Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

CFP National Championship 2025: It's All Hands on Deck for ESPN's Massive Production in Atlanta

20/01/2025

CFP National Championship 2025: It's All Hands on Deck for ESPN's Massive Production in Atlanta More than 100 cameras, 100 microphones power 11 viewing options for season finale By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital

Monday, January 20, 2025 - 1:08 pm

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

In college sports, it doesn't get much bigger than this.

More than five months of work comes down to a blockbuster matchup between two of the nation's marquee brands: No. 8 Ohio State meets No. 7 Notre Dame in the 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship Game tonight. ESPN has rolled into Downtown Atlanta with a massive production and operations plan to broadcast the festivities from every angle.

The College Football Playoff Championship Game returns to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta for the first time since 2019.

Among the highlights are an arsenal of more than 100 cameras, 100 microphones, and 23 mobile production facilities to support 11 viewing options in ESPN's annual MegaCast offering, as well as the first 4K presentation of the CFP National Championship Game's main telecast ever.

After an expanded 12-team playoff that added eight games to ESPN's CFP slate over the past month, it is familiar territory for the broadcaster's behind-the-scenes team of more than 850 credentialed staff: back at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium for one big bash.

It has been like seeing an old friend, says Jarrett Baker, senior manager, remote production operations, ESPN. You haven't talked for a long time, life has happened, and then you get back together, and it's like you never left. The expanded playoff has been incredible, and the team we work with is top-notch. This is why we do what we do.

MORE FROM THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME:

ESPN To Deliver Main Game Telecast in 4K for the First Time

ESPN's MegaCast Menu Highlighted by REMI Production of Field Pass With The Pat McAfee Show

Van Wagner To Hype Up Buckeyes, Fighting Irish Fans From New IP-Based Control Room

Inside Ohio State Football's Creative Storytelling at Monday's Title Game

The Camera Plan ESPN's main game production - available to selected subscribers as an upconverted 4K viewing option - will be a fully 1080p HDR production onsite. Producer Bill Bonnell, director Jimmy Platt, and technical director Josh Miller will have more than 100 cameras and 100 microphones at their disposal to tell the story of this epic clash.

The camera layout comprises a total of 115 cameras. Among them are 12 cameras with super-slow-motion (SSMO) capabilities. There are also seven handhelds: three of them RF, one a cabled SSMO on the far sideline. All dedicated game hard and handheld cameras are Sony HDC-5500's.

ESPN has more than 800 credentialed staffers who have worked this week preparing for tonight's broadcast. Here, the production and operations groups take a team photo. (Photo: Allen Kee/ESPN Images)

The lineup of specialty cameras is impressive as well. There are eight end-zone PylonCams, including on the pylon at each end of both goal lines. Provided by NEP Specialty Capture, those systems have SMMO. Wireless line-to-gain PylonCams will follow the action with the first-down marker.

Two Skycams are rigged up inside the stadium, with one flying at two points in a side-to-side flight pattern. The other flies in a traditional four-point configuration with a 4K camera and AR capabilities. Aerial shots will also come from inside the stadium via an ESPN-owned and -operated drone and from outside via a fixed-wing plane.

Down on the turf, ESPN aims to take viewers deep into the action with an on-field shallow-depth-of-field rig. That RF rig is a Ronin RS3 Pro stabilizer outfitted with a Sony FX3 full-frame cinema camera.

ESPN director Jimmy Platt (left) and producer Bill Bonnell will call the shots on the main game telecast of tonight's College Football Playoff National Championship. (Photo: Phil Ellsworth/ESPN Images)

Additionally, three officials will wear MindFly BodyCams on their shirts to deliver live video feeds to the truck. The umpire, center judge, and head linesman will wear the AI-stabilized POV cameras with a built-in microphone that ESPN will monetize through its title sponsorship with AT&T as Connected Cam on the broadcast. The MindFly BodyCams made their CFP debuts in the semifinals at the Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl.

To provide coverage depth, as well as potential officiating assistance, ESPN will have robotic Sony 4800's shooting at 8X speed on each goal line to catch any close break-the-plane visuals. There will also be a robo (Sony P1) on the crossbar of each goalpost.

Standard fixtures include a cart on each sideline, a jib, robos in the stadium tunnels for entrances, and hard cameras dedicated to each team's head coach.

Roof Camera Is Back To Blend Creative With Live The return to Mercedes-Benz Stadium - a stadium with a roof and walkable scaffolding - allows ESPN to bring back a camera angle that became popular a few years ago: a roof camera.

ESPN used a camera in the catwalk of Mercedes-Benz Stadium during the SEC Championship Game last month (Courtesy: ESPN PR)

The camera angle, first made popular by the Atlanta Falcons social- and digital-media team, blends trends in the postproduction creative space with the excitement of live. A Sony 4800 with a 24-300mm Fuji Duvo Lens will be configured as a handheld and operated by a camera operator approximately 285 ft. above the playing surface.

It is not for those who are bothered by working at heights, says Baker. It looks right down on the play. We're going to run that in 8X mode and through a Sony server, where we'll be able to make key frames and pan-and-scan to follow the ball and give some really neat effects where we ramp the playout speed
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2025/01/20/cfp-national-championship-2025-...
See more stories from svg

North America Stories

28/07/2026

LiveUs World Cup Record: 1,700 Units Support Wide Range of Transmission Needs

LiveU, the pioneer in IP-video transmission and cloud-based remote production, today detailed its historic performance records set during the 2026 FIFA World Cu...

28/07/2026

Case Study: How the Dallas Cowboys Removed Bottlenecks in Off-site Content Production

The NFL franchise rebuilt their off-site content operation for an era when teams...

28/07/2026

A New Way To Watch': How Formula 1 and Sky Sports Are Pushing Race Coverage Into a New Era

Longtime partners expand viewer choice, data-driven analysis, access, immersive ...

28/07/2026

Grass Valley Op Ed: Seven Paradoxes Shaping the Next Era of Media Production

There is a unique moment before every major production. The audience never sees it. The cameras are ready. The talent is preparing. Directors review the final...

28/07/2026

The CW Network, ESPN Ink Streaming Agreement With Launch on Aug. 4

The CW Network and ESPN have announced their highly anticipated streaming agreement to bring CW Sports' live events to the ESPN App will officially launch o...

28/07/2026

Lawo Delivers Audio Excellence for Europes Largest Classical Open-Air Concert on Bastille Day

As more than tens of thousands of spectators filled Paris' Champ de Mars and...

28/07/2026

Appear Assists Chile's First Large-Scale 4K FIFA World Cup Viewing Experience

Appear's X Platform played a central role in Chile's first large-scale c...

28/07/2026

IBC 2026: Solid State Logic Highlights Transition to Software-Defined Production

Responding to the broadcast industry's shift to embrace more flexible production platforms, Solid State Logic (SSL) is evolving its comprehensive System T p...

28/07/2026

TNT Sports Goes to Greater Heights With New DUNKMAN League

Production leverages innovative camera technologies, AI, and data to capture the action in four-week inaugural competition The first-ever professional dunking ...

28/07/2026

Rogers, Prime Video Ink 12-Year Sublicensing Deal for NHL Rights in Canada

Prime Video to exclusively broadcast Wednesday night national NHL regular-season games in Canada...

28/07/2026

CBS Sports Snags U.S. English-Language Rights for CONCACAF Champions Cup

Every match will stream live on Paramount+ beginning in February,...

28/07/2026

Nielsen Launches Ad Intel AI: the Only Product of its Kind that Transforms Fragmented Ad Data into Actionable Intelligence

Ad Intel AI is Nielsen's first in a new generation of AI products built to t...

28/07/2026

The Tow Foundation Awards PMVP $400,000 Grant

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/07/2026

LiveU's World Cup Support Breaks Company Records

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/07/2026

Encompass Selected by Channel 4 to Deliver Managed Linear...

Encompass Digital Media has been selected by Channel 4, one of the UK's public service broadcasters, to deliver managed linear playout services as part of a...

28/07/2026

Cinegy partners with SAMA Digital Media Solutions to sati...

Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has confirmed a new partnership with leading Korean systems integrator and distribu...

28/07/2026

Limecraft Adds Multicam Player and Audio Fingerprint-Base...

Limecraft today announces version 2026.5 of its AI-powered production platform. Limecraft 2026.5 https://(www.limecraft.com/limecraft-2026-5-multicam-quad-view-...

28/07/2026

Appear powers first large-scale 4k FIFA World Cup viewing...

X Platform technology enabled a premium UHD viewing experience through a hybrid ground-to-cloud architecture developed with Chilevisi n, ClaroVTR and Pixop App...

28/07/2026

LiveU Delivers Record-Breaking LIQ and Cloud Service Depl...

LiveU, the pioneer in IP-video transmission and cloud-based remote production, today announced it has set historic performance records during the 2026 World Foo...

28/07/2026

DHD Releases New Firmware and Options for its Audio Produ...

dhd.audio announces that its latest generation firmware, Version 10.4, is now available to DHD customers. Version 10.4 introduces expanded configuration capabil...

28/07/2026

Study: TV Operating Systems Gain Influence Over Viewing

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/07/2026

Maryland Public Television Promotes Ling Ling Sun to CTO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/07/2026

NUGEN Audio Helps Mix Technician Blake Bunzel Deliver Rel...

Brand's Intuitive Metering and Dialogue Tools Improve Efficiency and Maintain Clarity Across Projects Ranging from Sitcoms to Effects Heavy Fantasy Series ...

28/07/2026

TAG Video Systems Accelerates the Move to Cloud and Virtu...

TAG Video Systems, a leader in 100% software-based realtime media monitoring, multiviewing and quality control (QC), today announced the latest innovations to i...

28/07/2026

Harvard Athletics Transforms Collegiate Sports Storytelling with AJA Gear

Harvard Athletics Transforms Collegiate Sports Storytelling with AJA Gear Brie Clayton July 27, 2026 0 Comments Between the maturation of IP and remot...

28/07/2026

New Live Action Projection Mapping Film Captured with URSA Cine 12K LF

New Live Action Projection Mapping Film Captured with URSA Cine 12K LF Brie Clayton July 27, 2026 0 Comments Large format sensor allows Texas Legacy ...

28/07/2026

NVIDIA Agent Toolkit Expands With New Omniverse Libraries, Putting AI Agents to Work Building Simulation-Ready Worlds

NVIDIA Agent Toolkit Expands With New Omniverse Libraries, Putting AI Agents to ...

28/07/2026

AI Agents Expand Creative Tools to Millions

AI Agents Expand Creative Tools to Millions Brie Clayton July 27, 2026 0 Comments Hero image courtesy of Epic Games Leading creative applications are...

28/07/2026

How Rick Aggeler Built a Music Community for Boston Teens

How Rick Aggeler Built a Music Community for Boston Teens When he was a Berklee student, Aggeler volunteered at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, where he hel...

28/07/2026

Powerful Compute So Compact, It's Clutch - Build AI in Your Hand With NVIDIA Jetson

Anyone can make a robot move; NVIDIA Jetson makes it think. As a discerning AI i...

27/07/2026

AES Educational Foundation Announces 2026/2027 Scholarship and Grant Recipients

The Audio Engineering Society Educational Foundation has named its scholarship and grant recipients for the 2026/2027 academic year. The awards support students...

27/07/2026

ESPN and MEAC Reach Multi-Year Media Rights Agreement Through 2030-31

ESPN and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) have signed a multi-year media rights agreement covering basketball championships and select football and ba...

27/07/2026

Yahoo Sports and Cameo Integrate Celebrity Video Bookings into Yahoo Fantasy

Yahoo Sports and Cameo have partnered to allow fantasy football users to book personalized celebrity videos directly within the Yahoo Fantasy app and website. T...

27/07/2026

Eutelsat to Receive $504 Million in FCC Upper C-Band Transition Payments

Eutelsat has welcomed the FCC's order establishing the regulatory framework for the transition of Upper C-band spectrum in the United States. Under the orde...

27/07/2026

ESPN Acquires U.S. and International Rights to International Dance League

ESPN and the International Dance League (IDL) have signed a global rights agreement for the 2026 season. Events will air bi-weekly on ESPN2 at 7 p.m. ET beginni...

27/07/2026

NBCUniversal and YouTube Announce Multi-Year Global Partnership

NBCUniversal and YouTube have signed a multi-year global partnership that includes bundling Peacock with YouTube Premium, extending NBCUniversal's distribut...

27/07/2026

Two Weeks Away: 2026 SVG Venues & Teams Summit at Miamis Kaseya Center To Reunite In-Stadium Production Community

Agenda includes presentations from the Miami Heat, Inter Miami, Florida Panthers...

27/07/2026

Behind The Mic: CBS Sports Bolsters College Football Analyst Team

Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, including new deals, departures, and assignments compiled from press releases and repo...

27/07/2026

PBR Goes Animated With BS: Bull Stories, Giving Its Bucking Bulls a Voice

Ten one-minute shorts will roll out across CBS, The CW, Paramount+ during the 2026 PBR Teams season PBR is officially moving into scripted animation. The Profe...

27/07/2026

T-Mobile Tops Ookla's Mobile Network Rankings

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/07/2026

Pebble to Feature Virtualization, Cloud-Based Playout Tech at IBC

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/07/2026

NBCU Telemundo Turns To Chyron PRIME 5 For World Cup Graphics

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/07/2026

Lightware Adds SNMPv3 Monitoring to Taurus Devices

Lightware announces SNMPv3-based monitoring support for selected Taurus devices, available from firmware v1.20.0. The update enables IT administrators and AV in...

27/07/2026

Mediagenix Showcases the Real-Time Media Enterprise at IB...

Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, will showcase its vision for the Real-Time...

27/07/2026

Seven paradoxes shaping the next era of media production - Episode 4

Why Confidence MattersIn this series, we explore the technologies, architectures and operational realities shaping modern media operations. Along the way, we ex...

27/07/2026

Industry Leaders Unite in Open Secure AI Alliance for AI Safety and Security

Open source software is a critical pillar of the global economy. It underpins cloud computing, financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications, government...

26/07/2026

Audio Vivid: A New Destination for Immersive Audio

What is Audio Vivid? A New Destination for Immersive Audio Over the past several years, immersive audio has evolved from a niche production consideration into a...

26/07/2026

NVIDIA Harnesses Vera CPU to Speed Up Design of Next-Generation CPUs and GPUs

The complexity of modern chip design continues to grow as engineering teams work to develop increasingly sophisticated CPUs, GPUs and AI systems. To help meet t...

25/07/2026

Study: T-Mobile Remains Best Mobile and Fastest 5G Network

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...