ESPN's Winter X Games production reaped the rewards of the NFL Pro Bowl's return to Honolulu this year: NEP's EN1 mobile unit was available to work alongside EN2 in Aspen, the first time the two elite trucks have shared a compound.
As soon as this came on the schedule, I was probably one of the most excited people there ever was, because it was a way to showcase where we're going from an engineering and technology point of view, says NEP Engineering Manager Nick Romano. These trucks really show the future and the progression of NEP.
The NEP team in front of EN2 at the X Games compound (L to R): Michael Pean NEP Account Manager, Dave Hensley EN1 A Engineer, Tyler Acosta EN1 Engineer, Mike Nagy NEP Equipment, oordinator, Taras Stokes EN1D Engineer, Nicholas Romano NEP Engineering, Manager, Jack Pakkala EN2 EIC, Dave VanRassen EN2 Engineer, Bruce Hogenboom EN1 EIC (front of steps)
The six trailers represented by EN1 (A, B, D, and E units) and EN2 (A and B), which launched in 2013 primarily for Monday Night Football and 2015 primarily for Sunday Night Baseball, respectively, offered ESPN a massive footprint and extensive technical firepower that allowed ESPN and NEP to rethink the production model in Aspen this year.
It's our two premiere ESPN trucks that we built with them collaboratively for Monday Night Football and for Sunday Night Baseball, and we thought it was a perfect opportunity to showcase these two great trucks, says NEP Senior Account Manager Michael Pean. In addition, providing all that firepower for X Games is great.
As a result of the larger footprint and robust infrastructure, several functions that would likely have previously been housed in office trailers were moved into the two mobile units: TOC operations (EN1 D), Event Productions production room (EN1 A), robotic-camera control (EN2 B), and the Visual Technology group (EN2 B).
The beauty of it is the flexibility offered by the workstation concept, says Pean. We can put an EVS operator, a robo operator, or a graphics operator almost anywhere. The trucks actually evolve from season to season and show to show. It's one setup for Monday Night Football and another for X Games; [with EN2], NBA was very different from Sunday Night Baseball.
NEP's EN2, which primarily serves ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball package, is one-half of the super duo at X Games along with EN1. Photo Courtesy of Nick Romano, NEP
Romano notes the trucks' massive Evertz EQX router, the 10-Gbps network connecting the trucks in the compound, and EVS XT3 replay servers across the board among the technical advantages that made the EN1/EN2 combination so powerful in Aspen. In addition, EN2 rolls with four Sony HDC-4300 4K/high-speed cameras, and the two trucks' combined complement of Sony HDC-2500 cameras (many licensed 2X-slo-mo) totaled 36.
[ESPN is able to make] multiple camera moves. [For example, at] one of the venues, the 4300 goes from a hard configuration to a handheld configuration. We have them built so they can do that, says Romano. We go through all the camera positions and lay them all out to make for the least amount of moves possible. In the past, we've had to repo more cameras, but we're helping make the program more efficient as well as having the production space and the comfort for all the people here at the compound.
GoPro Boosts HeroCast Complement
Although the GoPro brand has long had a pervasive presence at X Games, it wasn't until last year in Aspen that GoPro cameras played a significant role in the live TV production when two GoPro/Vislink wearable RF POV camera systems were deployed on athletes as part of ESPN's live-camera complement. This was followed by the official launch of GoPro HeroCast at NAB 2015 in April and a further appearance at X Games in Austin over the summer.
In addition to deploying 16 HeroCast live RF POV cameras for ESPN's coverage, GoPro trotted out Loki the WolfDog to capture GoPro footage for social media.
Judging by social-media reaction, the live GoPro angles were a hit among X Games viewers. ESPN Senior Coordinating Producer Amy Rosenfeld goes so far as to say that the live HeroCast units elevated the [X Games] product like no other over the past few years.
Jim Geduldick, marketing manager, cinema, broadcast, and photo, GoPro, points out, Last year, we were using prototypes, and we didn't have as many units, but the response from X Games was amazing. Immediately after that first night with Colten Moore [winning the Snowmobile Speed & Style competition while wearing the HeroCast], ESPN asked us to do as much as we could, and they used HeroCast [extensively]. It ended up being, like, the GoPro Games. ESPN was blown away by the wide angles we were able to give them, and that accentuated the production for them. Technical and production people really believed it added a lot to the show.
GoPro HeroCast FollowCam debuted at last year's Winter X Games (2015 shown here)
This year, GoPro and Vislink have increased the HeroCast camera complement to 16, a mix of tethered unit (a camera and transmitter attached to each side of the athlete's helmet and connected via HDMI cable) or an all-in-one integrated backpack system. These units were attached to athletes and used in FollowCam rigs by ESPN throughout the X Games production.
The FollowCam angle on events like Slopestyle, in which operators hit a jump directly behind an athlete during live competition, continues to be a hit with viewers and was used live and in replay regularly during this year's coverage. In addition, HeroCast allows ESPN to rethink established workflows with GoPro, including its course previews.
This also allows ESPN to do things like a live course preview instead of an edited one, says Geduldick. So it is eliminating some
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ESPN's Winter X Games production reaped the rewards of the NFL Pro Bowl's return to Honolulu this year: NEP's EN1 mobile unit was available to work alongside EN2 in Aspen, the first time the two elite trucks have shared a compound.
