It has been 3 years since all Bellator MMA and kickboxing events began airing on Spike and just over a year since the network began carrying monthly Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) fights. As Viacom's commitment to Spike Sports continues to grow - along with ratings for Bellator MMA (up 18% this year over 2015) and PBC on Spike (1.1 million viewers watched Broner vs Theophane on April 1) - so have Spike Sports' remote production needs. To meet the mounting live-production requirements, Viacom rolled out a trio of its own mobile units this year specifically to produce Spike Sports' growing calendar of events.
Spike Sports' trio of new trucks comprises Pegasus A and B and the Gracie edit truck.
By the fall of last year, we knew, with the volume of what Spike Sports is doing and the way that we're growing that brand in terms of our live sports presentation, that Spike Sports should have its own trucks, says Scott Fishman, SVP/executive producer, Spike TV. It just made such cohesive sense from a volume standpoint and gave us the ability to move forward with new technology and be proprietary in that. When we looked at all of the different aspects, it made sense for us to do this rather than stay with a third-party vendor.
Pegasus A and B debuted on March 1 and are slated to work a total of 22 events this year; edit truck Gracie launched April 1.
Pegasus Takes Flight
Viacom took its existing Pegasus 53-ft. double-expando and single-expando trailers (previously entertainment trucks), gutted them, and built new Spike Sports trucks essentially from scratch. Integrated by Beck Associates, Pegasus features two complete production rooms and audio rooms, one of each per trailer. The A unit houses a Grass Valley Kayenne 4M/E switcher (80 inputs/48 outputs) and a Calrec Apollo audio console; the B unit has a 2M/E switcher and a Calrec Summa console.
Pegasus A and B units house a pair of control rooms and audio rooms to serve both the primary show and potential international feeds.
Noting that Bellator is in 150 countries around the world, Fishman says that it has the capability to do, say, an Spanish-language broadcast: We can actually do that now because we have a separate control room and audio room that's tied together with the A unit. All we need to do is just bring in the personnel since we've got the switcher and Spanish-submix audio board.
The trucks roll with 14 cameras, including three Sony HDC-4300L's for high-frame-rate and 4K/HD-cutout applications and 10 Ikegami HDK-55's. As for replay, Pegasus carries three EVS 12-channel XT3 replay servers and a four-channel EVS SpotBox (for a total of 40 replay channels). A pair of Sony PWS-4500 live server systems drive the 4K/HD-cutout workflow, which allows Spike Sports to pull a close-up HD image out of the 4K frame on replays.
Inside the primary control room in Pegasus A
As we were planning, the thing that had become obvious to me - regardless of the distribution aspect to the consumer - is that 4K has already become a great production tool [for HD shows] right out of the gate, says George Epley, VP, technical operations, Viacom Networks. That is most obvious in sports, particularly [combat sports] because there are so many extreme close-ups. So, right off the bat, part of the design concept was to bring in as much 4K as we could as a production tool, not necessarily as the entire workflow. So we settled on Sony 4300 cameras and 4500 servers, and the production team is already starting to incorporate that cutout into their normal slo-mo and super-slo-mo [operations].
The big question with any new truck these days is whether to go with an IP router or baseband router. Viacom opted for a baseband router - both in Pegasus and in its new Atlas entertainment-based mobile unit, which launched with Fox's Grease Live in January.
We just didn't feel that IP was necessary in Atlas, says Epley, and we also didn't feel that IP was necessary in Pegasus, so we went baseband.
Other equipment includes Ross Video Xpression graphics, an RTS ADAM intercom system, and production monitor walls in both trucks composed of Boland 4K displays powered by Grass Valley Kaleido MX multiviewers. The three audio rooms (including Gracie's) are connected via a Calrec Hydra II network.
The ability to build our own units from the ground up, says Fishman, has given us the ability to do everything you would want to do if somebody handed you a blank canvas.
Gracie Has Access to Spike Content Library
Gracie essentially serves as Spike Sports' postproduction house on wheels and connects the edit team in the field directly with Spike headquarters in Manhattan in order to access the network's entire content library.
Gracie's 64-channel Avid Pro Tools audio editing system
The 51-ft. double expando, which was integrated in-house, features three Adobe Premier Pro edit stations (running on MacBook Pro 2's with 43-in. Sony 4K client monitors) and a 256-TB Small Tree TitaniumZ-16 NAS running on a redundant 10GbE network (provided by Juniper Networks EX4550 10GbE switches). The truck also features its own audio-control room with a Calrec Summa console, a 64-channel Avid Pro Tools audio-editing system, and a voiceover room.
Gracie's Calrec Summa audio console
The 256-TB hard drive we have in the edit truck is a similar hard drive to what we have in New York, so the postproduction team literally has the same library resources in New York as they do onsite, says Epley. As they're editing and doing V/Os and things like that in the edit truck, they can also sweeten the audio and/or be able to share allocations between any of the facilities, whether it's the main production unit, the international audio rom, or the edit truck.
Gracie's V/O room
Spike ingests all 1080i content us
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and playlists are filling up for the season. With summer around the corner, Spotify's global edito...
29/05/2026
New retro-inspired MPC announced
There are few devices that have gained the status held by Akai Pro's MPC range, and in recent years, the company have s...
29/05/2026
Save up to 30 on acclaimed titles
Following a successful launch at Superbooth 2026, Bjooks have revealed that they will be continuing the Kickstarter campa...
29/05/2026
Binaural monitoring application improved
Genelec have just released an update that brings some powerful new features to their HRTF-based binaural headphone ...
29/05/2026
6 June 2026 at SAE Institute, London, UK
IMSTA FESTA 2026 is almost upon us, with some of the biggest names in pro-audio set to descend upon SAE Institute i...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality
Kate Luvis May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...
29/05/2026
Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
Latino Film Institute Fellows Screen Their Short Films at the Egyptian Theatre
The Inclusion Fellowship and Spark Animation Grant uplifts 15 ...
29/05/2026
GLOOKAST LAUNCHES CINNAFILM TACHYON PLUGIN FOR MEDIA PRODUCER AND MEDIA SERVICES
This release first appeared here.
Visit our Tachyon product page or contact...
29/05/2026
May 29 2026, 09:00 (PDT) Dolby and rednote Bring More Immersive Storytelling to...
29/05/2026
Something fundamental has shifted in how people consume media. Audiences aren't abandoning television or radio content; they're just expanding how, wher...
29/05/2026
Youtube exclusive special drops today
Watch now
UKTV today announces another e...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...
It has been 3 years since all Bellator MMA and kickboxing events began airing on Spike and just over a year since the network began carrying monthly Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) fights. As Viacom's commitment to Spike Sports continues to grow - along with ratings for Bellator MMA (up 18% this year over 2015) and PBC on Spike (1.1 million viewers watched Broner vs Theophane on April 1) - so have Spike Sports' remote production needs. To meet the mounting live-production requirements, Viacom rolled out a trio of its own mobile units this year specifically to produce Spike Sports' growing calendar of events.
