As U.S.-Cuba relations continue to thaw, the two nations' shared pastime is serving as the backdrop for history in the making. The first sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba since 1928, President Barack Obama will be in the stands at Estadio Latinoamericano in Havana today to watch the Tampa Bay Rays take on the Cuban national team.
Although it may be just an exhibition game on paper, ESPN will roll out a full production complement - on par with its Wednesday Night Baseball regular-season MLB package - to cover the monumental moment.
Havana's Estadio Latinoamericano, where the Tampa Bay Rays play the Cuban national team today
In terms of how we frame the significance of this [telecast], we want to focus on how, despite 56 years of embargo, baseball is something that the two countries have always shared a passion for, says ESPN Coordinating Producer Phil Orlins. I don't know that any event we have ever done had quite this kind of political angle tied to it. A baseball game is serving as the centerpiece of an incredible world event; you just don't get many like that.
Of course, given Cuba's lack of HD production facilities, evolving travel regulations between the two countries, and the fact that this will be the first MLB game played in Cuba since 1999 (Baltimore Orioles vs. Cuban National Team exhibition March 28, 1999), ESPN faced no shortage of logistical challenges along the way.
The unique thing is, even if we went to other countries, we had a pretty good grasp of what's available and what to expect, Terry Brady noted this week. We really don't know what to expect when we get down there, so there's going to be a lot of shooting from the hip on this one. But we feel really confident we have the right people, the right equipment, and the right partners to pull this off. There's a little bit of fear of the unknown, but it's also exciting. We will adapt as we go, and we'll put great television on on the 22nd.
A Moving Target: The Run-Up to MLB's Return to Cuba
ESPN's production and operations teams were initially informed about the game in January and traveled to Havana for a site survey in mid February. The original plan was for the Cuban national broadcaster to produce a world feed out of an RTV Commercial mobile unit (perhaps the only HD truck in Cuba) while ESPN provided a handful of unilateral cameras and its own announcers and graphics.
However, when Obama's visit became official, the Cuban national broadcaster opted to reassign its facilities for news coverage. This forced ESPN to act quickly, securing U.S.-based remote-production facilities and floating them over via barge in time for the game. Then, in the second week of March, the Cubans reversed course and opted to, in fact, produce its own show. However, since ESPN had already shipped over the facilities, the game now has two full productions onsite, with a handful of shared cameras.
Once we put that plan in motion to really beef up our coverage, said Brady, there really wasn't any turning back, because you had to get all the clearances to get the trucks over, all the permits, and provide for the shipping. When Cuban television came back into the mix, we stuck to our plan. Now we're just dealing with how to manage signal flow in 720p or 1080p, how we're going to actually convert [those signals], and figure out signal distribution and workflows. But we're fully prepared to do that.
In addition to NEP's SS23, which is serving as the mobile unit, ESPN shipped an Illumination Dynamics twin-pack generator, as well as a box truck with a flypack inside and a variety of complementary gear from Bexel and CP Communications on March 5 from the Port of Miami.
The bulk of the operations crew and technical crew arrived in Havana on Friday and parked the truck on Saturday. Setup at the ballpark took place on the Sunday, and ESPN went live from the ballpark on Monday morning beginning with the Rays' pregame workout.
Since this is all new for us, says Brady, we are giving ourselves some extra time for setup.
The Challenges of a 70-Year-Old Ballpark
ESPN will deploy seven hard cameras and two handhelds for its game coverage; the Cuban telecast, eight or nine. ESPN plans to share the high-home angle and possibly more.
Although [Estadio Latinoamericano] has traditional positions, they're a little bit different from what we would experience as a regular ballpark in the U.S., says Orlins. For instance, low cameras are not in traditional dugout positions: the centerfield position is a little off-center, and the high-home position is a little bit different. So, while the coverage is going to be close to what we do in the United States, it is not going to be exactly [the same] as it relates to camera angles. The Cubans will probably take some of the primary positions, and we'll have to adapt and either find alternative positions or go on a modified side-by-side situation.
Major League Baseball and the Estadio Latinoamericano facilities team in Havana also had some work to do to bring the aging ballpark (built in 1946) to bring it up to MLB standards.
The venue was not in a great physical condition when we got there, and MLB certainly had some challenges to get the field up to condition, but the team down there has done an unbelievable effort to get the ballpark up and running, says Orlins. Considering where it was just a month ago, it's pretty impressive. I think it will be venue the Cuban people are proud to present on a world stage.
ESPN Deportes will produce its own Spanish-language telecast using ESPN's camera feeds plus one unilateral camera.
Beyond the Action on the Field
Although ESPN has rolled out a sizable production complement to cover the game itself, the network has no shortage of ancillary content plan
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
As U.S.-Cuba relations continue to thaw, the two nations' shared pastime is serving as the backdrop for history in the making. The first sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba since 1928, President Barack Obama will be in the stands at Estadio Latinoamericano in Havana today to watch the Tampa Bay Rays take on the Cuban national team.
