2020 in Review, Part 2: How MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS, NWSL, and WNBA Productions Returned in the Age of Coronavirus By SVG Staff Wednesday, January 6, 2021 - 11:48 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
When the pandemic caused the U.S. sports world to suddenly grind to a halt in mid-March, broadcasters and live-event producers were faced with one of the greatest challenges in the industry's history: How to bring back live sports broadcasts safely.
In the ensuing months, sports broadcasters, technology vendors, and production-service providers worked together to develop unique new workflows - both on-site and remote - that would pave the way for live-sports broadcasts to resume. Despite a litany of unknowns and a 2020 sports calendar thrown into chaos, all four major U.S. sports leagues returned along with the bulk of the major American sports events - providing a much needed respite for content-hungry sports fans struggling during the pandemic.
Here is the second of SVG's three-part series The Comeback: How Live Sports Production Returned in the Age of Coronavirus , which provides an in-depth look at the industry's monumental efforts to bring back live sports production in the face of coronavirus in 2020. The Comeback was originally published in the 2021 SVG Sports Production Yearbook, which you can read in full HERE. And make sure to check out the hyperlinks throughout this story for more in-depth articles on these groundbreaking productions.
MLS, NWSL Tournaments Take the Pitch
ESPN's GoalCam was installed in all goals on all fields at Wide World of Sports for the MLS Is Back Tournament.
After European soccer got a head start with Bundesliga, Premier League, La Liga, Series A, and others taking the pitch in May and early June, American soccer got into the game with a pair of stateside tournaments just as summer kicked off. Both the NWSL Challenge Cup and the MLS Is Back Tournament were held inside bubbles to keep players, personnel, and broadcast crew safe.
First up was the NWSL Challenge Cup, which not only marked the return of live team sports in the U.S. on June 27 but also was the first time an NWSL match appeared on a broadcast network.
NWSL commentators Jenn Hildreth (seen here) and Aly Wagner were located in Vista's studio in Dania Beach, FL, where they called the action for the NWSL Challenge Cup.
To produce the 23 match broadcasts (the opener and Champion- ship Game aired on CBS, with all matches streamed on CBS All Access) from Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman, UT, the league and CBS Sports teamed with longtime NWSL partner Vista Worldlink to remotely produce the matches from its centralized broadcast facility in Dania Beach, FL. A total of 18 transmission paths were sent from Utah to Vista's production facility - via satellite uplink, IP, and bonded cellular to ensure redundancy - to handle camera feeds and comms.
ESPN'S Kevin Cleary (foreground) and A1 Andy Bartley 6 ft. apart aboard F&F Productions' GTX 19 for the MLS Is Back Tournament in Orlando.
Soon after in July, the MLS Is Back Tournament kicked off from Disney World's Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando. ESPN served as host broadcaster for all 54 match broadcasts - which were carried on a combination of ESPN, Fox Sports, and Univision/TUDN in the U.S. and on TSN in Canada. ESPN rolled out a production complement unprecedented for MLS coverage. Coverage of the three active playing fields in Orlando featured a whopping 33 cameras per field, including a cable-suspended aerial system, drones, a jib cart, pole cams, goal cams, and POVs in the locker rooms. Other highlights included microphones embedded in the field and a 300-ft.-long blue chromakey wall surrounding the field for placement of virtual graphics in place of fans in the stands.
Baseball Returns With RSNs Taking the Production Lead A Fox Sports Florida robo operator was located in the stands at Tropicana Field for a Tampa Bay Rays Summer Camp game.
Major League Baseball was the first of the big four major sports leagues that returned to action with a belated opening night on July 23. MLB Opening Day marked the culmination of months of planning by both regional sports networks and national broadcasters to get baseball back on the air.
A1 Joe Carpenter overseeing the artificial-crowd-audio mix in Game Creek's Riverhawk production truck outside MLB Network's studios.
Regional sports networks took the lead for live-game productions. To limit the number of people and facilities onsite, the league opted to have the home-team RSN in each market produce a neutral/clean world feed of each game to distribute to the away-team RSN and, when necessary, the national broadcaster. Check out SVG's full stories on the efforts of Sinclair's Fox Sports Regional Networks, NBC Sports Regional Networks, AT&T SportsNet RSNs, NESN, and MASN.
Under the model set up by the league, the home RSN's production team was responsible for producing a clean world- feed broadcast that presented a 50/50 (equal on-air-time), unbiased narrative of the game for both teams. This feed was delivered to the away RSN and/or national broadcaster, which added its own graphics, commentary, studio/shoulder content, and commercials.
Matt Vasgersian (left) and Alex Rodriguez (right) call the action from a studio at ESPN's facility in Bristol, CT.
In addition to this clean feed, the away RSN was provided with one or two dedicated iso cameras, which the director could weave in team-specific shots to help customize the telecast. Nearly all RSNs deployed their regular mobile units at the ballpark to produce these world feeds for home games, while away RSNs either used their truck at their own team's ballpark or integrated their telecasts from control rooms in their studio. In addition, artificial crowd noise was ha
