ESPN Puts UmpCam, On-field RF Gimbals at All Four Venues for MLB Wild Card RoundWith ratings on the rise, the broadcaster faces a potential 12 postseason games in three daysBy Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Tuesday, September 30, 2025 - 10:25 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
ESPN rides into October on a baseball ratings surge (up 21% year-over-year), and now the stage gets even bigger.
The MLB Wild Card Series begins Tuesday, and with it comes four juicy matchups that put ESPN on deck to deliver as many as 12 games in just three days. ESPN is promising wall-to-wall coverage and rolling out high-end production enhancements, such as K-Zone enhanced UmpCams and on-field RF cameras, at each series.
An ESPN camera operator shoots a game at Dodger Stadium earlier this season. The Los Angeles Dodgers host the Cincinnati Reds in one of four MLB Wild Card series happening this week. (Photo: Scott Clarke/ESPN Images)
Having UmpCam with K-Zone enhanced available at all four sites gives our crews a storytelling tool that hasn't been seen in too many baseball broadcasts, says ESPN Lead Producer, Sunday Night Baseball, Andy Jacobson, who will sit at the front bench for the series between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. It's not just a novelty; it's a way to document the game in a way that helps fans understand it better.
ESPN introduced K-Zone on the UmpCam angle during a Sunday Night Baseball broadcast this month through a partnership with optical-tracking vendor Bolt6. Jacobson believes that enhancements like that and the on-field RF cameras shooting in shallow depth-of-field give the broadcast the big game feel to meet the moment.
That'll amp up the productions and make them look and feel big, he says.
Wall-to-Wall Coverage Poses a Scheduling ChallengeThe Wild Card Series has become a unique stretch on ESPN's baseball calendar. With games scheduled practically back-to-back from 1 p.m. through midnight ET, the network is deploying four separate crews to cover every pitch.
Tuesday's slate opens with Detroit Tigers-Cleveland Guardians at 1 p.m. on ESPN. San Diego Padres-Chicago Cubs follows at 3 p.m. on ABC, and Boston Red Sox-New York Yankees, naturally, is slotted in primetime at 6 p.m. from Yankee Stadium. Cincinnati Reds-Los Angeles Dodgers on the West Coast closes the night with 9 p.m. ET first pitch on ESPN.
That lineup repeats on Wednesday, with decisive Game 3's, if necessary, on Thursday. Baseball Tonight bookends coverage with live studio programming from the broadcaster's Bristol, CT, facility.
To produce four games a day in three time windows, ESPN is deploying three full onsite truck productions and a single REMI workflow: the game in Chicago is handled by a control room in Bristol. Jacobson and his team had to wait until the very last inning of the regular season to know exactly where they would be heading.
It feels like a cast of hundreds back at ESPN who are all diehard baseball fans, Jacobson says. To put these shows on less than 48 hours after the matchups locked in on Sunday is a herculean effort. We're super proud to be part of it.
Postseason Atmosphere, Elevated CoverageJacobson and his Sunday Night Baseball team will handle the series in the Bronx, which he considers a storyteller's dream. Although the classic rivalry ensures a wealth of storylines, he notes that this week is about more than matchups: it's about capturing the feel of October baseball and doing so with new perspectives.
The crowd's going to be phenomenal, he says. With UmpCam and the RF handhelds on the dirt, we're set up to document it in a way that feels fresh. For us, it's about sitting back, letting the atmosphere unfold, and making sure the technology helps bring fans even closer to it.
Here's ESPN's broadcast schedule heading into Tuesday:
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
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...
15/06/2026
Detach from Direct-Attached: How Remote Editing with EVO Keeps Creative Teams Mo...
14/06/2026
Library captures 1960s R&B/pop drum sound
Following on from their recent wave of plug-in effects, Iconic Instruments have just launched an all-new virtual d...
14/06/2026
HBO Comedy Rooster Shot with URSA Cine 17K 65
Brie Clayton June 14, 2026
0 Comments
Large format brings viewers intimately close to characters.
Black...
13/06/2026
Latest expansion pack includes 252 presets
Devious Machines have recently introduced another expansion for their powerful multi-effects plug-in, Infiltrator...
13/06/2026
Create custom DAW/plug-in controllers using prompts
MetaGrid have recently introduced an all-new AI Builder function to their touchscreen-based control surf...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production, Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it has given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what o...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
ESPN Puts UmpCam, On-field RF Gimbals at All Four Venues for MLB Wild Card RoundWith ratings on the rise, the broadcaster faces a potential 12 postseason games in three daysBy Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
