ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball Statcast Edition Powered By Google Cloud Alternate Broadcast Returns With a (Shohei Ohtani) Bang ESPNs VP, Production Phil Orlins: differentiatied broadcast designed to go to the die-hards By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Monday, July 22, 2024 - 2:32 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
473 feet. That's how far Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Othani blasted a fifth inning home run off the Boston Red Sox on Sunday night.
It was just the kind of moment ESPN had in mind when it brought back it's latest baseball alternate broadcast, Sunday Night Baseball Statcast Edition Powered By Google Cloud.
ESPN's MLB alt-cast Sunday Night Baseball Statcast Edition Powered By Google Cloud debuted on Sunday on ESPN2.
The data and tracking-filled broadcast returned for the first time since 2021 on Sunday evening and the show was even flashier, more colorful, and more informative than ever. The homer from baseball's biggest star was, fittingly enough, the second longest homer hit at Dodger Stadium in the Statcast era (since 2015), falling short of only a 475-foot bomb hit by than Miami Marlin Giancarlo Stanton on May 12, 2015.
We design our primary broadcast to reach the largest group of baseball fans and then we face a choice if we want to differentiate with an alt-cast, says Phil Orlins, VP, Production for ESPN. Do we want to do something that's designed for a more casual viewer? There's obviously been examples of that: the two years of the KayRod cast and other shows like Bird and Taurasi and the Manningcast. Or the other direction is to go to the die-hards directly. That means the new schoolers; the more progressive end of our viewers and really attack it with something that's designed to be innovative and look to the future of the way the most aggressive, and sometimes. younger baseball fans are approaching this. We wanted to take a different turn to it this year and we're happy to be able to do it.
From 2018-2021, ESPN had occasionally produced a similar Statcast-driven alternate broadcast accompanying Sunday Night Baseball. It has continued to appear as an alternate feed for select Wild Card playoff games carried by ESPN but, after a three-year hiatus, it's back in the regular season with the broadcast team of of Kevin Brown, Trevor May, and Mike Petriello.
The vast majority of the people in the game are immersed in this, says Orlins. It is the way front offices make decisions. It's the way game decisions are made. Maybe it's a lofty goal, but I like to think that broadcasts and commentary are and should be aligned with the way decisions are made, the way players and their skills are developed on the field. To fail to do that is to fail to address how the game exists in a contemporary way. I think it's an important goal to try to be in step with where the game has moved so quickly.
While both blossoming and established statistics, real-time tracking data, and visually appealing graphics are the technological star, Orlins points out that its crucial to build the focus of the broadcast around the strength of the on-air talent.
Candidly, I can't really even put into words the mind-boggling level of sophistication within the Statcast environment, says Orlins. [The show] is really more, to be honest, aligned with Mike [Petriello]'s way of looking and thinking about the game and mixing in [Trevor May's] experiences as a former player. This group is utterly crucial, and the most important thing we do is discussing the game in a more progressive manner.
I've done like 15 or so of these shows over the years with ESPN, says Pertriello, and the main premise has always been that this can be fun, not scary, and not become an algebra lesson. Fans' biggest worry about this show is that it's just going to be reciting launch angles, and we're not going to do that.
On the graphics and data front, ESPN worked with longtime partner TruMedia and MLB's Baseball Savant division on visualizing some of the key talking points like Damage Zones for hitters, preferred Pitch Location for pitchers based on the situation, and even a new Pitch Predictor graphic.
You'll see many graphics that borrow from the Statcast world, specifically Baseball Savant, including elements that look into skill set based and percentile metrics, says Orlins. These visuals are collaborative with MLB Statcast.
ESPN also made it a point to work in the avatar-based Statcast replays that Major League Baseball has made popular on social media in partnership with the firm Virtual Eye. With the turnaround time on the creation of those assets significantly improved from the last time ESPN produced these broadcasts in the regular season, the opportunity to work them in was more appealing to the crew.
3D tracking + bat tracking: Shohei Ohtani's 116.7 mph, 473 foot home run, the longest by a Dodgers player at Dodger Stadium under Statcast tracking pic.twitter.com/5Mx7PmBclw
- David Adler (@_dadler) July 22, 2024
As of a few days ago, we were down to about 30 seconds after a play happened, said Orlins prior to Sunday's debut. We think by the time we get to air on Sunday, we'll be down to 15 or 20 seconds and be able to incorporate these types of replays within the standard game coverage, which I think is considerably new and groundbreaking.
ESPN plans to produce more of these alt-casts throughout the remainder of the regular season and Orlins sees them as a big opportunity to tell the story of how the modern game is actually approached by players, managers, and front offices today.
This really allows us to push the envelope, try new things, and change the way we do broadcasting across the board, says Orlins. These are aspects of what we started doing with Statc
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's leading streaming television channels, at NAB 2026 will be launching new Studio services to help content ow...
07/04/2026
Ikegami USA has chosen NAB 2026 in Las Vegas as the launch platform for new additions to its range of broadcast-quality television production equipment. These w...
07/04/2026
April 19, 2026, Las Vegas Kiloview, an innovative provider of AV-over-IP technologies, will showcase its latest broadcast IP solutions at NAB 2026, presenting...
07/04/2026
Bitmovin has announced support for Server-Guided Ad Insertion (SGAI) across its playback products using HLS interstitials, enabling more advanced ad-supported s...
07/04/2026
Synamedia is unveiling AI by Quortex at The NAB show, a just-in-time AI plugin framework that applies intelligence only when needed across video processing, dis...
07/04/2026
Cuez will showcase four additions to its cloud-based newsroom, rundown and automation platform at NAB Show 2026 (April 18 22, Las Vegas, Booth N1867):
Cuez ...
07/04/2026
CueScript to Showcase Innovations at NAB that Add Mobility Options, Ease Editing...
07/04/2026
Barix Extends Transport Options for Multi-Engine IP Encoder
Brie Clayton April 7, 2026
0 Comments
New for NAB, Barix adds SRT and RIST support to Mult...
07/04/2026
Elite Media Technologies Selects Interra Systems' BATON File-Based QC Soluti...
07/04/2026
Tightrope Media Systems to Debut Cablecast LiveBridge for Simultaneous Streaming...
07/04/2026
Cuez Brings Four New Innovations to NAB 2026: From Story-Centric Newsroom to Ope...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Designed for synchronized multi-stream playback, low-latency delivery, and real-time analytics, MATCH introduces a unified viewing experience for sports broadca...
07/04/2026
Berklee Students to Honor George Martin with Performance of Original Scores The orchestra, led by associate professor Xander Rovang, will perform several work...
06/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
06/04/2026
From high school sports all the way up to the major leagues, building high-quali...
06/04/2026
Quickplay, an AI company for the media and entertainment industry, has been accepted into the Advanced tier of the TwelveLabs Ecosystem Partner Program. Quickpl...
06/04/2026
Grass Valley has announced the Future Playmakers Program, a global initiative to...
06/04/2026
El l der de operaciones impulsa la producci n en estudio mientras encuentra insp...
06/04/2026
The ops leader helps lead the charge in studio for the Spanish-language broadcas...
06/04/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
06/04/2026
The National Hockey League (NHL), in partnership with Verizon and the New Jersey Devils, today announced the opening of the NHL Innovation Lab powered by Verizo...
06/04/2026
Rock League, a new professional curling league, has announced that ESPN+ will stream its inaugural 2026 season for fans in the United States. The first Rock Lea...
06/04/2026
Advanced Systems Group has announced the appointment of Andrea (Andy) Cummis as Vice President of Systems Design and Engineering. In this role, she will lead de...
06/04/2026
Backed by Bolt Ventures, the venture brings Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat, and...
06/04/2026
With this environment we can start that collaboration even earlier because we ca...
06/04/2026
Like the immortal lives of vampires, some stories never really end. That's t...
06/04/2026
As podcasting continues to evolve, growth increasingly means building beyond aud...
06/04/2026
Multiband dynamics plug-in enhanced
California-based developer FSK Audio have released a significant update for their innovative multiband dynamics processo...
06/04/2026
Share official & user-created full-rig presets
IK Multimedia's latest TONEX update makes it possible for users of the popular amp and effects modelling ...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Dalet Showcases Dalia Agentic AI and End-to-End Media Workflows at NAB Show 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Dalet, a leading technology and...
06/04/2026
OpenDrives Shows Off Sports Expertise in Sports Business Hub located in NAB Show...
06/04/2026
Proton to Demonstrate 3D Application at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Yet further creative potential unleashed through innovation in ...
06/04/2026
Autoscript Highlights Voice-Driven Prompting and PTZ Solutions at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Experience Autoscript Voice, PTZ prom...
06/04/2026
Mediaproxy Highlights Significant Enhancements to its LogServer suite at NAB Sho...
06/04/2026
Wayne, N.J., April 6th, 2026 Phantom High-Speed announces the release of PCC 4...
06/04/2026
April 6th, 2026
TRIBECA STUDIOS AND LILLY ANNOUNCE WINNERS OF INAUGURAL VITAL...
06/04/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Expands Kids Entertainment Lineup With Playground App ...
05/04/2026
Tackles all reported bugs!
SoundBridge have just announced the launch of a new update that introduces a couple of minor changes to their remote collaboratio...
ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball Statcast Edition Powered By Google Cloud Alternate Broadcast Returns With a (Shohei Ohtani) Bang ESPNs VP, Production Phil Orlins: differentiatied broadcast designed to go to the die-hards By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
