From Messi to All-Star to Leagues Cup, NEP Group Navigates Historically Hectic Run of Live MLS Productions

From Messi to All-Star to Leagues Cup, NEP Group Navigates Historically Hectic Run of Live MLS Productions All-Star event, giant tournament, arrival of Lionel Messi complicate normally busy schedule By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor

Wednesday, August 2, 2023 - 2:06 pm

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The month of July has been, without question, the most groundbreaking period in the history of Major League Soccer. Between the arrival of the greatest player of all time, one of its annual crown-jewel events, and the start of the largest U.S.-Mexico club tournament in history, the league is hurtling toward a new level of relevance. And the cavalcade of historic moments is being brought to fans live via Apple TV's MLS Season Pass courtesy of NEP Group's comprehensive offering of broadcast services.

I've worked on several Olympics in my career, says Jeff Jacobs, SVP, production, NEP Broadcast Services US. You have a massive undertaking to handle multiple venues plus Opening Ceremonies, but you have two years to prepare for something like that or six months to plan for a Super Bowl. But the magnitude of what we're doing here is something I've never seen in more than 30 years in the business. This six-week period [of live productions] is unprecedented considering the short window [of setup time].

Although MLS, Apple, IMG, and NEP knew the second half of July would be busy, given the MLS All-Star Game and start of the Leagues Cup, the arrival of Lionel Messi at Inter Miami CF took things into a whole other stratosphere.

NEP Operations Team Spans Coast to Coast - and Beyond Throughout the inaugural year of MLS Season Pass, NEP Group has overseen all broadcast services and provided all mobile units, technical crews, and operations; remote- and decentralized-production support; studio facilities in NYC; and infrastructure and systems management. IMG, meanwhile, is handling all live match and studio-show production and oversees editorial tone, look, and feel; production enhancements; producer/director staffing; and production management and talent logistics.

A typical week of MLS production is plenty busy, with NEP and IMG producing three studio shows out of its NYC studios and 14 matches out of onsite mobile units every Saturday and some Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Although MLS Next events are produced onsite, MLS Next Pro Events are captured onsite and backhauled to one of NEP connected facilities where graphics are integrated, announcers call the events off monitors and/or via remote announce kits, and the broadcast is assembled and encoded for distribution.

Coverage of Leagues Cup tournament deploys separate resources for English broadcast and Spanish broadcast. Some resources are shared, but each production has separate sets and talent.

On July 18-19, the MLS All-Star Skills Challenge and MLS All-Star Game represented two of the biggest MLS productions of the year. In addition, the VISTA team was onsite and fully packaged the broadcast of the MLS Next Pro All-Star Game live from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, the morning of the MLS All-Star Game.

That was followed by the July 21 start of Leagues Cup, which features five games per night five nights a week during group play and 77 total matches in the U.S. and Canada over four weeks. When the knockout round begins, all venues are TBD depending on the results.

The NEP Production ecosystem spans six states and multiple continents: studios in Manhattan; engineering in Pittsburgh; media management in Washington, DC; production and distribution at VISTA in South Florida; the company's data center in Dallas; operations in Los Angeles; and some systems architecture in Norway. NEP connects the dots from crews and staff to facilities, the data center feeds Apple's transmission, and commercial control is located at NEP's Van Nuys Production Center.

The operations and engineering team, overseen by Director, Engineering, Nicholas Romano and Director, Remote Operations, George Williams, not only books 600 crew members each week but ships EVS replay systems, ingest servers, POVs, Vizrt graphics engines, and more. Meanwhile, VISTA manages and coordinates all the League's Cup transmission for both contribution and distribution for all 77 tournament matches.

The NEP team is special, says VISTA Worldlink President Joshua Liemer. We have the best engineers, project coordinators, and broadcast experts who manage the logistics and operations of these events with focus, diligence, and professionalism. Our team is an extension of MLS, supporting the league at every turn, navigating challenges, and delivering solutions. To say we are proud of what we are doing is an understatement. The team we have assembled is world-class, and we are proud of the partnership with MLS and its various partners that have worked hand in hand with NEP to deliver for soccer fans around the world.

The Messi Effect: Everything's Bigger When It's Messi Messi's first MLS game, on July 21 in Miami, proved to be a seminal moment in the history of MLS soccer, but it was just one in a week of Messi-focused live productions. Besides the games, NEP provided facilities for the Messi Unveiling Ceremony on July 16 and live coverage of Inter Miami practices throughout the week leading up to Messi's debut.

NEP's Supershooter 11 and Supershooter 4 mobile units have been on hand in Miami through it all, producing 1080p shows. VISTA, a longtime MLS partner now fully integrated into NEP Broadcast Services, provided onsite resources from its South Florida headquarters to help the enhanced coverage of the Messi launch.

NEP's Josh Liemer (seated, left) and Jeff Jacobs (seated, right) with MLS's Seth Bacon (standing) in NEP mobile unit at Tuesday night's Leagues Cup match.

The MLS and VISTA multi-decade

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2023/08/02/from-messi-to-all-star-to-leagu...
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