Inside the New Sportsnet Studios: IP-Based Toronto Facility Offers Plenty of Flexibility, Tech Firepower Hockey ops are now under the same roof as the rest of Sportsnet productions By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Thursday, November 4, 2021 - 3:25 pm
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Just in time for the puck to drop on the 2021 NHL season, Sportsnet opened its new state-of-the-art studio production facility in Toronto last month. Owned by Rogers Sports & Media, Sportsnet Studios brings the network's hockey operations under the same roof as the rest of its productions for the first time and represents one of the largest and most advanced end-to-end IP-based production facilities in North America. And, despite the scale and complexity of the project, Sportsnet was able to weather innumerable pandemic-fueled challenges to launch the studio on time.
I've been in this business for 25 years, and I've never seen as much change happen in such a short timeframe as it has during the pandemic, says Rob Corte, VP, Sportsnet and NHL Production, Rogers Communications. That made this [project] a major challenge. There were times when I was worried that we weren't going to finish [the studio on time] because it was such a short timeframe. But I'm really proud to say that nobody took shortcuts and everybody checked their ego at the door so we could get to the finish line and put out a superb product.
Linear and Digital: A Reimagined Approach' to the Traditional Hockey Broadcast Located at the Rogers Campus at 1 Mount Pleasant Rd. in Toronto, Sportsnet Studios features two new studio sets - Studio 31 (2,500 sq. ft.) and Studio 32 (3,900 sq. ft.) -and a pair of state-of-the-art control rooms. The facility houses all Sportsnet studio operations; previously, Sportsnet's NHL studio shows were produced out of the nearby CBC building, and all other programming was located at the Rogers Campus.
Having two different entities in two different locations really made collaboration and communication challenging, says Corte. We felt it was crucial to have everybody at the same location as we do now.
The new facility allows the NHL on Sportsnet team to create more interactive, immersive, and innovative content, with Sportsnet taking a reimagined approach to the traditional hockey broadcast, content production, and distribution.
We were looking to future-proof and bring in latest and greatest technology to set ourselves up for the future, says Corte, not only in live production and linear television but also for original content and all the other digital platforms that exist today. We wanted to have something that was scalable, expandable, and it was going to be able to service all our needs moving forward.
The versatile physical space provides Sportsnet's digital, social, and broadcast teams with a variety of options and looks for creating content. The sets were designed by Artform and built by Unit 11 and Tradesync. Combined, the two studios are equipped with 22 LED displays (delivering 1,200 sq. ft. of visible surface area), including a 50-ft. curved, floor-to-ceiling LED wall dubbed The Cove . In addition, Samsung IER-series LED displays will make up 13 dynamic video walls across the two studios.
With The Cove, we can [display] one huge image or hundreds of images, says Corte. We can [display] any kind of data or stats, betting information, player and puck tracking - all is real time. Sponsorship is a huge element as well. We have so much flexibility that you can customize whatever type of sponsor element our clients are looking for. With The Cove, whether it's a live shot of a rink or a completely animated build, we can do it all.
Sportsnet Studios is also outfitted with AR and virtual-set capabilities, adjustable main studio desks equipped with end-to-end LED graphics displays, 250 energy-efficient LED broadcast lighting fixtures, and 13 studio cameras.
We have ultimate flexibility in what we can do now and ultimate flexibility in the number of looks we can present to our viewers, notes Corte. We have monitors that can be used for almost anything, sit-down and stand-up areas that can be used interchangeably. All our desks are moveable. We have a green screen, so we can do virtual, and we are set up for augmented reality. We're ready for whatever is coming.
An All-IP Decision: Preparing for the Future Sportsnet worked closely with systems integrator Diversified to design the facility around the SMPTE ST 2110 suite of IP standards, using an Evertz IP routing core in an effort to create a futureproof broadcast hub.
There was no debate [on whether to go IP], says Pierre Fortin, VP, tech media and innovation, Rogers Sports & Media. The only debate was how to go about it. Do you go multi-vendor and do all that integration yourself, or do you go for a more end-to-end solution stack? When we evaluated all of our options, we decided to lean on Evertz to deploy the IP core for this facility. But, no, we never even considered building it in SDI.
Rogers Media had previously launched an ST 2110-based facility with its National Media Operations Centre (NMOC) - also located at 1 Mount Pleasant - in 2016 just after the IP suite of standards was ratified. However, the ST 2110 ecosystem had matured greatly by the time the Sportsnet Studios project began in 2020 so Diversified, which had recently completed WarnerMedia's new IP-based facility at Hudson Yards in New York City, was enlisted to help guide the project.
This was more of a ground-up all-IP facility [compared with the NMOC], says Fortin. The timetable for this was very aggressive, and we didn't have the luxury of making mistakes along the way. We wanted to lean on people who had done this before, so we worked with Diversified as our integrator, and they worked out g
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Inside the New Sportsnet Studios: IP-Based Toronto Facility Offers Plenty of Flexibility, Tech Firepower Hockey ops are now under the same roof as the rest of Sportsnet productions By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
