 on Sunday, July 14 at 7 p.m. ET from Cowtown Coliseum. For those who won't be amongst the crowd in the Lone Star State and are watching from home, the broadcast from this 116-year-old venue will pack a thematic and technological-savvy punch.
Similar to our productions at Field of Dreams or Rickwood Field, this MLB Draft will be more of a blank canvas, says Jason Hedgcock, senior director, remote technical operations, MLB Network. We couldn't have asked for a better venue.
MLB Network has a strong ops and production crew for the 2024 MLB Draft. (L to R): Tony Vitello, Harold Reynolds, Chris Roenbeck, Todd Bivona, Greg Amsinger, Jim Callis, Ryan Delaney, Susan Stone, Dan O'Dowd, Ben Friedfeld, Mike Martin, Zaac Christopher, Tom Guidice, DJ Driscoll, and Marc Caiafa.
Working Within the Confines: Intimate Venue Presents Ops, Stylistic Challenges Although Cowtown Coliseum is accustomed to hosting sporting events that involve bovine animals, the building isn't necessarily used to holding larger-scale events with moving parts occurring onsite and remotely. With MLB Network's facility in Secaucus, NJ being brought online to insert graphics remotely, it was imperative to construct a reliable and accurate back-of-house infrastructure. Working from a more-than-a-century old venue in Birmingham, AL less than a month ago, many of the network's operations crew figured it'd be the same case in Fort Worth. They were treated to a much-needed surprise to ease their workload.
Luckily, this building does have some pre cabling, says Zaac Christopher, senior remote technical manager, MLB Network. It was much easier to run everything back home from the truck rather than run fiber from this pre-cabling to where our onsite mobile unit is parked.
This decision meant that the pre-existing infrastructure wasn't used, but having the possibility of tapping into it was a nice option to have. A bigger challenge was working from within Game Creek Video's Gotham and B9, with the latter being used by the network to send live video feeds back to ESPN's facility in Bristol, CT for ESPN's REMI-produced simulcast of the Draft. To compensate for the smaller-sized and 3,418-seat venue, as well as to further a production wrinkle that's been leveraged since the 2020 MLB Draft, all 30 clubs' respective Draft rooms and prospects watching from home will be brought back to site via Zoom.
This year's stage is leaning heavy on rodeo motifs and iconography.
We're going to have the Draft rooms for all 30 clubs and they're going to have their audio locked, continues Hedgcock. Zoom has a lot of great security features, so the only people that can see each team's video are the broadcasters. When a team is on the clock, they get removed from their initial Zoom and are put into another one with MLB operations. Once the pick is made and everything is officially done, they go back to their original Zoom.
In addition to these live Zoom feeds, the broadcast will feature 15 total cameras, including nine controlled by MLB Network, and three apiece from ESPN and Van Wagner. On the production end, this tighter space to work within presented a challenge that could disrupt how the televised product looked to the viewing audience.
When [Senior Coordinating Director] Mike [Martin] picked our final location, we were happy with our cross shots, says Tom Guidice, VP, remote operations, MLB Network. We were able to tweak the desk a little bit to get us our desired result shot.
Aesthetically, this studio set is outfitted with a sleek Western theme and vibe. Running parallel with MLB Global Events' - the department that's tasked with choosing the location of this marquee production - overall theming on and around the stage as well as other aspects of the building, MLB Network's crew matched it with stellar detail. To maintain the elevated set's beauty, the crew is paying attention to dust particles that are still present as remnants from the venue's usual all-dirt surface.
We had to set up all of our equipment three days before the start of the Draft, so we need to keep everything clean, continues Guidice.
Creativity Runs Wild: Front Bench Lays Out Ideas in Special Setting When MLB Network initially learned that this event would take place in a one-of-a-kind location like Cowtown Coliseum, the brainstorming process must have boomed with potential ideas. Concepts were thrown around, but being in a house where cowboys are thrown around, the front bench duo of Senior Coordinating Producer Chris Roenbeck and Martin focused on the similarities between bull riding and baseball.
The first thing I thought about is how can we showcase the rodeo in general and tie it into baseball, and I noticed the idea of eight seconds to glory in bull riding, says Roenbeck. When I watched Commissioner Manfred's picks from previous Drafts, they all seemed to be about eight seconds. We decided to focus our entire open on this idea and have it voiced by [Kansas City Royals shortstop and 2024 American League All-Star] Bobby Witt Jr.
Cowtown Coliseum in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards is the locatio
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
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...
07/05/2026
Journalists reporting on Sudan are working in one of the most complex and fast-m...
07/05/2026
Multi-year partnership positions Victory+ as a free home for Dallas Cowboys orig...
07/05/2026
From sideline reporting to directing and producing, the talented sophomore is building a well-rounded foundation for a career in live sports production
In the ...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital has received two Future Best of Show awards at NAB Show 2026. The COBALT blueCORE platform was recognized by TV Tech, and the COBALT PACIFIC ULL-...
07/05/2026
ESPN analyst Mina Kimes will host the televised semifinals and finals of the 202...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI, the global film streaming platform, has selected Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner. Bitmovin's encoding infrastru...
07/05/2026
NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and the U.S. Soccer Federation have announced...
07/05/2026
Angel City Football Club (ACFC) and Victory have announced a regional broadcast partnership bringing live match coverage to fans across the greater Los Angeles...
07/05/2026
Spiideo has announced the launch of AI Highlights inside Spiideo Play, its automated sports production platform. AI Highlights combines video, event data, audio...
07/05/2026
Leostream Corporation has announced a unified remote access ecosystem for high-p...
07/05/2026
The Atlanta Dream has partnered with Victory to stream all locally broadcast Dream games for free, expanding the team's digital distribution strategy and g...
07/05/2026
Riedel Communications has announced the appointment of Marc Engroff as Chief Fin...
07/05/2026
SES and ARD, Germany's largest public broadcasting network, have announced a long-term extension of their satellite distribution partnership through 2039. U...
07/05/2026
UpLight Technologies delivers a flexible video and lighting system for a new televised sportLaunching the Pro Cheer League required more than creating a compell...
07/05/2026
Full Day Productions and GSE Worldwide have announced Spikes Under the Lights, a...
07/05/2026
Seit dem Start im Jahr 2023 hat DJ (Beta) das personalisierte H rerlebnis von 94...
07/05/2026
Da quando stata presentata nel 2023, DJ (beta) ha aiutato a definire un'esperienza d'ascolto pi personalizzata per 94 milioni di utenti Spotify Premi...
07/05/2026
Since launching in 2023, DJ (beta) has helped shape a more personalized listenin...
07/05/2026
Desde o lan amento em 2023, o DJ (beta) j ajudou a deixar a experi ncia de ouvi...
07/05/2026
From our earliest days, Spotify has been built on a simple principle: Great audio should be easy to reach. It's what's driven us to expand from music to...
07/05/2026
Asian and Pacific Islander artists continue to shape the global soundscape, pushing creative boundaries and connecting with fans worldwide. This Asian & Pacific...
07/05/2026
Company announce long-requested choir instrument
In the latest expansion of their Symphonic Elements series, UJAM have introduced an all-new vocal instrumen...
07/05/2026
Modular-inspired sound generation with digital control
Buchla have introduced Ziggy, a new compact synthesizer built around the company's complex oscill...
07/05/2026
Combines analogue voices with digital synthesis and sequencing
Polyend have announced Drums, a new hybrid analogue and digital drum machine that combines sy...
07/05/2026
Control surface now officially supports four DAWs
When Nektar launched the Panorama CS12 control surface, it worked exclusively with Apple's Logic Pro, ...
07/05/2026
In the first quarter 2026, SGL Carbon generated consolidated sales of 184.5 million, which was 49.8 million, or 21.3%, lower than in the prior year (Q1 2025: ...
07/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz and Greenerwave achieve precise and fast ESA antenna characteriz...
07/05/2026
Two multi-role L3Harris products - the Red Wolf launched effects vehicle and SK...
07/05/2026
L3Harris will be developing key features of a secure and resilient digital infra...
07/05/2026
Alysa Liu and Shohei Ohtani Help Drive Viewership as 91 of the Top 100 Broadcast...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital Wins Two Future Best of Show Awards at 2026 NAB Show
Manufacturer Recognized by TV Tech and TVBEurope for Innovation in signal processing
Cobal...
07/05/2026
Software and hardware platforms, AI power and user-friendliness on show...
07/05/2026
Intinor will demonstrate its latest technical enhancements for the Direkt series at BroadcastAsia 2026. With a continued focus on reliable contribution and remo...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI has chosen Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner, replacing MUBI's legacy on premises encoding setup to improve scalab...
07/05/2026
Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2026 Members of this years graduating class reflect on their proudest moments at Berklee and look ahead to whats next.
...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
At BroadcastAsia 2026, Interra Systems will demonstrate its latest innovations in automated quality control (QC), real-time monitoring, and captioning. The comp...
07/05/2026
At this year's Broadcast Asia, PlayBox Neo is set to unveil recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solution...
07/05/2026
Strategic three-year partnership marks delivery phase of BFBS' next-generation media vision
Media organisation and military charity BFBS (British Forces Br...
07/05/2026
Amagi, the agentic industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, today announced the availability of its In-Content Ads offering v...
07/05/2026
Lightware Visual Engineering has developed Rack Taurus for rack-based environments such as education and corporate training spaces. It enables clean and simple ...
07/05/2026
Jigsaw24, the UK's leading media equipment supplier and systems integrator, will showcase its expanded end-to-end workflow capabilities at MPTS 2026, signal...
07/05/2026
Ease Live, an Evertz company, today announced that it has been granted a US Patent for its proprietary graphical overlay technology, the foundation for interact...
07/05/2026
Test & measurement innovator Leader Electronics of Europe will present an extensive range of Leader, PHABRIX and LeaderPhabrix test and measurement solutions at...
Live From MLB All-Star 2024: With Full Slate of Events in Arlington, MLB Network Settles In for Multi-Day MLB Draft at Cowtown Coliseum League's production arm is embracing the western theme at the Fort Worth Stockyards By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor 
