Live From MLB All-Star 2025: ESPN Preps for Home Run Derby Broadcast While Producing Seven Shows in Atlanta A crowded compound will handle onsite production for all the shows By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. Monday, July 14, 2025 - 4:54 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
With the field set for tonight's Home Run Derby, ESPN will once again deploy an arsenal of production tools specifically to cover the dingers launched at Atlanta's Truist Park: the returning 4DReplay, a cabled FlyCam system, multiple AR-enabled live drones (both inside and outside the ballpark), five additional AR-enabled cameras inside the park, and plenty of miked players for live interviews during the festivities.
In addition to tonight's Derby broadcast on ESPN and Statcast Edition altcast on ESPN2, ESPN Manager, Remote Operations, Paul Horrell and his team are overseeing operations for ESPN Deportes, SportsCenter: 50 States in 50 Days, The Pat McAfee Show, Baseball Tonight, and last night's First Round of the MLB Draft.
This is always a monster event, says Horrell, noting that 12 operations staffers are onsite to support seven separate productions for MLB All-Star Weekend. It's months and months and months in the planning phases.
The ESPN operations team: (from left) Tatianna Montalvo, Kelsey Hahn, Steph Santora, Jon Winders, Sam Majewski, Kevin Cleary, Carla Ackels, Ryan Dobesh, Fred Clow, Carsen Kenney, Paul Horrell, and Kevin Wendling
Over the past eight or nine months, the team went through several rounds of planning for the onsite broadcast and production compounds, eventually landing on Plan F for the final layout. That has certainly been a challenge, he says. Real estate there is at a premium.
Multipronged Operation: Facilities Distributed Around the Venue With a snug compound space at Truist Park, FOX Sports, ESPN, and MLB Network have had to get creative in finding space for the production compound. As a result, facilities are spread out across multiple locations around the ballpark and The Battery Atlanta, Truist Park's mixed-use development featuring retail, restaurants, bars, and residential housing.
In the Delta Deck parking lot, ESPN has multiple production trucks including NEP Supershooter 8 and ST8, which handled Sunday's MLB Draft coverage at the Coca-Cola Roxy theater (in The Battery) and is also home to ESPN's Baseball Tonight and SportsCenter: 50 States in 50 Days onsite studio productions.
Additionally, The Pat McAfee Show is originating from the Coca-Cola Roxy this afternoon ahead of tonight's Home Run Derby. The production is fully onsite, with Pat McAfee's full crew in Atlanta and ESPN's operations team supporting them with equipment, staging, and facilities.
McAfee is using the same stage, desk, and lighting (all provided by West River) that ESPN used for its Draft coverage at the Roxy on Sunday and has rolled in Live Media Group MU14 mobile unit. ESPN's ops team is supporting the show's production and turned over the set and truck overnight to be ready for today's show, which features McAfee's signature arsenal of PTZ and Marshall POV cameras.
ESPN's NEP production trucks in the compound at Atlanta's Truist Park
Meanwhile, the same S3 lot also houses NEP EN1 A, B, C and D for the Home Run Derby broadcast. The S2 lot is home to EN1 E, a West River Light and Sound production truck, an ice trailer, crew trailer, and ancillary support. Parked in S5 are ESPN partners PSSI Global Services, supporting satellite uplink and transmission, and Cat Entertainment Services, supplying generators.
For tonight's Home Run Derby, the English-language main broadcast set for ESPN will be located on the inside end of first base, and ESPN Deportes will be on the inside end of third base. Meanwhile, SportsCenter: 50 States in 50 Days and Baseball Tonight are using the same set on the outside end of first base. Contingency plans for rain provide sheltered accommodations for the different productions.
Kevin Connors is hosting the Baseball Tonight pre-Derby show on ESPN along with analyst Xavier Scruggs and Tim Kurkjian.
ESPN Remote Operations Specialist Kevin Cleary is running point on the technical side, as he has done for several years, and Operations Producer Carla Ackels is onsite project manager. Both have done a fantastic job, says Horrell.
Speaking of ESPN's entire MLB All-Star Weekend production, Cleary says, I'm sure there are other events that are larger in scale and scope, maybe even in viewership, but those are singular events that may have some studio presence, some other things on it. [But] there are seven different actual events all happening in and around Home Run Derby and the Draft and the All-Star Game. As anyone who has ever done this knows, that's seven sets of producers and directors, seven sets of equipment, seven sets of everything - which is a lot to juggle. Having the team together and having the folks that we have here are what make this a success.
Getting Down to Capture: The Eyes on Tonight's Home Run Derby In terms of camera bells and whistles for the Home Run Derby, ESPN will have an AR-enabled drone flying around the ballpark and will take a delayed AR tracer feed of another MLB-operated drone inside the ballpark. Meanwhile, the half-moon-shaped 4DReplay camera ring features 16 cameras and is positioned directly behind home plate - the closest ESPN is able to get to the plate in any baseball scenario.
ESPN director Doug Holmes preps for the Home Run Derby.
In addition, an on-field robotic camera, a collaboration of ESPN director Doug Holmes and the NEP Specialty Capture (formerly Fletcher) team, will be on a small mast near second base, shooting as the loose centerfield camera, or Camera 4. Because there's a protection gate around the
