As 2020 comes to an end, Philip Stevens talks to ITV Sports Roger Pearce about a year of fewer events - and the hopes for 2021.
By Philip Stevens
Published: December 3, 2020
As 2020 comes to an end, Philip Stevens talks to ITV Sport's Roger Pearce about a year of fewer events - and the hopes for 2021.
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin> As 2020 comes to an end, Philip Stevens talks to ITV Sport's Roger Pearce about a year of fewer events - and the hopes for 2021.
https://www.tvbeurope.com/live-production/sports-eventful-year title=Share via Email class=share-email>
To state the obvious, Covid-19 has meant huge changes for everyone in the country. And the knock-on effect has hit the broadcast industry with many variations in production practice. None more so than those involving sports coverage.
There has been a constant and persistent challenge across all our productions since lockdown, asserts Roger Pearce, technical director at ITV Sports Productions. What's more, this remains the case due to the rapidly changing pandemic situation. As a result, we have to remain alert and agile.
Pearce reports that ITV Sport's horse racing operation has been particularly challenging as it was one of the very early live sports to return to terrestrial TV. Our overriding concern for personnel safety, alongside the restrictions meant that the whole operation needed to be re-planned under very tight scrutiny. This is especially true when it comes to horse racing because of the wide variety of large venues and the complexity of the modern way of covering this as an outside broadcast.
Safety first With all of that in mind, how did Pearce and his team achieve social distancing for crew members?
We achieved this by carrying out a very careful assessment of the role of each person involved in the production. Then it was a case of liaising with the facility supplier to ensure everyone can work safely. Social distancing is an important element of ensuring the operation is safe, but it is part of a broad package of Covid-19 related requirements that have to be covered by our production management teams.
He continues, As one memorable occasion from our year's activities, I would put forward our live British Touring Cars (BTCC) coverage from Brands Hatch. This was a constantly moving target for our production team and OB supplier, Cloudbass. After the months of full lockdown, it was great to find a safe way to deliver our usual full day of live motorsport, but it evolved from the initial maximum home-working model to full presentation and production on-site as the Covid-19 restrictions eased towards this season opener. It meant new technical solutions had to constantly be created.
Pearce adds, Of course, there are still lessons to be learned. For example, there have been arguments back and forth about adding crowd noises where there are no spectators. We have taken great care to think about the virtual sound design and finding an appropriate virtual atmosphere for each particular sport. It takes great skill to get the live reaction audio timing right. It is fair to say that we are still learning.
Positives On the face of it, measures that have been a necessary part of the workflow during this past year could be seen as restricting OB operations to some degree, but Pearce believes there have been positives that have come out of the circumstances that have been created by the pandemic. It has certainly made us reassess every aspect of the way we work and challenge the norms' - and that is no bad thing. The rapid development of technology to enable remote and home-based production will give us all more flexibility to plan our work-life balance in the future. In turn, that will hopefully have mental health benefits longer term. That is a very positive development to come out of a very negative situation.
Of course, that would suggest that remote production techniques and technology might well become regular practice for a number of sports. Pearce agrees, Yes, elements of the techniques developed under the banner of remote production' will become the norm, but they would eventually have evolved that way in any case. The pandemic has just speeded up the process where remote working makes sense for some sports and broadcasters.
He says that it is important to differentiate between remote working and home working for sports production. Live home-working is not mature yet due to the general lack of reliable connectivity to the home. It remains a valid workflow where there are no other options - like during a pandemic, for example but has a way to go to become business as usual.
So, are there any special remote productions Pearce would care to highlight? It would be unfair to single out any one operation as far as remote is concerned. We are proud of all our remote productions this year as they have been conjured up at speed and under pressure. Our suppliers have been fantastic in devising new techniques and building new systems whilst working under severe Covid-19 restrictions. I would go so far as to say, we have seen some technical miracles happen this year. And that is no exaggeration.
But, having garnered more experience of remote production, are there any areas in which the practice might not be appropriate? Just like any other workflow, remote production will be suitable where there is a reason to use it. By that I mean, for instance, is it the most cost-effective way to operate, or is there a need to keep crew travel to a minimum? Remote working is less likely to be worthwhile or justifiable for a short, one-off ad hoc sports event where there is no fibre connectivity.
Happy new year? With all of that in mind, are there any specific challenges facing ITV Sport for 2021? We were very close to starting the rig for U
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
20/10/2025
Inside TAMS: How Time-Addressable Media Stores could redefine sports workflows By Paul Markham
Friday, October 17, 2025 - 08:57
Print This Story
A penalty...
20/10/2025
Transformational production: Inside TVN's remote production push for the DFL...
20/10/2025
How NBC Sports Transitioned Stamford Facility to One Format: 1080p HDRMulti-year plan harmonizes workflows, simplifies operationsBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial ...
20/10/2025
NBA on NBC' Studio Production Team Is Ready for Tip-Off With Coast-to-Coast...
20/10/2025
Under pressure: TVN CEO Markus Osthaus considers the German sports broadcasting ...
20/10/2025
(L-R) Maria Dizzia, Carmen Emmi, and Russell Tovey attend the Plainclothes pre...
20/10/2025
In March, we launched Concerts Near You to help listeners find concerts from their favorite artists. Since then, more than 3 million people have used it to disc...
20/10/2025
Em diversas cidades do Brasil, um movimento tem se fortalecido para celebrar o poder, a beleza e a profundidade da criatividade negra. O Dia AMPLIFIKA, agora em...
20/10/2025
In cities across Brazil, a movement is growing that celebrates the power, beauty, and depth of Black creativity. AMPLIFIKA Day, now in its fifth edition, return...
20/10/2025
Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft rendering...
20/10/2025
DENVER and MUNICH Imagine Communications today announced its plans to acquire Pixel Power Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Rohde & Schwarz. Financial terms of...
20/10/2025
LOS ANGELES G Morgan has joined Globecast, a provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, as executive vice president of sales, Globecast Am...
20/10/2025
PLYMOUTH, Wisc. Heartland Video Systems and Zixi have partnered to enable broadcast-quality live video delivery over any IP network....
20/10/2025
A. R. Rahman on Facing Fear and Finding the Divine In an interview with Berklee President Jim Lucchese, the Oscar-winning composer reflects on how courage and...
20/10/2025
Monday 20 October 2025
To view this content, please enable our use of cookies. ...
20/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz transfers Pixel Power to Imagine Communications Companies work collaboratively to ensure continuity and ongoing support for existing customers...
20/10/2025
RT 's Prime Time is set to host the final Presidential Election Debate this Tuesday night, October 21, providing an opportunity to hear directly from Irelan...
20/10/2025
NVIDIA and Google Cloud are expanding access to accelerated computing to transform the full spectrum of enterprise workloads, from visual computing to agentic a...
19/10/2025
Back to All News
Sins of Kujo' Comes to Life in New Live-Action Series Set for Spring 2026
Entertainment
19 October 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to cl...
18/10/2025
New England Sports Network (NESN) has chosen Harmonic, working with Astound Business Solutions, as its enterprise technology partner to transform primary distri...
18/10/2025
NEW ORLEANS, La. In the run-up to the start of the NBA season, WVUE-TV and Gray Local Media have announced a deal with DirecTV that will greatly expand access t...
18/10/2025
Berklee Celebrates 40 Years of the Fall Together Concert Faculty composers Bob Pilkington and Greg Hopkins are among the featured artists for this year's ...
17/10/2025
NEP Group Receives New Equity Investment From 26North Partners LP, Co-InvestorsCarlyle remains the largest shareholder as the company prepares for the futureBy ...
17/10/2025
Apple Lands Five-Year Deal for F1 Distribution in the U.S.Besides airing on Apple TV, the sport will be amplified on other Apple servicesBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Ed...
17/10/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Marshall Electronics' Bernie Keach on the Future of PTZ Camera...
17/10/2025
L2 Productions' REMI Facility in Austin Can Produce Content From AnywhereMusic festivals, sports events are produced via flypacks and remote control roomsBy...
17/10/2025
By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival...
17/10/2025
(L-R) Christopher Meyer, Addison Timlin, Cooper Raiff, Lili Reinhart, Alyah Chan...
17/10/2025
M sica e arte se uniram em uma noite especial na semana passada na ZIV Gallery, ...
17/10/2025
Music and art came together for one special night last week at ZIV Gallery, an i...
17/10/2025
Spotify and FC Barcelona are extending our partnership through 2030, continuing a collaboration that's redefining how fans, players, and artists connect. Th...
17/10/2025
MURRIETA, Calif. The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC) has deployed DigitalGlue's creative.space storage platform to streamline video production by centrali...
17/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. Football continued to cement its reputation as a bulwark of TV advertising in Q3 2025 with new data from iSpot that showed both the NFL and coll...
17/10/2025
The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC), the premier competitive saltwater fishing series, has transformed its production workflow by adopting creative.space, the...
17/10/2025
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning multi-camera video productions and remote contribution solutions, announces the release of StudioPro Version 4, ...
17/10/2025
Although the annual Grammy Awards celebration is best known for recognizing achievements in the recording industry, the show often proves a visual spectacle as ...
17/10/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leading provider of software-defined data storage and data services, has promoted Alex Dunfey to Chief Technology Officer (CTO) from his for...
17/10/2025
The University of Arizona (UofA) has significantly upgraded its broadcast communication infrastructure with the integration of Riedel Communications' advanc...
17/10/2025
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that New England Sports Network (NESN), owned by Fenway Sports Group and Delaware North, has selected Harmonic as its en...
17/10/2025
Austin PBS has recently upgraded its facility-wide communications infrastructure, deploying Clear-Com 's Eclipse HX, FreeSpeak II beltpacks, and V-Series ...
17/10/2025
ZEISS announces an open call for the closed BETA testing phase of CinCraft Virtual Lens Technology, the innovative digital tool that brings authentic lens chara...
17/10/2025
Situated in the town of Kokkola, Centria University of Applied Sciences offers higher education across five core fields: engineering, business, social and healt...
17/10/2025
Public information channel in Georgia, USA, to implement a powerful, simple, and cost-effective playout automation platform.
Pebble, the leading automation, co...
17/10/2025
HBO Max is reporting that it has launched in 15 new markets, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Macau, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Ukraine, boosting the streaming serv...
17/10/2025
Netflix said it will make a major push into video podcasts, inking a wide-ranging deal with Spotify through which it will offer 16 podcasts in the U.S. starting...
17/10/2025
Lexington, Ky. As part of a push to highlight its advanced advertising capabilities, Viamedia has launched a new AI-powered ad tech platform and officially rebr...
17/10/2025
NEW YORK QuickLink has announced the release of StudioPro Version 4, which the company is calling the most significant upgrade yet to its flagship video product...
17/10/2025
NEW YORK and CUPERTINO, Calif. Apple and NBCUniversal said they will sell Apple TV and Peacock streaming bundles to U.S. subscribers starting Oct. 20....
As 2020 comes to an end, Philip Stevens talks to ITV Sports Roger Pearce about a year of fewer events - and the hopes for 2021.
