Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Bally Sports Regional Networks Rolls Out Cloud Control Rooms To Boost Storytelling for Local Viewers

21/07/2021

Bally Sports Regional Networks Rolls Out Cloud Control Rooms To Boost Storytelling for Local Viewers Developed with Mobile TV Group, Cloud Control will be extended to all Bally Sports RSNs this fall By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor

Wednesday, July 21, 2021 - 3:12 pm

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

When sports resumed after the pandemic shutdown, regional sports networks were forced to transition to a world-feed production model that severely limited the away-team RSN's ability to customize its broadcast for local fans. In an effort to remain efficient while also restoring RSNs' storytelling capabilities, Bally Sports Regional Networks is launching Cloud Control rooms at the home offices of its 19 RSNs (as well as at Sinclair-owned sibling Marquee Sports Network in Chicago).

With [Cloud Control], you truly have control of your own show again, explains Mike Connelly, EVP, production, Bally Sports Networks. Our producers and directors can cut their own show again like they did the with the traditional dual-feed model [prior to the pandemic]. At the same time, we're saving costs by not having to travel our entire [crew] for away shows because [crew members are] located at the [Cloud Control room] in their office.

Bally Sports' first Cloud Control room officially launched at Bally Sports North in Minneapolis for a Twins-Royals series at the beginning of June and was followed by Marquee Sports Network in Chicago this month. In both Minneapolis and Chicago, CC rooms are being used for selected MLB productions in which Mobile TV Group (MTVG) is the truck provider for the away-team venue. Here's a look at Bally Sports North's Cloud Control setup in Minneapolis:

https://www.sportsvideo.org/new/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/IMG_5929.mp4

CC rooms are in place and being tested at Bally Sports Florida (Ft. Lauderdale), South (Atlanta), and Southwest (Dallas), with plans to begin broadcasting next month. The goal is to have CC rooms finalized and tested at all Bally Sports RSNs by September, so that all 19 will be up and running for the start of NHL and NBA seasons in the fall.

How It Works: Truck Is Onsite, Most of the Crew Is at Home With Cloud Control, the Bally Sports producer, director, and EVS replay, Vizrt graphics, and score-box operators remain at the away-team's RSN's home office and use control panels to remotely control the technical facilities in the mobile unit, which is at the away venue. Multiview feeds (not individual camera feeds) from the truck are brought back to the CC room to allow the director to cut the show just as they would if they were in the onsite mobile unit.

With Cloud Control, the director and producer are able to call the broadcast for away games from a control room at the home office like this one in Minneapolis.

The mobile unit - typically a dual-feed unit that serves both the home and the away shows - provides the home show with a full-blown facility and the visiting network with its own switcher/TD and audio console/A1. The visiting network has access to three dedicated cameras plus all the home show's cameras (including four super-slo-mos). Two EVS replay servers are dedicated to the away team and networked to all the EVS gear in the home show, including the super-slo-mo units.

You get the same number of [unilateral] cameras that they had in a traditional dual-feed model before [the pandemic] and access to all the home-show cameras with dual tallies, says Connelly. Your director can still cut the game like they normally would; they just aren't actually in the truck.

He adds that Cloud Control offers considerable cost reductions for the away-team RSN, which isn't dependent on a world feed produced by the home-team RSN. Under the Cloud Control model, the home production staff does not need to travel, and construction of the CC rooms is at a fraction of the cost of a typical control room.

You're saving costs on travel, and you're not over-extending yourself on capital costs, Connelly notes, [The production team] is still with the team at least 50% of the time, so you're not losing that intimacy you worked so hard to develop. Everything is based on that intimate relationship and making sure that we serve the needs of the team. We can still do that very effectively.

Connectivity between the CC room and the mobile unit requires only 300 Mb (depending on the venue and the situation), and MTVG provides the coordination to ensure proper communication between the remote-control panels at the RSN's office and the MTVG mobile unit at the venue.

This is truly the next stage of the dual-feed model and allows us to serve the needs of our team partners by creating broadcasts that cater to the hometown fans, says Connelly. Our entire business is built on the relationships and intimacy we have with our teams, and this keeps our [production crews] close with our teams in their home markets instead of at a centralized control room. [Viewers] are going to see a high-quality show geared towards their team rather than the more generic [world feed] that we've had to do with [during the pandemic]. That's really exciting.

Looking Back: Years-Long Effort Comes to Fruition According to Connelly, the concept has been in development for several years, dating back to his group's previous life as Fox Sports Regional Networks prior to Sinclair's acquiring the RSNs from Disney (via 21st Century Fox) in 2019. While still under the Fox Sports umbrella, Connelly and his team were exploring ways to reduce travel without sacrificing production quality or staff. His team worked with MTVG to begin developing the system that would eventually become Cloud Control.

Cloud Control rooms are primarily deployed in what was previously office or conference space at Bally Sports RSNs.

When
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2021/07/21/bally-sports-regional-networks-...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

23/06/2026

Case Study: YES Networks IP Transition Expands Production Possibilities and Redefines Workflows

When we began planning our transition from an SDI-based infrastructure to a new ...

23/06/2026

Imagine Communications Appoints Greg Garmon as SVP, Americas Video Sales

Imagine Communications has announced the appointment of Greg Garmon as Senior Vice President, Americas Video Sales. Garmon will oversee account growth and busin...

23/06/2026

Snap Promotes Emma Wakely to Head of Sports and Media Partnerships, Americas

Snap has promoted Emma Wakely to Head of Sports and Media Partnerships, Americas, succeeding Anmol Malhotra, who has been elevated to Global Head of Content and...

23/06/2026

YES Network and Gotham Sports App to Air MI New York Major League Cricket Matches

YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air MI New York's Major League Cr...

23/06/2026

HAND Issues Persistent Digital IDs to 2026 NBA Draft Class

The Universal Talent Identifier (HAND) has issued HAND IDs to 34 top projected prospects in the 2026 NBA Draft class, including AJ Dybantsa, Cameron Boozer, and...

23/06/2026

World Boxing Launches World Boxing TV Streaming Platform

World Boxing has announced the launch of World Boxing TV, a subscription-based streaming platform built on the Joymo platform, offering live events, on-demand c...

23/06/2026

FloRacing to Stream 32 Off-Road Motorcycle Racing Events Including AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship

FloSports will stream 32 off-road motorcycle racing events on FloRacing, includi...

23/06/2026

SES Adds 14 Regional Channels and New Set-Top Boxes to ASTRA TV in Spain

SES has announced the expansion of its ASTRA TV platform in Spain with the addition of 14 regional channels in HD and UHD quality and the launch of new hybrid s...

23/06/2026

Appear Supports Rede Legislativas Contribution Workflow for Brazils TV 3.0 Trials

Appear ASA has announced its role in Rede Legislativa de R dio e TV's contri...

23/06/2026

PBS Selects LTN for Nationwide IP Video Network Across 330 Member Stations

LTN has announced that PBS has selected it as its IP video partner to modernize content distribution and contribution across more than 330 public television sta...

23/06/2026

Ease Live Powers Interactive Experience on Rally.TV for WRC

Ease Live has announced that its graphics overlay platform is powering an interactive fan experience on Rally.TV, the official streaming platform of the FIA Wor...

23/06/2026

Chyron LIVE Adds Haivision StreamHub Integration, SCTE-35 Ad Insertion, and Switcher Updates

Chyron has announced updates to Chyron LIVE, its cloud-native live production pl...

23/06/2026

ESPN Announces ESPN Fan House, Fan Engagement Hub Powered by Flowcode

ESPN has announced ESPN Fan House, a fan engagement hub powered by Flowcode, launching in August ahead of the 2026 college football season. Publicis Sports will...

23/06/2026

Sennheiser Relocates Americas Regional Hub to Nashville

The city's solid position in broadcast, entertainment, and sports attracted the major microphone manufacturer Sennheiser Group is moving its Americas Regio...

23/06/2026

Violet Audio's dMix 128 now shipping

128 channels of signal routing & DSP Announced just before the NAMM Show 2026, Violet Audio's latest digital audio matrix offers 128 channels of signal ...

23/06/2026

Minimal Audio launch Memory Rites

Latest Current expansion created by EPROM Minimal Audio have just launched the latest Current Expansion, Memory Rites. Designed in collaboration with renown...

23/06/2026

Undertone Audio's MPEQ-1 goes virtual

Popular hardware EQ gets official plug-in emulation Undertone Audio have just launched a new plug-in that brings one of their most popular hardware designs ...

23/06/2026

Colorfront Support for AWS CDI Unlocks New Potential for Cloud-Based Visual Effects and Content Creation

December 7, 2022 Colorfront (colorfront.com) - the multi-award-winning develope...

23/06/2026

Colorfront Delivers Even More AI Automation Power and Extends Technology Partnerships with Dolby, Apple

April 23, 2026 NAB 2026, Las Vegas - the Academy and Emmy Award-winning develop...

23/06/2026

IAB Tech Lab Releases SupplyChain v1.1

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

23/06/2026

Besco to Represent PlayBox Neo in South Korea

PlayBox Neo appoints Besco as Channel Reseller to establish a firm foothold in Asia Pacific's thriving high-tech export-driven economic boom PlayBox Neo, t...

23/06/2026

PBS Selects LTN to Power Nationwide IP Video Network

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

23/06/2026

PBS selects LTN for nationwide IP video network

LTN, a global leader in IP-based video transport and network services, today announced that PBS has selected LTN as its IP video partner to modernize and future...

23/06/2026

The LiveU Q Era Arrives in ANZ with the LU900Q at ABE2026

LiveU will introduce its Q Era to Australia and New Zealand for the first time at ABE2026 on Stand No. 25, (July 30 31). Leading the showcase is the LU900Q, a n...

23/06/2026

Miri Technologies Ships V410 Live 4K Video Encoder-Decode...

Miri Technologies Inc. has begun shipping its highly anticipated V410 live 4K video encoder/decoder for streaming, IP-based production workflows and AV-over-IP ...

23/06/2026

DHD SX2 and TX2 Consoles Go On-Air at Radio Tzafon

DHD audio reports the completion of an upgrade to the audio production facilities at the Galilee headquarters of Radio Tzafon. The station broadcasts two progra...

23/06/2026

Nagravision Launches Nagra Venturi Security Offering

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

23/06/2026

ITN Expands Programmatic Local TV Platform

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

23/06/2026

Warner Bros. Discovery Taps AWS for New AI-Powered Ad Tech

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

23/06/2026

Study: Younger Viewers More Distracted But More Receptive to Ads

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

23/06/2026

Chilevisin, ClaroVTR Tap Pixop for 4K FIFA World Cup Feed

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

23/06/2026

Imagine Communications Names Greg Garmon as Senior Vice P...

Multifaceted Growth Executive Brings 20+ Years of Experience Leading Organizations Across Tech and M&E Imagine Communications today announced the appointment ...

23/06/2026

Australians in Film and Screen Australia's talent development initiative UNTAPPED returns for 2026

Australians in Film and Screen Australia's talent development initiative UNT...

23/06/2026

Visual Productions Unveils RdmRelay2 Four-channel Relay Control at InfoComm 2026

Visual Productions Unveils RdmRelay2 Four-channel Relay Control at InfoComm 2026 Brie Clayton June 22, 2026 0 Comments New Relay Solution Combines DMX, ...

23/06/2026

SMPTE Makes Its Standards Freely Accessible, Opening Standards Library to the Global Media Technology Community

SMPTE Makes Its Standards Freely Accessible, Opening Standards Library to the Gl...

23/06/2026

UKTV and BBC Entertainment join forces on first joint comedy entertainment co-commission

23rd June 2026, London: UKTV and BBC Entertainment have unveiled a joint co-comm...

23/06/2026

Gugu Mbatha-Raw leads Sky Original supernatural thriller Possession in first teaser

Also starring Jonny Lee Miller, Sheldon Shepherd and Bel Powley, the ambitious f...

23/06/2026

Arqiva response to DCMS Green Paper

The priority now is a clear and credible plan June 23, 2026, Winchester, UK - Arqiva, the UK's leading communications infrastructure provider, welcomes tod...

23/06/2026

RT AND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION IRELAND ANNOUNCE RT TOY SHOW APPEAL GRANT AWARDS 2026

The RT Toy Show Appeal has raised over 31 million since its inception in 2020 ...

23/06/2026

NVIDIA Powers Over 400 of the World's 500 Fastest Supercomputers

News Highlights: NVIDIA technology runs 81% of the TOP500 and 90% of the systems new to the list. 26 systems on the TOP500 adopted the NVIDIA Grace CPU, up ei...

23/06/2026

How Businesses Are Building Specialized AI They Can Trust

Companies are asking how to build specialized AI that fits with the way their workflows actually run. The first wave of enterprise AI was about access. Compan...

23/06/2026

June 22, 2026

Newly identified molecule strengthens the eye's response to damage in retinal disease Scripps Research discovery finds that restoring the naturally occurrin...

22/06/2026

Behind the Mic: SportsCenters Lisa Cohn to Retire This June From ESPN as Longest-Tenured Anchor

Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...

22/06/2026

Cosm Appoints David Ho as Chief Legal Officer

Cosm has announced the appointment of David Ho as Chief Legal Officer, a newly created executive role reporting to President and CEO Jeb Terry. Ho will oversee ...

22/06/2026

Warner Bros. Discovery and AWS Announce AI-Powered Advertising Technology Platform

Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have announced the developm...

22/06/2026

Daktronics Completes Audio Control System Upgrade at Petco Park for San Diego Padres

Daktronics has completed an audio control system upgrade at Petco Park in San Di...