Live from London: Fox Sports and ESPN combine with NEP as MLB comes to the UK By Heather McLean, Editor
Tuesday, July 2, 2019 - 20:37
Print This Story
MLB team the New York Yankees go for some batting practice at the purpose-built pitch in the London Stadium
US major league baseball has arrived in the UK for the first time, with a custom-built pitch at the London Stadium in Stratford and an entirely new language of broadcasting plus some unusual technology in play, for the Brits as least.
The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox arrived in London for the weekend of 29 and 30 June to show people on this side of the pond what the game of baseball is really about, bringing the two clubs' ongoing rivalry with them. Despite the Red Sox laying claim to the 2018 World Series, the Yankees, which is the highest funded US baseball team, still triumphed on both days.
Broadcasting the event also included a bunch of firsts, with baseball never having been covered at this level before in Europe. The challenges faced by ESPN, Fox Sports and technical partner NEP in producing the broadcasting for this event were many, from working with a newly reconfigured venue to host an MLB baseball event, to camera positions, cable infrastructure, connectivity, formats, and conversions, as well as ESPN's graphics remote integration (Gremi) workflow and all the terminology that goes with baseball.
The London Stadium in Stratford ready for the Yankees and Red Sox to duke it out
Unique event in the UK
MLB has been working closely with Fox Sports and ESPN to bring baseball to the UK. Speaking to SVG Europe, Jim Small, MLB senior vice president, international, said: The broadcast has been quite a challenge. This is a unique event because there has never been baseball played here before. The easy part is where to park your truck; everything else here is hard!
Judy Acone, director, international broadcast operations for MLB Network, has been key in the process of bringing this broadcast and weekend of baseball to the UK. She has been involved in all the meetings with European broadcasters over the past year in preparation for this event, helping them understand how to cover baseball.
Added Small: This has really been a collaborative effort. We have a vested interest in making sure Fox and ESPN get everything they need and Judy has worked hard to achieve that.
Acone noted: This is two cultures coming together, and to make that work we have the A-teams from both Fox Sports and ESPN.
Major League Baseball's Jim Small, senior vice president, international
Americans sharing resources
For the first time ever, Fox Sports and ESPN have shared all resources for the broadcast, from kit to people. However, Fox Sports took the feed on Saturday and ESPN on Sunday, with each also producing a pre-game 30 minute show and one hour show respectively. On the Friday, both broadcasters also filmed batting practice and created highlight shows for their US viewers.
Commented Brad Cheney, vice president of field operations and engineering at Fox Sports: Everything we're doing here is a full share with ESPN. This is the first time we've done this [to this degree]; normally everything is separate.
Last year in Puerto Rico Fox Sports did the same but to a slightly lesser degree with ESPN. Cheney noted that this effort was far more streamlined as Puerto Ricans are obsessed with baseball. Said Cheney: They do baseball [in Puerto Rico]. They have stadiums and people that understand the sport. Here [in the UK] we've had to bring more people and kit over, and build a pitch. The inside of the stadium went better than we could have hoped, although we had to build camera towers because the camera positions are different in baseball than they are in football. We even have an entire production truck dedicated just to the scoreboard; in a purpose-built stadium there would be a control room built in for that purpose.
Said Kevin Cleary, audio specialist at ESPN: As far as I'm aware this is the first time two American networks have ever put all their resources into one control room.
Brad Cheney, vice president of field operations and engineering at Fox Sports
Noted Paul Horrell, remote operations manager at ESPN: It's a lot to plan for in considering all needs, but we are fortunate that we have a great supplier [NEP] and broadcast partners that couldn't be easier to work with to make this all happen. Early on in our discussions, it was immediately apparent that with Fox Sports having the game on the 29 May and ESPN having the game on the 30 May, we could repeat our shared approach for equipment and resources as we did last year in Puerto Rico, and maximise overall production value for all games.
We've taken an unprecedented shared approach to these London games, using the same mobile units and equipment, a hybrid' crew comprised of Fox Sports and ESPN operators, and Gremi Bristol [US]-based EVS operators being used for both the Fox Sports and ESPN games, Horrell went on.
Fox Sports and ESPN acted as the host broadcasters for the event. BT Sport took the feed while also using some of its own cameras on site; BBC Digital had its own advertising-free feed; while BeIN in France used its own French announcers commentating over the Fox Sports and ESPN feeds on site.
Learning curve for NEP
NEP provided everything end to end for this broadcast, from the trucks to robotic cameras (Fletcher) and connectivity (NEP Connect). The challenge in bringing the broadcast together has involved a lot of time, learning and adaption, which NEP has taken on board to help further its long standing relationship with ESPN and Fox Sports on this side of the pond.
NEP had to highly customise three trucks for the MLB London Series
The glue pulling the broadcasting operation together is, everyone agreed, NE
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...
18/05/2026
Despite a bumpy start to the year, the provider of event-production support and ...
18/05/2026
Daktronics has partnered with the University of North Carolina to manufacture and install 11 LED displays totaling more than 10,000 square feet and more than 14...
18/05/2026
CBS LA has announced a multi-year partnership with the Los Angeles Rams, covering exclusive local broadcasts of Rams preseason games, weekly year-round programm...
18/05/2026
Skyline Communications has announced an integration between its DataMiner xOps p...
18/05/2026
eCLUTCH, the hybrid esports platform powered by iKOMG, has announced an expansion of its distribution across Europe, MENA, Africa, and Asia, along with new cont...
18/05/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
18/05/2026
With 22 games this season, the production team looks forward to tweaking and enhancing the coverage
After 8,660 days off the air, the WNBA returned to NBC yest...
18/05/2026
(L-R) Midori Francis and Natalie Erika James attend the Saccharine premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre on January 22, 2026, in ...
18/05/2026
Last night, the Spotify Podcast Awards in Mexico returned to the country's capital. Now in its second year, the evening honors creators whose voices are hel...
18/05/2026
ZEN-Core synth goes mobile
Roland's powerful ZEN-Core software synthesizer has just been introduced to the iPad, offering a convenient entry point into ...
18/05/2026
Versatile new limiter plug-in announced
Based in Sheffield, UK, fedDSP offer a range of plug-ins that span the music production, live sound and high-end med...
18/05/2026
A new use for convolution?
Viiri Audio's debut plug-in aims to do something a little different with convolution processing, allowing users to adjust all...
18/05/2026
Delta Goodrem shines for SBS as more than 3.27 million Australians tune in for E...
18/05/2026
The Australian Defence Force uses L3Harris T4 and T7 robots for explosive ordnan...
18/05/2026
Continued investment across Europe and Germany is expanding local teams and improving access to stock, regional expertise, and specialist broadcast support.
CV...
18/05/2026
Monday 18 May 2026
Sky News offers ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes for just...
18/05/2026
Comscore March 2026 Consumer AI Chatbot Usage Rankings Show Claude Gaining Share OpenAI's ChatGPT maintains lead while Anthropic's Claude continues to c...
17/05/2026
Delta Goodrem's Eurovision Eclipse marks end of a stellar run
17 May, 2026
Media releases
Bulgaria wins Eurovision 2026
Relive every spellbinding mome...
17/05/2026
Back to All News
Oasis Premieres on Netflix June 19
Entertainment
17 May 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Summer, sunshine, the beach, parties. T...
16/05/2026
Helps to deliver a clean, balanced midrange
Developed alongside Newfangled Audio, the latest plug-in in Eventide's software collection has been designed...
16/05/2026
Brings onboard stem rendering to RANE System One
Engine DJ have just released Engine DJ 5.0, a free update for their Engine DJ OS embedded hardware and Engi...
16/05/2026
Boris FX Continuum Pairs AI Precision and Advanced Creative Controls
Jessie Electa Petrov May 16, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic de...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Seattle Sounders FC and Seattle Reign FC, in partnership with RAVE Foundation an...
15/05/2026
Dan Brumm has served as sound designer on Bluey, the Australian children's t...
15/05/2026
The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated are accepting applications for the 6th annual Mark Brunner Professional Audio Schola...
15/05/2026
Netflix has announced an expanded NFL schedule for 2026 and beyond under a four-year partnership extension with the NFL through the 2029-30 season. Each season,...
15/05/2026
Ateme is supporting TVRI (Televisi Republik Indonesia) with a contribution and d...
15/05/2026
Concacaf has announced the launch of a new website and mobile app built on Deltatre's FORGE platform. Concacaf.com and the mobile app, available on iOS and ...
15/05/2026
Eutelsat has announced the launch of QBC Business Economic Channel by Qatar Media Corporation, broadcasting in 4K/UHD via Eutelsat's 7/8 West video neighbo...
15/05/2026
Major League Soccer has announced four original content series timed to the 2026...
15/05/2026
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) has announced it will exhibit and present at InfoComm 2026, taking place June 13-19 at the Las Vegas Convention Cente...
15/05/2026
InfoComm 2026 will take place June 13-19 (exhibits June 17-19) at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The show will include sessions and exhibits covering broadcas...
15/05/2026
Tracy McGrady's Ones Basketball League (OBL) and FuboTV Inc. have announced ...
15/05/2026
Disguise has partnered with Creative Technology (CT) to deliver visual playback ...
15/05/2026
Sony Electronics has announced two new products for professional imaging: the Alpha 7R VI full-frame mirrorless camera and the FE 100-400mm F4.5 GM OSS super-te...
15/05/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
15/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
15/05/2026
For sports organizations, the most valuable assets are often the most sensitive:...
15/05/2026
The NFL's broadcast partners released their 2026 regular season schedules ye...
15/05/2026
Besides drawing on experience with boxing, the production integrates specialty c...
15/05/2026
Daniel Roher attends the Tuner Premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at Eccles Theatre on January 22, 2026 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Neilson Bar...
Live from London: Fox Sports and ESPN combine with NEP as MLB comes to the UK By Heather McLean, Editor 
