
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
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...
07/08/2025
July 8 2025, 22:30 (PDT) Tata Motors & Dolby Bring Dolby Atmos to Harrier.ev, R...
18/07/2025
Blanche Barton, Peter Gilmore, Scott Cummings, Sundance Institute Director of Programming Kim Yutani, and Peggy Nadramia throwing horns. (Stephen Lovekin/Shutte...
18/07/2025
By Jessica Herndon
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Fest...
18/07/2025
BOSTON Sports network NESN today relaunched the NESN 360 app with a redesigned user experience and upgrades....
18/07/2025
Berklee Singers Wow the Competition on Netflixs Building the Band Netflixs new music competition show features two Berklee artists looking to make their pop b...
18/07/2025
As the House of Representatives voted early Friday morning to eliminate federal funding for public broadcasting, advocates warned that the elimination of $1 bil...
18/07/2025
DENVER Imagine Communications has announced that it is deepening its commitment to the North American sports and live events market with investments in its prod...
18/07/2025
LOS GATOS, Calif. Netflix once again reported strong financial growth, with revenue increasing 16% year-over-year to $11.079 billion in Q2 2025 as net income s...
18/07/2025
Live from the 153rd Open Championship: SMT Enhances Video Board Experience; Enab...
18/07/2025
ShotTracker's Davyeon Ross on Revolutionizing Basketball On the Court and ...
18/07/2025
Home Pitch: How the Danish League Brought Its Live Match Production In-House Matchday Production produced 800+ matches across Denmark in its first year By Geor...
18/07/2025
Live From the 153rd Open Championship: EMG Debuts Spidercam for Golf, Expands Su...
18/07/2025
Usyk vs Dubois II: Bringing the fight to life with state of the art cameras and ...
18/07/2025
Usyk vs Dubois II: DAZN's head of boxing Chris Glanville talks helicopters, ...
18/07/2025
Live From the 153rd Open Championship: NBC Expands Unilateral Effort; Shared Stu...
18/07/2025
Warner Bros. Discovery's Anne Graham on Training New Professionals to Ensure...
18/07/2025
Live From the 153rd Open Championship: How R&A Spidercam Became a Reality for Go...
18/07/2025
ESPN Bulks Up Onsite Studios, Cameras, Player Mics for WNBA All-Star Weekend Besides the game, four studio shows will be produced onsite By Jason Dachman, Edit...
18/07/2025
Friday 18 July 2025
Credit: Marc Sethi
The Sky Arts Awards will return on 16 September, once again taking place at the iconic Roundhouse in London. Produced b...
18/07/2025
This month, players can dive into special crossover events featuring SpongeBob SquarePants in Snake.io+ and Crossy Road Castle, available exclusively on Apple A...
18/07/2025
Up for the Match brings the fun, the passion-and a bit of Riverdance- tomorrow n...
17/07/2025
Blanche Barton, Peter Gilmore, Scott Cummings, Sundance Institute Director of Programming Kim Yutani, and Peggy Nadramia throwing horns. (Stephen Lovekin/Shutte...
17/07/2025
Spotify's goal with audiobooks is to help grow the publishing industry and create the best possible experience for booklovers, which is why we're launch...
17/07/2025
An advanced large solid rocket motor hot fire test conducted at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, site....
17/07/2025
L3Harris payloads and components have been on board every U.S. GPS satellite-more than 70 missions since the 1970s. Our technology is at the core of GPS availab...
17/07/2025
L3Harris' pack of launched effects is comprised of multi-role vehicles that ...
17/07/2025
NEW YORK - July 17, 2025 - Gracenote, the content data business unit of Nielsen, has announced the appointment of Ryan Moore to the new role of Chief Business O...
17/07/2025
READING, Pa. Network technology startup Miri Technologies has added David Cohen as vice president, business development. He'll be tasked with expanding the ...
17/07/2025
Berklee Wins CASE Award for Standout Digital Campaign The Alumni Affairs team's Variations Signature Series earned recognition for offering an authentic p...
17/07/2025
Early Thursday morning, the U.S. Senate voted to cut federal funding for PBS and NPR in a bill that also included cuts for foreign aid. In a 51-48 vote, the act...
17/07/2025
GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland Pavilions across IBC2025 (12 15 September, RAI Amsterdam) feature a remarkable 34 companies, each providing unique, innovativ...
17/07/2025
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers today introduced its Content Provenance and Authenticity (CPA) in Media Study Group (S...
17/07/2025
NEW YORK Despite widespread concerns about a soft advertising market, NBCUniversal said it closed its 2025-26 upfront negotiation cycle with a record ad sales v...
17/07/2025
NEW YORK Television advertising remains an effective means to market and influence younger baby boomer and Generation X consumers approaching retirement age, ac...
17/07/2025
ALLENTOWN, Pa. & JERSEY CITY, N.J. Service Electric Cable TV and OpenVault have announced that the operator is deploying the OpenVault Proactive Network Manage...
17/07/2025
WASHINGTON Following up on his first major policy speech just two ago, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr is promising to buck the usual summ...
17/07/2025
Luxembourg, 14 July 2025 - SES received the final regulatory approvals for the SES-Intelsat transaction, including the US Federal Communications Commission.
O...
17/07/2025
Berklee Alumni Nominated for 2025 Emmy Awards Twenty-seven Berklee alumni received nominations across categories in sound mixing, sound editing, and compositi...
17/07/2025
Back to All News
What We Watched the First Half of 2025
Entertainment
17 July 2025
Global
Link copied to clipboard
Today, we're sharing our latest Eng...
17/07/2025
Cast your vote in 2 categories for Ivory 3 American Concert DIvory 3 American Concert D is in the 2025 MIDI Innovation Awards and we are honored to be nominated...
17/07/2025
SVG Sit-Down: OpenDrives' Sean Lee, Michael Wilsker, and Jason Matousek on E...
17/07/2025
Oracle's Geoff Tognetti on Staying Ahead of the AI Curve Through Further Ado...
17/07/2025
NBA's Summer League Is a Hot Bed of AI, Immersive Innovation Testing Audio mixing, intelligent camera framing are among AI-driven efforts By Ken Kerschbaum...
17/07/2025
SVG's TranSPORT Conference Returns to NYC on Oct. 21; Register Today! By SVG Staff
Thursday, July 17, 2025 - 8:29 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
St...
17/07/2025
Gravity Media chosen as group name for merged OB business By George Bevir
Wednesday, July 16, 2025 - 11:30
Print This Story
Gravity Media executive chairm...
17/07/2025
SES Closes Deal to Acquire Intelsat, Creating New Giant in Satellite Connectivit...
17/07/2025
How MLB Pulled Off That Unforgettable Hank Aaron Tribute at the All-Star Game Vintage content, state-of-the-art projection/processing combine in marvelous mile...
17/07/2025
Wuppertal July 17, 2025
Riedel Communications Powers Handa Opera on Sydney Har...