SVG Sit-Down: Silver Spoon's Laura Herzing on Bringing SpongeBob SquarePants to Broadcast Sports Herzing has been with the virtual-production company since its launch By SVG Staff
Friday, March 8, 2024 - 1:36 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Acquired by AE Live, global provider of data and broadcast solutions, last July, Silver Spoon is a producer of real-time virtual content based on Unreal Engine. With virtual-production, AR, and XR technologies growing exponentially in recent years, Silver Spoon is among the leaders in bringing these immersive technologies to major sports events, earning a Cynopsis Sports Media Award in Broadcast Technology and a Sports Emmy nomination for its work on the 2022 Nickelodeon Nickmas Game. Silver Spoon Executive Director Laura Herzing, who has been with the company since its inception, sat down with SVG to discuss her career, what's behind Silver Spoon's success, and its work on Super Bowl LVIII productions for both CBS and Nickelodeon.
Silver Spoon's Laura Herzing: Silver Spoon's evolution mirrors the progress of the industry at large. Real-time production is no longer a fringe concept.
What has made Silver Spoon so successful since its launch in 2015?
I think the key to Silver Spoon's success is that we, as a company, are innovators at heart. We constantly look for opportunities to combine innovative technology to meet emerging needs.
We are a small team, which means we are nimble enough to adapt quickly, but we place a huge importance on being technically sound. This combination of risk-taking backed by technical expertise has allowed us to respond to a rapidly changing production landscape.
In 2015, we opened our doors as a motion-capture studio, primarily serving traditional VFX and postproduction houses. We became an early adopter of Unreal Engine, recognizing the value that creating in real time could bring to many industries.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone was forced to look at new workflows. The pandemic accelerated adoption of real-time technology, allowing us, as an early industry expert, to gain a meaningful foothold in the broadcast industry. In the past four years, we have continued to push the boundaries of real-time production, expanding into virtual production, real-time animation, live VFX, game-controlled real-time characters, and more.
Partnering with Nickelodeon, Silver Spoon provided live mixed reality for a simulcast of the Super Bowl LVIII.
Silver Spoon's evolution mirrors the progress of the industry at large. These workflows have been tested and proven repeatedly by innovators willing to try something new. Real-time production is no longer a fringe concept. It has become a vital part of how storytelling is done, now and in the future.
How did you come to Silver Spoon?
I have a background in design and got my start working as a designer in small advertising agencies. After moving to the vendor side, I focused on project management, leading global teams producing live-action commercial and animation jobs around the world.
I joined Silver Spoon in 2015 to lead production and help build the company's processes and client base. As Silver Spoon has changed, building new pipelines and meeting new challenges, I have helped usher the company through the changes by focusing on building world-class teams, repeatable and efficient processes, and a culture of inclusion and innovation. As executive director, I play a key leadership role in developing the company's corporate strategy, as well as overseeing all production and operations.
What advice would you give to anyone looking to follow your path?
Always stay curious and never stop learning. Stay open to opportunities you may not have seen coming; you never know what doors will open for you. Be nice to people and find fun in every day.
Noah Eagle (left) and Nate Burleson joined SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star in the booth for Nickelodeon's simulcast of Super Bowl LVIII.
Besides the acquisition, what were the highlights of 2023 for Silver Spoon?
2023 was a year of profound change and awesome opportunities. We built on three years of bringing fun, animated AR characters to the CBS March Madness broadcast and kept the good times rolling in the fall with animated mascots on the CBS SEC and Big 10 games.
We strengthened our relationship with partners like ESPN, creating a virtual-to-real-world AR show open for the NBA Finals and using live-motion-capture technology to bring animated hosts to kid-friendly broadcasts, such as the NHL Big City Greens Classic and Toy Story Funday Football games.
Building on the goal of reaching younger audiences, we once again partnered with Nickelodeon to bring Santa and his team of holiday hooligans to the 2023 Nickelodeon Nickmas Game. In addition to these exciting projects, in 2023, we were nominated for a Sports Emmy and were honored to win the Cynopsis Sports Media Award in Broadcast Technology for our work on the 2022 Nickelodeon Nickmas Game.
Silver Spoon produced game-controlled on-field characters and other kid-friendly live AR throughout the Super Bowl LVIII broadcast.
Silver Spoon has already had some big moments this year, most notably the Super Bowl. How was that experience, and what are you most excited about looking forward to in 2024?
2024 started at full throttle for us, with not one but two Super Bowl broadcasts. We worked with CBS Sports to make the Big Game in Vegas even bigger with exciting AR moments in the record-breaking main broadcast.
Simultaneously, we partnered with Nickelodeon to fill the first-ever simulcast of the Super Bowl with more than three hours of live mixed reality, including real-time animated SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star as game commentators, game-controlled on-field characters, and dozens of kid-friendl
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
SVG Sit-Down: Silver Spoon's Laura Herzing on Bringing SpongeBob SquarePants to Broadcast Sports Herzing has been with the virtual-production company since its launch By SVG Staff 
