ESPN Ops Team Tips Off Challenging College Hoops Season With Focus on Safety, Efficiency Innovation and flexibility are key in an effort facing myriad changes By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Friday, December 4, 2020 - 12:48 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
What is expected to be the most challenging college basketball season in recent memory tipped off last week with a smattering of early tournaments, and the schedule will kick into high gear later this month. Although ESPN's operations team is no stranger to the challenges of navigating the college basketball season - annually producing more than 1,200 games over seven months - the team has already faced an difficult series of challenges brought on by a list of canceled and postponed games.
There is an all-hands-on-deck mentality amongst the operations team, says Erin Orr, manager, remote operations, ESPN, as the virus continues to spread throughout the world, especially headed into the winter months. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenging moment in time, yet the operations team has derived innovation from necessity through advancements in workflows, skills, and routines.
With that in mind, ESPN's operations team has crafted a plan that focuses on keeping crews safe onsite and producing more games via REMI from control rooms in Bristol, CT; Charlotte, NC; and Wide World of Sports in Orlando.
Never before has such great change surrounded ESPN's college-basketball coverage, adds Orr. ESPN is committed to looking forward as a company and has supported the college-basketball operations team in designing new health and safety policies, business models, and technological efficiencies.
Ramping Up REMI: ESPN Increases Remote Production, Focuses on Safety Onsite During the 2020-21 season, the majority of ESPN's college-basketball productions will be either REMIs or productions that use ACC and SEC schools' on-campus control rooms. The standard of practice last season was about 10 full onsite productions per week; however, with increased safety protocols and a commitment to keeping staff safe and healthy, ESPN plans to have four or five onsite shows a week this season.
For onsite college-basketball productions, ESPN has instituted functional groups for its crews and requires all staff to wear masks and socially distance.
On a standard REMI production, the only positions onsite are audio, video, cameras, and operations. Talent and production personnel are handling their roles at home or in studios in Bristol, Charlotte, and Orlando. Announcers working from home leverage ESPN's Live From Home production model, which has been implemented over the past eight months and is built around Zoom, TVU, and Unity intercom tools.
The operations team [responsible for] getting college basketball on ESPN is made up of a network of groups, says Orr. However, the universal goal has always been simple: to get each game on-air in the safest and most efficient way possible. While the transparency of this goal is concrete, the means of finding efficiencies within the sport have morphed throughout time.
For onsite crews, ESPN has instituted functional groups that give the team the ability to strategically plan for each crew member who works at a game. ESPN's deliberate planning has created a more comprehensive understanding of onsite personnel and roles, which Orr says has facilitated management of each individual's functional group.
These restrictive groups mitigate unnecessary interactions onsite, she notes, which in turn allows each crew member to walk into each game knowing that their health and safety is number-one priority.
COVID Uncertainty: Ops Team Faces Ultra-short Timelines Orr adds that the biggest impact of the pandemic has been the onset of unknowns, which has resulted in initial operations planning now taking place just 10 days prior to each game.
Throughout the team's preseason preparation, the increase in communication within [the] operations [team], as well as with production, has been hugely important. The sport itself has been faced with a landscape of ever-changing information, and, as a result, the operations team aims at a moving target. The team has quickly learned that the plans laid yesterday immediately become a notion of the past.
The operations team and its production, crewing, and health and safety partners have determined to be flexible in the face of myriad changes. With game cancellations and postponements expected to be a regularity throughout this season, the ops team is focused on keeping the lines of communication as strong as possible throughout ESPN.
There is no manual on how to produce live sports during a global pandemic, Orr points out, so each group is learning and evolving with each curveball. Historically, the team has practiced adaptability in adjusting to the inevitable changes that come down the pipeline in a normal season. However, this season has inspired each group to raise the bar in terms of distributing immediate and concise communication amidst a field of ever-changing games.
Unmanned Cameras: POVs, Robos Play Big Role in Game Coverage Much time and energy has been spent individualizing the logistical planning for each venue's unique health and safety protocols. In addition, some venues allow fans to attend while others do not, and the capacity varies from one venue to another. Given all the variations, Orr says, the most challenging aspect has been mapping out camera locations while ensuring that each area maintains proper social distance.
The biggest loss in game coverage has been the elimination of on-court handheld cameras, so ESPN will lean on unmanned cameras to capture much of the on-court action. Marshall POV cameras have been added to every production to be used on the baskets for variou
Most recent headlines
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
09/05/2025
Capitol Broadcasting Company welcomed Warren Thomas as the new Vice President an...
09/05/2025
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Studio Technologies said the Harvard University athletics department has integrated Dante-enabled equipment from the vendor into its broadcast ...
09/05/2025
NEW YORK ITN, a provider of a local linear supply side platform, and Magnite, a independent sell-side advertising company, have announced that they working toge...
09/05/2025
LEEDS, U.K. Nugen Audio has launched a new speech intelligibility plug-in, DialogCheck and offered up quotes from technologists working at places like Netflix p...
09/05/2025
AJA I/O Gear: The Heart of Broadcast Solutions' VEGO Mobile Editing Solution
Brie Clayton May 8, 2025
0 Comments
When working remotely on broadcas...
09/05/2025
What do they teach in an Advanced Adobe After Effects Course?
Roland Kahlenberg May 8, 2025
0 Comments
There aren't many advanced After Effects co...
09/05/2025
Larry Jordan Sits with Trevor Morgan of OpenDrives at NAB 2025
Brie Clayton May 8, 2025
0 Comments
Trevor Morgan, COO of OpenDrives, shares how the co...
09/05/2025
Berklee Popular Music Institute Announces UK Festival Debut and Tour Dates For the first time, BPMI will bring Berklee-affiliated artists and students to the ...
09/05/2025
Here is your host, Patrick Kielty!
In the season finale of The Late Late Show, ...
09/05/2025
My Eurovision Party 2025 - join in on the fun with RT Kids!
Eurovision launche...
08/05/2025
A sinister fairy infiltrates a desperate family in Kenneth Dagatan's In My Mother's Skin, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Photo co...
08/05/2025
As expected, continued weak demand from key sales markets and declining economic...
08/05/2025
A new three-part series is coming to BBC iPlayer and BBC One
(Image: The Christie Archive Trust)
The BBC has announced Agatha Christie's Endless Night, a...
08/05/2025
For skyward-bound operators, training focuses on the unique aspects of flying ISR missions, including the management of onboard surveillance equipment and the e...
08/05/2025
The cable industry has told the Federal Communications Commission it supports the National Association of Broadcasters' proposal to allow broadcasters to us...
08/05/2025
WASHINGTON The Consumer Technology Association has continued its opposition to mandates requiring that NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0 tuners be included in new TV sets, sa...
08/05/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real time visualization, has named Paul Maroni as Vice Pres...
08/05/2025
This year's UK Pavilion in hall 5, once again managed by Tradefair, will provide visitors with the unique opportunity to discuss and be involved in cutting ...
08/05/2025
Rohde & Schwarz will showcase its latest energy-efficient transmitters and 5G Broadcast technologies, designed to support network operators and content provider...
08/05/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group has tapped Bill Nardi as vice president of station operations, responsible for overseeing the day-to-day broadcast operations ...
08/05/2025
SEATTLE LumaTouch is partnering with CNN Academy to improve mobile storytelling techniques and support training across all of CNN Academy's training simulat...
08/05/2025
WASHINGTON The Society of Broadcast Engineers has filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission that support a proposal by the National Association ...
08/05/2025
Senior adviser to the United States Agency for Global Media Kari Lake has announced that One America News Network (OAN) will provide newsfeed services for fre...
08/05/2025
EdMon Expands as AI-Driven Post Production Workflows Gains Traction in Sweden an...
08/05/2025
Using Luma Mattes in Adobe Premiere Pro
Graham Quince May 7, 2025
0 Comments
This very quick tutorial shows you how to take an RGB clip and apply its ...
08/05/2025
OpenDrives Unveils Free Your Data' Initiative with New Astraeus Cloud-Nativ...
08/05/2025
Student Spotlight: Grigori Balasanyan The Armenian composer, who was named Boston Conservatory at Berklees 2025 student commencement speaker, talks about his ...
08/05/2025
08 May 2025
VEON Shareholders Re-elect Board at 2025 AGM, Founder Augie Fabela ...
08/05/2025
Comedy and entertainment channel U&Dave bring back their #1 ranked programme of ...
08/05/2025
May 8th, 2025 Press Materials Available Here
Tribeca Festival 2025 Unveils New Premieres Spanning Film and Music
Slick Rick's Victory with Idris Elba a...
08/05/2025
May 8th, 2025 Press Materials Available Here
Tribeca Festival 2025 Announces Lineup for Inaugural Storytelling Summit
11-Day Industry Event Launches with Tal...
08/05/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Vizrt's Nicholas Jameson on AI in Workflows, Pushing Boundarie...
08/05/2025
Creating Alternative Brand Experiences: Live Sports in the Age of Fortnite, Meta...
08/05/2025
PGA TOUR's David Piccolo: Advanced Graphics and Virtual Production Tools are...
08/05/2025
Tech Focus: Advancing Immersion in Sports Broadcasting with AR and Virtual Produ...
08/05/2025
Expect even more chaos this July with Harriet Webb leading the returning cast, p...
08/05/2025
Back to All News
Now in Production: Comedy Action Film Husbands in Action'...
08/05/2025
TenneT relies on Arvato Systems for market communication
Energy industry: Impressive market communication know-how and system integration expertise
G tersloh...
08/05/2025
When Taiki Hamamoto, 22, came across a Hanafuda deck at his local game shop, he was intrigued. He had grown up playing the traditional Japanese card game with f...
08/05/2025
The Liveline is now open , said Joe Duffy earlier today, as he previewed this af...
08/05/2025
RT , in association with the BBC, Screen Ireland and Cineflix Rights has reveale...
08/05/2025
Artificial intelligence is helping identify and treat diseases faster with better results for humankind. Natural disasters like wildfires are next.
Fires in th...
08/05/2025
Calling all wiseguys - 2K's acclaimed Mafia franchise is available to stream...
08/05/2025
As AI use cases continue to expand - from document summarization to custom software agents - developers and enthusiasts are seeking faster, more flexible ways t...
07/05/2025
Discovering music should feel effortless and fun. That's why Spotify continu...
07/05/2025
SBS and NITV mark National Reconciliation Week with compelling premieres recogni...
07/05/2025
SBS commences search for a new Western Sydney production hub location
7 May, 2025
Media releases
SBS has today launched a Request for Expressions of Intere...
07/05/2025
Warsaw, Poland - April 28, 2025 - Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, has released its latest March All Screens Video Landscap...
ESPN Ops Team Tips Off Challenging College Hoops Season With Focus on Safety, Efficiency Innovation and flexibility are key in an effort facing myriad changes By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
