Chris Calcinari oversees and manages operations for the thousands of live sports events produced by ESPN and ABC each year. SVG recently sat down with him to discuss the launch of Monday Night Football's new quartet of state-of-the-art production trucks, the increasingly crowded state of the cable sports market, and the future of 3D, 1080p, and 4K production in sports programming.Chris Calcinari
How do you view the legacy of ESPN 3D from a production and technology standpoint? What can the ESPN Operations team take away from the advances of the 5D production model?
ESPN3D challenged us on many levels and was also a great learning experience. The project evolved over time from a side-by-side (two separate productions) production model into the 5D (single production) model that was revolutionary, much more efficient, and obviously more cost-effective. We actually produced some very big events in this manner, including the Winter X Games, which garnered two Emmy Awards for ESPN for Outstanding Remote Technical Team. It is quite different walking into a live mobile unit and seeing everyone wearing 3D glasses. That is how we produced our events. The 2D production was simply one eye of the 3D signal.
You need to approach a 3D production carefully. All of the truck resources are actually cut in half to support the two signals required for each video source. On the flip side, everything in the field is doubled, as each camera position is actually two cameras. We learned a lot about the different tools required for 3D, such as the mechanical 3D rigs, smaller-form-factor cameras and associated lensing (used for the handhelds), dual-link signal flow, monitoring (passive vs. active), frame-accurate encoding (required to send two signals back to MCR simultaneously), and so on. We also spent a lot of time with innovative companies such as the CAMERON PACE Group. They have a lot of smart, creative people who developed great products and think differently. I believe our experience working with them has made us better.
When do you see 4K sports telecasts becoming a reality? And what about 8K? And, in the meantime, how valuable do you believe 4K tools can be within HD productions (for example, stitching and zoomed-in HD replays)?
The value of higher-resolution delivery will likely be debated for quite some time. I don't have a crystal-ball-type prediction on the timeline for 4K or 8K. Clearly, ESPN and many others are testing the available tools and working with manufacturers on their development. The tools are indeed coming along. As an example, we had some people in Rio over the summer observing the first multicamera 4K remote production at the FIFA Confederations Cup. There were some major limitations, but, on a large monitor, the image quality is impressive. On the remote-production end, we have tested 4K cameras for resolution value, such as zoomed-in replays. You really need the perfect play (and angle) to take place, where you can zoom in on a player's foot or the ball crossing a line, in order to take full advantage of that type of resolution-based enhancement. Frankly, you may go a few games and not get one tally, which makes the investment a difficult proposition.
ESPN was an early innovator when it came to 1080p telecasts. With all the buzz about 4K, is this still an initiative for ESPN? Will we see 1080p telecasts in the near future?
On the remote-operations side, we have been working with our various vendors to ensure that new-equipment acquisitions or mobile-unit builds are 1080p-capable. There are still one or two pieces of gear that are not quite there yet, but we hope to do remote acquisition in the 1080p standard in the future so that we are delivering the highest-quality signal back to our facility for archiving. The reality is that a complete end-to-end 1080p workflow exists today. 4K is not quite there yet.
The new Monday Night Football fleet of mobile units will debut next week. Can you give us a preview of these units? How will these state-of-the-art trucks enhance the quality of MNF telecasts?
We are very excited about the new [NEP] EN-1 Monday Night Football fleet. The planning for this mobile-production facility started close to two years ago with the simple goal of building an environment that provides the best available resources today with the ability to support the tools and workflow requirements of tomorrow. NEP and their team of designers, engineers, and fabricators did a great job with this project. We believe that EN-1 will set a new standard for big-event trucks.
The overall system is four 53-ft. double-expando trailers that operate as one. The size and capability of the trucks is the first thing that catches your attention. Two examples: the total workspace is roughly 3,300 sq. ft., and the router is the single largest EQX router built by Evertz to date, with 576 inputs and 2,088 outputs. The trucks are built to efficiently support our cross-platform content initiatives at each game. Within the EN-1 production environment, there are facilities and workflows to support the game, on-site studio, ESPN Deportes, International, and social media. Having every one of these entities supported out of the same facility creates a collaborative environment of sharing and creativity.
Other major components include 24 Sony HDC cameras that can also be used as 2X SSMO sources when running in 720p. There are also 15 EVS XT3 servers and one XT3 SpotBox. The main switcher is a Grass Valley Kayenne Elite with multiple single-M/E sub panels and an aux bus supporting studio, subswitching, and ESPN Deportes. The main game audio desk is a Calrec Apollo digital console, which is supported by an Artemis Beam handling submix. The finishing touches in the truck were handled with great care by the NEP designers. Each workstation has individual lighting control; air-condition
