ESPN, DMED Pull Off First End-to-End Cloud-Based Live-Game Production With A-10 College Hoops Game The Davidson-George Mason game is believed to be the first live end-to-end-cloud production of a U.S. sporting event By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Tuesday, January 24, 2023 - 3:13 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
ESPN and Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution (DMED) continued to push the boundaries of cloud-based production on Jan. 14, when they teamed up on the first-ever fully cloud-based live-game production in the U.S. during the Davidson-George Mason Atlantic 10 Conference basketball game in Fairfax, VA.
Operators on hand in Bristol: (from left) Director 1 Ashley Ward, Senior Associate Producer Greg Burud, Media Replay Operator 1 Maddie Boccardi
Feeds from onsite cameras and microphones were sent directly into an AWS cloud instance, where software-based production tools were running virtually. Meanwhile, operators used control surfaces in a control room at ESPN's Bristol, CT, campus to produce the show remotely. The software-based approach not only reduced costly hardware and physical infrastructure but also eliminated transmission bottlenecks associated with hardware-based REMI productions.
We see this as a major step forward in our evolution as it related to cloud-based production, says Chris Strong, director, specialist operations, Disney Media & Entertainment. The beauty of cloud is, we can take the REMI model or any type of traditional model and be able to make it a far more scalable solution. In a traditional fixed facility, you build a set amount of rooms that is the total rooms you have available. If you want to scale that up, you're going to have to build more brick-and-mortar facilities. But, with the cloud, you can take all those resources and send them to a cloud instance, which allows you to scale almost infinitely.
Building the On-Ramp to Distributed Production in the Cloud The proof of concept comes on the heels of ESPN/DMED's recent successful deployment of a cloud-based workflow for super-slo-mo replay for REMI productions and marks a major step forward in their efforts to create a sustainable cloud-based live-production model. Although the production crew was located in Bristol for the initial production, ESPN believes this cloud-based production model will eventually allow its production workforce the flexibility to work from anywhere.
The next generation of this [model] will move to a distributed workflow where our operators can work from home, says Strong. The goal is to build an efficient, scalable, and sustainable model so that, when our [ops team] has two college-basketball shows to cover at once, we could spin up a [cloud] instance instead of using resources in one of our fixed facilities. We also would be handing a single program output to the facility versus trying to accommodate eight to 10 more individual resources like in a REMI or REMCO [model].
Senior Audio Operator Cody Hardin in Bristol uses an SSL audio-mixing control surface for the cloud-based production.
Live Cloud Production From Beginning to End During the production, ESPN successfully tested video switching, replay, graphics, multiviewer generation, audio mixing, comms, file transfer, and transmission QC in the cloud.
All the typical things that we would normally have within the facility to produce the show were running in the cloud, says Daniel Lannon, manager, REMI operations, DMED. Then we had the director/TD, replay operator, producer, audio operator, comms specialist, and our graphics operators and graphics producers all located within the facility. They were all controlling the [technology] that was running in the cloud data center from [control surfaces] in Bristol.
Graphics Interface Coordinator Keith Rall
The cloud-based operation was based on a ViBox all-in-one production video switcher and slo-mo replay system from Simplylive (now owned by Riedel Communications). The team also used a Simplylive Venue Gateway onsite encoder/decoder and multiviewer for IP encoding of all the camera and audio feeds and transported them to an AWS cloud instance using SRT.
All the necessary tools for the live production were running in the cloud, including Vizrt's Viz Trio, Viz Engine, and Clock & Score Control Interface for graphics; Scoreboard OCR (optical character recognition) for clock-and-score data extraction; Solid State Logic audio mixing (with a 16-fader console surface in Bristol); Unity Connect audio comms; Audinate Dante Domain Manager; ENCO DAD audio-asset-management and -playout; Avsono audio NDI gateway and processing; Sienna ND NDI routing, processing, and multiviewer generation; and Signiant high-speed file transfer.
Quality and the expectations from the production team were key, says Strong. We did not give up any level of production that would have been done in the hardware brick-and-mortar facility by putting this in the cloud. It has exactly the same quality with the same level of resources as the REMI ViBox model would have been. Our production was afforded everything they're used to in our normal REMI model: switching, audio, graphics, video, camera isos, replay, scorebug, comms, and even talent onsite.
Added Challenges: Announcers Onsite and Preparing a Backup Plan With ESPN's announcers at EagleBank Arena calling the action, all camera and audio feeds had to go into the cloud, the show was cut in Bristol, and the mix-minus audio, program feed, and tallies went back to the arena for the announcers via the Simplylive Venue Gateway and Unity Connect.
As a redundant backup plan, ESPN also took four isolated camera feeds directly into a separate AWS cloud instance equipped with small-switching and audio-mixing capabilities. If there was a failure in the primary cloud-based production chain, ESPN would
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
19/08/2026
World Cup Games Generate 84 Billion Minutes Across FOX, Fox Sports 1 and NBCU...
19/08/2026
July brought typical peak-holiday drops in viewership, driven primarily by viewers stepping away from screens and a visible decline in reach across both traditi...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Henry joins BCE as the company accelerates its commercial strategy and expands its international presence across the media, broadcast and technology markets. He...
19/08/2026
iWedia, a leading provider of software solutions for connected TV devices, today announced a major milestone in Android platform optimization with the successfu...
19/08/2026
NTP Technology announces that ST 2110-30 audio-over-IP connectivity with AES67 and RAVENNA capabilities is now available for the brand's world-class audio i...
19/08/2026
Net Insight has been selected to provide its Nimbra platform by the service provider Big Blue Marble, formerly ORS Group, as the core media transport solution f...
19/08/2026
LiveU has supported Coventry City FC and several other top-flight UK football clubs through one of their most demanding live production challenges of the year, ...
19/08/2026
Nature Seekers Documentary Shot with Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF
Brie Clayton August 18, 2026
0 Comments
Filming endangered turtles required camera...
19/08/2026
Neyrinck Brings D-Control Consoles Back to Life on Apple Silicon with D-Control ...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Riedel Communications today announced that Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Perth, Australia, implemented a comprehensive communications infrastructure that brin...
19/08/2026
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest contribution solutions, will spotlight a major leap forward in remote guest con...
19/08/2026
Integrated platform melds media asset management, playout automation and newsroom workflows
EMAM, PlayBox Neo and SNEWS have officially launched Nuvex, a conne...
19/08/2026
Screen Australia releases the Private Investment Toolkit to strengthen screen in...
19/08/2026
Do Aussies truly value local content? Unpacking Screen Currency 2026 with Deirdr...
19/08/2026
On Saturday September 5 Katie Taylor will step into the ring for the fight of her life against Flora Pili in front of 80,000 fans in Croke Park. A legendary fig...
18/08/2026
SportStream 2026, a free three-day virtual event, will take place September 15-17. One registration provides access to all three days of live programming and on...
18/08/2026
BeckTV will introduce BeckFlow to the European market at IBC2026, demonstrated on the Providius stand (10.F53).
BeckFlow is a web-based schematic documentation...
18/08/2026
Boland Communications will introduce a SMPTE ST 2110 input option for its 4K monitors at IBC2026, along with a new 55-inch super-narrow bezel display for video ...
18/08/2026
Dolby Laboratories and the Seattle Seahawks have announced a partnership integrating Dolby OptiView into the Seahawks' live streaming coverage, making the S...
18/08/2026
For BMG Executive Producer of Sports Production, Graham Taylor, producing live s...
18/08/2026
TMRW Sports has appointed Rufus Hack as President of Golf, a newly created role in which he will lead the company's golf businesses including TGL presented ...
18/08/2026
SMT will provide race technology for FOX Sports' coverage of the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. on August 23, when the NTT INDYCAR SERIES races ...
18/08/2026
The live, YouTube-native roundtables combine fan voices, credentialed reporters,...
18/08/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
18/08/2026
The industry legend sounds off on replacing the Heat's iconic Medusa score...
18/08/2026
William F. Rasmussen, the sports fan-turned broadcaster and entrepreneur whose out-of-the-box idea of a 24-hour cable sports network, ESPN, changed forever the ...
18/08/2026
DAZN Group has completed its acquisition of ViewLift, a provider of streaming and digital solutions for sports content owners. The acquisition was first announc...
18/08/2026
The American Association of Professional Baseball (AAPB) has added SI TV, Sports Illustrated's 24/7 streaming channel, as a broadcast partner for the remain...
18/08/2026
The Esports Foundation has announced that the inaugural Esports Nations Cup (ENC), originally scheduled for November 2026 in Riyadh, will be postponed to Novemb...
18/08/2026
Diversified has announced a new Global Managed Services Practice, consolidating the company's managed services capabilities into one organization. Rob Mello...
18/08/2026
Appear has completed a proof of concept with Thoroughbred Racing Productions (TRP), demonstrating multi-camera remote live production over bonded 5G cellular an...
18/08/2026
Riedel Communications has announced that Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Perth, ...
18/08/2026
Company launch with stereo-imaging tool
Panoramic is the debut release from Panorama Labs, a new company formed by mastering engineer Nicholas Di Lorenzo. C...
18/08/2026
Control software now available for older interfaces
Focusrite have just announced the launch of an update that extends Control 2 software support their Scar...
18/08/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
18/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/08/2026
Lightware announces an integration with SpectralBot that helps system integrators and AV operators troubleshoot faster using augmented reality (AR), AI-assisted...
18/08/2026
Command Frame for After Effects
Scott Black August 18, 2026
0 Comments
Free download, demonstrations, hands-on tests, and creator resources
Want to t...
18/08/2026
At Stand 14.A57, the data company will demonstrate GreenDot and IBM Aspera together, giving media and entertainment businesses real-time visibility of what thei...
ESPN, DMED Pull Off First End-to-End Cloud-Based Live-Game Production With A-10 College Hoops Game The Davidson-George Mason game is believed to be the first live end-to-end-cloud production of a U.S. sporting event By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
