
NHL Network Fires Up Three Studios, Four Control Rooms to Host Virtual 2021 NHL Draft More than 100 live video feeds from team headquarters, players homes will pump into network's Secaucus facility By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Friday, July 23, 2021 - 5:26 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
It's been an awfully busy week for the National Hockey League.
First it was Tuesday night's first-of-its-kind standalone live broadcast of the Expansion Draft for the league's newest franchise: the Seattle Kraken. Now, this weekend, clear across the country in Secaucus, New Jersey at the broadcast facilities of the NHL Network, it's on to the 2021 NHL Draft.
So much for the offseason.
Round 1 is Friday beginning at 8 p.m. ET airing on ESPN2 in the United States and Sportsnet, SN NOW, and TVA Sports across Canada. Rounds 2-7 pick back up on Saturday at 11 a.m. ET on NHL Network in the US and Sportsnet and SN NOW in Canada.
This NHL Draft is perhaps one of the most challenging and comprehensive events that the joint production/operations team at NHL Network and MLB Network haven taken on. Not only will three studios supported by four control rooms be fired up for the two days of live programming, but more than 100 live video feeds will be funneling into the facility and on to air from the 32 team headquarters, 45 player prospects homes, and other sources.
On the air, the production will also reflect the changing face of the league's American television market. Talent from ESPN, Sportsnet, and NHL Network itself will all anchor the show in a collaborative production that all broadcast networks will carry.
It's a very different take on the Draft versus where we were last year, says Eric Eisenberg, VP, Programming and Operations for MLB Network and NHL Network. Last year we were producing a world feed on Day 1 that the broadcast partners were able to utilize and change. This year we are working together with everyone to create one broadcast which has, in some respects, changed how we are doing things but has engaged our production team even more to be involved in the creative side.
For the second consecutive year, BitFire Networks is being utilized to manage all of those external feeds. The vendor has shipped servers to all 32 team headquarters and is offering up its browser-based FireBridge solution that makes it easy for NHL Network to send links to prospects that leverage the cameras within the smartphone or laptop of the players' choosing.
These are all elements that the production and operations crews at MLB Network and NHL Network were more than up to the task for a year ago. There was plenty of uncertainty traveling into uncharted waters when MLB Network hosted its first fully virtual event with last year's MLB Draft and last year's NHL Draft was the first time they utilized the Bitfire Networks workflow. This year, after many months of proving out these methods, there's a whole new level of confidence going into this weekend.
There was a level of terror into the first [virtual MLB] Draft that we did in 2020, admits Susan Stone, SVP, Operations & Engineering at MLB Network. We had incredible support at the time from MLB technical services department so that every event that we did gave us more confidence. We're in a place now where we know what to expect, we know what the best practices are, and we're ready to go out and deliver the best product that we can.
Our confidence level is way higher than last year, agrees Steve Mayer, the NHL's Senior EVP and Chief Content Officer. We've done a Draft, a Draft Lottery, and hundreds of shows, both internally at the NHL and at NHL Network, with this virtual equipment. We've seen it evolve and seen it look pretty good.
Much of that confidence comes from the comprehensive work put in by members of the MLB Network/NHL Network team like Vice President, Engineering & IT Jake Soto; Senior Manager, Studio Engineering Curt Bose; Manager, Studio Operations Michael Herbert; Manager, Studio Technical Operations Tony Giner to tie up and test out all of the various feeds and delivery mechanisms.
In addition as anyone who has worked on a Draft of any kind will tell you so much of the success of a live draft broadcast comes in the weeks- and months-worth of work building b-roll video and graphics packages. The edit team of Senior Director, Production & Strategic Planning Will Cope, Manager Matt Ciancimino, and Segment Producer Mike Dello Stritto has churned out a load of on and off the ice content to prepare the on-air crew and front bench for as many possible Draft Dat scenarios. And it's critical to the overall storytelling process.
Unlike other some other sports, a lot of our fans don't know these players, says Mayer. We know that. For some, this is the first time they are going to see or hear highlights of their guy. When somebody does get drafted, what can we tell the audience about this player and what are those nuggets that they will take away? We push our PR team to find those bits of information that will bring these kids to life.
As just an example of the sheer scale of this NHL Draft, the MLB Network graphics team - including Coordinating Producer Dan Coldwell and Segment Producers Mike Benjamin and Rob Wass - have built out 250 full screen profiles, 500 player lower thirds, 130 team-focused lower thirds, 250 player headshots/action shots, 20 specialty full screens, 96 team-specific full screens, 224 pick tower templates, and 64 VIZ set content templates, according to Coordinating Producer Marc Weiner - who is working alongside Senior Producer Steve Tronzano and Producer Kirsten Sobecki in crafting the show's on-air look.
Other key elements to the show include the work done by the NHL Network and MLB Network research team -
More from Sports Video Group
02/07/2025
Progressive realism: Aurora on taking up the broadcast reins for World RX alongs...
02/07/2025
Great speed: New host broadcaster Aurora on getting the World RX 2025 season pro...
02/07/2025
Seat of its pants: Aurora boxes clever and looks ahead for the FIA as new host b...
02/07/2025
UEFA Women's Euro 2025: EBU, BBC Sport and Sunset Vine talk coverage plans, ...
02/07/2025
UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Women's Super League launches new content series...
02/07/2025
UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Ignite puts fans and players front and centre with t...
02/07/2025
Storytelling in the Live Game Broadcast: ESPN Director Jimmy Platt Breaks Down t...
02/07/2025
CONCACAF's Miguel Angel Garcia on the Gold Cup's Enhanced 2025 Productio...
01/07/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Spyrosoft's Jonathan Witty on Futher Business Exp...
01/07/2025
The NIL Effect: How the Shifting Business of College Athletics Impacts On-Campus...
01/07/2025
Cherry on the cake: Inside the technical production of the Tour de France 2025 w...
01/07/2025
NESN's Josh Jun on Keeping Alternative Broadcasts Fresh for Boston Red Sox, ...
01/07/2025
TNT Sports Races Back Into NASCAR With Fresh Look, Familiar Edge Production approach emphasizes creative freedom, bold storytelling, casual-fan-friendly tone B...
27/06/2025
How smarter compression is creating a sustainable future By Michael Burns
Monday, June 23, 2025 - 14:13
Print This Story
Live sport is especially vulnerab...
27/06/2025
Behind the Mic: FOX Sports Ratchets Up UEFA Women's EURO 2025 With Top-Class...
27/06/2025
RTL Group To Acquire Sky Deutschland By George Bevir, Editorial Director, SVG Europe
Friday, June 27, 2025 - 8:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
27/06/2025
Frictionless, At Scale: The Current State of Live Video Streaming Techology Leaders from Bitmovin, Comcast Technology Solutions, Harmonic, IMAX, and Phenix brea...
27/06/2025
Marquee Sports Network's Nick Steger on Meeting the Moment of the Contending...
27/06/2025
NHL Draft 2025: The League Is Primed for First Decentralized Draft in Non-Pandem...
26/06/2025
10th-Annual SVG Regional Sports Production Summit Presents Useful Roadmap for th...
26/06/2025
The Big Cloud Debate: Public vs. Private vs. Hybrid Tech leaders from CineSys, Diversified, and Net Insight breaks down all flavors of cloud By Jason Dachman, ...
26/06/2025
Program Productions' Jess Kowatch on Training the Next and Current Gener...
25/06/2025
SVG College Summit 2025: Select Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAY Tackling the latest in college sports video: NIL, live production, virtual productio...
25/06/2025
ESPN Is Set To Bring AR Graphics to Wimbledon, Revamps Bunker and Studio 18 VO B...
24/06/2025
2025 NBA Draft: ABC/ESPN Prepares for Two-Day Draft at Barclays Center Partners Game Creek Video, CP Communications, NEP Specialty Capture will be on hand By M...
24/06/2025
Cloud Broadcast Tech Update: Google Cloud's Jane Day on the Impact of AI on ...
24/06/2025
Cloud Broadcast Tech Update: AWS's Dana LaGattuta on Data-Driven Innovation ...
24/06/2025
Lions live: Dublin opener sees Sky Sports take remote route By Fergal Ringrose ...
24/06/2025
Pumas maul Lions as S4C and TG4 deliver first-ever joint host in Dublin By Ferg...
24/06/2025
ABC/ESPN Prepares for 2025 NBA Draft, the First at Barclays Center Partners Game Creek Video, CP Communications, NEP Specialty Capture will be on hand By Mark ...
23/06/2025
Adventures in Live Cloud Production: Stories From the Trenches with MLB, NHL, NB...
23/06/2025
Finding the edge: How Badger & Combes produces live-streamed coverage of county ...
23/06/2025
Masters of Madness: New football format shakes up the rules of sportainment By Adrian Pennington
Monday, June 16, 2025 - 11:38
Print This Story
The ball i...
23/06/2025
New State-of-the-Art Mountain Media Center Launches in Former Starz Encore Build...
23/06/2025
ESPN Says Goodbye to Seaport Studios, Hello to New State-of-the-Art Production F...
20/06/2025
Feeling Unlimited, Part 1: Athletes Unlimited Softball League Deploys Remote Pro...
20/06/2025
A True Test? Cricket's Growth on the Global Stage and the Role Broadcast Can...
20/06/2025
Sky Sports goes large for the British & Irish Lions Tour with AR graphics, UHD a...
20/06/2025
ESPN's Men's College World Series Finals Coverage Combines Innovation, L...
19/06/2025
SVG Rewind: PGA Tour Introduces Drone AR Smart Tracing, Reflects on Winning Geor...
18/06/2025
Technology focus: Fan expectations drive advances in the in-stadium experience By Jo Ruddock
Tuesday, June 3, 2025 - 08:36
Print This Story
For years, att...
18/06/2025
Making connections: How stadiums are meeting the ever-growing demand for data an...
18/06/2025
SVG Venues & Teams Summit Keynote: RWS Global Powers the Stadium Environment at ...
18/06/2025
SVG Rewind: Behind the Scenes of Producing Tottenham Hotspur's Europa League...
17/06/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Mercury Intermedia's Tom Richardson, Mike Ligon o...
17/06/2025
Total Sports Performance from Relo Metrics, VideoAmp, Offers Next-Level Media, B...
17/06/2025
From Stage to Stream: Producing Live Esports Events in 2025 Leaders from ESL FACEIT Group, Riot Games, and more break down the latest trends By Jason Dachman, ...
17/06/2025
Inside FIFA 2025 Club World Cup Operations With FIFA's Oscar Sanchez, HBS...
17/06/2025
Production ambitions: Over Exposed on making the National League Promotion Final...