ESPN Deploys Globe-Spanning REMI Production To Serve Australian Open to Viewers Worldwide Operation comprises staff in Melbourne, cloud editing in London, REMI team in Bristol By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Monday, January 13, 2025 - 2:13 pm
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ESPN's Australian Open production shifted into high gear on Saturday, and the effort truly spans the globe, with staff onsite in Melbourne, a cloud-based edit in London, and a large REMI team in Bristol, CT, working on both the domestic and ESPN International effort (which also includes personnel operating in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico).
It has been nice to work our way back from the pandemic and have a presence in Melbourne, says Larry Wilson, senior manager, remote operations, ESPN, but there are efficiencies in doing it this way as we have found a balance. The REMI team has been incredibly supportive and creative in being able to produce such high-quality content for us over the years.
For the ESPN REMI team, the event stands alone on the yearly calendar. It's the biggest yearly production that requires a new sleep schedule: on-air days can run from 9 p.m. ET to 9 a.m. or even 10 a.m.
ESPN's Australian Open domestic control room in Bristol, CT.
The odd hours also make the event unique for the REMI teams not working in Melbourne. Notes Scott Chamberland, supervisor, REMI operations, ESPN, The individuals crewed in Bristol flip their life schedule for a month to make this project happen.
Mike McQuade, EVP, sports production, ESPN, says the folks on the team are thrilled to be in Melbourne to showcase world-class tennis to fans around the globe and the vibrant culture Down Under. Our incredibly talented team is uniquely qualified to navigate the challenges that come with creating and distributing content across a multitude of platforms and countries - some 10,000 miles apart - over nearly three weeks.
During those three weeks, the ESPN team in Bristol works out of Production Control Room D70, where all the domestic coverage is produced before the signals head to master control. Additional Bristol facilities include a production-support space, voiceover booth for International, and two tape rooms equipped with Evertz DreamCatchers. The tape rooms record all feeds coming in from Melbourne and are networked for content sharing.
Right now, McQuade adds, we're staffing 24 techs just from the REMI group alone daily, and they support our ESPN domestic and international footprint. As the tournament plays on, we will start getting clean camera feeds, which are integrated into the production. As the tournament play moves into the second week, our crews will shrink.
According to Wilson, 41 outbound transmission paths from Melbourne include 16 court feeds, press conferences, and other behind-the-scenes content. Each path runs through frame converters to change the frame rate from 50p to 59.94. Three of those 41 feeds, he explains, are solely for the ESPN International side, which can take whatever content they want for their purposes and audiences.
New this year is the use of the cloud for editing. Postproduction company CMSI provides infrastructure supporting a remote edit that is based in the UK and cloud-connected to feature producers in Chicago and North Carolina. The producers have their own interface to view the cloud-based work, Wilson explains. All the editing is happening in the cloud, allowing the producers to log in and watch the progress and check things out before it is sent to Bristol for integration.
An International Effort London isn't the only international location for Australian Open operations. ESPN International staffers in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Canada work to serve their viewers. According to Chris Calcagno, coordinating producer II, ESPN International/ESPN Deportes, two ESPN International control rooms in Buenos Aires are connected to Bristol. In a smaller control room in Bristol, all the feeds are coordinated before being output to the various platforms in Argentina, Brazil, and Canada.
In ESPN's Australian Open international control room: (from left) ESPN International/ESPN Deportes Producer Amy McTigue, Coordinating Producer II Christian Calcagno, Operator Austin Smith
We have a big facility in Buenos Aires, he says, where we put together the Spanish feeds for two simultaneous networks for the first eight days of the tournament. Many of the talent are based in Buenos Aires, but we also have talent in Bristol and Mexico as well as a reporter at the Open, who gets interviews. But everything gets incorporated in Buenos Aires for the Spanish-language side of things.
ESPN Brazil, meanwhile, has two control rooms in operation during the first eight days and has a reporter in Melbourne for its Portuguese broadcast. A TSN control room creates a channel for Canadian viewers.
ESPN International has a studio at the Australian Open so we can do interviews, says Calcagno, adding, It is also connected to Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, and Toronto.
Tennis Australia will be pushing innovation for the next two weeks, and the ESPN team around the globe is eager not only to deliver it to viewers but to be part of the official start of the 2025 tennis-major season.
The people who participate on this love tennis and love being part of this team, says Chamberland. This is my fifth year. Now I'm in a management role, so it's cool to see it from a different perspective. But we have the buy-in from everybody who participates, and that makes the end product that much better.
