EURO 2020: At Netherlands-based IBC, ESPN Remains Nimble at Ever-Changing Tournament With ESPN's studio coverage in Bristol, crews work hard on match support overseas By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Monday, June 14, 2021 - 4:12 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship was always going to be a challenge.
With much of ESPN's production efforts housed in Bristol, an ESPN contingent, headed by Senior Remote Operations Specialist Claude Phipps (back right), is providing critical support at the Euro 2020 IBC at the Expo Center in Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands. (Photo: ESPN)
Long before COVID-19 ravaged the globe and postponed the world's largest soccer tournament this side of the World Cup, the 2020 edition of the EUROs were primed to be the most ambitious in its 60+-year history.
For the first time, there wouldn't be a single host city. Instead, there would be 11 stadiums in 11 host cities ranging from Seville, Spain, to Baku, Azerbaijan.
In 2014, UEFA decided to make the 2020 edition of the Euros a transcontinental affair. Since then, Brussels fell out of the running due to an inability to complete its primary stadium, the event was postponed a full 12 months by the pandemic, and numerous host cities have been shuffled because of continued COVID-related spikes and restrictions.
Long story short, an event for which broadcasters seemed to have sufficient time to plan for has taken a lengthy list of twist and turns. Now, four days into the tournament, ESPN (the U.S. broadcast-rights holder) is finding its footing in delivering the month-long, 51-match mega event, deploying a strong studio presence at its home campus in Bristol, CT; limited onsite crews at the IBC in the Expo Center in Haarlemmermeer (just outside Amsterdam); and additional operational spaces in London.
As a company, says John La Chance, director, remote operations, Euros campaign, ESPN, we've been set up for major live remote productions since the onsite of the pandemic in order to provide highly safe work environments. Originally, we had a more significant number of U.S.-based personnel projected to work out of the IBC; it was the smart and sensible decision by our collective team to establish less of a travel commitment and keep many key positions stateside.
Seasoned ESPN Crew Fills Up Netherlands IBC At the IBC, the heart of the tournament's broadcast activities for UEFA's host match broadcaster and the numerous domestic rightholders across the globe, ESPN is hosting its central distribution point for all audio, video, and data signals transmitted from each of the match venues to Bristol.
For inbound signals, ESPN is receiving 1080p50 SDR sources from each stadium, including at least 36 camera feeds: eight in native UHD HDR, eight super-slow-motion (running 30 fps), two high-speed cameras (running at 600 fps), an aerial cable cam, two in-goal POVs, robotic hotheads behind each goal, two pole cams, two Steadicams, and five handhelds.
UEFA is hosting the Euro 2020 IBC at The Expo Center in Haarlemmermeer, just outside Amsterdam. (Photo: ESPN)
It's a massive amount of connectivity to ingest, service, then convert to our appropriate format standards prior to safely migrating all those signals back to Bristol for final integration into ESPN's telecast line-up via dedicated/redundant MPEG4 circuits, says La Chance.
ESPN Senior Remote Operations Specialist Claude Phipps is among the leadership team at the IBC for ESPN. A veteran of the network's global soccer operations, he is jokingly described by ESPN VP, Production, Amy Rosenfeld as the mayor of the IBC. He is executing much of the network's complex remote-operations plan and serves as a key liaison between ESPN and UEFA as well as with numerous other rightsholders from across the globe.
Also on hand for ESPN in Netherlands are Remote Operations Specialist Brian Ristine; Associate Director, Remote Operations, Henry Rousseau; Senior Remote Traffic Representative Brian Sanders; Audio and Communications Technician Leonard Fisher; and IT Lead Alex Ward. The ESPN IBC team is also supported by Gravity Media production and management operations reps Christie Dockman and Ester van Huystee.
The Hive' Offers Huge Media-Management Upgrade A major feature of UEFA's IBC operations this year includes what the organization is calling The Hive. A massive EVS-based server system and media-asset-management system, The Hive is a repository of thousands of hours of content for this year's edition of the Euros, as well as an archive of the event's history accessible remotely by all rightsholders.
Says Ristine, To facilitate access and availability to The Hive content (as well as match content gathered via EVS XT servers at the IBC), we have built a robust content-management and file-transfer workflow to transcode content into the proper format and deliver to Bristol quickly.
He adds that the network has producers in Bristol using remote EVS IP Directors to browse clips and initiate the transfer. It essentially automates ESPN's deployment of the system at the IBC.
The server-based media-asset-system opportunities for this tournament have grown and grown, says La Chance. We've built a rather robust remote file-transfer platform to allow ample choice for the talented production team back in Bristol to select from.
The collective team in country will be extremely busy, overseeing off-tube commentary facilities in London's IMG Studios in addition to the expected 2,000 hours of packaged content to be produced through the IBC. Total production - all feeds, additional programming, all raw material - is expected to exceed 3,500 hours.
Never Enough Safety Nets In addition to all the support at the IBC and in Bristol, ESPN has set up additi
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
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...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
A poisoned spy, a secret war, and a small English city contaminated by a deadly chemical weapon. Available on Sky Documentaries from 4 AugustWednesday 22 July 2...
22/07/2026
Audio at Parity: Comscore Launches Transcript-Level Targeting and Measurement wi...
22/07/2026
Arvato Systems and Lobster Enter into a Partnership and Combine the Integration Platform and Managed Services
Flexible integration solutions for cloud, hybrid...
22/07/2026
RT REPORTS NET SURPLUS OF 22.5 MILLION IN 2025...
22/07/2026
In the Opinion of the Censor airs Monday 27 July at 9.35pm on RT One and RT Player
In the Opinion of the Censor looks at how films for theatrical release wer...
22/07/2026
Before a healthcare robot can be useful in the real world, it has to learn how the physical world pushes back. Anatomy varies. Instruments bend, press, slip and...
21/07/2026
New research involving a cross-section of Mongolias independent media landscape finds enthusiasm for AI as a tool to improve efficiency, sustainability and resi...
21/07/2026
With winners Spain having already paraded the World Cup trophy through Madrid in front of millions of fans and the dust now settling on an epic tournament of th...
21/07/2026
In a time of disarray in regional sports broadcasting, the league will provide c...
EURO 2020: At Netherlands-based IBC, ESPN Remains Nimble at Ever-Changing Tournament With ESPN's studio coverage in Bristol, crews work hard on match support overseas By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
