Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

NFL Kickoff 2022: ESPN's Monday Night Football Gets Makeover With Remodeled Truck, Refreshed Imaging Arsenal, New Star-Powered Booth

12/09/2022

NFL Kickoff 2022: ESPN's Monday Night Football Gets Makeover With Remodeled Truck, Refreshed Imaging Arsenal, New Star-Powered Booth NEP's EN1, MNF's production truck since 2013, gets an IP upgrade By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital

Monday, September 12, 2022 - 3:39 pm

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

Week 1 of the NFL season comes to a close tonight, and a weekend full of compelling storylines is capped by perhaps the most intriguing broadcast of the season.

ESPN's Monday Night Football is back, opening its schedule with the captivating return of quarterback Russell Wilson to Seattle in his first game under center for the Denver Broncos. On top of that, the storied Monday Night Football brand ushers in an exciting new era as the longtime announce team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman make their much anticipated ESPN debut.

For Monday Night Football, ESPN upgraded its EN1 production truck and upgraded its camera arsenal to some of the latest imaging solutions from Sony and Canon.

There's a little bit of something for everyone in this production tonight - even for those keen on what happens behind the scenes.

Amid the highly publicized changes that occurred during the MNF offseason, ESPN also made significant investments in its production and operations facilities, working with partner NEP Group to dramatically remodel the property's primary mobile unit, EN1.

The home for ESPN's NFL coverage since 2013, EN1 is now essentially a new truck, with a backbone infrastructure that includes a new Lawo router and NEP's Total Facility Control (TFC) proprietary broadcast controller and network-orchestration tool. It brings a truck that was entirely SDI into a hybrid ST 2110 IP environment.

Who doesn't love walking into a brand-new kitchen in a house you've lived in for a decade? says Jimmy Platt, lead director, Monday Night Football, ESPN. That's the most important factor for me and the rest of the team. For the engineers, the space is a second home for five months of their lives, three days a week. To walk into the same home you've been walking into for several years is refreshing, and to see the same familiar faces that make the trucks work every week is awesome. Then to have all brand-new appliances, the latest and greatest on the market right now, is just remarkable.

All new is the replay network (which has been bumped up to EVS XT-VIA servers and LSM-VIA remotes), the entire routing system, and the multiviewer network through a Cisco spine with Lawo processing. NEP says the four-unit EN1 was refreshed in a seven-week sprint that got it ready for a rehearsal the MNF crew ran during a preseason game in Seattle last month.

[EN1] truly was the biggest, best truck that you could build [in 2013], says Michael Pean, director, sales, NEP Group, but ESPN was at the point where they had filled it up. If they added anything, they had to take something away. Everything was accounted for. We worked together to grow it together. We came up with a hybrid 2110 with a decent amount of SDI still, because we did not have time to rebuild an entire truck.

The upgrades to EN1 brought with it a full update of ESPN's replay network for Monday Night Football. New to the show are EVS XT-VIA servers and LSM-VIA controllers.

According to Dan Turk, VP/chief engineer, NEP Group, the new and improved EN1 and its IP benefits offer the flexibility that the Monday Night Football crew didn't have last season. Everything can be distributed among the multiple trucks through a protected SMPTE ST 2110 network and even reserves some space for five operator stations with custom GUIs so that rooms can route their own multiviewers, rollers, tallies, etc.

The new infrastructure also enables ESPN to bring aboard a whole new lineup of acquisition tools: a fleet of Sony 5500's, two Sony F5500's, and a collection of new Canon lenses, including some 122 8.2 glass.

The best part about [the new lenses] is, you get more of a distance throw from a hard camera, Platt explains. For example, at a high end zone [position] that's really far away, you can get tighter shots off of the camera than you've ever been able to get. That's remarkable.

But the thing I like about them that probably gets overlooked, he continues, is that the wide side of the lens is much wider than we're used to. It doesn't sound like much when you go from an 8.9 to 8.2, but, with just that little bit wider shot off a game camera or a high-end-zone [camera] in big moments when the crowd is just going bananas, you can envelop it in one camera shot. That's wider than you're used to, and that's really tremendous.

ESPN's Monday Night Football trucks parked outside of Lumen Field for the season opener between the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks.

Platt is particularly excited about tools that allow his crew to add more cinema-style imagery. To do that, ESPN has put Sony F5500's as handhelds on each sideline, added a higher-resolution camera in the booth for shots of Buck and Aikman, and, where permissible, will use live or prepackaged drone footage. The crew has also brought back the Sony HDC-4800 full-sensor camera at the top station of the dual sideline cart, as well as the on-field RF rig of a Sony FX9 with a prime lens on an ARRI Trinity stabilizer.

We have quite an array of camera types and lens pairings to tell the story visually in ways I think will be more compelling, says Platt, who works at the front bench alongside producer Phil Dean. It may not be super noticeable by the audience, but I think they'll feel something a little bit differently without knowing it.

If you [asked] the great cinematographers in Hollywood, Platt continues, they would tell you that what they pride themselves on in their work is that [t
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2022/09/12/nfl-kickoff-2022-espns-monday-n...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

10/06/2026

Microphone Maker Audix Adds Eric Reese as VP

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/06/2026

Kiswe Expands Partnership With ONE Championship To LaunchGlobal Subscription Platform

Kiswe announces an expanded long-term partnership with ONE Championship (ONE), t...

09/06/2026

SiriusXM to Carry All 104 FIFA World Cup 2026 Matches via FOX Sports Commentary

SiriusXM will broadcast FOX Sports' English-language commentary for all 104 FIFA World Cup 2026 matches from June 11 through July 19, available to subscribe...

09/06/2026

EVS Broadcast Equipment Rebrands as EVS

EVS has announced it is changing its corporate name from EVS Broadcast Equipment to EVS, reflecting the company's expanded portfolio beyond broadcast equipm...

09/06/2026

FOX and NFL Announce Multi-Year Agreement for NFL Coverage in Mexico Starting in 2026

Fox Corporation and the NFL have announced a multi-year agreement to bring NFL c...

09/06/2026

FOX Sports and ReachTV to Carry All 104 FIFA World Cup 2026 Matches Across U.S. Airports

FOX Sports and ReachTV, an airport media network, have announced an agreement to...

09/06/2026

Cosm Atlanta Opens with Private Preview, Public Opening Set for June 10

Cosm Atlanta, a 70,000-square-foot, three-level immersive entertainment venue located within Centennial Yards adjacent to State Farm Arena and Mercedes-Benz Sta...

09/06/2026

NESN Wins Five New England Emmy Awards

NESN captured five awards at the 2026 Boston/New England Emmy Awards, including four program honors and one individual award. These awards reflect the passion...

09/06/2026

Ateme Referenced by Apple at WWDC26 for Apple Immersive Video Workflow Support

Ateme has announced that its support for Apple Immersive Video workflows was referenced by Apple during its 2026 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC26). Atem...

09/06/2026

Axel Springer Deploys Bitmovin Player Web X for WELT Audio News Experience

Bitmovin has announced that Axel Springer SE has deployed Player Web X, Bitmovin's web video player, to power audio readouts of news articles and an audio-o...

09/06/2026

Grass Valley and Lawo Announce Technology Collaboration on AMPP and HOME Integration

Grass Valley and Lawo have announced a technology collaboration to validate orch...

09/06/2026

LiveU Deploys Remote VAR for Oceania Football Confederation, First in Pacific Islands

LiveU has announced a deployment with the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) t...

09/06/2026

Globecast Launches Content Exchange Platform Powered by Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

Globecast has announced the launch of its Content Exchange platform, powered by ...

09/06/2026

OT7 Championship Weekend to Air on NBC and Peacock for First Time

NBC Sports will present live coverage of Overtime's OT7 football league Championship Weekend from Sullivan Field at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angel...

09/06/2026

UFC Freedom 250: Inside the One-in-a-Lifetime Production Behind the White House Fight Card

We're in three different locations, three different production teams. Coveri...

09/06/2026

Murray States Brandon Banks on Firing Up Racers Basketball Fans Through Creative Video

The intro video for Men's Basketball won Outstanding In-Venue Video in the C...

09/06/2026

SVG Sit-Down, Part 2: FIFA's Oscar Sanchez, HBS's Paul King Dive Deep Into IBC Operations, Commentary, and Ref Cam

Today is match day minus two for FIFA and HBS. On Thursday, there will be two ma...

09/06/2026

Designing the Modern Scorebug: How Broadcast Graphics Teams Are Rethinking the Most Important Element On Screen

Since their debut, the clock-and-score graphic has drawn the affinity and ire of...

09/06/2026

Watch LE SSERAFIM's PURE FLOWERS LIVE Performance Videos and Fan Q&A, Only on Spotify

Last month, Spotify hosted PURE FLOWERS LIVE, a special event celebrating the re...

09/06/2026

Watch RADAR UK Artist Skye Newman Perform Live in London for Her SE9' Album Launch

Last month, RADAR U.K. artist Skye Newman took the stage in East London for a sp...

09/06/2026

Announcement from Wayne Jones Audio

Company to cease operating on 30 June 2026 Australian loudspeaker and amplifier manufacturer Wayne Jones Audio have announced that after much consideration,...

09/06/2026

bigBASS from fedDSP

Increases low-end weight and character The latest plug-in release from Sheffield-based fedDSP aims to offer an all-in-one solution for users in search of mo...

09/06/2026

Fender Studio Pro 8.1 arrives

Introduces AI Studio Assistant, Moises Studio integration & more Fender Studio have just announced the launch a significant update that brings an array of n...

09/06/2026

Call for Sediba Scriptwriting Training Programme Bloemfontein, Free State

The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is a statutory body mandated to spearhead the equitable growth and development of the South African film and video...

09/06/2026

BBC Casts Edward Bluemel As Poirot In Hercule,' As BritBox Boards Agatha Christie Remake In U.S.

The BBC has found its Hercule Poirot. After Deadline revealed last month that t...

09/06/2026

Nielsen launches Four-Screen Ad Deduplication measurement on YouTube campaigns in Italy

Media buyers and sellers can now compare YouTube reach from computer, mobile, an...

09/06/2026

Andrew Beaudet Joins Brompton as Head of Sales, Americas

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/06/2026

Mediaset Italia Deploys Mediagenix Platform To Modernize Scheduling

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/06/2026

Mediaset Italia Modernizes Content Supply Chain and Chann...

A project aimed at modernizing scheduling operations across Mediaset's channel portfolio Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitab...

09/06/2026

ACT Entertainment Debuts tvONE 4RU CALICO PRO at InfoComm...

tvONE, an ACT Entertainment brand, debuts its most powerful video processor ever built: the 4RU CALICO PRO (C7-PRO-4200), at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N6813). Engine...

09/06/2026

Composer and Conductor Eric Whitacre to Receive Honorary Doctorate at Berklee Valencia's 2026 Commencement

Composer and Conductor Eric Whitacre to Receive Honorary Doctorate at Berklee Va...

09/06/2026

Comcast Advertising Adds Purchasing Data from Affinity Solutions

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/06/2026

Midwich to Distribute Miri Technologies in North America

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/06/2026

Nielsen: North American Soccer Fans Jump to More Than 136 Million

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/06/2026

Grass Valley and Lawo Collaborate to Advance Open Dynamic...

Technology collaboration to validate AMPP and Lawo HOME orchestration integration, showcasing Dynamic Media Facility principles in practice. Grass Valley and ...

09/06/2026

Bitmovin Player Web X Powers Axel Springer New Audio News...

Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming solutions, today announced that Axel Springer SE, international media and technology company, has deployed Playe...

09/06/2026

LiveU Delivers First Remote VAR Deployment Across the Pac...

LiveU, the global leader in live IP-video solutions, today announced a landmark deployment with the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) that has brought Video ...

09/06/2026

Sam Craig Joins Grass Valley as VP, Global Pre-Sales

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/06/2026

Arkansas TV Will Continue to Air PBS Programming

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/06/2026

Glensound to Show DARK22M Network Audio Interface at InfoComm 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/06/2026

EVS Rebrands, Trims Its Name

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/06/2026

FCC Announces Tentative Agenda for June 25 Open Meeting

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/06/2026

Two Alumni Win Tony Awards

Two Alumni Win Tony Awards Mike Morris and Cedric Leiba Jr. won awards for Best Orchestrations and Best Play, respectively. June 8, 2026 By Tori Donahue ...

09/06/2026

NVIDIA Confidential Computing to Help Expand Apple's Private Cloud Compute

NVIDIA GPUs with Confidential Computing are now used for confidential inference in Apple's Private Cloud Compute (PCC), as it expands beyond Apple's dat...

09/06/2026

X-Rite Pantone Launches Offset360 to Modernize Color Control Across Existing Presses

X-Rite Pantone Launches Offset360 to Modernize Color Control Across Existing Pre...

09/06/2026

VEON Appoints Serkan Ozturk as Chief of Staff & Strategy Officer

09 Jun 2026 VEON Appoints Serkan Ozturk as Chief of Staff & Strategy Officer Dubai and New York, June 9, 2026 - VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON), a global digital oper...

09/06/2026

Katie Price: Nothing to Hide, a candid and unfiltered account of three decades in the spotlight, coming to Sky and NOW on 8 July

Tuesday 9 June 2026 Katie Price: Nothing to Hide, a candid and unfiltered accou...