SVG Sit-Down: BMG's Todd Mason and Sean Wybourn on the Shift to Centralized Technology and Decentralized Staffing

SVG Sit-Down: BMG's Todd Mason and Sean Wybourn on the Shift to Centralized Technology and Decentralized Staffing By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor

Tuesday, December 20, 2022 - 6:39 am

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Over the past decade, REMI/remote-production workflows have dramatically transformed the industry and this shift was only accelerated by the pandemic. In the case of Broadcast Management Group (BMG), the company is leveraging its proprietary and decentralized workflow to help deal with the shortage of production talent many in the industry are facing.

As a full-service media production company, BMG serves a variety of roles for its customers in live production, systems integration, broadcast consulting, production staffing, creative development, and event management. In recent years, BMG has continued to grow its portfolio with the launch a REMI Broadcast Hub in Las Vegas and several REMI mobile units, as well as a growing role in the sports-packaging sector.

SVG sate down with BMG CEO Todd Mason and SVP of Engineering Sean Wybourn to discuss the company's growing sports-production packaging business, its expanded creative services division, the continued expansion of its REMI offerings, it Broadcast Hub facility in Las Vegas, the impact of centralized technology and decentralized staffing, and what's ahead in 2023 for both BMG and the industry at large.

BMG has become a significant packager of sports. How has this area grown in the last year?

Mason: This was a natural expansion area for us. For years, BMG has been producing major news events and entertainment shows. As we entered the sports world a couple of years ago, becoming a packager was the next logical step. In the last year, we hired Graham Taylor as our executive producer leading our full-time staff and contractor sports creative team. We had successfully worked with Graham on several events before bringing him on full-time. He is not only a talented producer and decisive leader, but he also embraced the decentralized workflow. Graham has been great working with our above-the-line team of staff and contractors, helping them excel in working remotely. He has also been helpful to our technical team, providing feedback as we continue to refine supporting the remote workforce. Our packaging team produces REMI events as well as on-location events.

How does BMG plan to expand creative services in the coming year?

Mason: We will continue to expand our full-time creative team and network of above-line talent globally. In addition to packaging, BMG will develop original sports programming, studio shows, pregame shows and post-game shows. Our goal is to be a natural extension of our clients, working closely with them to meet and exceed their goals. There are advantages of a smaller organization working with large networks. We can execute more quickly and cost-effectively than sometimes they can, makes for a great partnership.

How has BMG expanded its services with the growth of REMI?

Mason: It has been a very busy year of an expanding client base, expanding our full-time staff and an increase in the volume of work. To meet this demand, in the last year, we have doubled the capacity of our Broadcast Operations Center, which we opened in January of 2021. We have also expanded our mobile fleet with plans to add additional REMI mobile units in 2023. BMG has also created some partnerships with other REMI truck providers to augment our fleet. As we expanded our facilities, we laid the groundwork for the next phase of expansion so that we could respond quickly to client demands. BMG has also opened what we call a spoke facility at our New York, Times Square location. A spoke facility consists of the front-end surfaces of a control room connecting to our Broadcast Operations Center. For example, in NYC, we have an audio mix room, multiple replay systems, director, producer, playback, graphics, virtual set, prompting, and master control workstations. The spoke facilities allow us to tap into talent in the spoke market as well as have a place in that market that clients can come to as if they are in the control room that is 3,000 miles away. We also have small studios in Manhattan and Las Vegas that can be used for commentators using our virtual set system.

Wybourn: We have developed technology to make the spoke control rooms the same as traditional ones. The users expect a seamless interaction with control surfaces, and that's what they get. We have prioritized reliability and redundancy with load balancing and automatic failover at these sites.

What is the latest update on BMG's Broadcast Hub facility?

Mason: In addition to the expansion of our Broadcast Hub and Mobile Units, we have been constantly updating the robustness of our REMI workflow to accommodate the larger-scale events we are producing. This has required a significant investment in technology and staffing.

Wybourn: Since BMG is a systems integrator and a production company, this combination places BMG in a unique position to partner with manufacturers in the development of technology that supports REMI and our decentralized production teams. We can see where the market is going and start working with vendors ahead of product release to perfect what we and the industry need. One of the significant things that impacted REMI in the past was audio and video delay. We knew that for us to be successful, we had to reduce this. For the past few years, have been stressing the importance of this on vendors and we are slowly getting to near zero delay.

How has the growth of centralized technology and decentralized staffing impacted BMG's business?

Mason: The demand for sports programming is outpacing the availability of production talent, which has become a significant challenge. Our decentralized w

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2022/12/20/svg-sit-down-bmgs-todd-mason-an...
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