Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Touchdown in Munich: EMG Helps Facilitate Historic German NFL Game

28/11/2022

Touchdown in Munich: EMG helps facilitate historic German NFL game By Michael Burns

Monday, November 21, 2022 - 13:45

Print This Story

The NFL comes to Munich's Allianz Arena [Credit Alex Van Knippenberg]

At the first-ever NFL regular-season game in Germany recently, Tampa Bay Buccaneers claimed a 21-16 victory over the Seattle Seahawks in front of 69,811 attendees. After the game at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Tom Brady, the Buccaneers' star Quarterback, described the win as, one of the great football experiences I've ever had .

Also buoyed by the success of the game, which took place on on Sunday 13 November, would have been Bill Morris, COO at EMG, who headed up the broadcast facility company's operations in Munich for NFL Media.

SVG Europe spoke to Morris before the start of play at Allianz Arena, normally the host to a different kind of football and home of reigning Bundesliga champions FC Bayern M nchen.

It's a world-class stadium, one of the most famous in Germany, says Morris. However, it has never done an event that was not football.

Bill Morris, COO at EMG, with Adam Acone from NFL Network in the Allianz Arena, Munich, ready for kick off

Huge scale

According to Morris one of the biggest hurdles, every time the NFL goes to a new stadium is explaining the scale of what is required.

There's a very steep learning curve for the venues that we go to, both in terms of the demands we make at the venue in terms of infrastructure and overlay that we put in, and the fact that the entire stadium is branded NFL. There's no soccer signage, he says. So it's not just a technical overlay, it's also an aesthetic overlay. There's a shock factor involved for the venue when this enormous operation rolls in and literally takes over.

We rolled into Germany with more or less the same circus that we use for the London Games in Tottenham and Wembley. It's similar in scale to a Monday Night Football, quite a large operation which we always refer to affectionately as a mini-Super Bowl per week

The NFL does things in a very specific way, he continues. Like rock and roll and major live entertainment shows, it has many facets which football - or soccer - does not. So the stadium had to adjust to the NFL's way of event management and the way they do their overlay in the stadium. There's been a learning curve on both sides, but the stadium has been fantastic. They've embraced the whole idea of having the NFL in Germany for the first time and are very much on message, organising locally, and doing the overlay that is so important to an NFL game.

Then there are the comms, which play a unique and crucial part in any NFL game. Everyone on the team, the coaches, the management, and the players, are linked by a comms system, whereby gameplay and strategy are changed and discussed in-play, says Morris. There are communication systems designed for the referees, and the governance of the game.

Then there's the fact that television runs the timing of the game. Unlike most European sports, the TV [dictates] when to break the play to coincide with commercial breaks, so there are also communication systems to support that. All of that overlay and infrastructure didn't exist, and it had to be shipped in.

Experienced hands

Morris and his team at EMG have been involved in broadcasting games for the NFL for the past 15 years, beginning with the commencement of the NFL London Games in 2007.

We rolled into Germany with more or less the same circus that we use for the London Games in Tottenham and Wembley, says Morris. It's similar in scale to a Monday Night Football, quite a large operation which we always refer to affectionately as a mini-Super Bowl per week'.

The TV compound at the Arena, where the host operation and the unilateral operations are based, consists of eight production trucks plus fifteen ancillary vehicles for offices, graphics operation, B-units, office space, transmission suites, and others. The main host broadcast control room is EMG's Nova 111.

Our US clients [in Germany] must adapt somewhat to the European way of working; the difference between European and US trucks is about 10 feet in terms of length, says Morris. So around the core of the trucks, we have built a small village of cabins. We brought our Flypacks and built out graphic areas, transmission areas, Hawkeye and NFL feed delivery areas, big refrigerator cabins and so on.

There are multiple unilaterals on site here in Munich, Morris continues. We have three with an OB presence: Sky and ProSieben in Germany, and DAZN. We also have Saudi Arabian television here, and multiple other media operations taking the feed remotely who may have a small footprint on site in terms of talent with a camera. There is an NFL international team who co-ordinate that and we discuss the technical facilities that are required for each broadcaster.

Each unilateral broadcaster will take up to a dozen feeds and they will also take the clean and dirty programme feeds from the US.

They usually take the US announcer [feed] for the immersive NFL experience; having the analysis given to the viewer by a US team who do it day and day out, explains Morris. It is a completely immersive experience and I think that's the intention; for the three hours you get immersed in the epicentre of US culture, which is the NFL.

In terms of connectivity, we're using IP over Fibre operated by Lumen. We have The Switch doing some unilateral delivery. Most of our reserve delivery is via uplink, which is booked directly by Fox, adds Morris.

The NFL comes to Munich, as Tampa Bay Buccaneers took on the Seattle Seahawks in front of 69,811 attendees

Sound and pictures

Despite the location change, and the full-on presentation extravaganza that NFL Network h
LINK: https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/touchdown-in-munich-emg-helps...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 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 Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

01/04/2026

DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION

January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...

05/03/2026

SVG GFX Forum Draws 250+ Industry Pros To Talk Creative Philosphy, AR/XR, Future of Live Sports Graphics

More than 250 sports-graphics professionals packed into The Cutting Room in New ...

05/03/2026

Cosm Atlanta Set to Open at Centennial Yards on June 10

Cosm announces that it will open its third immersive entertainment venue at downtown Atlanta's Centennial Yards on June 10, 2026. Its first public event wil...

05/03/2026

The CW Network to Broadcast Six Banana Ball Games During 2026 Season

Following last year's broadcast television debut, The CW Network is growing its partnership with the Savannah Bananas, announcing that it will be the exclus...

05/03/2026

AT&T Named Founding Partner and Official Connectivity Provider of TGL Presented by SoFi

TGL presented by SoFi, the primetime, men's team golf league, announces AT&T...

05/03/2026

Netflix Goes Live with Ateme's TITAN

Ateme, which specializes in video compression software, announces that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with Netflix for the deployment of its TITAN L...

05/03/2026

NEP Launches Software-Based OB Unit for Scalable Live Production Across Europe

As part of its strategy to deliver flexible and scalable media solutions, NEP Europe, part of NEP Group, has redesigned an outside broadcast (OB) unit to help b...

05/03/2026

Net Insight's Nimbra Edge and Nimbra 400 Now Verified for YouTube Live

Net Insight's Nimbra Edge and the Nimbra 400 series are now included in YouTube's Live verified encoders list. This confirms that the solutions have bee...

05/03/2026

Audinate Launches Dante Director Professional: Enterprise-Grade Management Platform for Distributed AV Networks

Audinate, the creator of the Dante audio networking platform, announces the laun...

05/03/2026

LiveU Marks First Large-Scale Global Deployment of AI-Driven LIQ at Winter Games

LiveU announces the first large-scale deployment of its AI-driven LiveU IQ (LIQ) technology at a global, multi-venue sporting event, setting a new benchmark for...

05/03/2026

SportsEngine Play to Stream 7 on 7 National Football Recruiting Tournament March 7-8

SportsEngine Play, a first-of-its-kind subscription streaming service for captur...

05/03/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Madison McCarter, Michigan State University

The senior from small-town Pennsylvania has had a huge impact on the Spartans' B1G Student U program In the live-sports-video industry, the future is brigh...

05/03/2026

ESPN, Disney, Pixar Team Up With NHL for Inside Out Classic' Animated Alt-Cast on April 5

Real-time animated presentation of Capitals-Rangers game blends tracking data, o...

05/03/2026

The Silicon Bowl Effect: How Big Tech is Reinventing the Sports Fan Experience

With Super Bowl LX taking place in Santa Clara, all eyes were not only on the field - but on the future of fandom itself. New technologies are being introduced ...

05/03/2026

World Baseball Classic 2026: MLB Network Provides World-Feed Infrastructure to Venues, Broadcasters

The network aims for a uniform production while accommodating tech differences i...

05/03/2026

World Baseball Classic 2025: FOX Sports Deploys World Feed Plus,' Adds Studio Presence for Semis and Final

MLB Network produces the host broadcast, and FOX layers in cameras, studio prese...

05/03/2026

Film Festival Watch: See These 18 Sundance Institute-Supported Docs at the 2026 True/False Film Fest

Barbara Hammer appears in Barbara Forever by Brydie O'Connor, an official se...

05/03/2026

Spotify's Creator Milestone Awards Honor the Latest Slate of Record-Breaking Podcasts

A little over a year ago, Spotify introduced the quarterly Creator Milestone Awa...

05/03/2026

SBS and Mint Pictures to chronicle the Bondi terror attack in major feature documentary

SBS and Mint Pictures to chronicle the Bondi terror attack in major feature docu...

05/03/2026

Winter Olympic stars return to the ice for ISU World Figure Skating Championships broadcast live on SBS

Winter Olympic stars return to the ice for ISU World Figure Skating Championship...

05/03/2026

Rohde & Schwarz enables rapid validation of next-gen Wi-Fi 8 networking platforms, including 5x5 MIMO capabilities

Rohde & Schwarz enables rapid validation of next-gen Wi-Fi 8 networking platform...

05/03/2026

Rohde & Schwarz acquires Software Radio Systems (SRS), specialists in software defined mobile communications solutions

Rohde & Schwarz acquires Software Radio Systems (SRS), specialists in software d...

05/03/2026

The Next Frontier of Quality Control - Verifying Content...

Quality control (QC) has long been a gatekeeper of technical fidelity. Editors and technicians have adhered to a simple, disciplined checklist: bitrate, resolut...

05/03/2026

Synamedia and Asport deliver global-scale streaming for G...

Leading video software provider Synamedia today announced it has partnered with Swiss sports technology specialist, Asport to deliver global live streaming for ...

05/03/2026

Advanced Systems Group Promotes Gretchen Taipale to Vice...

Advanced Systems Group, LLC (ASG), a technology and services provider for media creatives and content owners, announced the promotion of Gretchen Taipale to Vic...

05/03/2026

Clear-Com Supplies Cloud-Based Communications System for...

Clear-Com has provided Gen-IC virtual intercom, its cloud-based voice communications system for SaxaVord Spaceport, the first fully licensed vertical launch s...

05/03/2026

Hollywood Professional Association Concludes the 2026 HPA...

The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) concluded the 2026 HPA Tech Retreat, convening more than 800 industry leaders, technologists, creatives and executi...

05/03/2026

LynTec 20 AMP Dual Output DMX Relay Now Shipping

LynTec, a leading manufacturer of electrical power control solutions for professional audio, video, and lighting systems, today announced that its new Dual DMX ...

05/03/2026

Snicket Labs Partners with ES Broadcast to Expand Access...

Snicket Labs is pleased to announce a new distribution partnership with ES Broadcast for its award winning solutions, Match and Enrich. Under the agreement, ES...

05/03/2026

LiveU Marks First Large Scale Global Deployment of AI Dri...

LiveU today announced the first large-scale deployment of its AI-driven LiveU IQ (LIQ ) technology at a global, multi-venue sporting event, setting a new benchm...

05/03/2026

Sky News secures ninth News Channel of the Year award as Yalda Hakim, Yousra Elbagir and Mollie Malone honoured at RTS Awards

Thursday 5 March 2026 Sky News secures ninth News Channel of the Year award as ...

05/03/2026

Sky Sports launches first ever nationwide creator competition to find a Grid Insider for the 2026 Formula 1 season

Thursday 5 March 2026 Sky Sports launches first ever nationwide creator competi...

05/03/2026

Innovation for Filmmaking, By Filmmakers: Why InterPositive Is Joining Netflix

Back to All News Innovation for Filmmaking, By Filmmakers: Why InterPositive Is Joining Netflix Business 05 March 2026 Global Link copied to clipboard Dow...

05/03/2026

New LinkedIn Data Shows Women's Path to Senior Leadership...

New LinkedIn Data Shows Women's Path to Senior Leadership Is Narrowing Published on Mar 5, 2026 Categories: Data and insights LinkedIn Corporate Commun...

05/03/2026

Harmonic Accelerates Streaming and Broadcast Transformations at the 2026 NAB Show

SAN JOSE, Calif. - March 5, 2026 - At the 2026 NAB Show, Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT)...

05/03/2026

Comscore and Yahoo DSP Partner to Advance CTV Political Advertising with Proximic Political Audiences

Comscore and Yahoo DSP Partner to Advance CTV Political Advertising with Proximi...

05/03/2026

March Into the Cloud With 15 New Games Coming to GeForce NOW

March is in full bloom, and that means a fresh wave of games heading to the cloud. 15 new titles are joining the GeForce NOW library this month. Leading the Ma...

04/03/2026

Lega Basket Serie A Modernizes Media Operations Across Italian Basketball with ScorePlay

Lega Basket Serie A (LBA), the governing body for Italy's premier basketball...

04/03/2026

To Mark Five Years at Wrexham AFC, Co-Chairmen Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds Will Host Broadcast During Wrexham-Swansea City on March 13

Wrexham AFC co-chairmen Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds will host a first-of-its-kind ...

04/03/2026

FOX Sports Marks 100 Days to FIFA World Cup 2026 with Company-Wide Celebration

The countdown is underway and with just 100 days to go until the world's greatest sporting event begins on Thurs., June 11, FOX Sports, America's Englis...

04/03/2026

Exchange, NBCUniversal Team Up to Provide Service Members with Free Streaming of Paralympic Winter Games

No matter where they are in the world, service members and veterans can stream N...

04/03/2026

Telemundo Releases Somos Ms, the Official Anthem of its FIFA World Cup 2026 Coverage

Telemundo officially releases Somos M s, the anthem for the network's cove...

04/03/2026

Hollywood Professional Association Concludes 2026 HPA Tech Retreat

The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) concluded the 2026 HPA Tech Retreat, convening more than 800 industry leaders, technologists, creatives, and execut...

04/03/2026

Case Study: How SEG+ Unified Utah's Biggest Sports Teams into a 40%+ Subscriber Growth Streaming Platform

Smith Entertainment Group transformed how local sports are consumed by creating ...

04/03/2026

SVG in Indy: Pacers Sports & Entertainment Remotely Produces Broadcasts of G League's Noblesville Boom

The production method, which spans a distance of 36.2 miles, was designed and im...

04/03/2026

Haivision Releases Seventh Annual Broadcast Transformation Report, Highlights Key Trends Shaping Live Production in 2026

Haivision, a global provider of mission-critical, real-time video networking and...