Live From MLB All-Star 2024: ESPN Adjusts Storytelling Approach To Meet New Rules at Home Run Derby ESPN's Phil Orlins: We thought the rules changes were absolutely necessary' By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Monday, July 15, 2024 - 2:42 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
ESPN's midsummer tradition of broadcasting the Major League Baseball Home Run Derby (8 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN2) has a unique challenge this year: telling the story of an event that is introducing a new format and scoring system.
Over the past few years, the pacing has grown so fast that, for many viewers, the event became difficult to follow. Multiple home-run balls in the air and the inability to truly appreciate each long ball led ESPN and the league to test out a new approach.
The 2024 MLB Home Run Derby takes place at Globe Life Field in Arlington, TX.
For a brief primer on the format changes for this year's Home Run Derby, let's start at the top. In the first round, instead of the previous head-to-head bracket format, the four players with the most home runs will advance to the semifinals, where the top four will be seeded head-to-head knockout-style. The final round will consist of just 27 pitches.
MLB and ESPN collaborated on the rule changes to reduce the event's frantic nature of the past few years and to help make the action easier to follow on TV. Batters will be limited to three minutes and a maximum of 40 pitches in the first two rounds, which will move things along and keep multiple home-run balls from landing simultaneously, which led to the confusion for viewers.
We thought the rules changes were absolutely necessary, says ESPN VP, Production, Phil Orlins. It's still really fast. I mean, 40 pitches in three minutes is fast, but it's not out of control. I think we'll be able to talk about it and document each home run, each pitch, each swing. It still requires a split screen to be able to do that, and there's still going to be two balls in the air, but it had gotten so fast that there were not only two balls in the air but two balls landing at the same time. Which, even in the two-box [format], is tough to follow. It's hard to shoot the batter and shoot another box for the ball landing and have two balls landing in different places at the same time.
Karl Ravech returns as the voice of the Derby with analysts Eduardo P rez and Todd Frazier. Frazier, the 2015 Home Run Derby Champion, has called Little League World Series games for ESPN and debuts as Home Run Derby analyst.
On the production side are a few changes to the on-screen graphical presentation and a repositioning of some cameras inside Globe Life Field. ESPN is bringing 4DREPLAY technology to this year's Derby, positioning the multicamera system directly behind home plate, only 16 ft. or so from the batter. It's the closest ESPN has ever been able to get to the plate in a baseball scenario. The half-moon-shaped 4DREPLAY camera ring features 16 cameras.
It has had good successes for us, but it has its best successes when it works in close proximity, says Orlins, noting successful implementations of the tech on UFC fights and at the Little League World Series. In the latter, ESPN was able to position the cameras in the front row behind home plate, about 30 ft. from home. Being about to get even closer here for the Home Run Derby is an exciting prospect: That's just game-changing - getting down there, spinning, and getting great shots.
Here's a 4DREPLAY clip from the MLB Korea Series at the start of this baseball season:
--
Other speciality cameras are deployed as well. The two-point cabled DEFY DactylCam is installed at Globe Life Field. ESPN's internal drone group is here but able to fly only outside the roofed stadium.
In addition, Orlins notes, the production team is moving the manned high-home positions higher in the ballpark and adding some down-the-line shots to better diversify the images that producer Scott Matthews and director Doug Holmes can take.
It's a challenge to follow the ball [in the Home Run Derby], says Orlins. We've gone with two or three high-homes side-by-side this year. We decided to go with equally high positions down-the-line to make the cuts from one [ball in the air] to the other - that happens fairly quickly - not look as jarring. Having down-the-line is a little change so the shots don't look so identical.
Here awaiting implementation at the 2024 MLB Home Run Deby, the 16-camera 4DREPLAY system will be deployed behind home plate.
It's clearly a year of thoughtful experimentation and tinkering for the operations team: Remote Operations Manager Paul Horrell, Remote Operations Specialist Kevin Cleary, and Project Manager Carla Ackels. Additionally, Director of Production Jim Thomas plays a key role in the show.
Returning this year to the broadcaster's Home Run Derby coverage is the Statcast edition airing on ESPN2 alongside the traditional broadcast. It features more graphics and a stats-heavy presentation with hosts Kevin Brown, Jessica Mendoza, and Mike Petriello. The Statcast alternative broadcast is overseen by producer Andy Jacobson and director Mike Griffin. ESPN's Will Gairing, Joe Durante, and Tyler Churchill play key roles in data integration on both broadcasts. Meanwhile, Major League Baseball is also heavily involved in the alternative feed, with assistance from MLB SVP, Broadcasting, Ryan Zander; VP, Technical Operations and Broadcasting, Mark Ellinson; Senior Technical Manager Kyle Burke; and Product Manager Simon Chattington.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program
Brie Clayton July 3, 2026
0 Comments
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and Blackmagi...
04/07/2026
iZotope Joins Boris FX
Boris Yamnitsky July 3, 2026
0 Comments
iZotope, the team behind RX and Ozone, is joining Boris FX. A letter from founder Boris...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Death Star
Andy Marken July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate i...
03/07/2026
Berklee's New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What's...
03/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance Two Gates Foundation grants will expand wastewater surveillance and AI-driven dis...
03/07/2026
Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration Using smell-sensing neurons and ad...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
02/07/2026
BLAST, a competitive entertainment company focused on esports, has announced more than $133 million in revenue for 2025, representing more than 40% year-over-ye...
02/07/2026
Riedel Communications has announced official SKAARHOJ panel support for SimplyLive production workflows, enabled through the SimplyLive 2.1 release. The integra...
02/07/2026
The Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic has deployed LiveU video-over-bond...
02/07/2026
Gravity Media USA has announced the appointment of Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development, effective July 1, 2026. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Bosto...
02/07/2026
TwelveLabs, a video intelligence company, has announced $100 million in Series B funding co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with participation from Amazon, Radic...
02/07/2026
The Pro Padel League (PPL) has announced a broadcast partnership with USA Sports that will air five PPL championship matches on CNBC during the 2026 season, the...
02/07/2026
LiveLike, a digital fan engagement platform, has announced eight confirmed FIFA ...
02/07/2026
Cobalt Digital has received Future's Best of Show Award, presented by AV Technology at InfoComm 2026, for its blueCORE family of standalone signal processor...
02/07/2026
Synamedia has announced the appointment of Dr. Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transition...
02/07/2026
The Esports Foundation (EF) and Sony Group Corporation have announced an expanded collaboration for the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC), taking place in Paris, Fra...
02/07/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. ( Z') has announced exclusive broadcast and digital rights for the Bundesliga in India for five years, beginning with the...
02/07/2026
An effort uniting News, Sports, Local, and Telemundo, the 50+-camera live produc...
02/07/2026
Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Ben Wang appe...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Following the successful launch of its inaugural APAC Mentoring Programme last month, the Rise AV APAC Regional Council will bring the conversation around mento...
02/07/2026
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out
Brie Clayton July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Highly mobile camera supports tense and de...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, medi...
02/07/2026
Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversar...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions GmbH, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is acquiring BFE Studio und Medien...
02/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has extended the ingest facility at leading Brazilian sports company LiveMode, work...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV
Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...
02/07/2026
Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia backs audience-led filmmaking with new insight-driven initiativ...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia refines guidelines for Narrative Content Development and Docume...
Live From MLB All-Star 2024: ESPN Adjusts Storytelling Approach To Meet New Rules at Home Run Derby ESPN's Phil Orlins: We thought the rules changes were absolutely necessary' By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
