Live from Super Bowl LI: NFL Network Embraces Remote Production

The NFL Network is once again delivering a ton of content to viewers but this year it is taking a slightly different approach by relying more than ever on the control room operations at its home base in Culver City, CA. The network also made use of three Game Creek Video production trucks for special events around town.

Dave Shaw of NFL Network says the use of a flypack from VER made sense this year.

For every city we take a little different approach so here we have a flypack that was built with VER in the convention center but there is no video switcher and no editing as all the cameras are fed back to Culver City, explains Dave Shaw, NFL Media, VP of Production. We do have three Calrec audio boards and we send back over 400 channels of audio and IFB along with video.

The enabler for the use of the flypack is that many of the pre-game activities took place in a small area in downtown Houston. The convention center is home to the NFL Experience and radio row and right across the street is Discovery Green, a downtown park which is where the TV networks have set up primary studio locations.

If we used a truck here it would have to have been on the loading dock and that would have required long fiber runs, says Shaw. The flypack was easier and quicker.

The NFL Network has a dual set outside of the convention center.

Filmwerks once again played a key role in helping the NFL Network get its sets up and running. There is a dual set right outside of the convention center for the network and NFL.com, two sets on Radio Row in the convention center, and then a primary set that is in a nearby residential building that overlooks Discovery Green and the convention center. The network also has a presence at both team hotels. Fourteen cameras are in use at the various locations including six RF camera systems provided by BSI and AVS.

It's the one building that overlooks everything and has a balcony that we can shoot on, says Shaw.

All the action is captured via 14 cameras, including six RF cameras from BSI and AVS.

Peteris Saltans, freelance audio mixer for NFL Network, at work on a Calrec Artemis console.

Transmission to Culver City is done via four fiber circuits (two out and two in) provided by Level 3 and The Switch. Those circuits have 10 muxes on each. The staff in Culver City then cuts the show, rolls in clips and other elements, and adds in graphics.

The upside of a truck is it is already connected, it works, and you know everything you need is going to be there, adds Shaw. So this requires more design and you only rent what you need. But you do only save a little bit of money, depending on where you are and what you are doing.

The production team did make use of trucks from Game Creek Video for those events that required a production team to be closer to the event. Pride was used at Opening Night at Minute Maid Park on Jan. 30 and will also be used at NRG Stadium for Super Bowl pre- and post-game coverage. Nitro will be used tonight for the NFL Honors Show. And Gemini was used for the NFL Commissioner Fan Forum, an event held at the House of Blues on Friday morning that came together in the past two weeks.

The upside of a truck is that is already connected, it works, and everything you need is going to be there, says Shaw. A flypack takes more design, you have a little more room to work with, and you only rent what you need. Using a flypack or truck depends on where we are and what we are doing. For example, if we are just going in and out, like Opening Night at Minute Maid, then it makes sense to have a truck for that.

The ESL was broadcast live on NFL Network on Jan. 3.

One unique programming offering on the NFL Network took place on Friday night when it broadcast an ESL Madden NFL 17 competition that was held in the Fan Experience. The ESL production team cut the show from a control room located right behind the EA Sports booth. The signal was sent via fiber to Culver City where commentary was inserted and then it was sent to Atlanta for distribution via the network and back to the convention center so that ESL could distribute it online.

The digital teams have morphed over the past couple of years and merged so that a lot of the features and dotcom programming is done by the same production teams, adds Shaw. But social has grown a lot so there is a 10 person Snapchat team that is doing nothing but live Snapchat shots.

LINK:	http://www.sportsvideo.org/2017/02/04/live-from-super-bowl-li-nfl-netw...
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