
NAB 2019 Reflections: SportZcast's Mike Connell Envisions Vast Expansion Into New Sports Ventures Sports gambling, college sports, increased venue deployment are targets By Kristian Hernandez, Assistant Editor
Friday, April 19, 2019 - 9:06 am
Print This Story
Story Highlights
SportZcast specializes in live-scoreboard-data decoding and distribution for professional leagues and teams across all sports. With scorebots compatible with multiple graphics packages and scoreboard models, in-venue productions are simpler and smoother. Last week in Las Vegas, Mike Connell, president, SportZcast, discussed the latest innovations displayed at the company's NAB 2019 booth and previewed the company's next plan of action.
What are the hottest products on the market for SportZcast at NAB 2019?
We have two new products. One of them, ScoreLink, allows any [venue] scoreboard a data output that is suitable for tying directly into all of the graphics systems, such as Vizrt, Ross Xpression, or ChyronHego.
The second product we are showing is ScoreHub, which is kind of the same concept: with any data from any scoreboard or any custom graphic that we're generating internally at the console, the [output] comes out as NDI or multiple NDI feeds. Doing a sporting event, [a producer] can have a lower-third bug, a statistics page, extended graphics since there are multiple feeds coming out of the [ScoreHub]. There's also [the capability] of an HDMI feed, if you have a scorer's table and want to run a video scoreboard below it.
[Also], we are offering a single-camera sports solution. It's an off-the-shelf, IP camera that's very inexpensive and looks like a typical security camera. We add our software to that camera to produce a scoreboard overlay. We also remote-control the camera from anywhere on the internet, so a [college] sports information director doesn't have to go to the baseball game [to control it]. They log in, put the scorebug in wherever they want, and stream the event live to their providers.
How is SportZcast continuing to expand in other avenues in sports?
The score network [that we have] is in over 2,800 venues with live-score data that's available for repurposing and resharing. One of the really big things coming up for us is the sports-gambling industry. No one [in the industry] can provide data faster from a video perspective than what we're doing. We call it time-zero data because we're giving [fans information] the millisecond the ball [is in play.] We're looking for partners to do that, so it will soon be available for the gambling industry.
Another [aspect] that is important to us is the switchover to college sports. We're working [on] an interface to make ScoreHub the hub between statistics, video, and scoreboard data in local and [widespread] distribution.
[Moving forward], we want to get a scorebot in every venue. We're starting to push into more of the professional stadiums, and we're providing data solutions for traditional production environments. Since the data is all cloud-based on remote-production feeds back to the studios, it's already there. It's just about getting the word out to companies like Fox, ESPN, and NBC.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
North America Stories
15/05/2026
Lightware returns to InfoComm 2026 with a focused showcase of scalable USB-C connectivity, next-generation AV-over-IP solutions, and technologies that help over...
15/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Delivering a live, arena-scale production of a massively popular band is no small feat. Between expansive in-arena LED walls and a global live stream fed to onl...
15/05/2026
Connection is the heartbeat of any strong community, and with live streaming becoming more accessible in the modern era, it's much easier for faith-based or...
15/05/2026
Powered by GX 3 media servers, optimised IP-VFC workflows and on-site engineering expertise, the production delivers high-performance visuals for one of the wor...
14/05/2026
Sweetwater and Airstream have announced a custom-built Dolby Atmos mobile recording studio inside an Airstream trailer, set to tour music festivals, schools, tr...
14/05/2026
The American Association of Professional Baseball (AAPB) has announced a new par...
14/05/2026
ESPN has announced plans to transform Santa Monica Beach into a broadcast hub du...
14/05/2026
Amagi has announced a significant update to Amagi CLOUDPORT, its cloud-based broadcast playout platform. The update includes 250-plus features shipped in FY25-2...
14/05/2026
Clear-Com will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N7005, June 17-19, Las Vegas Convention Center), introducing a new product that builds on Arcadia Central Station...
14/05/2026
Ikegami will exhibit at BroadcastAsia 2026 (Stand 5D3-1, Singapore Expo, May 20-22), introducing two new viewfinders alongside its existing camera, control, and...
14/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced that dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside ...
14/05/2026
NAGRAVISION, a Kudelski Group company, has announced a partnership with the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) to launch Play Snooker,...
14/05/2026
Belden Inc. has announced a definitive agreement to acquire RUCKUS Networks from Vistance Networks for approximately $1.85 billion. The transaction has been app...
14/05/2026
NVIDIA has released the Content Localization Blueprint, a modular reference arch...
14/05/2026
Disney has announced that Disney will be the exclusive U.S. streaming home of the Banana Bowl, the Banana Ball league season championship, streaming live this ...
14/05/2026
Arkona technologies and technology partner manifold will demonstrate their production solutions on the Magna Systems and Engineering stand (Booth 5D1-1) at Broa...
14/05/2026
Haivision will host a webinar on Thursday, May 21 at 10 a.m. ET / 4 p.m. CET cov...
14/05/2026
The CW Network and ESPN have announced a sublicense broadcast agreement for The CW to televise ACC football and men's and women's college basketball gam...
14/05/2026
The agreement marks Scripps Sports' first NBA local rights deal...
14/05/2026
A new report from education-technology company Wiingy testing post-ChatGPT predictions against three years of real-world data has identified broadcasting as one...
14/05/2026
Global Citizen and FIFA have announced that Madonna, Shakira, and BTS will headl...
14/05/2026
LOS ANGELES, CA, May 14, 2026 - The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the cohort selected for the 2026 Episodic Lab program, taking place at Dunaway ...
14/05/2026
Soldiers equipped with Falcon IV radios will soon gain a sense-and-protect capa...
14/05/2026
Artists concept of the L3Harris Next Gen RTG in flight configuration, designed to provide 250 watts of reliable power for decades-long missions in deep space....
14/05/2026
Car ad spend rises sharply in March as more auto buyers turn to electric, hybrid...
14/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/05/2026
CueScript's CueiT 4.0 Wins Future's Best of Show Award, Presented at 2026 NAB Show by TV Tech
CueScript, a leading international developer of professio...
14/05/2026
Expert-Led Education Sessions and Development of Online Training Program Accelerate IPMX Adoption and Deployment
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) to...
14/05/2026
Klvr is launching in the United States with a professional-grade rechargeable battery solution that cuts costs and improves performance across live entertainmen...
14/05/2026
Shooting into the depths of Bedlam with URSA Cine 17K 65
Brie Clayton May 14, 2026
0 Comments
Indie feature film paired digital 65mm capture with a Bl...
14/05/2026
WeMakeColor expands with Baselight, becoming hybrid color facility
Caroline Shawley May 14, 2026
0 Comments
Boutique Mexican-based studio integrates B...
14/05/2026
Berklee's Summer in the City Returns with Free Concerts Throughout Boston Ar...
14/05/2026
Chelsey Green Named to Billboard's 2026 Women in Music List The Berklee professor and chair of the Recording Academy Board of Trustees joins other high-pr...
14/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/05/2026
Six decades of products built around the people who use them...
14/05/2026
Designed to embrace multiple production processes and deliver high-end live broadcast workflows, Vivid Broadcast has combined Calrec True Control 2.0 enabled co...
14/05/2026
Today, Jigsaw24, the UK's leading media equipment supplier and systems integrator, announces a new partnership with EVS, a global leader in live video techn...
14/05/2026
Berklee Convenes Leaders in AI, Music for Inaugural AIMS Symposium The three-day event puts musicians at the center of the future of music creation, ethics, a...
14/05/2026
Back to All News
The Last Laugh: NIAJ Fest Wraps Another Successful Los Angeles Takeover
Entertainment
14 May 2026
GlobalUnited States
Link copied to clipb...