MLS All-Star 2023: MLS, Apple Recognize League's Best With Heightened Production Value at Audi Field Streamer's inaugural season hits the halfway mark in Washington, D.C. By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor
Wednesday, July 19, 2023 - 2:28 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The 2023 Major League Soccer All-Star Game (8 p.m. ET on MLS Season Pass) heads to the nation's capital to pit the league's best athletes against one of the best sides in the English Premier League, Arsenal. Hosted at Audi Field in Washington, D.C., this midseason celebration will also be the first under the production of Apple. From MLS's perspective, the five-month-old partnership has birthed the implementation of fresh technologies, including a Spidercam, a RF Steadicam, wearable cameras, and the reliance of a connected-production ecosystem.
Liam McHugh, Bradley Wright-Phillips, MLS Commissioner Don Garber, Sacha Kljestan, and Kaylyn Kyle during halftime of the 2023 MLS All-Star Game.
Apple has been a terrific partner throughout our production planning process - all season long, not just during the leadup to the All-Star Game, says Seth Bacon, EVP, media, MLS. We have great collaboration between our production, operations, and engineering teams to ensure that all aspects of our plan are accounted for and ready to deliver our events to a global audience at a high quality.
Tech Highlights: 20 Cameras, Including SkyCam, Cover Audi Field For Tuesday night's MLS Skills Challenge, the production team needed to capture six different events: Shooting, Touch, Cross & Volley, Passing, Crossbar, and Goalie Wars. With the frenetic pace of each event, Apple and MLS covered the entire playing field at multiple angles. To accomplish this, a total of 16 cameras were placed on and above the playing surface. The most notable being an aerial Spidercam, a Steadicam at pitch level, and multiple super slow-motion cameras. For Wednesday night's exhibition, the camera compliment will reach 20 cameras with the addition of POVs and a wearable referee camera sponsored by A&T and powered by Mindfly. This same device was worn by players during Tuesday's Skills Challenge.
On the audio side, the Skills Challenge allowed the league to get creative with how fans understand a player's point of view. This required the use of IFB communication between the booth and the participating player. For instance, during the Cross & Volley Challenge, D.C. United Goalkeeper Tyler Miller was interviewed by Jake Zivin, Kaylyn Kyle, and Taylor Twellman throughout his turn in the competition:
Nothing easy about stopping shots from Flo Balogun, especially when you're mic'd up.
Well done, Tyler Miller.#MLSAllStar Cross & Volley Challenge pres. by @ATT 5G pic.twitter.com/a46BdgGOzZ
- Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 19, 2023
Jillian Sakovits joined the trio from the sidelines. Tony Cherchi, Jorge Perez-Navarro, Marcelo Balboa, and Rodolfo Landeros were on the call in Spanish with and Frederic Lord and Vincent Destouches were on the call in French.
On the operations side, the onsite crew is working with 300 credentialed personnel. In the compound, both productions are being done with mobile units from NEP Group. Opting for a model that services coverage in multiple languages, two of the mobile-unit providers' main trucks are on hand in Washington, D.C. NEP's Supershooter 9 is handling English-language for both nights as Spanish-language is being done from NEP's Supershooter 5.
To distribute the game domestically and globally, NEP is supplying seven separate onsite feeds with up to 16 channels of audio to the Apple Live Operations Center (ALOC) at the NEP Production Center in Los Angeles. Some feeds will also need to be sent to NEP's VISTA Worldlink centralized-production facility in South Florida. In addition to English-language and Spanish-langue coverage, the MLS All-Star Game will be presented in French as well. This production wrinkle requires a tight-rope, balancing act.
A Spidercam (right) and Steadicam (left) captured Goalie Wars on Tueday night.
One of the unique aspects of producing live matches for MLS Season Pass is the number of feeds we need to create for each match to service our various stakeholders and distribution regions, adds Bacon. With each requiring a sponsored and unsponsored version depending on where the feed is distributed, this requires a significant amount of coordination between the production truck on site, our data center in Dallas, and Apple's master control center in Los Angeles.
A Gradual Lead Up: First Half of Productions Leads to Midseason Exhibition Prior to the All-Star break, MLS and Apple were refining their production philosophy heading into their inaugural season together. Supplying a platform for everyone to take in the U.S.'s top flight, it was critical to not only create a plan for appealing live broadcasts but also team-curated and non-live content to keep supporters engaged with MLS Season Pass.
A look inside NEP's Supershooter 9 at Audi Field.
Right off the bat, the pairing enjoyed a handful of storylines on Matchday 1, including St. Louis City SC playing their first-ever match against Austin FC on Saturday, Feb. 25. The club would eventually play for the first time in front of their home supporters at CityPark against Charlotte FC on Saturday, March 4. As the season progressed, the partnership saw other notable highlights: another edition of El Tr fico between LA Galaxy and LAFC was played at the iconic Rose Bowl on July 4, FC Cincinnati is in first place in the Eastern Conference after finishing in last place in three of their first four seasons in MLS, and St. Louis City SC currently sit at the top of the Western Conference. Overall, the introduction of this new streaming deal along with flourishing pl
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...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
IPC Expands Brazilian Presence with New Channel Partner CCATech
Industry veterans Carlos Abrah o and Bruno Lopes strengthen local support and expand IPCs prese...
20/08/2026
Zixi Enters Mauritius Market Through Strategic Deployment with MTC Jockey Club
Worlds Oldest Horse Racing Club in the Southern Hemisphere Selects Zixis Softwar...
20/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research assistant professor Tiantian Liu has received a five-year NIAID DP2 award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Di...
20/08/2026
Audiences reveal appetite for multicultural Australia on-screen 20 August 2026
Dr Georgie McClean, Dr Rebecca Huntley (L-R)
By Dr Georgie McClean and Dr Rebec...
20/08/2026
How Mavis Studio Is Expanding Live Production Teaching at Sussex
Brie Clayton August 19, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image displays a student about to mix be...
20/08/2026
Vertical Unscripted Series Legal Queens Captured with Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton August 19, 2026
0 Comments
Reality TV veteran Eric Gardner create...
19/08/2026
As the cost of IP nears price parity with traditional SDI, Reynolds argues that ...
19/08/2026
A private 5G bubble was chosen instead of traditional broadcast RF for the race ...
19/08/2026
(L-R) Rafael Manuel and Isabel Sicat attend the Filipi ana premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre on January 23, 2026, in Park Cit...
19/08/2026
Studio owners invited to have their say on rates cuts
The Music Producers Guild (MPG) are inviting UK-based studios to take part in an in-depth survey that ...
19/08/2026
Vintage-inspired desktop interface revealed
Harrison's latest hardware offering sees them head into the world of audio interfaces, delivering a 10-in/12...
19/08/2026
Granular effect remains locked to scale and tempo
Described as your dream granular effect , Minimal Audio's latest creation is capable of turning any s...
19/08/2026
First polyphonic SWAM instrument incoming
Audio Modeling's latest physical-modelling orchestral instrument is just around the corner, and is now availab...
19/08/2026
World Cup Games Generate 84 Billion Minutes Across FOX, Fox Sports 1 and NBCU...
19/08/2026
July brought typical peak-holiday drops in viewership, driven primarily by viewers stepping away from screens and a visible decline in reach across both traditi...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Henry joins BCE as the company accelerates its commercial strategy and expands its international presence across the media, broadcast and technology markets. He...
19/08/2026
iWedia, a leading provider of software solutions for connected TV devices, today announced a major milestone in Android platform optimization with the successfu...
19/08/2026
NTP Technology announces that ST 2110-30 audio-over-IP connectivity with AES67 and RAVENNA capabilities is now available for the brand's world-class audio i...
19/08/2026
Net Insight has been selected to provide its Nimbra platform by the service provider Big Blue Marble, formerly ORS Group, as the core media transport solution f...
19/08/2026
LiveU has supported Coventry City FC and several other top-flight UK football clubs through one of their most demanding live production challenges of the year, ...
19/08/2026
Nature Seekers Documentary Shot with Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF
Brie Clayton August 18, 2026
0 Comments
Filming endangered turtles required camera...
19/08/2026
Neyrinck Brings D-Control Consoles Back to Life on Apple Silicon with D-Control ...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Riedel Communications today announced that Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Perth, Australia, implemented a comprehensive communications infrastructure that brin...
19/08/2026
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest contribution solutions, will spotlight a major leap forward in remote guest con...
19/08/2026
Integrated platform melds media asset management, playout automation and newsroom workflows
EMAM, PlayBox Neo and SNEWS have officially launched Nuvex, a conne...
19/08/2026
Screen Australia releases the Private Investment Toolkit to strengthen screen in...
19/08/2026
Do Aussies truly value local content? Unpacking Screen Currency 2026 with Deirdr...
19/08/2026
There's an early Christmas gift for Bookish fans, as UKTV confirms the re-commission of the hit U&alibi drama, created by and starring Mark Gatiss. Viewers ...
19/08/2026
Wednesday 19 August 2026
Sky gives sports fans the chance to watch multiple liv...
19/08/2026
On Saturday September 5 Katie Taylor will step into the ring for the fight of her life against Flora Pili in front of 80,000 fans in Croke Park. A legendary fig...
18/08/2026
SportStream 2026, a free three-day virtual event, will take place September 15-17. One registration provides access to all three days of live programming and on...
18/08/2026
BeckTV will introduce BeckFlow to the European market at IBC2026, demonstrated on the Providius stand (10.F53).
BeckFlow is a web-based schematic documentation...
18/08/2026
Boland Communications will introduce a SMPTE ST 2110 input option for its 4K monitors at IBC2026, along with a new 55-inch super-narrow bezel display for video ...
18/08/2026
Dolby Laboratories and the Seattle Seahawks have announced a partnership integrating Dolby OptiView into the Seahawks' live streaming coverage, making the S...
18/08/2026
For BMG Executive Producer of Sports Production, Graham Taylor, producing live s...
18/08/2026
TMRW Sports has appointed Rufus Hack as President of Golf, a newly created role in which he will lead the company's golf businesses including TGL presented ...
MLS All-Star 2023: MLS, Apple Recognize League's Best With Heightened Production Value at Audi Field Streamer's inaugural season hits the halfway mark in Washington, D.C. By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor 
