
Premier League re-start: How Sky Sports went remote for the first time EFL remote production experience invaluable as Sky team takes another giant step By Fergal Ringrose, Editorial Director, Europe
Thursday, June 25, 2020 - 15:49
Print This Story
The Premier League returned to action last week after a 100-day hiatus because of the coronavirus. Sky Sports was the first broadcaster back on air on Wednesday 17 June with a double header featuring Aston Villa v Sheffield United followed by Manchester City v Arsenal.
The next day, 18 June, several key members of the Sky production team including the Man City v Arsenal match director joined moderator Will Strauss to discuss the new production normal' at SVG Europe's virtual Football Summit 2020.
On the vMix/Singular Live virtual platform for the session were Lawrence Cawsey, senior director, Sky Sports Football; Jena Mihalovic, technical operations project lead, Sky Sports; Kevin Ramsey, director of studios, Sky Production Services; and John Turnbull, deputy managing director, NEP UK Broadcast Services.
The discussion covered match directing, remote production, crewing and staff protocols, social distancing and health and safety, and what life is now like when working on live football coverage.
There was quite a lot of pressure on the whole Sky team last night, directing Premier League football remotely, said Cawsey. There were many things we did for the first time last night. The technical and planning teams have done an amazing job in enabling us to deliver everything.
What was it like to direct? Being away from the ground has its challenges. Obviously there were new camera and interview positions, and as a director you're used to walking around before the game and obviously that is not possible when you are remote.
It was the first time I've directed a game with no fans, and I would say, coming away from yesterday, I had a real appreciation of how important stadium fans are to the TV viewing experience, said Cawsey.
We rely a lot as directors on emotional shots of players in our storytelling, and these shots just don't seem to happen as much with no fans in the stadium because the players don't have fans to feed off. And normally you will hear the noise of the fans reverberate through the walls of the truck and that emits an energy to you and your crew.
I chose to listen last night with the natural stadium audio as opposed to the augmented audio that Sky was offering, and it was a challenge to keep the energy levels up.
But the one massive bonus of remote production is to be able to be home within ten minutes of the end of my shift, rather than a four-hour drive down the M6.
Watch the session in full
The first thing we led with was health and safety, said Jena Mihalovic. We always want people to be safe, but this is a very unique situation, having people coming back and working two metres apart.
Everybody who has worked in television knows we like to be together! We lean on each other and work in very dense spaces.
So the first thing we had to figure out was how to give each person what they needed to do their job in a safe way. That meant deconstructing how we normally work.
So we created four separate graphics hubs, so that our graphics operators and stats people could operate at a safe place outside of the gallery. We looked at ways to limit the number of people on-site and people at Sky so that everybody can be kept safe. John can speak about that from the stadium side.
In addition to graphics are the replay rooms. EVS operators like to operate shoulder to shoulder. It's very hard to separate them out! So we built an entirely new replay area still side by side but a little bit further away then they would like to be.
Everybody who has worked in television knows we like to be together! - Jena Mihalovic
We also pulled our lighting directors out of the gallery and located them at another safe station at Sky. So it was really about unpacking our usual work spaces in a safe way.
Remote production has been with Sky for I think about five years now, added Mihalovic. We've touched on it for previous productions. But last year we made a commitment to take the EFL remote, so we transformed the gallery and added connectivity, working with NEP Connect, to get connectivity at all of the grounds.
We did about 50 games with the EFL and that has truly prepared us for slipping into the Premier League. I don't think we could have done what we've done as easily without the experience we gained from doing the EFL day in and day out and learning from that as we went. That was really important.
So while it wasn't easy' it was an easy decision to make to go to remote production and keep our people safe by moving Premier League into the gallery we created for EFL, and then moving EFL, with a slightly reduced spec, into another gallery - adding the remote connectivity we needed there.
The gallery still looks the same and acts the same to the production staff, which is a great comfort and also helps with the transition, she said.
Overcoming obstacles without compromising the safety of people
Kevin Ramsey began by saying, Well first of all I need to change teams after the Arsenal result last night! It goes without saying that Sky's production teams have incredibly high standards and expectations in the work they produce.
As the department that supplies both facilities and operational crews for Sky Sports it can be incredibly rewarding working side by side with people who push the boundaries. But there's a flip side to that in the amount of graft it takes to support their visions!
Especially at this time when there are so many logistical obstacles in our way. We clearly didn't want to be the weak link that undermined what went to air. So what
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...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
24/04/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is pleased to announce that the ca...
24/04/2026
ITV's Director of Drama Polly Hill has commissioned six part propulsive, lun...
24/04/2026
The NASA 777 aircraft departs the L3Harris facility in Waco, Texas....
24/04/2026
WASHINGTON, April 23, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) has closed a $1 b...
24/04/2026
In partnership with Airbus U.S. Space & Defense, Inc., L3Harris Technologies is advancing autonomous aviation for the U.S. Marine Corps' Aerial Logistics Co...
24/04/2026
L3Harris' hC2 software, powered by Systematic SitaWare, strengthens battlefield decision-making by using open architectures to connect platforms, sensors an...
24/04/2026
Artist rendering of L3Harris' AERIS X next-generation airborne early warning...
24/04/2026
AgileTV presents in Las Vegas its technological proposition to power safer, more scalable and efficient TV ecosystems for telecom operators, ISPs and entertainm...
24/04/2026
Canada's C gep de Jonqui re and Calrec take five with a substantial TV studio upgrade Underscoring its global reputation as one of Canada's most renowne...
24/04/2026
Redefining Broadcast Workflows at NAB 2026 with our Most Powerful Hardware, Virtual and Hybrid Audio Lineup Yet We're looking forward to meeting up with you...
24/04/2026
Recognition for incredible advances in broadcast and enterprise control...
24/04/2026
Dalet Takes Home The Best in Show Award for Dalia at 2026 NAB
Brie Clayton April 23, 2026
0 Comments
Media-aware agentic AI wins big for real-world ef...
24/04/2026
Calrec and Grass Valley Unlock Exceptional Choice and Flexibility for Broadcaste...
24/04/2026
Bitfocus Buttons wins NAB Show Product of the Year Award
Brie Clayton April 24, 2026
0 Comments
Recognition for incredible advances in broadcast and e...
24/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
24/04/2026
Media-aware agentic AI wins big for real-world efficiencies and time to value
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, to...
24/04/2026
Mediagenix wins for its Scheduling Optimization capabilities that help broadcasters and FAST operators move beyond traditional scheduling automation toward cont...
24/04/2026
Setplex today announced that it has taken home the NAB Show Project of the Year Award in the Distribution category for its innovative deployment with UVOtv. Dur...
24/04/2026
Media and post-production teams are invited to experience next-level resource planning, project management, and connected media workflows at Stand K59 in The Gr...
24/04/2026
April 24 2026, 00:00 (PDT) Dolby Elevates In-Car Entertainment to New Heights at Auto China 2026
More Automakers, More Models: Dolby-enabled Vehicles Drive...
24/04/2026
April 24 2026, 06:48 (PDT) Dolby Cinema Arrives in Tamil Nadu: Dolby Laboratori...
23/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/04/2026
Partnership between ARRI and SmallHD brings new Hi-5 license
Configurable monitor overlays adapt to individual working styles
Supported by SmallHD monitors ru...
23/04/2026
Lighting Master Cronenweth ASC brings a unique look to each grid world with the help of Astera
Jeff Cronenweth on the set of Disney's TRON: ARES. Photo by...
23/04/2026
DP Chloe Smolkin ( The Late Show, Kidz Bop ) joins director Danielle Beckmann and writer/actor Raji Ahsan behind the camera for the heartfelt short comedy Dr...
23/04/2026
Apply now to join the 2026 Producer Delegation to TIFF: The Market 23 April 2026
Screen Australia, in partnership with Ontario Creates, has opened application...
23/04/2026
Back to All News
Strange Things Are Happening at McDonald's: The Tales From...
23/04/2026
Back to All News
How Netflix Adaptations Are Heating Up the Top 10 and Bestseller Lists
Entertainment
23 April 2026
Global
Link copied to clipboard
Downlo...
23/04/2026
FOX Advertising Launches FOX AdStudio, Unifying Audience Intelligence Across Its...
23/04/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced that Dalia, its agentic AI solution for media & entertainment, ha...
23/04/2026
Six crafts. Six lives.
Six reasons to believe that making things by hand
still...
23/04/2026
The festival programme promises a feast of drama, a bumper packed fringe festiva...
23/04/2026
AI agents have revolutionized developer workflows, and their next frontier is kn...
23/04/2026
Dermot Bannon's Celebrity Super Spaces airs Sunday 26 April and 3 May on RT ...
23/04/2026
GeForce NOW is doubling down on what matters most: gamers. This week's upgra...
22/04/2026
Solid State Logic is advancing its System T platform with a stronger focus on IP...
22/04/2026
From immersive audio to live streaming, Dolby Laboratories is focused on the fut...
22/04/2026
Shallow depth-of-field cameras have taken the industry by storm. Its debut a han...
22/04/2026
Riedel Communications (Booth C4908) announced that Eastern Kentucky University (...
22/04/2026
The NAB Show is in full swing, and the SVG and SVG Europe editorial teams are chasing down the hottest stories from all over the Las Vegas Convention Center. He...
22/04/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the URSA Cine 12K LF 100G, a new model in the URSA Cine family adding 100G Ethernet for SMPTE 2110 live production output up to ...