Live From MLB All-Star: FOX Sports' Production Is Bigger Than Ever in Steamy Atlanta With UmpCam, FlyCam, Drones, and More

Live From MLB All-Star: FOX Sports' Production Is Bigger Than Ever in Steamy Atlanta With UmpCam, FlyCam, Drones, and More Addition of on-site entertainment show adds new dimension to FOXs Ops By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.

Tuesday, July 15, 2025 - 3:32 pm

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FOX has once again rolled out an on-field set for studio programming on FS1 and pre/post-game shows.

Between the pageantry, musical acts, and playful atmosphere each year at the Mid-Summer Classic, the MLB All-Star Game can often seem like a game' in name only. Throw in the fact that it's an exhibition game and MLB's midseason tentpole presents the perfect breeding ground for Fox Sports to roll out the latest in technological innovation.

The All-Star game is always interesting because it's really a show and a celebration of baseball rather than a proper game, says Mike Davies, SVP, Technical and Field Operations, FOX Sports. And since it's an exhibition, it allows us to try new technologies that can potentially enhance the coolest aspects of the game of baseball. That means we can talk to the players more during the game and we can show things you wouldn't normally see.

Topping the laundry list of cutting-edge production tools being deployed tonight in Atlanta: A mix of UmpCam and MindFly bodycams on all four umpires in the infield, an extended FlyCam cabled system running down the right field line, two AR-enabled drones in the air, and a whopping 10 player mic kits - the most ever available at an All-Star Game.

In addition, Fox is deploying a sub-switcher in the cloud via Grass Valley AMPP to help corral the litany of sources fed into the main switcher, testing an EVS replay instance in the cloud, supporting the league on the new Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System system, and airing a recreation of Hank Aaron's iconic record-breaking home run. And, as has become common on FOX's biggest shows, Cosm is also on-site with five of its own immersive camera systems producing a Shared Reality experience for its venues in L.A. and Dallas.

FOX Sports ops/technical leads (from left): Sid, Mike Davies, Francisco Contreras, Bard Cheney, and Tom Lynch

On the Ground in ATL: FOX's Presence Bigger Than Ever Despite Small Compound Footprint Due to Truist Park's small broadcast compound footprint, FOX, ESPN, and MLB Network have spread their facilities throughout The Battery surrounding area. Fox and MLB Network are sharing tight quarters in the traditional compound with Fox rolling out Game Creek Video's Encore A, B, and C units; Prime Office trailer (part of GCV's Prime One fleet), and B8, along with an executive trailer from Event Ready and several 8 10 pods to house the features and digital teams and storage space. CP Communications is also on hand with their own mobile unit and - as usual - is playing a major role in the All-Star opertion, handling all RF coordination/transmission and managing a complex comms systems with more than 150 belt packs running on a private wireless network.

Game Creek Video's Encore A, B, and C units are among the facilities on-site in Atlanta for FOX Sports.

One of the biggest things I'm proud of this year is the communication between the production and technical teams, as well as with the other networks here, says lead technical producer Tom Lynch. Within Fox, we speak daily with the production team to make sure we are all on the same page. It's been a massive effort and I don't remember putting this much effort into a [single event] in quite a while, so to have that kind of relationship with production certainly makes things easier.

In a rarity at All-Star, FOX will produce the live broadcast of all musical performances at tonight's festivities, which include Atlanta's hip-hop icons Jermaine Dupri and Ludacris, country music all-stars Zac Brown Band and Kane Brown, and singer-songwriter Lauren Spencer Smith. Fox's front bench inside Encore will produce the line cut for these performances, while the entertainment team will handle the audio side. In order to bring it all together, FOX has provided significance audio and comms infrastructure, including 40+ beltpacks, five KP panels, and 12 monitoring locations, as well as an on-stage telescopic robo from NEP Specialty Capture and a RF MOVI camera from Faction/CP Communications.

I've been doing All-Star games since 2002 and I can't ever remember having this many people [on-site], says Francisco Contreras, director of field operations. We already have a very big show here, but since FOX is also technically and operationally supporting the entertainment portion of the event this year, it has added a lot of people, time, and equipment, as well as connectivity.

In fact, the MLB All-Star operation has gotten so vast that FOX has opted to institute a sub-switcher for the first time in an effort to alleviate the pressure on the main TD to juggle 70-plus video sources at once. And, continuing the theme of innovation here in Atlanta, Fox has deployed a virtualized K-Frame CS X cloud-based switcher using Grass Valley's AMPP platform. Rather than running the instance in the cloud, however, FOX is utilizing a 32 I/O GV Node server running on a 2-RU server in the truck with COTS hardware.

As these shows have grown - not only All-Star, but also Postseason - we've gotten to a point where we need a sub-switcher, says Brad Cheney, VP, Field Operations and Engineering. As we were looking to manage our resources her on-site, we wanted to add another actual physical switcher [surface] with the firepower of GV Kayenne but without having to add the physical infrastructure that would require. So we contacted Grass Valley and they came up with this solution.

Not only does it give us the abili

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