Sports Venue Production Summit: Mercedes-Benz Stadium Welcomes 200+ for Two-Day Event By Karen Hogan Ketchum, Senior Editor
Friday, March 16, 2018 - 1:43 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
Since the first renderings of the 360-degree Halo videoboard were released nearly three years ago, Mercedes-Benz Stadium promised to blaze a trail in in-venue video production and technology. Earlier this week, more than 230 attendees - including representatives from 12 NFL teams - traveled to Atlanta for SVG's annual Sports Venue Production Summit to see the Halo in person, and learn more about the gear and personnel responsible for powering it.
Jason Cothern explains the video-production workflow to a tour group inside the stadium's video control room.
The two-day event kicked off on Tuesday with a behind-the-scenes tour of Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Attendees were invited inside the 1080p60 video control room, which was integrated by Diversified and houses two Ross Video Acuity switchers, XPression Studio CGs, and Tessera software; an Evertz EXE IP router and DreamCatcher replay servers; ChyronHego graphics systems; and much more. On Wednesday, Mercedes-Benz Stadium Director of Stadium Production Jason Cothern paid tribute to a roster of technological partners that also included Daktronics, Grass Valley, Canon, Riedel, CatDV, Telestream, Panasonic, IBM, and many others.
I want to thank all those partners that came and worked with us. We would not be here today with out you, said Cothern, during his team's opening presentation. It wasn't a vendor-client relationship, it was absolutely a collaborative effort and that's why I call you partners, and not vendors. So I want to thank you.
Cothern, who joined the Mercedes-Benz Stadium team after five years with the Florida Panthers, laid out three of his biggest lessons learned during the venue construction process. First, he said, learn from your mistakes and bring your knowledge to the table. Second, leave your ego at the door.
Why not look at what other people are doing? he said. Why not try to be as good as them? Why not take an idea, enhance it, and make it your own?
More than 230 attendees traveled to Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the two-day event.
Lastly, he said, surround yourself with a great team. Cothern invited several members of his team to join him onstage, and recognized them individually: Lead Animator Joseph Blanco, Video Producer Julia Chongarlides, Chief Engineer Randy Cousar, Engineer Ben Dolinky, Graphics Producer Kevin Nawoichik, and Video Producer Steve Smith. He also recognized the tireless work of Pete Soto, senior director of game presentation for AMB Sports & Entertainment, who was unable to attend the event.
Surround yourself with a great team, which I absolutely did, said Cothern. This has been a big, big thing to launch this building with everything going on. And when I say team, that means differnet things. That means Ross, that means Daktronics, that means Evertz. Develop your team there, and then content-wise, develop a team there. Pete and I come from old-school thinking; we like to do the content ourselves. But [we also had] to be realistic. Rather than pile content-creation work on their team, Cothern and Soto turned to Digital Kitchen, Lava Studio, The Famous Group, and Game Changer MVP to help shape the Halo's video presentation. There's no way I could have done this without this group, he said.
Following the presentation, attendees were treated to panel discussions and presentations that ranged from the technical to the creative, and showcased the latest and greatest in sports-venue production and technology from a variety of professional teams, universities, systems integrators, venue consultants, and technology vendors. Throughout the event, the focus remained squarely on enhancing the fan experience.
Stay tuned to sportsvideo.org next week for in-depth reports and audio recordings for every panel discussion, video interviews with panelists, and a photo gallery of the two-day event!
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
21/10/2025
As Amazon's Prime Video prepares to launch its coverage of NBA basketball under a major new deal, Grup Mediapro has announced that it is working with the st...
21/10/2025
ATLANTA Good news for consumers using an Atlanta DTH receiver to watch ATSC 3.0: with a new software update, they will be able to blanket their homes with Wi-Fi...
21/10/2025
While recent news has been heavily focused on Hispanic migration into the U.S., The 2025 Hispanic Market Report from Claritas highlights the fact that this gr...
21/10/2025
MAIDENHEAD, UK RWS has hired Michael Wayne as its head of media and entertainment in Los Angeles where he will lead the company's media localization busines...
21/10/2025
Imagine Communications and Rohde & Schwarz today announced a definitive agreement under which Imagine will acquire Pixel Power Limited, a wholly owned subsidiar...
21/10/2025
Atlanta DTH (ADTH) today announced a major update that will expand the functionality of its NEXTGEN TV receiver by enabling gateway capabilities allowing viewer...
21/10/2025
Heartland Video Systems, Inc. (HVS), a premier video systems integration, consulting, and expert ATSC 3.0 implementation firm announces that it has partnered wi...
21/10/2025
QuickLink, the leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest integration solutions, today announced the appointment of Austin Hinton as it...
21/10/2025
nternet connectivity startup Miri Technologies Inc. will use this week's NAB Show New York as the launch pad for its latest ground-breaking innovation, the ...
20/10/2025
Inside TAMS: How Time-Addressable Media Stores could redefine sports workflows By Paul Markham
Friday, October 17, 2025 - 08:57
Print This Story
A penalty...
20/10/2025
Transformational production: Inside TVN's remote production push for the DFL...
20/10/2025
How NBC Sports Transitioned Stamford Facility to One Format: 1080p HDRMulti-year plan harmonizes workflows, simplifies operationsBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial ...
20/10/2025
NBA on NBC' Studio Production Team Is Ready for Tip-Off With Coast-to-Coast...
20/10/2025
Under pressure: TVN CEO Markus Osthaus considers the German sports broadcasting ...
20/10/2025
(L-R) Maria Dizzia, Carmen Emmi, and Russell Tovey attend the Plainclothes pre...
20/10/2025
In March, we launched Concerts Near You to help listeners find concerts from their favorite artists. Since then, more than 3 million people have used it to disc...
20/10/2025
Em diversas cidades do Brasil, um movimento tem se fortalecido para celebrar o poder, a beleza e a profundidade da criatividade negra. O Dia AMPLIFIKA, agora em...
20/10/2025
In cities across Brazil, a movement is growing that celebrates the power, beauty, and depth of Black creativity. AMPLIFIKA Day, now in its fifth edition, return...
20/10/2025
Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft rendering...
20/10/2025
DENVER and MUNICH Imagine Communications today announced its plans to acquire Pixel Power Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Rohde & Schwarz. Financial terms of...
20/10/2025
LOS ANGELES G Morgan has joined Globecast, a provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, as executive vice president of sales, Globecast Am...
20/10/2025
PLYMOUTH, Wisc. Heartland Video Systems and Zixi have partnered to enable broadcast-quality live video delivery over any IP network....
20/10/2025
A. R. Rahman on Facing Fear and Finding the Divine In an interview with Berklee President Jim Lucchese, the Oscar-winning composer reflects on how courage and...
20/10/2025
Monday 20 October 2025
To view this content, please enable our use of cookies. ...
20/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz transfers Pixel Power to Imagine Communications Companies work collaboratively to ensure continuity and ongoing support for existing customers...
20/10/2025
RT 's Prime Time is set to host the final Presidential Election Debate this Tuesday night, October 21, providing an opportunity to hear directly from Irelan...
20/10/2025
NVIDIA and Google Cloud are expanding access to accelerated computing to transform the full spectrum of enterprise workloads, from visual computing to agentic a...
19/10/2025
Back to All News
Sins of Kujo' Comes to Life in New Live-Action Series Set for Spring 2026
Entertainment
19 October 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to cl...
18/10/2025
New England Sports Network (NESN) has chosen Harmonic, working with Astound Business Solutions, as its enterprise technology partner to transform primary distri...
18/10/2025
NEW ORLEANS, La. In the run-up to the start of the NBA season, WVUE-TV and Gray Local Media have announced a deal with DirecTV that will greatly expand access t...
18/10/2025
Berklee Celebrates 40 Years of the Fall Together Concert Faculty composers Bob Pilkington and Greg Hopkins are among the featured artists for this year's ...
17/10/2025
NEP Group Receives New Equity Investment From 26North Partners LP, Co-InvestorsCarlyle remains the largest shareholder as the company prepares for the futureBy ...
17/10/2025
Apple Lands Five-Year Deal for F1 Distribution in the U.S.Besides airing on Apple TV, the sport will be amplified on other Apple servicesBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Ed...
17/10/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Marshall Electronics' Bernie Keach on the Future of PTZ Camera...
17/10/2025
L2 Productions' REMI Facility in Austin Can Produce Content From AnywhereMusic festivals, sports events are produced via flypacks and remote control roomsBy...
17/10/2025
By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival...
17/10/2025
(L-R) Christopher Meyer, Addison Timlin, Cooper Raiff, Lili Reinhart, Alyah Chan...
17/10/2025
M sica e arte se uniram em uma noite especial na semana passada na ZIV Gallery, ...
17/10/2025
Music and art came together for one special night last week at ZIV Gallery, an i...
17/10/2025
Spotify and FC Barcelona are extending our partnership through 2030, continuing a collaboration that's redefining how fans, players, and artists connect. Th...
17/10/2025
MURRIETA, Calif. The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC) has deployed DigitalGlue's creative.space storage platform to streamline video production by centrali...
17/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. Football continued to cement its reputation as a bulwark of TV advertising in Q3 2025 with new data from iSpot that showed both the NFL and coll...
17/10/2025
The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC), the premier competitive saltwater fishing series, has transformed its production workflow by adopting creative.space, the...
17/10/2025
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning multi-camera video productions and remote contribution solutions, announces the release of StudioPro Version 4, ...
17/10/2025
Although the annual Grammy Awards celebration is best known for recognizing achievements in the recording industry, the show often proves a visual spectacle as ...
17/10/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leading provider of software-defined data storage and data services, has promoted Alex Dunfey to Chief Technology Officer (CTO) from his for...
17/10/2025
The University of Arizona (UofA) has significantly upgraded its broadcast communication infrastructure with the integration of Riedel Communications' advanc...
17/10/2025
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that New England Sports Network (NESN), owned by Fenway Sports Group and Delaware North, has selected Harmonic as its en...
Sports Venue Production Summit: Mercedes-Benz Stadium Welcomes 200+ for Two-Day Event By Karen Hogan Ketchum, Senior Editor 
