Fox Sports Debuts Fully LED, Digital-First Studio on Fox Studios Lot L.A.-based Stage D' to go live Wednesday with Flippin' Bats With Ben Verlander and Alex Curry By Brandon Costa
Wednesday, June 21, 2023 - 10:54 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
On Wednesday, Fox Sports will launch a studio set dedicated exclusively to content creation for digital and social platforms at the Fox Studios Lot in Los Angeles.
Stage D houses 3,000 sq. ft. of stage space and is supported by two new control rooms. It leverages state-of-the-art technologies with Fox Sports' Studio A, the Sports Emmy Award-winning home to the broadcaster's NFL and MLB studio coverage since 2022.
Fox Sports' new Stage D is a 360-degree studio set dedicated to content for digital and social-media platforms. (All photos: Jon Hill/Fox Sports)
Many of Fox Sports' digital-first programming will call the studio home, including The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast, The Skip Bayless Show, State of the Union With Alexi Lalas, Out of Character With Ryan Satin, and the first show that will shoot in the space, Flippin' Bats With Ben Verlander and Alex Curry. The content produced will stream in long-form and produce clipped short-form content for delivery across the Fox Sports App, Fox Sports' website, and Fox Sports' various social accounts on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
The stage area is loaded with LED: eight movable walls, a movable LED stage, a movable interview stage, and even an LED floor that can move into position for multiple shooting locations. Selected LED walls are in vertical format to support both display of and creation of content for vertical-friendly platforms, such as TikTok, Instagram Stories, and other mobile-first distribution methods. All LED displays are from Planar.
There are currently 10 identified shooting positions on the stage, but, with so much of the furniture and all but one of the LED surfaces movable, the possibilities are virtually endless in how and where to produce content.
I'm encouraging producers, directors, creatives, talent to make this space their own, says Ricardo Perez-Selsky, senior director, digital production operations, Fox Sports. The LED walls are on casters; the stages are on casters. Our furniture can move. We have movable lighting in the grid. Everything on the stage moves. The only limitations here are the producer's creativity, but I want content that's going to look different and feel different on a month-to-month basis so that [users] become timeline stoppers.' When you're scrolling through our content on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, the Fox Sports App, you're going to see something that looks different and new.
Fox Sports' Ricardo Perez-Selsky: The only limitations here are the producer's creativity.
The stage gets its power and versatility from a pair of new control rooms that leverage automation technologies via Ross Overdrive to help smaller digital crews produce the high-quality shows that the stage is capable of. Both control rooms can range from full automation to 25 staffed positions.
The central area in each control room is affectionately referred to as the cockpit since a single operator could essentially cut a show on their own. Depending on the size and scale of the show, a single director could switch cameras, insert graphics, manage LED elements and lighting on the set, and adjust audio all from that seat.
Stage D is supported by two control rooms, each featuring automation technology and built on a core of Ross Video gear.
Having two control rooms also enables synergies and flexibility. One is outfitted to house Home Run (or remote) productions; the other is exclusively for studio content. The Home Run model allows talent to host programs from locations on the road, but all key positions - producer, graphics, playback, engineering - can remain at the studio in Los Angeles.
In addition to Overdrive, the control rooms are based on a core of Ross gear, including the Acuity production switcher. Calrec consoles are in place for audio. With the strong emphasis on live, Fox Sports Digital delivers content via Amazon and AWS, encoding over AWS Elemental MediaLive.
Fox Sports' approach to live digital programming is a bit unusual in an era when linear television is expected to be more polished and social content more raw. Fox Sports Digital's award-winning work with its live Twitter show at the 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup in Qatar and similar digital-exclusive live programming surrounding Super Bowl LVII demonstrates that traditional studio-based programming can succeed in a big way.
I think things that eye-catching are going to be eye-catching regardless, says Perez-Selsky. That's why we've incorporated the technology that we've done here with desks and LED walls. The studio was not designed for 16:9; it was designed for 9:16. Social producers are involved in our content, and now they're able to film their content at an insanely high quality. We're able to design graphics that are specific for LED elements and things that are interactive with talent. I think that's going to come through in the overall content and is going to be a timeline stopper.
Fox Sports Digital talent Ben Verlander (left) hosts a podcast with Hall of Fame pitcher and MLB on FOX analyst John Smoltz from the new Stage D.
Besides simply a beautiful, multipurpose set and a pair of control rooms, Perez-Selsky points out, perhaps the biggest benefit of the new build is the collaboration and content-sharing workflows that it established between the Fox Sports' digital team and the linear-television side of the company. Digital producers working in the space have access to more than 2,000 cameras from productions and
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Fox Sports Debuts Fully LED, Digital-First Studio on Fox Studios Lot L.A.-based Stage D' to go live Wednesday with Flippin' Bats With Ben Verlander and Alex Curry By Brandon Costa 
